It’s a Great Time for Giving Back, but Don’t Leave Out Remote Workers...

‘Tis the season for giving back—and with virtual volunteering opportunities, even your hybrid or remote employees can get involved.

A community cleanup or soup kitchen shift might be a great way for your employees to serve their community while also bonding outside of the office, but these kinds of in-person volunteering opportunities might not be feasible for fully (or partially) remote teams. Fortunately, though, there are still many ways to give back virtually—with the right planning.  

During the pandemic, the “formal” volunteering rate dropped from 30 percent in 2019 to 23 percent in 2021, according to data from AmeriCorps and the U.S. Census—the steepest drop since these organizations had started collecting this data in 2002. But virtual volunteering opportunities picked up: By October 2020, 51 percent of nonprofits had bumped up their virtual volunteering opportunities, according to data from VolunteerMatch.

Still, today, volunteering rates continue to lag overall, according to a recent report from the Generosity Commission, an independent project out of the nonprofit Giving USA Foundation. And that means companies are missing out on an important opportunity, argues Mike Gianoni—co-chair of the commission and CEO of Blackbaud, a Charleston, South Carolina-based social impact-focused software company.

“Volunteering and donating is a really good way to integrate real-world activities into a good culture,” he says, by “doing something good in the world with the resources you have.” And a strong culture, in turn, helps companies become more successful, Gianoni adds.

The Generosity Commission report therefore recommends that companies continue to explore virtual volunteering opportunities to “enhance” their volunteer programs, especially as many continue to operate in hybrid or remote environments. Here’s what experts say companies can do to execute a successful virtual volunteering opportunity—and insights from companies that have done it well:  

Determine the right causes and virtual formats 

The first step in setting up a virtual volunteering opportunity—like any other volunteering effort—should be surveying employees to discover what causes they truly care about, says Andy VandenBerg, 32, co-founder of WeHero, the Bend, Oregon-based corporate volunteering platform. That way, companies can boost engagement in volunteering opportunities.  

For instance, Mediavine, a fully remote, New York City-based advertising management company, is a “hyper pet-friendly organization,” says chief people and culture officer Yolanda Evans. So, one of their 2024 virtual volunteering opportunities involved making toys for abandoned pets.  

“If you start with knowing what your people care about, then there’s going to be an organization or a group that could benefit from volunteerism,” Evans says.  

Additionally, companies must decide the format for their virtual volunteerism, VandenBerg adds. And that can vary widely.

Andrea Bell, director of CSR learning programs at the Association of Corporate Citizenship Professionals, says she’s seen companies take on options ranging from remote tutoring sessions for high school students to working on a collective digital project, such as mapping areas susceptible to natural disasters.  

With those key factors established, company leaders can work with their employees to figure out the right cadence for these opportunities. “Maybe they want to virtually volunteer once a month, but then every six months or every year, they want to do something really together, maybe at a work conference or an offsite,” VandenBerg says.  

The key, overall, is providing variety, he adds: “We try to advise companies to meet their employees where they are.” 

Bring the team together (but offer asynchronous options)  

Even with virtual volunteering efforts, there are still opportunities to gather together—though that might mean remote gatherings, or gatherings that don’t include the entire team at once.

At Mediavine, it’s a priority for the company to offer both synchronous and asynchronous options for virtual volunteerism, Evans says. “We have employees in 40 states, so we have different time zones, and it’s impossible to find something that’s going to strike in the perfect time of day, week, or month,” she says.  

At WeHero, the team strongly believes that even virtual volunteering should be “happening collectively, with the ability for it to be async[hronous] for more impact,” VandenBerg says. This way, teams have “more fun” and the volunteer work produces a “better outcome for the nonprofit,” he adds.  

Indeed, at Sequoia, the San Mateo, California-based strategic comp and benefits consulting company, their “hosted” synchronous events—which they organize for their team as well as their clients—are the most successful, says Diann Lawson, director of the Sequoia Impact Program. These events feature an introduction from a professional virtual volunteer guide, an icebreaker for attendees, and sometimes music as attendees complete the activity, she says. 

For instance, Sequoia has hosted volunteering sessions where attendees join a virtual call to record audiobooks for children in the hospital, participate in a “digital trash cleanup” for Earth Day, or write letters to isolated seniors, to name just a few. Attendees who aren’t able to join, though, can still sign up and do the activity on their own.

“A lot of the power of volunteering, whether it’s virtual or in person, is the human connection,” Lawson says.

Find a strong partner with virtual-ready opportunities  

Want to get your virtual volunteering effort off the ground quickly? You don’t have to start from scratch. There are numerous organizations whose needs could be filled by your team’s virtual efforts—and you can start by asking any partners you might already be working with, Bell says.  

Sequoia formed a partnership with Goodera, for instance—a company facilitating corporate volunteering programs—during the pandemic to “engage our team and our clients globally,” Lawson says. Goodera is now a vendor in the Social Impact offering on the Sequoia People Platform: Twice a year, Sequoia partners with Goodera for two dedicated weeks of virtual volunteering, offered to their internal team as well as to their clients.

As you search for the “right” partner, though, keep in mind that they will want to make sure the partnership is “beneficial to both” their organization and yours, Bell says. To do that, you will want to track the success of your company’s virtual volunteering work.  

And you shouldn’t just measure in terms of employee participation or the number of volunteer hours spent on a task, VandenBerg says: “The ultimate measure of success is the amount of impact delivered to the end population.”  

BY SARAH LYNCH

Republished by Greg Herrera: Silicon Valley CEO Group; Helping leaders benefit their companies, families and society...