Skills-Based Volunteering

Keep America Beautiful’s longtime partner Lowe’s has donated an additional $1 million to the national nonprofit in 2018 to fund 44 grassroots initiatives as well as Keep America Beautiful’s annual Great American Cleanup, the nation’s largest community improvement program.

Around the world, employers are seeking highly-skilled workers to take on existing and emerging roles in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, also known as STEM. Workforce development and education, particularly as related to STEM, are two of the largest focus areas for corporate and foundation giving as well as two of the largest mission focuses for nonprofits, according to the CECP’s 2017 Giving in Numbers report. Yet, even given this great investment, gaps in STEM education still exist, leaving both employers and students without the critical thinking and analytical problem-solving skills sorely needed in our ever-changing global economy.

Common Impact defines skill sharing as a two-way talent exchange where both pro bono professionals and their nonprofit partners are learning from each other. In my experience sourcing and supporting skilled service projects for our corporate and nonprofit clients, it is when our partners recognize the knowledge and expertise that they each bring to the table and seek to proactively learn from one another that real long-term change takes place. The change we see is not just for the communities we support, but also for the volunteers and nonprofit leaders participating in these skills-based volunteer projects.

Colleagues in Hamburg and Frankfurt partnered with the JOBLINGE Foundation to support over 124 people to find a job through mentoring and CV workshops, achieving 77% job placements as a result.

Higher employee participation globally, a lighter administrative load and a cohesive user experience were the success indicators that a leading financial services company envisioned for their workplace giving and volunteering program.

But with their program split across two separate platforms—one for giving, another for volunteering—the search was on for a technology partner who could unify their program and help propel them toward their next-level goals.

In this edition of the Advisory Services newsletter, we share examples of how pro bono can help communities around the globe prepare for natural disasters. We discuss how to engage even your busiest employees in pro bono service. And we look at a pro bono program model that began in the U.S. and has been replicated successfully abroad.

One of the most common concerns companies share when thinking about developing a pro bono program is that their employees are strapped for time. What they find, though, is that smart pro bono program design can go a long way to address this concern.

Our success contributes to the social stability of regions around the world in many ways. Caterpillar’s products help build infrastructure for transportation, energy, telecommunications, waste and water.

Associates at the ScottsMiracle-Gro headquarters in Marysville, Ohio, gather each year to plant row upon row of raised-bed gardens on company grounds. Then, from spring through fall, they volunteer to nurture the gardens, watering, weeding and harvesting them weekly with an eye toward serving the greater good. The produce is delivered to the Marysville Food Pantry to help feed about 75 families and more than 1,200 people weekly.