The Big Idea

In this section, we will share our overarching 2017 content themes for each quarter that revolve around our core focus area of skills-based volunteering and corporate social responsibility.

Content from this campaign

Responsible Business & Employee Engagement

Creating Long-Term Partnerships that Stick
If you’ve been following our content this year, you’ve likely heard us mention a concept called “The Knitting Factor,” which brings together three key conditions that enable skills-based engagements between the private and nonprofit sectors to create strengthened, sustainable solutions that don’t come undone when partners part ways. There are three key characteristics that make up The Knitting Factor, but for skills-based volunteering to become truly transformative, organizations need to find the “sticky” relationships that enable companies and nonprofits to drive progress on both mission and business-related goals.

Social Impact & Volunteering

Cross-Sector Skill Sharing in Action
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.

Responsible Business & Employee Engagement

Panoramic Perspectives: Creating Cross-Sector Communities of Practice
We know communities of practice are an age-old concept, but we are excited to see a growing number of conveners who are bringing cross-sector leaders together to develop their people, improve their performance, and deepen their impact in the community. These groups are made up of practitioners from the public, private and nonprofit sectors, who are actively developing shared resources, best practices, and tools to solve some of society’s toughest challenges.

Social Impact & Volunteering

The Knitting Factor: Making Skills-Based Volunteering Stick
What has emerged from nearly twenty years of practice is something Common Impact calls the “The Knitting Factor”, coined in our recent Stanford Social Innovation Review article, “The Promise of Skills-Based Volunteering. The Knitting Factor brings together three key conditions that enable skills-based engagements between the private and nonprofit sectors to create strengthened, sustainable solutions that don’t come undone when partners part ways.

Diversity & Inclusion

Everyday Diversity
Earlier this month, I sat in a room alongside 400 nonprofit sector leaders at the Center on Effective Philanthropy’s annual conference – all of us still trying to find our footing in the wake of regressive and unjust social policy announcements from Washington, D.C., and the resulting fresh challenges facing our organizations and the communities we serve. Grant Oliphant, CEP’s Board Chair, opened the conversation with sobering, resonant words.

Social Impact & Volunteering

Navigating Change with Skills-Based Volunteering
January always lends itself to predictions about hot trends in the year to come. Indeed, if you look up “2017 CSR and sustainability trends” in your search engine right now, you’ll see a collection of insightful articles sharing expert (and of course widely divergent) opinions on what’s in store for us over the next twelve months. This January, though, in the face of a starkly different administration in Washington D.C., the social sector is looking at an even more uncertain, unpredictable climate. This has the Common Impact team thinking less about trends, and more about how to practically navigate the twists and turns ahead.

More from Common Impact

  1. Common Impact Blogs
    We're always thinking, reading, and talking about skills-based volunteering and social impact.

  2. Common Impact | Volunteer Spotlights Series
    Spotlighting the contributions of the volunteers we collaborate with, and celebrate and recognize the remarkable individuals who generously donate...

  3. Common Impact Thought Leadership
    Join us to explore all things related to employee engagement, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and social impact. Through engaging through peace...

  4. Common Impact | Nonprofit Leadership Spotlight Series
    Spotlighting the nonprofit leaders with whom we collaborate and the positive change they drive in their communities and beyond.

  5. Common Impact | Purposeful Partnerships for Social Good
    Through these purposeful partnerships, we propel companies forward in their CSR initiatives and employee engagement efforts and support the...

  6. Common Impact | Press Release
    The latest and greatest from Common Impact, our programs, our partners and our sector.

  7. Common Impact | Corporate Leadership Spotlight Series
    Spotlighting Corporate leaders and thought leaders in the CSR space.

  8. Common Impact Reports
    Tune into the latest Skills-based volunteering data and stories.

  9. Charles Schwab Pro Bono Challenge Spotlights
    Common Impact interviewed three nonprofit organizations that participated in Charles Schwab's 2016 Pro Bono Challenge to understand the underlying...

  10. Pro Bono Perspectives Podcast
    Pro Bono Perspectives is a podcast about the power of a purpose-driven career. Join Common Impact CEO, Danielle Holly, as she interviews leaders from...