Why Cant You Find Free Corporate Volunteering Opportunities?
Why should I have to pay to volunteer my team’s time?? The charities in need will take any help they can get, right??
Wrong. This is a topic that comes up a lot in discussions with potential new partners. They want to introduce volunteering opportunities as an employee benefit, but are shocked to hear it’s going to cost…well…anything 😮 😱
Even more surprisingly, in our experience it’s the big global enterprises and household names that aren't willing to invest into giving back.
Maybe you're keen to help out in local communities and green spaces with your team for a few hours, or maybe you want to make a more significant contribution and give your employees the chance to help charities across the UK remotely.
So, we thought we’d share some reasons why corporate volunteering isn’t free, and show you where the true value and ROI comes from:
It Costs The Charities Money
There are serious costs involved for charitable organisations to organise and manage volunteers. For starters they have to pay someone for the time spent looking after corporate volunteers for the day!
Much like when an influencer tries paying with 'exposure' charities can't pay the bills with time donated and they need their spaces and employees to keep making the world a better place.
If you're serious as a business about supporting your local communities, then you should try to take into account their costs for looking after you for a day.
Hassle-Free Volunteering: You Don't Do Any Of The Organising
Most employee volunteering partners are taking the hassle of sourcing innovative charitable projects off your plate, and finding opportunities that help to develop new skills and specifically match your team’s skills, interests, and availability. This takes time!
If you don't have an internal CSR team that have the capacity to organise regular events or corporate giving, then it makes sense that you would need to pay for someone else to do this for you. Especially if they are experts in finding volunteering projects that are innovative, provide learning & development opportunities, and can't be found with a simple Google search.
Employee Benefits
Corporate volunteering has a serious impact on employee empowerment. It provides the chance for learning + development, gives extra team building opportunities for your staff, and also helps to attract and retain top talent.
The job market is more competitive than ever with remote and hybrid working continuing to take over, and millennial and Gen-Z employees demanding more from companies when it comes to doing good and giving back.
So, by including paid time for volunteering within your employees' benefits package, you can better compete for the best candidates in your industry, while also developing new skills in your teams.
Backed By Data
In fact, according to research by Deloitte, 70% of employees said that volunteering opportunities ‘improved their sense of purpose’, whilst 77% said that volunteering was ‘essential to employee well-being’ and contributed to a more positive community for their teams.
When it comes to hitting your CSR goals, and giving back to your local community as a business, there is no high-impact strategy better than remote skills-based volunteering. On the Matchable Volunteering platform you can track everything from hours volunteered by your team, to the actually monetary impact value you've created for these charities as a team.
How You Can Best Help Out In The Local Community
There are lots of ways you can organise Corporate volunteering days for your company, and it all comes down to if you prefer in-person or remote volunteering opportunities. But there are quite clear differences in price, impact created, and ease of organising!
We actually wrote an article all about how much employee volunteering days cost, and we compared the positive impact and costs for each kind of CSR solution here.
🧠 So in conclusion, before you book your next 'free' volunteering day, ask yourself, am I taking from a charity or am I helping them grow? 🌳 🤔