Riding the Big Wave of Corporate Volunteering

Corporate volunteering acts as an entry point for ongoing relationships between corporates and Not for Profits according to experts speaking at the recent Volunteering Australia national conference.

Alan Bates, the Manager of Volunteer Services at Wesley Mission Sydney and Joanne Kim, Wesley Mission’s corporate volunteering coordinator presented a paper to the conference called Riding the Big Wave of Corporate Volunteering.

Their paper is based on 19 years experience dealing with corporate volunteering.

The authors say that there is a trend emerging that unless Not for Profit organisations actively coordinate a corporate volunteering program, then For Profits will not engage with them.

They say that they are currently experiencing pointed and precise demands by potential corporate partners that unless there exists appropriate volunteer opportunities they will not consider other connections.

They say that in today’s climate, corporate donations in addition to staff engagement are often the key element for successful partnerships.

The corporate volunteering paper can be downloaded from the Volunteering Australia website at http://www.volunteeringaustralia.org/html/s02_article/article_view.asp?art_id=3538&nav_cat_id=210&nav_top_id=55