When employers demonstrate a
Nonprofit firm Common Impact works with employers to align business with social purpose, matching their employees' talents with the needs of other nonprofits. The result is a win for all three groups: Nonprofits receive free expert insight, helping them and those they serve to achieve their goals; employees experience
"The [employees] who are giving these skills feel like they're creating a much bigger impact," says Rachel Hutchisson, Common Impact's interim CEO. "[We] help them not just leverage their skills, [but] learn new skills, learn about their communities — it's really very empowering, [and] employees absolutely love it."
Read more:
One example of Common Impact's created partnerships was between Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts and East Boston Social Centers, a nonprofit that provides after-school programs, nutrition services and activities for the elderly. In September 2020, as the mental health toll from the COVID-19 pandemic became more evident, BCBSMA employees worked with the social center's leaders to develop communication and training frameworks that would help them support their staff throughout the pandemic and beyond.
Other Common Impact employer partners include PayPal, Fidelity Investments, Wayfair and Verizon, whose employees have shared a variety of professional skills in areas such as finance, marketing, legal services and many more. This type of giving back is a fast-growing trend among employers in general, as shown in a survey from the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship, in which more than 90% of companies said they offered virtual, often skill-based, volunteer programs.
"When an employee goes and tries new skills, or uses their own skills and sees the value, it builds an ongoing sense of pride in the company because they've given you this opportunity," Hutchisson explains.
Read more:
Following the collaboration between a company and a nonprofit, Common Impact puts together data and feedback showing information such as the equivalent dollar amount of the volunteer hours the team invested and stories from the nonprofit that can be shared with staff as well as through social media, recruiting channels and annual impact reports.
"We're working as an extension of [a company's] team," says Hutchisson. "And those teams tend to be small, whether it's an HR leader or a CSR leader in terms of employee engagement and wellness. To be able to partner and lighten that load, help scope an initiative that is in alignment with their values and their programs, lead it, and then come back and say… here's the data, but also stories for you, which often get lifted up."
A business that proves it is purpose driven has a lot to gain, and skills-based volunteering yields particularly good results. In a survey by Deloitte, 90% of companies said employee leadership skills significantly and positively increased after participation in pro bono and skills-based volunteer programs. These opportunities also meet the needs of employers and employees focused on career growth, with a report from Common Impact showing 96% of their volunteers considered their experience a professional development opportunity.
Read more:
And personally, employees may gain a greater appreciation for the skills they use every day when they see them transform the lives of people outside their company, Hutchisson says.
"When you're actually taking that skill and seeing that it can help someone overcome something… it makes you feel fulfilled in a bigger way," she says. "That's what we hear from the people who are doing this service — sometimes they value their own skills more because they realize those skills are a gift to others. And you get to try out new skills. You get to step up as a leader. It's very fulfilling in ways that you might not be getting within your own role."
