Skills-Based Volunteering

Washington, D.C. (Dec. 14, 2017) – This week, Points of Light opened the survey for the 2018 Civic 50, an annual initiative that recognizes the 50 most community-minded companies in the nation each year. Now in its sixth year, the Civic 50 provides a national standard for superior corporate citizenship and showcases how companies can use their time, skills and other resources to improve the quality of life in the communities where they do business.

Learn how this philosophy has shaped the way we support communities, engage our employees and protect our planet.

Driven by both necessity and opportunity right now, Taproot Foundation partners across the nonprofit, for-profit, and philanthropic sector all seem to be asking themselves one thing: “How can we be better?”

With funding and supplies through a Keep America Beautiful/Lowe’s Community Partners Grant, Keep Dallas Beautiful (KDB), through its "Adopt A Station" program, created outdoor living spaces at 23 fire stations in underserved Dallas neighborhoods in the fall of 2017.

During Xylem’s Month of Service in October, employees volunteered for water-related activities in their communities, including cleaning up water sources and rebuilding homes in Houston. Xylem has set a goal for employees to volunteer 35,000 hours during 2017. We spoke with Michael Fields, Director of Xylem Watermark, to learn more.

The day after one of the most successful and widely-adopted global giving events, CECP: The CEO Force for Good, one of the founding partners of the #GivingTuesday movement, announced record levels of corporate support for the global philanthropy movement. By 5:00 p.m. ET on November 28, online donations were up 25% compared to 2016. Begun in 2012, #GivingTuesday is a global day of giving fueled by the power of social media and collaboration. It kicks off the charitable season and takes place the Tuesday following Thanksgiving and the widely recognized global shopping events Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

In honor of Giving Tuesday, Common Impact is hosting a Twitter chat on Tuesday, November 28th to reflect on a year in review through the lens of skills-based volunteering (SBV). In light of everything that happened over the past year, we will explore ways in which nonprofits and corporations are working together to building nonprofit capacity and enhance the social sector’s ability to meet their missions.

On Giving Tuesday, we’re highlighting a project with a talented team from Fidelity Investments and its nonprofit partner, The Center for Transforming Lives (CTL). CTL has provided safe housing, early childhood education, and financial empowerment services for economically disadvantaged women and children in the Texas community for over 100 years. CTL impacted 3,814 women, children, and families in fiscal year 2016 alone; however, the organization’s previous website failed to lift up their vast impact. The site was static, outdated, and challenging for staff to maintain. To better showcase their impact on the community, CTL partnered with a team of technologists from Fidelity Investments to build a new, user-friendly website on the Wix platform.

This month, we’re highlighting a project with a talented team from Fidelity Investments and its nonprofit partner, Research Triangle Foundation of North Carolina (RTF), whose mission is to support and partner with local universities, create jobs, and lift up all the citizens of North Carolina by providing a positive economic and social impact. RTF manages the Research Triangle Park (RTP), the nation’s largest business park, and creates economic development by attracting and retaining over 200 innovative companies, driving business, university, and government collaboration, and by offering knowledge-based programming and incubation spaces such as The Frontier – a co-working space for entrepreneurs, small businesses, and nonprofits.

In the past year, thanks to generous donors and more than 2.1 million volunteers, Habitat for Humanity helped nearly 3.5 million people around the world build or improve an affordable place they can call home. With a “hand up” from Habitat, more families have acquired the skills, confidence and opportunity they need to build healthier, more financially stable lives.