Preparing for a presentation to the Baltimore Chapter of the Corporate Volunteer Council (CVC) gave me a long-awaited excuse to call colleagues with whom I hadn't spoken in months. The CVC had asked me to share my perspectives on corporate volunteer programs by addressing a few targeted questions.
What is the "real value" of corporate volunteerism to the Baltimore area today? Are volunteerism programs considered vital to the corporate mission? Are there any trends to be discerned?
My presentation was based on our company's experiences helping corporate philanthropy programs, trend analyses that we conduct and informal interviews. Of the nine interviewees, six coordinated employee volunteer programs for fairly large corporations, three of them in Maryland. The other three were small-business owners who regularly involve themselves and their employees in hands-on volunteer experiences. What I found was interesting -- and instructive.
Nearly every one of my contacts felt that employee volunteerism was more important to the corporate mission than ever before in their tenure. Each felt that social needs were, in many cases, so desperate they simply could not sit on the sidelines. As a result, almost to a person, they felt that employee volunteerism would play an even greater role in the corporate mission of the future.
As an aside, several of the interviewees told me of reductions in cash awards to nonprofits that put even greater pressure on bringing volunteer resources to bear on community needs.
Two of the larger companies shared examples of how they are increasingly requiring cash awards to be matched with employee volunteerism, thereby leveraging results. One of the companies, a Chicago-based insurance underwriter, has recently redesigned its program around this concept.
Smaller companies tend to emphasize the hands-on projects. In one case, a small building company used its carpentry crews as the focal point to bringing some 300 volunteers together for a renovation project in Washington.
On the bad-news side of the ledger, most volunteer coordinators were having a hard time recruiting volunteers. Some reported either a decrease in the number of volunteers or a decrease in the number of volunteer hours.
The reasons they reported for these decreases included what they perceive are increasingly hectic living schedules for many of their workers, especially single parents. Others have found a resentment among employees who are left after a corporate downsizing. Some of these survivors have increased workloads and work hours, which translates into less available volunteer time. Other employees vent their anger at the company by saying, in effect, that they refuse to "help the company's public image out by volunteering and helping them look good to the community."
Interviewees from the large companies reported, and my experience backs up, that there is a tighter integration between corporate business goals and objectives, and their philanthropy or employee volunteer programs. This makes a lot of sense in an increasingly competitive business environment.
Finally, many company representatives reported that they needed greater recognition for their volunteerism, an area in which nonprofit agencies often fall short.
In the end, my unscientific minisurvey reinforced some perceptions and created new awareness. Corporate volunteerism absolutely, positively makes a real difference in the lives of Baltimoreans. There is no doubt about that in my mind. I shudder to think what our communities would be like without the work projects, long-term mentoring, business-school partnerships and one-on-one volunteering that corporations create for their employees.
Done right, these programs groom leaders by enhancing their skills in the broader community arena. They can improve employee morale by involving them in something larger than themselves. And, such programs help the community in which the business operates.
But they also face many of the same challenges that other areas of business operations face. In future columns I'll examine some of these challenges to corporate volunteerism.
Lester A. Picker is a philanthropy consultant. Write to him at The Brokerage, 34 Market Place, Suite 331, Baltimore 21202; (410) 783-5100