Virtual volunteering: a guide for involving employees of corporations / businesses


Virtual volunteering - volunteers providing service via a computer, smart phone, tablet or other networked advice - presents a great opportunity for companies / businesses to expand their employee philanthropic offerings and corporate social responsibility endeavors.

Here is a long list of what virtual volunteering looks like (this is the most comprehensive list of virtual volunteering roles and activities anywhere).

If your company wants to allow or to encourage its employees to volunteer online from your workplace, "on the clock," or to volunteer online from home on their own time, this detailed guide will help. It's based on more than 25 years of experience and provides a realistic approach, one based on actual practice.

For decades, there have been companies allowing employees to volunteer online from the work place, either on breaks (off-the-clock) or as part of an official time-off-to-volunteer policies - in other words, virtual volunteering isn't at all new to the corporate world. One of the first to do so was Hewlett-Packard, which established an online mentoring program back in the 1990s, one of the first ever: it brought together employees of HP together with high school students (this program has now been split apart: the student mentoring component is now its own, independet nonprofit; the HP employee mentor component is now focused on aspiring entrepreneurs around the world).

Other companies that have also talked openly about their employee virtual volunteering activities are Newell-Rubbermaid, Deloitte Australia, and Cisco. I started a thread on this online community to track businesses / corporations that were pivoting to virtual volunteering because of the pandemic and, honestly, it's impossible to keep up with them all, because there are so, so many.

Through virtual volunteering, some employees will choose to help organizations online that they are already helping onsite. Other employees who are unable to volunteer onsite at a nonprofit or school, for whatever reason, will choose to volunteer online because of the convenience. Some employees will choose to help as online volunteers just because they prefer it.


Getting Up to Speed Fast About Virtual Volunteering


I have a series of free, short videos on my YouTube channel that, altogether, in less than one hour, create a basic training regarding virtual volunteering – in using the Internet to involve and support volunteers. The videos are focused on staff – employees or volunteers – who are responsible for recruiting and supporting volunteers at nonprofits, NGOs, charities, government programs and other mission-based initiatives, but corporate representatives will find it helpful as well. Here is the order I recommend you watch these videos in if you want a full, basic orientation in virtual volunteering:




Policies


Before promoting virtual volunteering to your company's employees, whether your intent is to eventually partner with a nonprofit on a specific project, like online mentoring, or if you are going to encourage employees to engage in virtual volunteering on their own, you will need to create policies and address questions regarding:


I would love to help your company develop its own policies for employees engaging in virtual volunteering during company hours or using company resources.


Getting Up to Speed Fast About Virtual Volunteering


You will also need to think about how your company will track track time and accomplishments by employees engaged in virtual volunteering. Many of the following suggestions are based on this simple idea: the more employees see employee volunteering being recognized and celebrated, the more likely they are to report their hours to whatever person or department is in charge of the employee volunteering program.



Expanding Understanding Re: Virtual Volunteering


Once you have these strategies in place or underway at your company:

Don't be surprised to find lots of employees are already engaged in virtual volunteering. Very often, people engage in online service - helping to edit their child's school newsletter, translating an article for a nonprofit, tagging photos with appropriate keywords for an organization - but never think of it as virtual volunteering. They also may think of such online service using a different term, such as micro volunteering, crowd sourcing or digital volunteering. If such employees haven't been volunteering exactly per your new virtual volunteering policies, don't panic and don't punish; instead, celebrate, collaborate and educate - you want that community service to continue!.


Starting Your Own Virtual Volunteering Program


Some companies want to partner with a school or nonprofit regarding virtual volunteering and steer their employees into that program specifically. The most popular type of this kind of partnership is an online mentoring program.

It is vital that, if you want to engage in a partnership with a school or nonprofit regarding virtual volunteering, you FIRST talk to the school or nonprofit about what they NEED, not what you want to do. Set up a meeting and ask questions like:


Listen, listen, listen. You are not there to say, "Here's what we want to do!" You are there to listen to what their needs and challenges are, to let the nonprofit or school lead, NOT you! As I say on Employee Volunteering Initiatives: Different Approaches & Keys to Success:

Believe it or not, the vast majority of nonprofit organizations are not saying, "Gosh, we have all this work laying around that just anyone could do if they would simply walk through the door..." Nonprofits, charities, schools and other organizations, more often-than not, need volunteers with specific skills, experience and availability... Volunteers are not free: the staff at a volunteer hosting organization need to create volunteering opportunities, to supervise and support volunteers, to trouble-shoot and to evaluate and report on the experience. If you ask an agency to create volunteering opportunities specifically for your employees, you are asking them to spend money and resources they may not be able to afford - so be ready to make an appropriate financial - CASH - donation to a nonprofit or school if you want a customized volunteering gig for your employees at that nonprofit or school.

If you see a way that an online mentoring program or other high impact virtual volunteering activities could benefit the program, by all means, recommend it. Or, a group of your employees may, instead, want to work on something more short term, like a Wikipedia edit-a-thon or a web site fix-a-thon.
Because of the global pandemic, Junior Achievement chapters all over the USA (and the WORLD) have converted much of their student coaching to online experiences.
And remember that you can also let employees pick and choose virtual volunteering activities on their own, based on what each individual wants to do. Here is the most in-depth resource available on where and how to find virtual volunteering activities.

Please remember that virtual volunteering should be more than Virtual volunteering is more than “making cards for the sick/elderly”.


Cautions


Do NOT over-segregate online volunteers from onsite volunteers in overall data; remember, they are ALL volunteers, no matter where or how they donate their service. It's fine to put a special highlight on virtual volunteering, but don't produce two entirely different reports on employee philanthropy that in any way implies that virtual volunteering is somehow not really "hands on" or not as real as onsite volunteering.

Also, note that not all employees engaged in volunteering want the company involved in any way. They may not want their volunteering, done entirely outside of company work hours, as employee volunteering, as something your company can take credit for. If you find out an employee is volunteering, online or onsite, but the service is never during work hours and doesn't use any company resources, you need permission from the employee to count that as part of the company's corporate philanthropy, and you need to be respectful if the employee declines to make such volunteering a part of the company's official program. Of course, if employees are taking time off, paid or unpaid, to volunteer, then your company including such in the official corporate philanthropy program shouldn't at all be a problem.

Also see: What too many are getting wrong about virtual volunteering these days. This is an analysis of red flags in newly-launched online volunteer engagement, presenting challenges that can be easliy avoided.

Need more detailed assistance?


 The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook, written by myself (Jayne Cravens) and volunteerism expert Susan Ellis and the result of MANY years of research and experience, can help your company / business in better understanding virtual volunteering and in fully-developing your company's employee virtual volunteering program.

The book provides complete details on what virtual volunteering is, all of the many, many different forms in which it is practiced, various ways to support and grow virtual volunteering, and how to address various challenges that might arise.

The book can also help your company work with nonprofits and schools to help them develop virtual volunteering opportunities for your employees - something many organizations need assistance with. Many traditional volunteer centers are still struggling with the concept of virtual volunteering; corporate support in the form of training and funding could help greatly in getting volunteer centers to embrace virtual volunteering, a practice that's more than 30 years old and is undertaken by many thousands of people and organizations. Your support of any organization regarding virtual volunteering starts with your company fully understanding the realities of the practice, and this book can help greatly in that regard.
Once you've read this web page and read The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook, you might still need help to launch or expand your company's employee volunteering program. I can help! Contact me regarding your needs. Consulting is available entirely online or with me traveling onsite to your company.

Return to my index of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) resources & advice for ethics, strategies & operations.

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