United States

The nonprofit sector has long been the domain of organizations and individuals interested in philanthropic activities and charitable work.  However, this is changing, as Corporate America discovers that nonprofits and employee-volunteering programs can be legitimate and useful business tools to promote their brand value.

The latest trend for companies is to create corporate nonprofit foundations and employee-volunteer programs to demonstrate corporate social responsibility (CSR).  Although having noble missions, the real intention of these corporate nonprofit foundations and inspired employee-volunteer efforts is to enhance brand value, increase overall company profitability, grow customer loyalty, and reflect company values in tangible ways. 

Two for-profit corporations, Bank of America and Toyota, are both enhancing their brand name through their respective nonprofit foundations and employee-volunteer programs, each of which helps Bank of America and Toyota to build stronger relations with their communities and stakeholders.

In this article, Kevin Kalra, himself a 2004 Toyota “Community Scholar,” explores what “brand value” is and how CSR furthers it.

There’s a phrase circulating that crops up periodically in speeches or books:  “volunteers are not a program.”  This concept can be traced back to an early article by Patty Bouse, Resource Development Specialist in the Nebraska Division of Social Services, in the Winter 1978 issue of what was then called Volunteer Administration.  We reprint the article here, noting how little has changed in three decades in the challenge of gaining legitimate agency acceptance for volunteer contributions.

Nonprofit organizations are required to identify funding streams and raise a significant amount of financial resources to provide services to clientele, operate facilities, and to pay staff.  At the same time, organizations conduct capital campaigns to raise a large amount of money for endowments or to build or renovate a facility.  This article describes a capital campaign that the Ohio 4-H Youth Development organization undertook, a first in the history of the program.  The authors describe the challenges, opportunities, and lessons learned by this quasi-nonprofit organization that is a part of an institution of higher education and has funding partners at the county, state, and federal level.

The article is written from the perspective of paid staff members regarding their experience working with volunteers in a different capacity than what the organization and many of its paid staff have traditionally experienced. The original goal of raising $12 million was met and 97% of the revised goal of $14.2 million has been reached. 

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, sponsored by US Senator Paul Sarbanes and US Representative Michael Oxley, represents a major change to federal securities laws. It came as a response to the large corporate financial scandals involving Enron, WorldCom, Global Crossing and Arthur Andersen. Effective in 2006, all publicly-traded companies are required to submit an annual report of the effectiveness of their internal accounting controls to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Provisions of the Sarbanes Oxley Act (commonly-referred to as “SOX” and sometimes as “SarbOX”) detail criminal and civil penalties for noncompliance, certification of internal auditing, and increased financial disclosure. SOX is all about corporate governance and financial disclosure.

It is generally accepted that while SOX currently has specific regulations only for publicly-held companies in the United States, all American businesses, for profit and nonprofit, will in some manner eventually be affected by its provisions.  The purpose of this paper is to summarize the Act and suggest ways in which it impacts or will impact the nonprofit community relative to employees, volunteers, board selection, and best practices. 

For purposes of this article, “volunteer” will be synonymous with “employee.”  Non-American readers will find the last section of the article, “Broader Interpretations for Nonprofits,” useful for any country.

In the post-Enron (or Tyco, WorldCom, IGA, etc) accounting-scandal era, corporate citizenship has taken on new meaning and relevance.  Boards of directors are suddenly on the hook as much for their company’s ethical performance as their financial results (as well they should be). Shareowners and regulators are newly vigilant.  And companies large and small are looking to polish the good-guy gloss on their activities in the marketplace.

Among the weapons at hand for many corporations is an expanding emphasis on workplace volunteering – the direct support of their employees’ community activity.  The workplace volunteer movement isn’t new.  Some large companies have been in the game for twenty years or more.  But with companies wanting to do more in the community, many nonprofits – the vehicle through which companies reach out to those in need – may be wary, concerned that the taint of profit-making motives could rub off on their mission-focused endeavors.

It needn’t be so. Nonprofits and companies can work (indeed, are working) productively together to the betterment of our communities.  All it takes is some understanding, and maybe even some TLC.  It also takes context.  What is motivating companies to enter the community arena? How might corporate citizenship imperatives help nonprofits gain from the resources available in the business sector?

David Warshaw, who toiled close to 30 years in the public relations/corporate citizenship arena for a huge company, has some decided opinions to share.

A year ago the RGK Center at the University of Texas at Austin (UT) started the Investigator series and has generously shared pre-publication drafts with the readers of e-Volunteerism to get additional input.  The goal of the series is to act as a resource and a promoter of in-depth research on volunteerism. 

This fourth issue of the Investigator describes various approaches to volunteer valuation.  Such approaches may not be groundbreaking information for the seasoned administrator, but having a compilation and an assessment of several valuation methods in one place should be beneficial to anyone who works with volunteers. The current issue of the Investigator aspires to be a central source of such information

Synergist was a magazine published three times a year during the 1980s by the National Center for Service-Learning (NCSL), one of the lesser-known programs of the former American federal government agency, ACTION. NCSL provided resources and technical assistance to schools and agencies seeking best practices for service-learning projects for students. Synergist offered its articles at no charge and without copyright. The article reprinted here is the “Guest Speaker” feature from the Spring 1980 edition. It’s by a young Marian Wright Edelman, already director of the Children’s Defense Fund.

 

In her passionate essay, Edelman examines how students can combat small injustices to break the larger patterns of neglect bringing woe to millions of children. Still pertinent 25 years later, her words give a blueprint for taking constructive action as one person against the system.

Building collaborative relationships with highly-skilled volunteers can gain huge dividends for your organization and for the volunteers who participate. Based on her research for the upcoming book, The Art and Science of Engaging Baby Boomer Volunteers, Jill Friedman Fixler shares how creating work assignments that engage highly-skilled volunteers effectively provides a win/win situation for you and the volunteer.

Using five case studies of real organization experiences, this article explores what “highly-skilled” means and why such volunteers are increasing, what makes working with highly-skilled volunteers special or different from working with other types of volunteers, and where to find highly-skilled volunteers.

 

Direct action organizing is a powerful instrument for change while engaging your organization’s supporters and volunteers. It is how ordinary citizens become involved in the democratic process and have an impact. Its tools are many, ranging from voter registration drives to lobbying local school boards, from letter writing to media campaigns. Grassroots organizing places power in the hands of people, enabling them to shape their community, its policies, priorities, and services.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) has decades of experience in successfully training staff and volunteers for activist efforts. In this Training Design, PPFA Senior Manager for Training, Jordan Fitzgerald, highlights techniques from their innovative “Live Action Camps.” Included is a PDF of PPFA’s Direct Action Organizing and PowerTrainer’s Guide.