{"id":450,"date":"2022-09-22T09:23:21","date_gmt":"2022-09-22T09:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/golden2.wpenginepowered.com\/what-is-the-new-normal-for-corporate-volunteering\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T13:20:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T13:20:09","slug":"corporate-volunteering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/goldenvolunteer.com\/blog\/corporate-volunteering\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the New Normal for Corporate Volunteering?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

COVID pandemic practices and policies forced the world to create a \u201cnew normal\u201d.  Workplace and workflow habits were reinvented, as were nearly all of our traditional ways of participating in society. The realm of corporate volunteering was no exception. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\"What<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Corporate volunteering more or less followed a very specific formula before the pandemic. A company would conceptualize volunteer events, such as clean-ups at local parks or mentoring opportunities with local after-school programs, identify a partner organization to host it, and invite the corporate employee community to participate together, in person. Many corporations would identify, \u201cvalue pillars,\u201d or a handful of cause-area themes, the executive team felt aligned with the company\u2019s values. Employees may have been compelled to volunteer, with offers of paid time off, matching gifts, or a hope of a positive nod from management. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not everyone was participating, though. Actually, before the COVID pandemic, only around 33% of employees<\/a> participated in employee volunteer programs. Of course, many more would have liked to participate under different circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem had been that these events did not feel personally relevant enough. They had not been conceived from the multitude of perspectives of employees – they\u2019d simply followed a pattern of top down thinking along the lines of, \u201cThis year, our Company stands for mental health,\u201d or a similarly broad, one-size-fits-all directive to which partner nonprofits had been directed to conform if they hoped to receive corporate grants in return for hosting events. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jessica Rodell surveyed people who chose not to volunteer with United Way programs across 50 companies (Harvard Business Review<\/a>). The two top reasons for employees not volunteering were because the projects were seemingly not  flexible or personally meaningful enough to pursue. The opportunities presented were instead perceived as pet initiatives of their directors or company CSR team.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best companies already understood these tendencies before the pandemic, and started diversifying their corporate volunteering strategies accordingly. They started allowing employee teams to guide the volunteering process, to work together to select meaningful opportunities that aligned within a looser framework of corporate values. These unofficial team leaders are sometimes referred to as, \u201cChampions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The COVID pandemic then pushed companies to take program diversification to another level, by improving flexibility within corporate volunteering structures.  In-person events wouldn\u2019t work, so they had to shift gears to enable remote, virtual, and distributed options to advance the same activities that used to require physical gathering. The Great Resignation has now led companies to treat flexibility as a core requirement in order to help recruit and retain employees, whether they work in headquarters, retail locations, or remotely. Top talent may even make a decision on whether or not to work for a company based on the corporate volunteering program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does all of this mean, especially for volunteer managers? How can companies navigate this new normal while effectively designing volunteer programs and managing their volunteers within them to fulfill employee teamwork and personal satisfaction goals, as well as CSR impact goals?     <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The transition to digital in corporate volunteering<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Of course, during a period of near-universal social isolation,  there was a steep decline in physical volunteering. Almost all non-mission-critical, in-person events were canceled everywhere in the world. That new normal was an adjustment for everyone, and varied depending on individual circumstances – especially for isolated, vulnerable, disenfranchised, differently-abled, low income, and minority populations. New technology tools have developed during the past few years to make corporate volunteering easier and also to help companies develop new tools to keep up with the evolving status quo and to do so in an equitable way that benefits all stakeholders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though volunteers switched to working digitally during the pandemic, they did and still do yearn to join in-person activities. Companies, nonprofits, and other CSR organizers should take the opportunity to digitally transform, streamline, and diversify the structures of  their volunteering programs using the many, flexible features within volunteer platforms<\/a> in order to meet their stakeholders where they are. Participation in these programs will massively and sustainably improve as a result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Golden\u2019s<\/a> platform, for example, can help your nonprofit organization or company automate your administrative processes within your corporate volunteering program. This includes mirroring your pre-existing processes, roles, permissions, campaigns, audiences, partners and other considerations, all within point-and-shoot websites and apps that work on any device anywhere in the world. Just a few of the functions of the software platform that help include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n