High Impact Corporate Volunteering

The National Conference on Volunteering on the Gold Coast in September is offering a specialty stream on the application of global performance indictors for high impact corporate volunteering programs.

For many Australian companies today corporate volunteering is a core component of their community investment strategy and a vital element of their broader corporate social responsibility agenda.

Volunteering Australia CEO Cary Pedicini says whilst many examples of high impact collaborations between the corporate and community sectors exist, there remains a great challenge to find meaningful opportunities that satisfy the aspirations of those on both the supply and demand side of these relationships.

Equally he says there is an increasing need for robust mechanisms to assess performance and measure the impact of programs that are currently operating.

These and many other issues around volunteer based collaborations between corporate, community and government sectors will be the subject of a series of special presentations and workshops at the 12th National Conference on Volunteering in the Gold Coast on 3rd to 5th September 2008.

And a highlight of this year’s conference will be a practical workshop session on the application of global performance indictors for high impact corporate volunteering programs.

Presented by Monica Galiano (Iniciativa Brazil) and Maria Alice Santos, (Senior Project Analyst of VALE Foundation and Coordinator of the Voluntarios VALE Program) this workshop will explore the use of a global performance assessment tool to plan and evaluate corporate volunteering programs.

The tool, ‘Performance Indicators for High Impact Corporate Volunteer Programs’, is an online system which enables companies to diagnose the level of development of their volunteer programmes, identify strengths and weak points and develop plans for future development.

The tool was designed by the Civil Society Consulting Group in collaboration with Iniciativa Brazil and is built upon knowledge acquired by their principals Dr Kenn Allen and Monica Galiano who have both worked with numerous companies around the world.

As founding executive director of the national volunteer program created by former Brazilian First Lady Dr. Ruth Cardoso, Monica Galiano led the first research on corporate volunteering and ignited national interest in Brazil. As executive director of Voluntarios das Gerais, award-winning statewide program, she pioneered new training and promotional techniques, including creation of National "V-Day".

A further highlight will be the presentation from key note speaker Bruno Ayres whose ground breaking use of social networking technology has revolutionized corporate volunteering in South and North America.

To complement these international perspectives Volunteering Australia has assembled a panel of leading corporate volunteering practitioners to participate in an interactive session that will allow conference delegates to explore current leading practice in Australia.

With presenters from NAB, Alcoa, Mission Australia, Good Company and Volunteering Queensland, this panel session will examine the critical issues that determine success in corporate volunteering and give delegates the opportunity to share their experiences.

The 12 National Conference on Volunteering will take place 3 – 5 September at the Radisson Resort on the Gold Coast.

The key Corporate Volunteering presentations have been combined into a one day program on Thursday – 4th September.

A special corporate volunteer day rate is available for that stream at $395 and can be accessed by visiting the conference page on the Volunteering Australia website at www.volunteeringaustralia.org/conference.