Pro Bono Middle Ground
What is the ideal volunteer opportunity for those that don't have the skills to do most traditional pro bono work (marketing, IT, HR, legal, etc.) but work at companies and don't want to do hands on volunteering? These are the majority of employees at companies (90%+). These are the front line of most businesses (store clerks, bank tellers, etc.).This has been a hot topic of discussion with many of our in-house corporate partners. They love the idea of pro bono, but they are measured based on the percentage of employees engaged and pro bono as it is defined now engages only a thin sliver of their population.
I would love to be able to find a way to leverage this bulk of corporate America but don't see an obvious solution. It may evolve over time as the traditional pro bono work occurs and HQ employees innovate when they see opportunities. This is the most likely scenario.
Does anyone have an insight into how to think about this opportunity? What could a nonprofit do to leverage the skills of front line corporate employees? What are their transferable skills?
As you mentioned, most traditional pro bono work demands specialized skills (marketing, IT, HR, legal, etc.), or involves hands-on volunteering. For the remaining employees, their skills are often not directly transferable to the day to day operations of a non-profit.
Some advantages of large corporations is the ability to set up corporate programs (bureaucracy in the neutral sense), and sheer number of employees. So one idea is to create a non-profit “adapter” (in the sense of fitting a square peg into a round hole) – a corporate program or partnership with non-profits where more employees can deploy their skills and provide value to the non-profit.
Examples –
Bank – sets up a program which provides discounted or free bank services to nonprofits. Corporate HR, Legal, IT (online portal, etc.), Marketing staff does pro bono work to set it up. Front-line staff will be the ones supplying the services – to them, nonprofits participating in the program are just another class of customer.
A more direct volunteering opportunity may be for bank staff to supply financial services for fund-raising efforts – counting and bundling cash, receiving and directing donations and funds appropriately.
Phone company – supplies the personnel and equipment to help run a fund raising telethon. i.e. the toll-free numbers, equipment, maybe even customer service reps.
Retail Chain – Gap’s (red) campaign is perhaps a relevant example. Corporate sets up the program, all the store clerks know about it and are the ones actually facing the customers.
Yes – the impact of these efforts to the non-profit by the front-line employees may be diffuse and indirect, or relatively small per person – but they do involve a much larger proportion of the employee population, and it does add up. By the way, what more could you expect anyway from employees who don’t have the specialized skills or desire to participate or volunteer more directly? Increasing involvement and education in the company’s pro bono work is the key goal – people who are participating in these nominal pro bono efforts may well be more amenable to doing more in the future.