The Impact of Skills-Based Volunteering

Guest Blog by Kimberly Dulin, Catchafire

Leaders are beginning to connect the dots between nonprofits, skilled professionals, and corporate social responsibility like never before, and skills-based volunteering is the common thread.

In today’s world, people are hungry to infuse their life with purpose, and holding a 9-5 is simply not enough. Skills-based volunteering is the intersection of that passion and purpose; it allows professionals to find a cause that excites them and make an impact by sharing skills.

Skills-based volunteering is quickly becoming one of the most sought-after ways to give back. In fact, 4 million professionals from LinkedIn have already raised their hands insisting on more opportunities for skills-based volunteering.

Here, we’ll explore how skills-based volunteering (SBV) benefits nonprofits and professionals alike.

What SBV means for Companies and Professionals:

As the engine of financial growth and a beacon of brand identity; thriving employees are integral to a company’s success in a competitive marketplace. Disengaged employees cost a company around $2,000 a year according to a Gallup poll, and with disengagement circling around 18% in the United States alone, it’s a problem that can’t be ignored. What’s the solution? Skills-based volunteering.

America’s Charities’ articulates how “skills giving” is reshaping the relationship between companies and nonprofits, as “[T]he corporate world is transforming from traditional workplace giving and days of service to full employee integration. We’re seeing that employees are giving their skills as a way to apply their talent as well as develop professionally and provide a more strategic level of volunteering to nonprofits.”

In addition to offering professional development and an opportunity for impact, skills-based volunteering also fosters cross-departmental collaboration and has been proven to boost a company’s performance: a company could outperform competitors by as much as 202% when employees are effectively engaged. According to Josh Bersin at Deloitte, the following statistics illustrate the impact of SBV for the professional:

●      78% of people who volunteer feel less stressed

●      76% report feeling healthier

●      87% develop team/people skills

●      81% develop stronger relations with their colleagues

Check out this example: In 2013, Netsuite.org answered the employee demand for purpose with SuiteVolunteers, an award-winning skills-based volunteering program through which employees have logged nearly 2,000 hours. Since the inception of SuiteVolunteers, 310 individuals have already volunteered their skills with 80 organizations on 125 projects. As a result, 85% of employees said the program makes them feel extremely proud to work at NetSuite and 78% claimed to have developed new skills.

What SBV Means for Nonprofits:

Thanks to skills-based volunteers, organizations are able to work from the ground-up, and in our recent blog about the fundamentals of skills-based volunteering in the nonprofit sector, we explore the top 10 ways in which nonprofits benefit from skills-based volunteering, ranging from filling in the gaps in your organization’s expertise to establishing a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship with a volunteer.

Case in point: When executive director Tricia Slavik first approached Catchafire in April 2014, all she had was “a great idea and a cool name.” As the founder of @Wit’s End, an online community providing targeted resources for those whose loved ones have mental illness, Tricia was looking for a way to take her impact to the next level. Ten months later, Tricia has completed 10 projects with skills-based volunteers from all corners of the world. From internal projects like a Market Analysis and a Website Audit, to user-facing projects such as a Social Media Plan and an Infographic, @Wit’s End is both building capacity and expanding their impact in a way that matches the organization’s vision.

With the right balance of strategy and opportunity, the financial and professional impact that skills-based volunteering makes for a nonprofit is insurmountable. As Lynne Filderman says, “If somebody says to me, ‘I have a team of 10 employee volunteers who can come in next month, can you use them?’ I consider it and don’t think we have a volunteer project for them.’ That’s because I am thinking in a very limited way about how to capitalize on this opportunity. But if someone says to me, ‘Lynne I can give you a marketer, a budget analyst, and a strategic planner how would you use them?’, the opportunity is framed in such a way as to change my mindset and allows me to consider utilizing volunteers and their talent very differently.”

Skills based volunteering is a movement that brings passion, purpose, and possibility to corporations, professionals and nonprofits. It enables different sectors to work collaboratively and share expertise while building capacity and making the world a better place one social good mission at a time. 

Want more impact? See how these social good organizations have benefited from the help of skills-based volunteers through Catchafire. 

Kimberly Dulin creates content at Catchafire, the largest online, skills-based volunteer platform.  Kimberly is always on-the-go spreading her love of nonprofits and the social good sector. She adores her place at Catchafire and is excited to light fires and change the world one [social] mission at a time.