The Business and Social Case for Corporate Volunteering

Submitted by unitedway, 18 May 2012

Much has been written about the business case and the social case for corporate volunteering. Typically, these cases have been defined using the survey results of CSR managers and NGO leaders. Rarely, had the perspectives of corporate volunteers been explored. The experience for the corporate volunteers is key for United Way in starting a volunteering journey that leads to creating community impact.

United Way Australia is a leading Australian NGO focused on community impact by mobilising the caring power of the community and in particular, harnessing the capabilities and assets of businesses. Corporate Connect is our long standing team volunteering program which links corporate volunteers to community projects. In 2011 we delivered 205 community projects nationally, engaging 3,152 volunteers who contributed 12,479 hours to impact lives of over 15,000 people.

We know from previous research and rigorous selection processes that this work delivers tangible benefits for local communities and NGOs; but what about the corporate volunteers themselves? The surveys were completed by a solid 29% of volunteers nationally and, as well as giving us positive feedback on the program itself, it provided 2 interesting insights.

1.       Corporate volunteering is a gateway for those new to volunteering

It’s encouraging to see that corporate volunteering encourages people to start a volunteering journey .Last year, 36% of corporate volunteers reported that they were volunteering for the first time. There is a great deal of variability in this figure, which reflects the length of the United Way relationship and the size of the company. The good news is that once people have volunteered, they all want to volunteer again with over 50% saying they would like to make a larger contribution to the community.

Nationwide 35% of Australian adults volunteer, with rates in Sydney as low as 16%[1]. Clearly corporate volunteering is a critically important pathway to encourage more people into volunteering. It’s also the most effective way of accessing large groups of people to make a contribution within the community. 

2.       Corporate volunteering has a strong business case

Over the last few years we’ve been looking at the impact of the experience on the volunteers. Encouragingly corporate volunteers tell us that, as a result of the volunteering experience, they have:

• Strengthened their relationship with their peers (97%), and
• Are more willing to contribute to their company (86%).

These results are all the more pertinent when considered alongside recent research from Gallup[2] and Macquarie Economics Research[3] on the business impact of employee engagement. This study showed a clear link between companies with higher levels of employee engagement and profitability.

It’s clear that there’s much to be gained through corporate volunteering; for communities, businesses and employees. Our research provides a compelling case to increase focus on corporate volunteering as a sustainable strategy for businesses to engage employees and to help build a stronger community.

Gabrielle Kay and Doug Taylor

United Way Australia

Comments

Partners for impact

Submitted by unitedway, 17 May 2012

As a prelude to National Volunteering Week, United Way Australia, with the support of AMP Foundation, successfully launched our Partners for Impact Program last Wednesday. Partners for Impact is a year-long peer development program.  We pair up corporate and community leaders, who work on initiatives to develop the capacity of the community organisations so that they can better achieve their missions.   The Program also provides networking and professional development opportunities for the corporate and community leaders to connect with, and learn from, other like-minded peers.

This year’s program, which runs from May 2012 to April 2013, comprises an impressive cohort of 22 leaders from 14 different organisations.  There are 11 leaders from eight community organisations – Beacon Foundation, Bridge Housing, Good Beginnings, Inspire Foundation, NEAMI, School for Social Entrepreneurs, The Smith Family and Weave.  The community leaders are paired with leaders from seven corporate organisations – including AMP Financial Services and AMP Capital Investors, Colliers International, Freehills, Fuji Xerox Australia, Genworth and ING DIRECT.

The corporate leaders who have volunteered for the program have done so because they want to contribute their skills and experiences to support the community sector.  In return they are looking forward to learning more about the sector and the strengths of how the sector operates.  Our community sector leaders are looking forward to sharing their pride in their organisations and to continuing to implement processes and practices that support growth and development.   United Way’s motivation is to expand the means by which we mobilise corporate and community resources in service to community initiatives that improve lives.

The first session saw a robust discussion around the similarities and differences between corporate and community organisations.  We discussed how ‘great’ organisations in both sectors are driven to deliver their missions – ‘purpose beyond profit’.  A major difference that emerged was around perspectives on the “bottom line”; despite all great organisations having a mission and acknowledging multiple stakeholders, it appeared more acceptable for corporate organisations to convert their various stakeholder bottom lines (e.g. people, planets, profits) into a common language of dollars.  By comparison, in the community sector, it is more difficult to judge which “bottom lines” are more important than others and not easy to find metrics to compare across them.  This means that community organisation leaders often have a greater degree of complexity to manage than do ‘for profit’ organisations of similar size.

It will be fascinating to see and document how much we all learn about effective leadership across such complex environments.

Sharon McGann

Partners for Impact Manager

United Way Australia

Comments

Rock stars in Nashville

Submitted by unitedway, 15 May 2012

It’s hard to think of an Academic as a rock star, but that’s how Mark Kramer, Co-Founder and Managing Director of FSG, was received at the Global Conference for United Way Worldwide in Nashville last month. Perhaps it was because we were in the US Country Music capital (Dolly Parton made an appearance as well, but that’s another blog altogether).

Kramer’s work, along with his colleagues, has been seminal in recent years in re-thinking the role of not-for-profits and businesses in solving social problems, as outlined in the ideas of Shared Value and Collective Impact. In United Way Worldwide’s 125^th Anniversary year, this thinking has resonated and reinforced our resolve to become a community impact focused organisation.

Like so many institutions we lost our way for a few decades as we became more focused on the means and not the end of social change making. Our Theory of Change for a long time was to raise as much money as possible and fund not-for-profits to provide services to their ‘clients’ in the community.

In the US and Australia this has coincided with an explosion in the numbers of not-for-profit organisations. This has benefitted a great many in society, as these community owned institutions have  increased the quality and diversity of services provided to people who are often not able to address their specific needs alone. However one of the unintended consequences of this is a vast system of institutions working individually and often on the same issue to create, in Kramer’s words, ‘Isolated Impact’. They each have a primary purpose to manage the problems of the clients they seek to benefit, primarily through funding contracts. The problem with this is that ‘no single organisation is responsible for any major social problems, nor can any single organisation cure it’.

Kramer believes that most not-for-profits are trying to address social problems with their ‘hands tied behind their back’ because they are not working and learning together and they don’t evaluate their work using consistent frameworks. The increased complexity of the social systems and problems provides a compelling case for a more collaborative approach. He made two overarching suggestions on how to move beyond the current service delivery models that predominate.

1. He spoke about the importance of raising our expectations for change and setting community level goals.

For too long we’ve let Government pick up the tab for improving major social problems and as a result let business and not-for-profits off the hook. This is no more evident for me than in Detroit where my good friend Michael Brennan, United Way Detroit CEO, has worked with others to create change in secondary schools where only 60% of young people graduate. This problem is not unusual across America but is startling when you consider the long term prospects for young people if they don’t finish school.

It was also a concern to the local car manufacturing industry who, post–GFC, needed to be better positioned in terms of technology integration and a better skilled workforce. These factors were the foundation for a collective effort that resulted in a 25% reduction of chronic absenteeism in schools in Detroit. As a result of this success, General Motors Foundation have committed $27.1m to take these promising strategies to 30 other schools with the goal of 80% graduation. This could only happen when local institutions stopped just taking responsibility for their own service and interest and instead made a community-wide impact through collaboration with others.

2. Kramer also spoke about the value of engaging business who he believes for too long have focused on writing cheques for not-for-profits and not being core partners in solving community problems.

His words reflect his Shared Value paper which highlights the opportunity for businesses to find ways to address their own needs in solving community issues. Shared Value compels businesses to think more broadly about their potential to create value for customers and communities and in so doing enhance profitability. He argues that when ‘Shared Value’ is created, the result is growth in the variety and volume of resources available (and not all of it money) for research and development, which is the fuel of innovation.

To make his point Kramer spoke about the Cisco Learning Academies, which were developed to create a skilled future IT workforce. This program has yielded Cisco access to 4 million alumni across the world that are ready to become employees in an industry that only a few years ago was not even invented.

I recall being part of a team of people who rolled out an Academy in Western Sydney. This continues to be an important program providing industry entry points for young people and skilled employees for business. We made this happen, in Kramer’s words, by making use of a ‘local cluster’ of organisations working across sectors to address a social need.

A while ago I wrote about the great outcomes achieved by the 90 Homes for 90 Lives Coalition, who have collaborated to address homelessness in Woolloomooloo in Sydney. This coalition identified a best practice model, developed a business case and leveraged  a $2.9m grant for Bridge Housing. As a result 22 people have been housed. Critical to this work was the collaboration and the setting of a clear community-level goal.

 Raising our collective gaze beyond our services to clients, to the broader needs of the community, is everyone’s responsibility.

Kramer spoke about the critical role of ‘Backbone’ organisations, such as United Way, in improving community level conditions. It’s challenging work but increasingly necessary given the predominance of Wickedly Complex issues in our local communities. In many ways it’s the harder road and it’s easy to fall back to our own institutional agendas.

However it’s important to remember that ‘if it’s important to you, you’ll find a way; if it’s not you will find an excuse’.  It’s time to stop letting ourselves off the hook with excuses.

Doug Taylor

CEO, United Way Australia

Reference articles:

• Kramer M. & Kania, Collective Impact, Stanford Social Innovation Review
• Porter M. & Kramer M, Creating Shared Value, Harvard Business Review

The United Way Community Leaders Conference was held in May 2012 in Nashville, Tennessee, in the United States of America. For further information visit the website.

Comments

Searching for Solutions in Melbourne

Submitted by susan, 9 May 2012

Our Community Impact work in Melbourne is focused on improving the lives of young people in the outer south-eastern region of the city.  This is a region where statistics show high levels of concentrated disadvantage and social exclusion that carries over through the generations. In a series of community conversations and a ‘Search for Solutions Seminar’ we heard of the issues facing the community and also heard the interest, passion and innovative ideas by local community members to improve their communities.

We spoke with Afghan women in Narre Warren and parents of pre-school children in Doveton and heard the challenges of racism, isolation, depression, lack of meaningful employment opportunities and a divided community. These were not dissimilar to the issues raised on ABC’s Q&A program held in Dandenong on Monday night 30 April.

At the same time it became apparent that, with the right resources and support, there is enormous potential for migrant women, many of whom have highly under-utilised skills and face a range of barriers to engage in income producing work, to take control over their own futures and move beyond the challenges they face.

We conducted a ‘Search for Solutions’ seminar in Dandenong on a very wet and miserable Tuesday in late April.  A broad group of stakeholders  across the education, business and not-for-profit sectors, all with an interest in the region and young people, starting exploring joined-up collaborative solutions and cross sector support that have the potential to create lasting positive change in the conditions for residents.

In both the Seminar and the community conversations, participants were asked basic questions that focused on:

What makes for a vibrant and healthy community?

1. What are the key barriers to achieving a vibrant and healthy community in the region?
2. What solutions would the participants propose that would assist United Way in maximising its community impact in the region?

Solutions proposed by the community representatives included cultural awareness campaigns, multicultural events and service delivery that integrated communities rather than activities that disintegrated the community along ethnic lines or generational lines.  We heard about ideas for education for parents and specific services for newly arrived migrants and refugees.

A key solution identified using local schools as community hubs – as a space for a range of initiatives to assist young people in the areas of education, income security and mental health. Using the school outside of the traditional school hours for a range of community events and projects could utilise the school’s resources 7 days a week and make a real difference to the lives of many community members.

United Way is now exploring how a coalition of individuals and organisations could develop the concept and create what may well be a unique response to the region’s evidence-based need.

Penny van der Sluys,

General Manager,  Melbourne

Comments

1. Heather Barton says:

   May 11, 2012 at 15:13

   Well done to Penny, Andrew and the team. Great to see such a thorough community engagement strategy being undertaken to create a genuine ‘whole of community response’. Beacon Foundation is pleased to be working with United Way in this region!

Collaboration for Social Innovation at the Weave Arts Centre

Submitted by Geoff, 20 Apr 2012

On Wednesday 18 April we held our forum on ‘Collaboration for Social Innovation’ at the Weave Arts Centre as part of the Australian Social Innovation Exchange (ASIX) Social Changemaker’s Festival. It was a great event and the all the more memorable in torrential rain in a facility with a tin roof!

We had fantastic input from speakers including Steve Lawrence (CEO of the ASIX), Martin Stewart-Weeks (Cisco) and our panel from the 90 Homes for 90 Lives Coalition. Of equal value was the input from the highly engaged group in attendance at the forum, who shared their own insights and experience.

I walked away thinking about three things that I thought I would share with you:

1. Social Innovation is not an optional extra- Steve outlined a raft of ‘wickedly complex’ problems in our communities that will not be addressed if we continue with interventions that are clearly not making inroads. I’m reminded of the definition of insanity- ‘Doing the same thing and expecting a different result’.

2. We need to make space to innovate- Given the innovation imperative we need to make space in our organisations to innovate. It won’t happen by accident and it won’t happen without the investment of resources. This may well mean that we need to stop doing things! An interesting reference was made to the UK experience in which many agencies with reduced Government Funding are being forced to innovate. Let’s hope that we can be more proactive.

3. Only Together- As Martin said ‘collaborating is an unnatural act’ and requires us to be intentional in our approach. Further to this, Business and Social Sector organisations have different takes on Innovation; Social Innovation is best achieved through the ‘collision of the unfamiliar’. This was reinforced by panellists who talked about the value of cross-sector perspectives and skill sets when applied to helping Rough Sleepers find long-term housing.

I’d be interested to hear what you think and talk with you more about how we can learn these new skills together. Stay tuned for more updates on the work of the 90 Homes for 90 Lives Coalition as we support our partners to house Rough Sleepers, ensure there are adequate support services, and work with stakeholders to develop new housing solutions.

Thanks,

Doug

PS- If you would like more information on the remaining events as part of the Festival, check out the information below:

Saturday 21st April

6pm-10pm: Beyond Empathy will be projecting the public’s video responses on the role of alcohol in their lives in Wynyard Park.

Sunday 22nd April

10am-3pm The Social Innovation Fair will conclude the First Social Changemakers’ Festival. This is a great opportunity to meet fellow changemakers and chat with organisations and individuals innovating for a better world. It’s also your last chance to see the Social Changemakers’ Art Exhibition and the projections from Beyond Empathy’s mobile video booths.

There are also still a few spaces for organisations to celebrate and share their work with the general public. If you would like to be involved, contact Jo@pendulumc.com.au

Comments

It’s all about doing your best

Submitted by Geoff, 5 Apr 2012

Tama chooses the Yellow Bike!

Do Your Best Awards

“It is not about being the best, it’s about doing your best.”

These are the words that Reg Corney, Acting Principal, at Claymore Public School, told the infants and primary students at their Term 1 Celebration Assembly, as he wheeled out five bikes to award to those students teachers had agreed had done their best.

Connie, Caleb, Noah, George and Tama where the students who had done their best. Tama high fived as he walked onto the stage to receive his bike. Noah’s mother was so excited that she would be able to teach her son how to ride a bike. Caleb’s father had tears in his eyes to see his son receive a bike. George and Connie were just lost for words.

As we arrived at the school for the assembly, Reg was out the front, holding one of the babies and while I joked he that he was recruiting new students, what he was doing was supporting the parents who were running a coffee club for other parents. Reg has been trying to build parent involvement in the school and now has enough interest to run a Parents & Citizens meeting to share more with them about what is going on at the school.

I remember at my daughter’s public school, the state Education Minister at time, saying, she can tell a good school by the amount of parent involvement. Schools are an important part of local communities, providing a hub and focus for families. In many communities parents get involved in their children’s schools, as they know that’s how they can support their children. In communities such as Claymore, it takes much more support to engage the families.

Claymore is a community in transition. The NSW Department of Housing build Claymore in the 1970’s to provide homes for public housing tenants. Policies have shifted and now the Department is redeveloping the whole suburb over the next 10 years. Stage 1 has already started. The public housing is being demolished and the suburb is being rebuilt to provide 30% public housing and 70% private housing. Residents, some who have lived there for 30-40 years are being moved to other suburbs. This is enormously unsettling for residents yet the school provides the one constant for all the community.

Last year Claymore students had a higher average growth in their NAPLAN results (literacy and numeracy skills testing) from Year 3 to 5, than the state. This is a huge achievement for a school in a low socio-economic community and underlies the message the school is reinforcing with their students, as we saw at the Celebration Assembly.

“it’s all about improvements – improvements in attendance, literacy, numeracy, attitude…”

As reg said, “it’s all about improvements – improvements in attendance, literacy, numeracy, attitude…” The student leaders ran the Celebration Assembly and gave out awards for;

• Achievements in class
• Deadly Awards for aboriginal students to celebrate trying their best, being amazing and outstanding
• Citizenship Awards for being good friends and helping out in the playground
• Principal’s Awards which earned special badges, and
• Improvement Awards where students received the bikes

The students accepted their awards with pride and excitement. Their fellow students applauded their achievements and showed us …. as they recited their school pledge .”… love of ourselves, love of our neighbours and love of our school”. This was followed by their school song which they sung with real gusto “….. at Claymore school we belong.” Only later did they sing the national anthem and we struggled to remember the second chorus.

The word is now out at Claymore Public that there will be more bikes for those who do their best.

Thank you Amgen for partnering with United Way to build these bikes, to help us develop relationships in the Claymore community as part of our long term Community Impact approach to enable more children to start school ready to make the most of the opportunity and to support them to transition successfully from school to work.

Thank you Jesse Garcia from Good Beginnings who introduced United Way to Claymore Public School and so willingly shares his work running Play & Learn groups for pre-schoolers and their parents, to prepare the children for school.

Gabrielle Kay
Corporate Partnerships Manager
United Way Australia

Comments

1. Leanne Eames says:

   April 26, 2012 at 16:27

   Is the “I Can Play” Fund still available?

   Thank you,
   Leanne
2. susan says:

   April 26, 2012 at 17:13

   Hi Leanne

   Sorry we’re not sure what this fund is. Can you give more details?

   Cheers

   UWA

Reflecting on 3 years since the Victorian Bushfires – Jo Ensor

Submitted by Geoff, 13 Mar 2012

Three years ago Victoria experienced one of the worst natural disasters in its history – Black Saturday. This disaster impacted significantly on individuals, family and community members in many and varying ways. At the time of this third anniversary of the disaster, people are in very different places when reflecting on the events that took place three years ago. The impact of trauma and grief relative to the loss of people, community, homes, businesses, pets and their ‘old lives’ can be measured in some instances but not others, there is much that remains untold.

The Salvation Army commenced working in the area with the purpose of assisting with material aid and wellbeing of fire affected people. The need for ongoing support was recognised and the work has grown by partnering with other NGOs such as United Way. This has allowed teams of Youth Workers, Ministers and Social Workers to be present in the community to provide therapeutic interventions, assist the community with capacity building, recreational activities and group work with children, youth, adults and elderly members of the community.

We have observed some amazing things over the last three years.

The unrelenting determination and resilience of Australian’s in the event of a disaster. The extraordinary generosity of human beings locally, statewide, throughout Australia, and from those all over the world, donating money, time, resources and skills to the community members that have been affected by Black Saturday .

We have seen people move into new homes and establishing their ‘new normal lifestyle’ and are looking to the future, some have simply relocated from the disaster area to new environments, there are those who have yet to start rebuilding and have not decided if they will, and there are families that have rebuilt but have not settled into their ‘new normal lifestyle’ and are looking to relocate.

I am unable to speak for the community about how they are feeling around the time of the third anniversary but Cheryl, a Community Member from Steels Creek, has managed to put into words how things have been in her life since Black Saturday.

In my life I have tried to ‘Slide down the banisters of life and not strike any splinters.’ Well!!! Since hitting the giant burnt black splinters, they seem to be getting more plentiful as the years go by. Not so big, thank God, but very hard to remove.

Cheryl’s quote is a reminder that three years on, the journey for those that have experienced a natural disaster is not over. The process of rebuilding and recovering both physically and emotionally is a long and painful process that is far from over for the communities and individuals that were affected by Black Saturday.

Jo Ensor

Community Development Worker
The Salvation Army Bushfire Recovery

Comments

Bill Gates and Tony Blair – what do you have in common with them?

Submitted by Geoff, 19 Feb 2012

On February 22, United Way Australia, in conjunction with United Way Worldwide, will participate in a revolutionary eight-day global giving campaign spanning more than 60 countries around the world. “Everyone Gives” expects to be the most extensive and inclusive global giving event ever attempted, benefiting more than 200 non-profits around the globe.

What do you have in common with these two?

You too can be an advocate of the Everyone Gives campaign!

Bill and Tony are both talking about Everyone Gives on Twitter, Linked In, in the media and on Facebook.

How are you spreading the word to your contacts?

Who will you invite to your ‘giving tree’?

The underlying premise is the power of leverage. We’d love you to sign up and pledge as little as $5 to start a giving tree. Then think about who you will invite to take part in Everyone Gives through your ‘giving tree’

Before this week is out, we’ll send more ideas for how you can prep your contacts that an invitation is on its way, and get them excited about starting their own giving trees.

How does it work?

The website (www.everyonegives.org) will have a new look on the 22nd February.

All website visitors will be able to sign up to start their own “giving tree”.

1) You will be asked to choose a cause e.g. education and then;

2) Select a charity – United Way Worldwide – that relates to that cause.

3) Next, you’ll be asked how much you wish to pledge and;

4) Who you wish to invite to do the same.

5) Your next click of the mouse will then take you directly to your chosen charity’s website where you will make your donation.

6) Start to see your ‘giving tree’ grow and your initial donation multiply as your personal and professional networks participate.

Comments

Reflecting on the Queensland Floods, One Year on.

Submitted by Geoff, 9 Jan 2012

One of the pieces of Children's Art to feature in the upcoming exhibition

Normally I would say that it only seems like yesterday that it was January 2011, however this time around January 2011 seems like a long time ago. If I were sitting where I am now, this time last year, then I would literally be over my head in brown water and so would thousands of other people around Queensland.

Over the holidays I have engaged in many conversations about the floods of 2011 and almost everyone feels that the waters stole their annual rest. So I think Queensland has been looking forward to this new year with a strange mix of emotions:

Hope, anxiety, reflection and, we all hope, relief.

From United Way Queensland’s perspective whilst we were badly flooded we were also very lucky that we had the support of many corporate and community partners which made a fluent recovery possible. However many communities are still feeling the effects of the disaster today. Many people are yet to return to their homes and perhaps never will.

Nevertheless, its also worth reflecting upon the goodwill that the disaster unearthed and created. I don’t think anyone who witnessed the armies of volunteers trudging the streets, wading the waters, offering help to strangers will ever forget the pride that I think we all shared:

good things emerged from the recovery.

One good thing is that the flood drew United Way into the community of Goodna. A sequence of referrals got us talking to some local Goodna charities and this ultimately lead us to the Goodna State School. What we found there was the Step into Prep Playgroup that was focused on getting the local children ready for their first day at school. This is exactly what United Way is also focused on and so a closer relationship grew over the year. United Way and the Goodna State School even put together an art exhibition that is currently being displayed by some of our corporate partners like Fuji Xerox Australia and the Commonwealth Bank. The art was done by the children of Goodna after they returned to school in 2011 and it reflects their memories of the floods in their community.

This year United Way will work on building more relationships in the Goodna community and contribute to the playgroup’s goal of getting children ready for their first day at school. So yes, over the past year there has been some good things to emerge from the flood waters and they will also be a part of our reflections over the next few days.

Comments

The Faces and Voices of United Way 2011

Submitted by saeed, 18 Dec 2011

Comments