Beyond Numbers and Basic Narratives: A Guide for CSR and Employee Volunteer Program Leaders
Move Beyond Vanity Metrics in Volunteer Impact Measurement
Employee volunteering is no longer just a “nice-to-have” initiative—it’s a strategic business priority that drives employee engagement, leadership development, brand reputation and meaningful community impact. Points of Light’s new learning brief, Beyond Numbers and Basic Narratives: A Guide for CSR & Employee Volunteer Program Leaders, explores how CSR leaders can change the perception of volunteering by leveraging data-driven insights and ethical storytelling to demonstrate both social and business value.
Traditional metrics like volunteer hours fail to capture true impact, so companies must adopt more intentional data collection strategies that move beyond vanity metrics (e.g., hours logged) to measure impact such as engagement, skills development and long-term community outcomes. Additionally, ethical storytelling plays a crucial role in bringing outcomes to life by creating human-centered narratives that align corporate values with real community needs.
By combining impact data with responsible storytelling, CSR leaders can build stronger executive buy-in, deepen employee engagement and belonging and create more sustainable, high-impact programs. This learning brief provides actionable steps to help CSR leaders embed outcomes measurement, storytelling and continuous improvement into their volunteer strategies—ensuring that employee volunteering is recognized not just as a goodwill effort, but as a business and community necessity.
Understanding Community-Centered Volunteerism
Thanks to our guest speaker Breauna Dorelus, Founder and Cause Consultant at Connecting the Cause.
Behind every volunteer opportunity is a root cause of an issue and a system that perpetuates the necessity of the volunteer opportunity itself.
We must first understand the truth of why problems exist and ensure the volunteer work is aligned with the community’s needs.
“Centering community” does not mean dismissing volunteers. It means that communities are an integral part of the process, not just recipients of aid, which creates harm. Too often communities are on the receiving end of a volunteer’s charitable acts instead of seen as an interdependent ecosystem where everyone has a role.
Reflection Questions
What is currently in my power to repair and rebuild?
Understand and recognize power dynamics within volunteerism. Where does the volunteer hold the power in engagement spaces, and where does the community hold the power? Do shifts need to be made?
Policies that Enable Employee-Powered Change
Imagine a workplace where every employee feels empowered to drive positive change in their community. Many companies achieve this by establishing policies that create opportunities for impact. These policies align a company’s culture and core values with daily operations, setting clear expectations and creating an environment where employees feel supported.
Discover how codifying practices such as Volunteer Time Off (VTO) can foster a culture of service, enhance employee engagement, and secure buy-in from all levels.
Top Takeaways:
Having a volunteer time off policy demonstrates a company’s commitment to creating positive social impact while also providing value to the business and to employees.
When designing a policy, clearly define what is in scope including who can take advantage of the policy and what activities are eligible.
Think about the end user when making VTO decisions. You want the benefit to be as accessible and frictionless as possible.
Understand the audience who will need to weigh in on the policy and any updates; bring them along with you as you design or revise.
Position the policy in different ways when driving awareness so employees can fully realize the benefit being offered.
Planning Impactful Fall Employee Engagement Activities
Discover the latest trends and innovative approaches in employee volunteering.
Learn from real-world examples and success stories to inspire and inform your organization’s community engagement efforts.
Explore strategies to make volunteer efforts inclusive and accessible to all employees.
Guest Speakers
Jennifer Nash, SVP, Corporate Activation, Points of Light
Michelle Dee, COO, Jersey Cares
Top Takeaways
Start now. Although the second half of the year seems far away, for your sake and for your community partners’ sake, remember that meaningful impact takes time to plan. Think about the steps you can be taking now so that you offer a mix of varied opportunities that align with both employee and community needs.
Trust your partners. Nonprofit leaders understand community issues and how volunteers can best support them. Your volunteer champions and ambassadors can ensure colleagues are ready and able to serve.
Co-create solutions. Know the interests, skills and capacity of your volunteers, and work together with your nonprofit partners to put them to best use to meet community needs.
Infuse learning and deep thinking. No matter what type of activities you plan, ensure that volunteers comprehend the community issue they’ll be addressing and provide time post-project for reflection.
Be flexible but strategic. Understand the reasons behind the goals you’re setting yet stay adaptable and open to new ideas.
Building the Case for Investment: Why Employee Community Engagement Matters Webinar
As corporate social impact practitioners, we know that employee community engagement programs can foster a sense of community, boost employee morale and productivity, combat polarization and ultimately contribute to the bottom-line. But how do you illustrate the value in a way that garners program and infrastructure investment?
Join us to explore the benefits of employee community engagement and its impact on business success. In this session, we will dig into recent research from Ares Management and additional proof points that not only demonstrate the intrinsic value of employee community engagement and how it aligns with broader business goals but also showcase how forward-thinking companies have successfully secured financial investment from senior leadership.
Top Takeaways:
Know your audience. Tailor your messaging, format and timing in order to have the best reception.
Preparation is key. Start collecting data now that can be useful when you need to build a case.
Look for opportunities. Know what’s happening in the short and long term and use it to your advantage.
Stay relevant. Connect social impact work to the challenges your leadership is facing and how it can help them achieve business or their professional goals.
Try testing first. Experimenting can give you proof of potential enterprise-wide outcomes and can be an easier sell.
Prove and Improve Your Company’s Social Impact Without Overburdening Your Partners
The last few years have been revolutionary in how companies approach their relationships with nonprofit partners. Movements like “trust-based philanthropy,” which encourages a more trusting, transparent and equitable collaboration between funders and their nonprofit partners, are exciting and growing in popularity. How can you, as a CSR leader, support these movements yet continue to track the data you need? Attend our upcoming webinar to find out how to gain actionable insights while keeping both your company’s and your nonprofit partners’ needs in mind.
Sara Ansell, senior manager of social impact at True Impact, walks through the steps to track essential impact data, ditch ineffective processes, and help your nonprofit partners improve at the same time. Based on her years of experience helping hundreds of grantees and funders measure their impact, Sara will cover best practices in data collection at all stages of working with nonprofits. She will review the metrics that are most actionable and the ones that are outdated.
You’ll also hear from Nate Brown, senior vice president and director of the PIMCO Foundation, who will share more about PIMCO’s thoughtful, comprehensive approach to social impact measurement. Together, Sara and Nate will discuss what a collaborative impact evaluation process looks like, whether you are measuring employee volunteerism, grant-making or pro bono efforts. After their discussion, you’ll leave with solid takeaways to drive societal change and meet business goals—for your team and your grantees.
Key Takeaways:
The four golden reporting rules for funders are keep it simple, keep it timely, keep it uniform, and keep it supportive.
Count what counts. Understand the difference between inputs (resources used), outputs (activities or goods and services delivered) and outcomes (impact!).
Ask for your nonprofit partners’ whole story (the full impact of their program), not just what might be related to what you funded. What is the bigger narrative that your employee volunteers or grants supported?
Minimize the burden on partners and maximize the usefulness of data collected. Be upfront with partners about your reporting requirements and standardize your reporting template. You’ll find an example here.
Innovative Approaches to Engaging All Employees in Social Impact Webinar
From staff stationed at manufacturing plants and retail outlets to call centers, night shifts and those on the move, engaging employees who don’t sit at a computer most of the day can pose unique challenges. Watch this interactive webinar centered around the universal topic of involving employees traditionally referred to as “hard-to-reach” in your company’s social impact initiatives.
Our panelists delve into the various obstacles faced when attempting to connect with these frontline and other “non-wired” employees and explore ways to overcome them. Together we uncover successful practices and innovative solutions that have proven effective in fostering meaningful engagement.
Hear from these CSR leaders:
Gary Levante – senior vice president, corporate responsibility & communications, Berkshire Bank
Sylvia Stevens-Edouard – senior director, community relations, Liberty Mutual
Megan Zamora – senior manager, global responsibility, Starbucks
Key Takeaways:
The challenges of engaging a wide variety of work roles, environments, and work shifts in corporate employee volunteer programs cross all industries and company sizes. Most companies have a segment of the workforce that can be harder to engage, whether it’s bank tellers, remote workers, manufacturing employees, reporters, sales reps, or clinical teams.
Be ready to make the business case for the additional effort that might be required to engage these groups; the wins definitely outweigh the potential downsides and data can help you tell that story.
Including all employees in your social impact programming must start with vocal and visible support from senior leadershipand a clear connection to corporate values from day one.
Be intentional when designing programs and strategies to engage your “harder to reach” employee populations, including understanding employee motivations and operational barriers. Start small and stay flexible.
The goal of 9/11 Day At Home is to inspire more than one million “virtual” acts of service, expressions of kindness, or simple Good Deeds in observance of this year’s 9/11 Day, the federally-recognized September 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance.
You can play an important role in making that happen – by engaging your employees in our 9/11 Day At Home program, or in other virtual service programs for 9/11 Day this year. This toolkit provides all the information you’ll need to participate in this program, and to invite your fellow employees to participate with you.
Sara Ansell, senior manager of social impact at True Impact, walks through the steps to track essential impact data, ditch ineffective processes, and help your nonprofit partners improve at the same time. Based on her years of experience helping hundreds of grantees and funders measure their impact, Sara will cover best practices in data collection at all stages of working with nonprofits. She will review the metrics that are most actionable and the ones that are outdated.
who will share more about PIMCO’s thoughtful, comprehensive approach to social impact measurement. Together, Sara and Nate will discuss what a collaborative impact evaluation process looks like, whether you are measuring employee volunteerism, grant-making or pro bono efforts. After their discussion, you’ll leave with solid takeaways to drive societal change and meet business goals—for your team and your grantees.