Increase Engagement by Allowing Employees to Volunteer

Sylvia Ann Hewlett wrote an article titled “Increase Engagement by Allowing Employees to Volunteer “ which appeared on the Harvard Business Review website. The following is an excerpt:

Volunteering has always been viewed as good for your soul.  Now it        turns out that it’s also good for your health and your career.

Recent research conducted by Washington, D.C.-based Corporation for National & Community Service reveals that charitable work literally makes the heart grow stronger, as reported in my book Top Talent: Keeping Performance Up When Business Is Down.   Individuals with coronary artery disease who participate in volunteer activities after suffering a heart attack report a reduction in despair and depression, driving down mortality and adding years to life.   It’s also true that those who volunteer have fewer incidents of heart disease in the first place…

Some of the best opportunities for volunteer work that benefits your karma and your career may come from your own company.   Research from the Center for Work-Life Policy shows that high-potential employees (mostly women, but also a significant percentage of men) are seriously motivated by a desire to give back to the world, and increasingly seek out employers that allow them to participate on company time.   Smart employers, in turn, are linking altruism and ambition.   By using community service partnerships to help valued employees fulfill their dreams and accelerate their careers, companies are betting that their A-team’s enthusiasm will pay off in renewed engagement and loyalty.

This article prompted me to share some insights about corporate volunteering.  I shared the following thoughts with Sylvia:

Thank you, Sylvia, for your wonderful blog post.

Volunteer work is definitely a win-win situation for everyone – the nonprofits, the volunteers and the companies for which they work.   For each group, however, there are some important points to keep in mind. The following tips are insights I have gathered in leading (as founder and CEO) the nonprofit) UniversalGiving, where we work with Fortune 500 companies on their international Corporate Social Responsibility programs.

We’ll start with the benefits of employee volunteering to the companies. Volunteering is a key part of any CSR program.   As such, it helps companies enhance their corporate brand image, improves employee attraction/retention as well as client attraction/retention, and establishes local buy-in, all of which helps a company’s bottom line while also serving the community.

One of the toughest issues companies face in implementing a top-quality CSR strategy is how they make decisions regarding their NGO Partners. Establishing and maintaining these partnerships should be made with care, and for the longterm. You can read more about Fortune 500 companies can protect themselves and their brand as they expand their international giving and volunteer programs worldwide in my blog post: “Top 4 International Insights for Fortune 500 Companies.

Employees, just like the companies they work for, must also be diligent about choosing the right nonprofit with which to work. In order to maximize the return on their volunteer experience, employees should look for a nonprofit whose mission addresses the issues about which they are most passionate. They need to make sure the leadership and organizational structure of that nonprofit allow them to make the biggest impact using their current skills while also providing them the opportunity to learn new skills. I recently wrote an article for TILE Financial’s Spend Grow Give program , and although it is directed at volunteers in their teens, it is nonetheless an excellent resource for volunteers of any age seeking the best possible volunteer experience.

Nonprofits, in turn, can benefit most from corporate volunteers by establishing clear communication channels with them, finding out how they want to grow and contribute, and then determining how that fits with the nonprofit’s mission and vision. Expectations should be very clear on both sides.   As in the corporate world, returns can be maximized for nonprofits.  The goal is to efficiently use a nonprofit organization’s assets, in this case, its volunteers.

— Pamela Hawley

Build Together: How You Need to Prepare for Your Volunteer Trip

When people ask me what they should be prepared for when they decide to volunteer, they usually think I give a pretty strange answer:
 
 “Build Together.”
 
Volunteering is an amazing experience. These days you can volunteer with street children in the town of Recife in northeastern Brazil, build wheelchairs from recycled landmine parts in Cambodia, teach English to the Karen Hill tribe people in Thailand, or construct a health center in the Kikuyu community of Kenya.  You might be someone just out of school, a family seeking both travel and volunteer experience, or a professional who would like to donate their skills – how about serving as a dentist for three weeks in the Shechen Medical Clinic in Nepal!
 
In my first volunteer trip to Managua, Nicaragua, we were scheduled to build schools and dormitories.  At that time, 90% of students in the community were not currently attending school.  We jumped into the project with the villagers and finished the school — but ran out of materials for the dormitories.  First instincts as Americans were to brainstorm every possible way to get it done.  But access to resources was severely limited.  As our Nicaraguan leader stated: “You Americans just want to complete things.  We want to create and nourish relationships.”  
 
As we let these words sink in, we truly began to connect and listen to this community.  We learned about their life.  We built relationships, played with their children, helped cook hundreds of tortillas over hot grills for hundreds of people in the community.  We embraced their daily life, and the more we did, the closer the bonds of understanding and joy grew.
 
It is wonderful to go to another country, complete a volunteer project, and feel that you really had an impact. But establishing a relationship with the local people is by far the most important  aspect of the volunteer trip.  Building true, lasting relationships results in the greatest benefit for our world:  less barriers are formed and increased understanding is achieved.  We are all a team working together to face and resolve the challenges in our world.
 
Here are some key tips when you ponder volunteering internationally:
 
1.  Practical Planning. Contact the organization a few months prior to leaving and find out if there are materials which are rare and hard to attain for the project.  Often what we consider plentiful here (such as nails or hammers) are in great need in other parts of the world.
 
2.  Do the Project Together, Not on Your Own.  You are a guest in their community. The most successful outcome is not that you built something and walked away, but that you and the community build something as a team. No one feels empowered when you do everything for them.  Share skills.  Build Together.
 
3. Be Flexible.  Not everything is going to go as planned.  Often the country doesn’t have the right tools, manpower, transportation or funds to get all the needed work done. In a word, they lack infrastructure.  You can either get frustrated by this, or pitch in and help in other ways.  Be flexible. Be creative! 
 
4. Connect to the People in the Community.   Often you will have “downtime” outside of the scope of the project. Rather than retreat to the group with whom you traveled, be sure to spend time with the people of the community.  Listen about their lives. If you can’t speak the language, smiles work wonders. And you’ll be surprised – you will find a way to communicate!
 
Volunteering is a special, life changing experience for everyone involved. Be prepared that the person who may be changed the most…. is you.  It’s a joyful, humbling, often rigorous experience which will encourage you to view yourself, your neighbors and your world quite differently. 
 
 I look forward to speaking with all of you this week as we celebrate the launch of UniversalGiving’s Weekly Volunteer Opportunities on socialedge.org.  Remember, too, that 2/3 of volunteers are more likely to give, so we have designed our service allowing you to give and volunteer in one fell swoop!   UniversalGiving efficiently provides both in one service, allowing you to maximize your giving of time and funds to exceptional organizations.
 
I hope you will join us in UniversalGiving’s vision to “make giving and volunteering a natural part of everyday life!”    I look forward to your comments!
 
All my best, Pamela

Volunteering with the Extraordinaries

If you ever have a spare minute, you can use it to volunteer.  Waiting at the bus stop, waiting in line, maybe while getting coffee…  There’s an exciting new movement in volunteering that will let you take those spare minutes and put them toward doing good.  The Extraordinaries is a San Francisco-based group that created an application for the iPhone to make microvolunteering easy.  Do translations, catalogue photos, map playgrounds…all you need is an iPhone or a computer, and it takes just a minute.

I recently had the opportunity to share about the Extraordinaries for a feature on ABC News.  Here’s an excerpt:

For Adam Griffiths and Pamela Hawley, it is the 1Sky campaign over coffee. They are volunteering to get the federal government to address climate change.

“You have the application in your pocket and you literally have the power to change the world in the palm of your hand,” Griffiths says.

“For me, it’s exciting,” Hawleys says. “Because I feel like I am the part of a greater movement.”

You can see the video and full text article on ABC’s website: SF Website Offers Opportunity to Micro-Volunteer.  Visit the Extraordinaries site, BeExtra.org to get started microvolunteering!

Tween Volunteering: How Can I Get a Great Volunteer Experience?

I recently answered some questions for TILE Financial’s Spend Grow Give program about giving and volunteering. Tile Financial  is a bank which works with wealthy families and their children, and the Spend Grow Give program “is an online financial environment designed to engage and educate the next generation of high net worth individuals on the benefits and responsibilities of wealth.”  Here is an excerpt on Expert Guidance where they asked my advice on volunteering for their teens.   These are the questions some of the teens asked:

1. TILE members are often interested in finding groups to get involved with. For someone looking to volunteer for the first time, how do you suggest they go about choosing an organization?

If I had to state it quickly, I’d say: “Find a cause you care about, and a leader you believe in. “  Those are two great milestones that can help ensure success with your volunteer experience.

I would really also try to understand yourself and find out first what your greatest passions are.  What is the issue you care about, such as education, poverty, the environment?  What do you enjoy doing:  Writing, working with people, detailed work/operations?  And what is the region you are most interested in, such as New Orleans, El Salvador, Africa or the neighbor across the street?

What’s also important is the size of the organization. Would you like to work in a larger organization that may have more resources, but less flexibility? Or a smaller, entrepreneurial organization that has less support, but multiple opportunities to get involved?

Most importantly, I’d find a good personal fit. Leadership is so important. Find a cause you care about, and a leader you believe in. That’s always a great start!

2. Someone once complained to me that it’s hard to find an organization that will assign volunteer tasks other than “clean out the broom closet.” Is this true in your experience and what tips do you have to avoid such situations?

It’s important that you find an opportunity that provides a good chance to grow and contribute.  I’d try to meet with the leader or volunteer manager to make sure it’s a good fit.  Are they open, willing to give you opportunities, warm, friendly, outgoing?  Do you see yourself enjoying your day working with them? Then most likely you will have a positive relationship where you can ask to be involved in areas you care about.  They will want to see you grow and develop, and you will want to help them.  It’s a ‘win-win’ for everyone, each helping another.

It is important to realize, too, that we all have to jump in.  I’m CEO, but I still send faxes, too.   I try to teach my team that a ‘fax is never a fax.’  As I was faxing, I told my team member, this is not just about a piece of paper going through a machine. This particular fax was our contract with Cisco, which allows us to pay salaries at our nonprofit. So it is important to do the small, detailed tasks, and connect them in to higher meaning.  Everything works together for good;  everything is important. Can you try to find the meaning, and see how you can serve? All leaders appreciate wonderful attitudes of a sincere desire to serve.  If you work sincerely at creating a service-minded attitude, a kind demeanor, and make an impact, they will want to help you, too. 

3. What’s the best advice you would give to your teenage self?

Be open. Surprise yourself.  You may find you are interested in something you never considered!   Go for your dreams and goals, and realize that every experience helps you learn something, and contribute something.  Sometimes it will feel great! Othertimes you might not enjoy it as much, but try to commit to serving, learning and growing. That will lead you to the next wonderful step on your journey.

4. How can young people play an important role in the changing philanthropic landscape?

Young people have such energy and a genuine desire to change the world now.  There is no waiting for them. I love that you are jumping in to make a personal impact now rather than ‘waiting until you are financially successful,’ which I think many have done in the past.

Since most of you are so involved with Web 2.0 and social media, I love your input on how you use Facebook, Twitter, text messaging and the like in your communications. How can we integrate philanthropy and volunteerism more into these areas?  What are you ideas on how we can use Web 2.0 to truly change our world? 

Equally important, how are you using these communications to create relationships with your peers across the world, in different countries?  For that is where true change will come, from building trusting relationships, one-on-one, amongst people of different backgrounds, ethnicities, race and religion.  This relationship building leads to greater ‘world trust’ — based on honest, heartfelt communications and actions — which then results in world peace.  You all are leading this cause for greater peace, simply by your generation’s desire to communicate, connect and care. We appreciate who you are, and what you are doing to create these positive relationships.

What To Do in a Middle or High Crisis

I recently read an intriguing article from Peter Bregman on the Harvard Business site, titled What To Do When You’re Out of Control.  Peter shares his experience with a commercial airplane malfunction, when he observed, and what conclusions he was able to draw about how we respond to crises.  For me, this post prompted some thoughts about handling crises, and reminded me of an experience volunteering in El Salvador.  I commented with these thoughts on Peter’s blog, and I’d like to share them here as well:

 

Dear Peter, what a helpful article in so many areas of life.

There are “middle” crises of which you speak, where nothing happens but could have happened. And “high crises” where danger, chaos and desperation are occurring. In either case, a positive, proactive attitude and outlook can help contribute to a more positive outcome.  Even if the plane did go down, wouldn’t one still want to be positive, wish others well, comfort the child?  I think that’s a helpful lesson, in even in the most desperate of circumstances.

I remember volunteering in the earthquake crisis of El Salvador in 2002.  In the uppermost mountains, people were completely isolated. No food, no shelter. Constant rain. Volcanic fluid flowed into their water and streams. The fields were burned from over use and the soil tough, dry, cracked dirt.  World Food Program and Red Cross didn’t have the time to go up these mountains, nor the resources.

We loaded up one truck. We had three people. We bought whatever water, rain sheltering materials and food we could.  In this case, it was powerbars, papayas, rice, random clothing, a few mattresses, tarps, bandaids.

It was what we had.

We arrived up a very steep and chunky hill, our tires almost getting caught in dried and muddy grooves of dirt, barely a road, as we bounced around from side to side.  Our greeting upon arrival was the most respected, formerly statuesque high tower and steeple of the church, toppled and in disarray at the “door” of the community.  It was disconcerting to say the least.

People huddled, starving, shivering, soaked through, under some unsheltering trees.  We outreached, we gave them what we had. We listened to their hearts and to their stories.  We made a small impact. We were impacted more.

What is poignant about these moments… we can always do something. We have our ears to listen, our hearts to care, our minds to think of solutions. There is always a way to impact, even in the final moments. It all counts.

It did to those few families. It did to us.  Most of the time — what we don’t realize — is that we make a difference by simply caring, slowing, listening. It’s not just the end result of “I got food” or “I got off the plane safely.” The lesson learned is one of presence, gratitude, and perhaps, taking life a bit more preciously and consciously, each day to day. 

I believe those middle and high crises are driving us to do this just this: Renew our daily perspective to one of greater contribution, thoughtfulness and gratitude.  That may well be one of our greatest investments in life, the investments of positive, constructive thoughts and caring.