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Corporate Social Responsibility and Employee Volunteering

Books and e-Volunteerism articles on this topic
For information specifically about pro bono work and professions in service, click here.

Articles and book excerpts on this subject

Allow staff time off for charity or 'lose them,' article in The Telegraph (UK), June 2011.
Building Nonprofit Capacity Through Workplace Volunteering by David Warshaw
The Business Case for Employee Volunteering, series of excellent blog posts from RealizedWorth, 2011 (link is to Case #1, further links to the other parts at the end of that post)
The Business Case for Employer-supported Vvolunteering for Small and Medium-sized Companies from Volunteering England
Companies Are From Mars; Nonprofits Are From Venus by David Warshaw
Corporate Citizenship: A Tax in Disguise? by Richard Teather, challenging the philosophy behind the practice.
Corporate Volunteering from Take Your Partner for the Corporate Tango
Corporate Philanthropy 2.0 by David L. Caprara and Robert L. Mallet, Brookings Institute, 2008
Corporate Social Responsibility defined in a detailed article in the Encyclopedia for Business (2011)
Corporate Social Responsibility Special Report compiled by Forbes in 2008, with links to various essays including "Can Companies Savbe the World? Should They Even Try?"
The History of Doing Good by Mark Lewis on Forbes.com (2008)
How to Start a Volunteer Program at Your Company, from Inc. Magazine, 2010.
Pro Bono / In-Kind / Donated Services for Mission-Based Organizations: When, Why & How? by Jayne Cravens
Promoting Employee Engagement from the International Youth Foundation
Recognizing Employee Volunteers from Employee Volunteering: The Guide
Skilled-Volunteering 101: Is Your Organization Ready to Engage? A report from Common Impact surveying 185 nonprofits about tapping the business community (2011).
The Social Case for Corporate Volunteering, by Kenn Allen
Tapping the Small Business Community from The NonProfit Times column "On Volunteers"
Volunteerism as a Core Competency by Diane Brady in Bloomberg Businessweek (2012)

Volunteers from the Workplace by Betty B. Stallings for USIA (1998)
Why Corporations Invest in Corporate Social Responsibility, transcript of a presentatin by Weber Shandwick reporting on a survey of CEOs.

Free electronic books on this subject

Can Corporate Volunteering Support the Bottom Line?
Report commissioned by the Case Foundation and Hands On Network (2005, 48 pg. PDF)

The End of Employee Volunteering: A Necessary Step to Substantive Employee
Engagement in the Community, by Bea Boccalandro, published by the Centrum für Corporate Citizenship Deutschland (2010, 21 pages)

Making a Business Case for Employer-Supported Volunteerism from Volunteer Canada (2004, 26 pg. PDF)

Meetings Mean Business
A white paper that shows how a company can use its meetings and events to become a more responsible corporate citizen (2010, Special D Events, 18 pg PDF)

The Role of Volunteers in Promoting Global Corporate Citizenship
Global Report from United Nations Volunteers (UNV) and the New Academy of Business, 2004 (66 pg. PDF)

The State of Health of Corporate Volunteering
19-page Executive Report in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Russian (2011).
Research project of the Global Corporate Volunteer Council and IAVEdrawing on the experience, perspective and insights of leaders in corporate volunteering worldwide. There are two components – the Global Companies Study and the State of Health Study. More reports to come.

Valuing Volunteering – A Route to Professional Development, by Petra Cook and Nicky Jackson. Explores how volunteering can help to develop the critical professional management skills of working with people who have different timeframes, values and interests. It assesses the personal experiences of senior managers and also their views on volunteering in their capacity as employers. The study also examines the views and actual experiences of returned VSO (UK) volunteers. (24-page PDF, 2006)

Volunteer Connections: The Benefits and Challenges of Employer-Supported Volunteerism, from Volunteer Canada (54 pg. PDF)

Volunteering for Impact: Best Practices in International Corporate Volunteering by Greg Hills and Adeeb Mahmud, FSG Social Impact Advisors, 2007(44 pg. PDF)

Websites with useful information on this subject

Alltop: Corporate Responsibility News
http://corporate-responsibility.alltop.com/
Site that gathers news and information about corporate responsibility and presents it in one place, with links.

Brookings Institute Corporate Philanthropy
http://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2007/1128_corporate_volunteering_caprara.aspxArticles about new directions in international corporate philanthropy, including employee volunteer programs.

Business in the Community (UK)
http://www.bitc.org.uk/index.html
Business in the Community is an organization of over 700 corporations in the UK "committed to improving their positive impact on society." This dense Web site has a great deal of information (case studies, reports, news items) about all aspects of community involvement, including volunteering.

Canadian Business for Social Responsibility (CBSR)
http://www.cbsr.ca
Resources for Canadian companies interested in social corporate responsibility.

Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College
http://www.bc.edu/centers/ccc/index.html
Site to advance "strategic corporate citizenship," including reports on such things as "Corporate Social Responsibility Monitor" and other reports.

Centre for Volunteering: Corporate Volunteering

http://www.volunteering.com.au/corporate_volunteering/

Variety of articles and tools for employee volunteering, from the volunteer center serving Sydney, Australia and beyond.

Centrum für Corporate Citizenship Deutschland (CCCD)
http://www.cccdeutschland.org/en
CCCD (the site is both in English and German) focuses on all aspects of corporate citizenship and employee volunteering. It offers a whole list of free publications.

The Civic 50
http://ncoc.net/civic100
Started in 2012, this project "ranks" America's most "community-minded corporations. Run by National Conference on Citizenship, Points of Light Institute, and Bloomberg LP.

Common Impact
http://www.commonimpact.org/volunteers
"A nonprofit organization that connects skilled professionals from global companies to high-potential local nonprofits." See their publications that make the case for skills-based volunteering by business.

Corporate Philanthropy and Volunteerism
http://www.charityvillage.com/cv/research/rcp.html
Series of articles from Charity Village (Canada).

Corporate Social Responsibility News and Resources
http://www.mallenbaker.net/csr/index.html
Resources for people determined to act as change agents within their business for corporate social responsibility/corporate citizenship, including employee volunteering.

CRS Wire
http://www.csrwire.com/
Corporate Social Responsibility Newswire Service posts all sorts of press releases and reports on business programs. Search under "volunteer" to find many items.

Development Crossing
http://www.developmentcrossing.com
Free site that promotes the growth of corporate social responsibility and sustainable development through a global network of professionals that have access to exclusive interviews, engaging discussions, breaking news, and relevant events around the world. Members can connect with thousands of senior executives, socially responsible enterprises and nonprofits to exchange ideas and capitalize on collective wisdom to solve common challenges.

Employee Volunteer Programs – HandsOn Network
http://www.handsonnetwork.org/plug-in/corporate/workplace-volunteering
Reports and tools for organizing workplace volunteering.

Employer-Supported Volunteering Initiative - Volunteering England
http://www.volunteering.org.uk/WhatWeDo/Projects+and+initiatives/
A section on the special issue of small and medium-sized businesses getting involved in volunteering.

Entrepreneurs Foundation

http://www.efbayarea.org/

California agency with the mission "to engage companies in corporate citizenship and philanthropic efforts so that new and leveraged resources are generated for community benefit." Site offers many tools, particularly on employee volunteering.

Fueling Good
http://www.fuelinggood.com
Site of the CITGO company's social responsibility efforts.

Global Corporate Volunteer Council
http://www.gcvcresearch.org/v1/
A network for leaders of international employee volunteer programs.

Good Company
http://www.goodcompany.com.au/
Connects skilled professionals with Australian charitable organizations in need of pro bono assistance.

Imagine - Corporate Citizenship
http://www.imaginecanada.ca/node/33
Canada 's national program to promote public and corporate giving, volunteering and support for the community. Site has many resources and downloadable materials.

International Volunteer Network of Chicago
http://www.ivnc.org
Stimulates networking and volunteer opportunities in and between Chicago's business community and its large international diplomatic community.

Investing in Volunteersfor Employers (UK)
http://iive.investinginvolunteers.org.uk/
Investing in Volunteers is the UK quality standard for all organizations which involve volunteers in their work -- includes a complete section for employee volunteer programs. The Standard enables organizations to comprehensively review their volunteer management, and also publicly demonstrates their commitment to volunteering.

Points of Light Foundation resource section
http://www.pointsoflight.org/ideas-and-insights
Fact sheets and guides, most in PDF format, on various topics. Select browse by network" and then "business" to focus on corporate volunteerism titles.

Realized Worth

http://realizedworth.blogspot.com/

Focused on employee volunteering and workplace giving, with many solid ideas and discussions through the blog, "Realizing Your Worth," on "utilizing Employee Volunteer Programs to give you the edge in business."

Taproot Foundation
http://www.taprootfoundation.org/
Taproot is focused on encouraging pro bono donations of professional services.

US Chamber of Commerce Business Civic Leadership Center
http://bclc.uschamber.com/
The Business Civic Leadership Center exists to support the civic and humanitarian initiatives of businesses.

Corporate Model Programs

Cisco Systems
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/about/ac48/about_cisco_volunteer_programs_list.html
Example of a multi-faceted corporate employee volunteer program.

The Wal-Mart Foundation
http://walmartstores.com/CommunityGiving/203.aspx
National Web site explaining all the many community service projects that Wal-Mart sponsors through its employees and customers. Many project ideas.

Relevant Blogs

Pro Bono Australia News
http://www.probonoaustralia.com.au/news

Pro Bono Junkie's Blog
http://www.taprootfoundation.org/blog/
A blog for those interested in integrating the pro bono ethic into their careers — giving their time and talent to strengthen nonprofit organizations.

Realizing Your Worth
http://realizedworth.blogspot.com/
Thoughts on Corporate Social Responsibility and corporate volunteering by Chris Jarvis in Canada.

Relevant Hot Topic essays

Is Volunteering the Emperor’s New Clothes? - Jul '12
Good Intentions Going Nowhere – Again - October '10
The Drive towards “Highly-skilled” and “Pro Bono” Volunteering - Jul '09
Workplace Volunteerism: Have We Thought this Through? - Sept '04
Redirecting Corporate Volunteering - Oct '97

For information on this topic specifically relating to the Australasian region please visit our friends at OzVPM :
http://www.ozvpm.com/resourcebank/resource_corporate.htm

11/15/12