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Skills Based Volunteering: Effective Recognition Strategies

Volunteers play a vital role in driving positive change in the world and supporting community organizations’ missions. Acknowledging and honoring the contributions of volunteers is crucial for maintaining a positive and appreciative working environment, as well as for attracting and retaining them. 

 

As an expert in volunteer recognition, whether traditional or skills-based, we wanted to share a few ideas with you while we celebrate Pro Bono Week. At the top of our list is creating both formal and informal ways to recognize your pro bono and skills-based volunteers and developing a multi-faceted approach. 

 

Informal Volunteer Recognition Tactics

 

  1. Personalized Thank-You Notes: Write heartfelt thank-you notes that highlight volunteers’ specific skills and the impact they’ve had on the company’s nonprofit partners. This personal touch goes a long way in expressing gratitude. 
  2. Casual Coffee or Lunch Meetings: Invite them for a coffee or lunch with yourself or with senior leaders to express appreciation and discuss their experiences. It’s an opportunity to learn more about their skills and interests. 
  3. Social Media Shoutouts: Give them a shoutout on your company’s social media platforms, showcasing their work and expressing gratitude for their expertise. 
  4. Small Tokens of Appreciation: Send a handwritten card along with company-branded merchandise or a gift card to show your gratitude for their efforts. 
  5. Highlight Their Contributions in Team Meetings: Ask their supervisor to take a moment during team meetings to acknowledge their contributions and the positive impact they’ve had on your company’s employee volunteer program. 
  6. Peer Recognition: Encourage colleagues and team members to recognize and applaud volunteers’ contributions through informal communication tools like a Slack volunteer channel or by posting photos in the breakroom. 
  7. Feature Them in Newsletters or Blogs: Include a section in internal newsletters or on your company blog that highlights the work and accomplishments of your skills-based volunteers. 
  8. Invitations to Community Events: Often, corporate social impact leaders receive tickets to events hosted by nonprofit partners or others in the community. Offer the chance to attend to your volunteers so that you’re seated amongst colleagues who will truly appreciate the opportunity.  

Remember that informal recognition should be sincere and tailored to the individual volunteer’s preferences. Some volunteers may prefer a private thank-you note, while others may appreciate public recognition. Be sure to consider their comfort levels and preferences when showing appreciation.

 

Formal Volunteer Recognition Tactics

 

  1. Formal Thank-You Letters: Send formal thank-you letters or emails signed by company leadership to skills-based volunteers, expressing gratitude for their expertise and dedication. Make sure their supervisor also receives a copy for their personnel file. 
  2. Awards and Certificates: Create awards or certificates that acknowledge volunteers for their contributions. These can be presented at company-wide events or volunteer recognition ceremonies. 
  3. Skills-based Volunteer of the Year: Establish a formal award to honor the individual or team that has made the most significant impact through their skills-based volunteering efforts. 
  4. Annual Volunteer Recognition Event: Host an annual recognition event dedicated to honoring all volunteers, including skills-based volunteers. Invite company leadership and colleagues to celebrate their contributions.  
  5. Performance Reviews: Encourage employees to include their skills-based volunteer work in their mid-year or annual performance reviews or conversations. This provides a platform for them to explain skills they learned or practiced that can help them advance. 
  6. Public Recognition: Include a section on your company website or internal newsletters that highlights the achievements and contributions of skills-based volunteers. This can be in the form of profiles or success stories. 
  7. Professional Development Opportunities: After coordinating with HR and leadership, offer skills-based volunteers opportunities for professional development, such as attending conferences, workshops or courses relevant to their field of expertise or creating social impact like the annual Points of Light Conference. 
  8. Mentorship Programs: Implement a mentorship program where experienced skills-based volunteers can mentor newer volunteers. Recognize mentors for their guidance and support. 
  9. Monetary Grants or Donations: Consider offering a charitable grant or donation to a cause of the skills-based volunteer’s choice as a way of recognizing their efforts. This can also serve as an incentive for getting more skills-based volunteers involved in the next project. 
  10. LinkedIn Recommendations: Encourage company leaders and colleagues to write LinkedIn recommendations for skills-based volunteers, acknowledging their valuable contributions. 

When recognizing skills-based volunteers formally, it’s important to make the acknowledgment meaningful and aligned with your company’s culture and values. Tailor your approach to fit the preferences and needs of the volunteers while ensuring that their contributions are acknowledged and celebrated throughout the organization.

 

Regardless of format, one of the best ways to recognize the work of a skills-based volunteer is to highlight the results they accomplished at a project’s conclusion. This evaluation should be two dimensional, showcasing the effect the project had on volunteers, the nonprofit organization as well as outcomes related to social impact. Use that information to nominate your skills-based volunteers for a

Daily Point of Light Award

or congratulate them with a

President’s Volunteer Service Award

.

 

How to Organize a Successful Donation Drive for Employees

Before the end-of-year holidays ramp up, corporate social impact leaders can be found hard at work finalizing their plans to host a donation drive that benefits their employer’s nonprofit partners. While useful during many times of the year, donation drives tap into the generosity of the holiday season and become creative ways to support the communities where employees live and work. 

 

If your donation drive includes the collection of gently used items such as business attire for organizations like Dress for Success, you and your colleagues are helping to keep items out of landfills and redirect them to those who can benefit from their use. 

We’ve put together a checklist to help you get started planning a donation drive for your colleagues. Add these tips to your employee champion resources should they be responsible for planning a donation drive in their market. 

 

Before your donation drive begins

Determine which community needs will be addressed by your donation drive; Then identify the nonprofit organizations you’d like to support

Contact those agencies to determine what they need and identify whether any needs are more critical than others.

Decide in consultation with these partners which items will be collected and m

ake sure you understand any limitations (i.e., what they don’t need), any specific guidelines about clothing and how much they can store once donations are delivered. 

 

Engage a planning committee in setting goals and how to measure progress

You could decide to set a goal for gathering a certain number of items, collecting specific tons of food or reaching out to a specific number of people. Think realistically about these goals and what might influence them; you don’t want to overpromise and underdeliver.  Then keep track of how you are doing and designate someone to be responsible for updating the group on how you are progressing toward your goals.  

 

Organize logistics and set your plans into motion

Determine the duration of the drive; often a donation drive will last two to three weeks to give employees ample time to gather the items requested and make a plan for drop-off. Develop your internal communications plan to last the duration of the drive and include a variety of messaging and formats. Make sure the communications include the reasons why these items are needed, who they will benefit, your goals and any guidelines specific to the items requested. You’ll also need to arrange for supplies that you might need including collection bins or boxes if not provided, storage space for donated items and any incentives you might employ. Don’t forget to coordinate with your buildings’ facilities team to find the right space for the collection and storage of items to occur. Plan to collect items in highly visible but fire-code-safe locations. 

 

Consider these options: 

 

  • Single-site drop off: You ask employees in each market to bring donations to one location during set hours on a specific day. You may need to recruit additional volunteers to ensure the collection site and process runs smoothly.  
  • Extended donation drive: It might be more convenient to set up multiple collection points with drop boxes where people can leave their donations over the course of multiple days or weeks. Volunteers can collect the donations once per day and transfer them to storage or deliver them to partners if requested. 

Plan accordingly if many of your colleagues are now hybrid or fully remote

Make sure they know where and when to drop off donations so they feel included in the opportunity to support their community. You might also consider promoting your partners’ “online wish lists” if you feel that some employees would prefer to donate those requested items, whether they are in the office or work fully remote. 

 

During your donation drive

Remind and motivate employees to support the donation drive

Consider creating a friendly competition among departments, floors or locations. Keep track of which location gathers the most items. Record which individual or team contributes the most items. Recognize the donors with bragging rights or small rewards. Always keep in mind that no one should feel pressured to give so keep any competitions or incentives light-hearted. 

 

Monitor and showcase the progress employees are making toward achieving the drive’s goals

As items are collected and you need to transfer them to storage or to the partners’ selected locations, take photos before moving items off-site or as they are delivered to your partner to use in your communications. Purchase more supplies or collection boxes as they are needed.  

 

After the donation drive ends

If requested, sort and count the collected items

Go through the donated items collected and sort the items according to the organization’s guidelines. Try to get an accurate count of what has been received so that you can share with employees and with your partner organization and keep track for future drives that your employer might host. 

 

Deliver the donations

If you haven’t needed to deliver the donations during the drive, find a mutually good time to deliver them to your partner agency. Recruit employee volunteers to help complete this task. Take photos during the delivery to use in your final communications so that those who donated can feel pride in contributing. Touch base with the recipient organization a few weeks later to see how the donations were distributed and plan for your next collaboration.

Celebrate success

Share the total number of items you collected with all of your participants. Thank employees for participating and show gratitude to those who took on a leadership role. If possible, include any stories of how the donations will support your partners’ beneficiaries.  Consider how you and your planning team could improve for next time.

5 Questions You Should Ask to Strengthen and Scale Your Pro Bono Program

Whether tapping the enthusiasm and talent of employees in St. Louis or Singapore, research continues to show that creating impactful volunteer opportunities doesn’t only benefit communities in meaningful ways—it can enhance your business, too. At Points of Light, we are committed to providing resources for community-minded companies that want to strengthen and scale effective employee volunteer programs. 

 

Below is a quick list of research and resources that will help you address the most asked questions about skills-based and pro bono support of nonprofits and help strengthen your company’s social impact programs. Use these resources to become more effective champions of this work. 

 

Q. How do I make the business case to senior leadership to invest resources into implementing a skills-based volunteer or pro bono program?

The case for skills-based volunteering is clear and compelling. While nonprofit organizations will always need traditional volunteers to help them advance their mission, they are also in need of strategic support that builds capacity. Pro bono volunteers can help design human resources policies, implement technology upgrades, develop marketing campaigns and review legal documents. 

 

All of this work is necessary for any organization to thrive, but often nonprofits don’t have the budget for these tasks set aside each year, as they use their much-needed funds to continue supporting their beneficiaries. That’s where skills-based and pro bono volunteers can play an outsized role in their operations. 

 

Providing ways for employees to use their skills in support of nonprofit partners reaps dividends for businesses, too. It can help you achieve business goals related to recruitment and retention. It can help provide a lower-cost way to train and upskill employees. It can also support leadership development at all levels. And those are only the employee-related benefits! 

 

Inviting your employees to donate their time and talents to NGOs can also support your company’s bottom line by increasing positive public perception of your company’s brand, building customer loyalty and bringing innovation to your company’s products and services.

 

For additional proof points that will appeal to senior leadership, check out ACCP’s

Making the Case toolkit

for 2023. 

Q. I work for a small business and am not sure if we can get involved in pro bono like larger companies might?

The most common concerns for small businesses when considering an employee volunteer program are related to cost and capacity. But there are creative ways to manage skills-based volunteerism so that it works for smaller businesses, including:

 

  • Determine the maximum amount of time an employee can volunteer per fiscal year.  
  • If production runs are tight, recommend the employee volunteer after work hours, and determine appropriate compensation.  
  • Ensure proper cross-training of employees (and their ability to cover others’ assignments). This allows operations to continue when the employee is volunteering.  
  • Allow employees to utilize their sick, personal or vacation days for pre-approved volunteering opportunities.  
  • Allow employees to “donate” their sick, personal or vacation time to other employees who would like to volunteer.  
  • Check out our article on mobilizing employees even if you have a small team for additional pointers. 

Q. Where can I find best practices for designing a great pro bono program?

There are many great resources to help you design and implement the pro bono volunteer program that will make the right sense for your business, your colleagues and the communities in which your business operates. And the most important first step is understanding the needs of those communities and the nonprofits that support them. 

 

You’ll find that the “

sweet spot

”

(where your skills-based program runs efficiently and effectively, and delivers needed impact) lies at the intersection of those community needs, the skills and interests of employees, business priorities and constraints. Check out additional expert resources from Taproot Foundation

here

, including the

ultimate guidebook

to designing a corporate pro bono program.

Q. How do I find the right nonprofit partners?

First, consider your existing grantees, who might also be in need of pro bono support. Then, consider contacting the following networks, organizations or online resources that can connect you with local nonprofits and skills-based volunteer opportunities.  

 

  • Points of Light’s Global Network is comprised of volunteer-mobilizing organizations in 39 countries around the world. They can help you identify NGOs that need skills-based support and may also be able to help you design and implement your strategy. 
  • Taproot Plus offers an online tool to match nonprofit and small business needs with volunteers with the right skills and expertise. 
  • Catchafire is another online tool that connects skilled, virtual volunteers with nonprofits that need their expertise.  
  • Common Impact is a one-stop-shop that can help your business design and implement a skills-based strategy while also helping you find nonprofits that need your employees’ talents.  
  • Points of Light Engage is an online database of volunteer projects, many of which require the expertise of skilled volunteers.

Q. What can I do to help nonprofits be ready for skills-based volunteers?

Help your nonprofit partners increase their readiness to make the most of a skills-based project by sharing with them the organizational readiness assessment available through

Capacity Commons

provided by

Common Impact

and the

Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation

. It’s a free, online tool with extensive resources to help build nonprofit capacity to navigate skills-based volunteering, including pro bono efforts.

 

13 Employee Recognition Ideas for Your Volunteer Program

No matter the size of your budget or your volunteer corps,

employee recognition

ideas should align with your company’s culture and values. Successful employee volunteer recognition programs are thoroughly planned and designed, well-managed, clearly communicated and frequently evaluated.

 

Incentivizing employees can be as simple as writing thank you notes and as extensive as planning a large-scale award ceremony. Common elements of successful recognition programs include incorporating senior management support and participation, providing monetary funds to the nonprofit organization of the honoree’s choice and aligning with a special day of service or company event.

 

Employee Recognition Ideas for Your Volunteer Program 

Offer Simple Rewards for Incentivizing Employees 

1. If employees are going into the office regularly or occasionally, reserve a prime parking space for the Volunteer of the Month. Award this time-saving convenience to a volunteer or volunteer leader who has served the most hours during a specific time period or has gone above and beyond.

 

2. Produce certificates or a letter of appreciation signed by the CEO. Even better, ask for hand-written notes from senior leaders to thank volunteers or volunteer leaders for their contributions.

 

3. During volunteer projects, observe who is working hard and going the extra mile, and offer them an on-the-spot reward such as a gift card for a cup of coffee or a pin they can display proudly. Consider what might resonate most with the volunteers you’re working with.

 

4. Schedule a recurring virtual brown bag lunch with senior executives for your top volunteer leaders.

 

5. Create a point system based on number of hours volunteered or other inputs and have volunteers turn their points into rewards like company-branded merchandise.

 

Showcase Employees’ Efforts 

6. Share stories and photos of

great volunteers

internally and externally. Develop a regular cadence of these stories and use communication vehicles that will reach as many employees as possible (e.g., intranet, posters in break rooms, e-newsletters, or company magazine).

 

7. Create a digital badge to add to a recently recognized volunteer leader’s email signature.

 

8. Highlight top volunteers during leadership or all-staff meetings, or at special company events. Post a photo and volunteer profile in high-traffic areas for both employees and guests, such as your main lobby or in elevator banks

9. Recognize

an individual or team with the most volunteer hours during a certain time period. Use different communication vehicles to display an honor roll of volunteers by number of hours served, number of projects participated in, or number of projects led. The

President’s Volunteer Service Award

is a prestigious way to offer this type of recognition. Since 2003, it has been honoring individuals whose service positively impacts communities in every corner of the nation and inspires those around them to take action, too.

 

10. Integrate public-facing recognition mechanisms into your strategy, such as  the

Daily Point of Light Award

or the

Jefferson Awards

.

 

Go Big with Employee Recognition 

11.

Dollars for Doers

and team volunteer grant programs (contribution programs that donate grants to qualified nonprofits based on the level of employee/team involvement as volunteers or board members) offer individual or group financial incentives in the form of grants to the organization of his/her choice. Grants can vary from $100 to $25,000 per award. Create a formal application and judging process or crowdsource who should win the team volunteer grants from across your employee base. 

 

12. Another idea is to host an annual lunch, dinner or special event to highlight the work of top volunteers and volunteer leaders. Invite nonprofit partners to share their stories of volunteer impact to add moments of reflection to the event program.

 

13. If your company engages employees in an annual event such as a day, week or month of service, award your top volunteers or leaders with an all-expenses-paid trip to a different market for next year’s event. They’ll get a chance to volunteer alongside new colleagues and bring back fresh ideas to their market.

 

Need more employee recognition ideas? Don’t forget to check out our

Global Volunteer Month

toolkit for companies, which includes even more ideas for celebrating employees. Plus, Points of Light’s

Corporate Services Solutions

team is the go-to resource for community-minded companies looking to build and expand effective employee volunteer programs. We believe that companies, their employees, partners, vendors and customers can be drivers of transformative social change in communities around the world. 

 

4 Company Benefits of CSR Programs

A well-built

corporate social responsibility program

includes developing a strategy that reaches your entire organization, engaging employees in volunteerism, tracking hours, developing a volunteer time off policy, reporting on outcomes and impact, and creating connections to employees and community. And the benefits of CSR that stem from these efforts are good for your company, your employees and your community. 

 

Companies are constantly striving for ways to set themselves apart and employees are consistently looking for ways to

become civically engaged

through their work. Did you know that

55% of employees

choose socially-conscious companies over profit-focused brands? When these two ideas come together, along with finding innovative ways recruit new talent and retain employees, you have the perfect rationale for launching a CSR at your company.

 

When making the case for the importance of starting a formal CSR program, here are a few ways it can add value. Share this reasoning and data points in your presentation to senior leadership about the positive outcomes of doing well by doing good.

 

1. CSR Programs Save Money and Grow Employee Engagement 

Creating a thoughtful and structured CSR program can actually offer cost savings. Companies can improve revenue by more than $2 million and reduce costs by almost $400,000 for every 1,000 employees because happy staffers are more productive staffers.

 

Plus, when companies drive social impact, they see an increase in the number of

employees who go above and beyond at work

. Sixty percent of employees reported improved engagement among peers after companies implemented an enterprise-wide social impact strategy. And employees who participate in employer-sponsored volunteering are

five times more engaged

at work.

 

2. CSR Programs Boost Retention 

Companies with

highly engaged workforces

have 24% less staff turnover, 17% higher productivity rates and 21% higher profitability. Obviously, companies have a fiscal responsibility to operate in the black, but there’s more to that practice than meets the eye. Employees want to see that companies are having a

positive social impact

. Building a team solely focused on social impact through a formalized CSR program creates an environment that supports employee engagement, which is good for the bottom line. Plus, companies that take a stand on social issues retain employees when they drive social impact.

 

“Know your company’s philanthropic priorities, the causes around which you hope to make the biggest impact, and the types of resources — human, financial, product, expertise, networks, visibility — you can bring to the table.” — Katie Stearns, Chief Global Corporate Solutions Officer 

3. CSR Programs Drive Recruitment 

Having a clear and demonstrated impact sets you up to attract top talent. A company’s social impact track record can not only influence a candidate’s decision to choose to work there, it can also influence future candidates’ perception of that company. 

 

Research

shows that Gen Z employees overwhelmingly want to work for a company that takes a stand on social impact. Mentioning CSR activities in job postings

increases the number of applicants

by 25 percent. And

64% won’t take a job

if a company doesn’t have strong corporate social responsibility values.

 

“Gen Z and millennial workers are looking for more than just a paycheck – they want to work for an employer that provides ways for them to use their voice and strengthen communities.” — Katy Elder, Vice President, Business Innovation 

4. CSR Programs Create Favorable Brand Awareness 

It’s common to see a company doing positive things in their community on social media. These posts typically highlight the work done through a CSR program. Setting your company apart with a well-organized CSR program can offer positive brand awareness your company will benefit from. Take

Lowe’s 100 Hometowns

, for example, a major initiative to complete 100 community impact projects across the United States each year, or

Raytheon Technologies

and their work to inspire and prepare high school students for careers in tech and engineering. Seeing employees volunteering within their community demonstrates a more organic way of promoting your company versus paying for ad space on social.

 

 

Consider using these points as you think about how best to reach your senior leadership audience and speak to what’s important to them. If you are approaching the Human Resource Vice President, for example, do your research on specific ways the CSR program can influence and even reduce costs for recruitment and retention. If you are speaking to the Chief of External Affairs, consider explaining all the built-in story opportunities their team will have with the addition of employees giving back—anywhere from organic campaigns, to the increase use of employee-generated content, to plentiful heartfelt stories to use for the annual report. If you’re speaking to the Chief Financial Officer, it’s great to connect the performance metrics of engaged employees to the bottom line. It’s a wise investment. No matter your audience, the benefits of CSR are clear: they save money, grow employee engagement, boost retention, drive recruitment and reflect well on your brand.