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August 2010
Working with Employee Volunteer Programs
In This Issue
Featured Resources
Excerpt: "Understanding What a Business Partner Wants"
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Tapping Into Corporate Volunteer Programs
(Self-Instruction Guide)
Starting October 18, 2010

Lately, there has been lots of buzz about corporate social responsibility - but how can you capitalize on this interest and make use of businesses as sources of volunteers? In this downloadable Self-Instruction Guide, David Warshaw, a former employee volunteer program head for a major corporation, shares insight and tips for developing effective relationships with volunteers from the business world.

Access this self-instruction guide plus other topics and benefits by signing up for our $99 trial run.
Corporate employee volunteer programs have caught on worldwide, and there are efforts underway in many countries to increase business community involvement and teach best practices in this type of activity. Some of us still wonder if the value of creating nonprofit/business relationships is worth the effort. Organizations that think through all the issues and build their capacity to attract and incorporate business volunteers can add tremendously to their ability to fulfill mission objectives.
resource2 Featured Resources
Employee Volunteering: The Guide
This publication is an in-depth and accessible resource which shows how the private, public and voluntary sectors can benefit from employee volunteering, and gives clear, practical advice to businesses on setting up employee volunteering programs. Written in the UK for an English audience, the principles in this guide are universally applicable, especially as so many large corporations have a global presence.
Employee Volunteering: The Guide
 
Take Your Partner for the Corporate Tango: A Guide to Developing Successful Business and Community Partnerships
This electronic guidebook from Australia provides great advice for community/corporate collaborations, no matter where they are located. Using the metaphor of the tango as a "controlled dance that requires two partners to work together," the reader is given clear steps to prepare for a partnership, choose a suitable partner, and assure that all the features of a working relationship are present. Includes "Things to Watch Out For" and other practical dos and don'ts. Written for both the community and commercial perspectives, and for small as well as large organizations.
Corporate Tango
 
New Directions in Employer-Supported Volunteering: Part 1 and Part 2
Recently, we've begun to see a shift from the so-called "team challenge" approach to volunteering (where teams of employees perform a task, such as painting a community center)  to volunteering that makes use of an individual employee's professional skills. On top of this, anecdotal evidence seems to indicate that the growth and popularity of employer-supported volunteering is not diminishing despite the global financial crisis. In this Keyboard Roundtable, leading employer-supported volunteering practitioners and from several countries explore these and other key issues. e-Volunteerism subscribers can read the full text of Part 1 and Part 2; non-subcribers can purchase each article for only $3.
 
Today's Corporate Workplace Volunteering in Context
David Warshaw, who spent 27 years in the public relations/corporate citizenship arena for a huge company, looks at how nonprofits and businesses can work together to the betterment of our communities. Learn what is motivating companies to enter the community arena and how corporate citizenship imperatives might help nonprofits gain from the resources available from the business sector. e-Volunteerism subscribers can read the full text; non-subscribers can purchase the article for only $3.
Resources Book Excerpt
Understanding What a Business Partner Wants
Excerpted from Take Your Partner for the Corporate Tango by Kate Reynolds


Identifying what most businesses want from partnerships with not-for-profit organisations is really very simple. They want a professional relationship, clearly defined benefits, value-for-money and protection from unacceptable risk. Most businesses can be quite clear about their expectations of any partnership because they are looking for a combination of all or some of the following benefits:
  • increased understanding, knowledge and skills for employees
  • increased job satisfaction for employees
  • increased employee, customer or shareholder loyalty
  • increased business opportunities
  • opportunities for favourable exposure in the local, state, national or international media
  • credibility in the local, state, national or global community or 'marketplace' as a good corporate citizen
  • tax advantages
Some businesses look for short-term relationships with immediate and obvious benefits for the community - others prefer longer-term relationships that can evolve over time alongside the programs that assist the community to achieve its goals.

All businesses want:
  • quality and timely proposals
  • achievable goals which have real impact
  • quality and timely communications
  • quality and timely reports
________

Permission is granted for organizations to reprint this excerpt. Reprints must provide full acknowledgment of the source, as cited here:

Excerpted from Take Your Partner for the Corporate Tango: A Guide to Developing Successful Business and Community Partnerships, by Kate Reynolds, � 2001, Volunteering South Australia. Found in the Energize, Inc. Online Bookstore at http://www.energizeinc.com/store/5-202-E-1
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