Surveying the health of corporate support for volunteerism
Aug 4, 1995; Canadian FundRaiser
"One of the most important ways corporations can contribute to the community is by supporting employee volunteer activities." said Janet Rostami, Senior Research Associate, Canadian Centre for Business in the Community. "Following the ground-breaking research done by The Conference Board of Canada in 1986 on employee volunteerism, no comprehensive investigation has been made into changing corporate policies and programs. The Centre is taking the initiative to update and expand existing information through a national study on community volunteer activities."
Undertaken in partnership with IMAGINE, the spring survey, Employee Volunteers: Business Support For Canadian Communities received a 23% response rate.
Directed to 900 companies selected from IMAGINE caring companies, businesses actively involved with the Canadian Centre for Business in the Community, and major Canadian companies from the Financial Post Top 500 to achieve balanced representation, the final report will identify both the benefits that employee volunteering provides, and current practices in corporate support for employee volunteers. Some of the preliminary findings summarized by Joanne Cooper indicated that:
- Corporate support for volunteering has remained constant or slightly increased despite the recession.
- Corporate support for volunteering is largely a responsive process, with corporations supporting initiatives of their employees. There is relatively little contact with outside voluntary organizations beyond that initiated by the employees directly.
- While accommodating employee volunteering, there is relatively little formal management support for employee volunteering, either in terms of clear corporate policies supporting volunteering or the assignment of personnel to manage volunteer programs.
- Most of the measures used to encourage employee volunteering tend to be passive in nature.
- When a corporation sponsors or endorses a particular cause of their employees, there is a high level of involvement of employees as volunteers for these causes, as well as financial and other in-kind support.
- The primary benefits seen by employers for employee volunteer programs is that they improve community relations. This is followed by benefits to employees and employee productivity.
Obstacles in the path of Volunteer Programs
Potential obstacles in promoting corporate volunteer programs, as identified by preliminary respondents to the survey, were: strength of a company's donation program, effectiveness of volunteer centres and nonprofits in soliciting corporate support, ignorance of employee volunteering, economic health of the company, lack of employee time to participate, influence of a company's union or employee association, management reticence about involvement in an employee's personal affairs, absence of key champions, and a lack of data demonstrating the benefits of corporate volunteering.
The final survey results will be available in the fall of 1995. Reports are planned on a number of issues including management of employee volunteer programs, accommodating employee volunteer activities, recognizing and encouraging employee volunteer activities, working with voluntary organizations, sponsoring volunteer organizations or causes, donations and in-kind support and benefits of employee volunteerism.
For additional information call Janet Rastami at the Canadian Centre for Business in the Community (613) 526-3280 or Chris Pinney at the Canadian Centre for Philanthropy (416) 515-0765.
