Your Guide to Corporate Volunteerism

Corporate volunteering has always been one of the best ways companies can give back to their communities–and it’s becoming more and more common. 82% of businesses say their employees want to volunteer with their peers in a corporate-sponsored event. They've adapted: today, nearly 60% of companies offer paid volunteer time to their employees.

There's a lot to consider if your business is looking for corporate volunteering opportunities. Whether you're organizing your first volunteer day or looking to deepen your company's community involvement, we're here to help.

In this guide, we'll dig into what you need to know to become a steward of your community at a corporate level. But first, let's answer a simple question: what is corporate volunteering?

 

What is Corporate Volunteerism?

Corporate volunteerism is a way for corporations and their employees to give back to their communities. It is a systemic commitment to providing volunteer opportunities throughout the company and can take different forms at different companies.

Here are some examples of what corporate volunteerism looks like:

• Organizing specific events for teams from within the office to engage in a joint volunteer activity together

• Giving employees the flexibility to leave the office during the day to pursue volunteer activities

• Matching your employees' volunteer hours with a monetary donation to the organization

While corporate volunteerism is predominantly driven by sending employees out to volunteer sites, there is another form of corporate volunteerism called volunteer time off (VTO).

While corporate volunteerism is predominantly driven by sending employees out to volunteer sites, there is another form of corporate volunteerism called volunteer time off (or VTO, for short).

 

What Is Volunteer Time Off (VTO)?

VTO is a great tool to promote corporate responsibility and maintain work/life balance—two of the most important aspects of job satisfaction today. Essentially, it’s giving employees a bank of time to use solely for volunteering. VTO is often completely separate from sick time, holiday time, paid time off (PTO), and other forms of compensated non-work hours.

Typically, employees can use VTO to volunteer at an organization of their choice, providing them with autonomy and flexibility in choosing how to give back to their community.

 

Benefits of Corporate Volunteering

Corporate volunteerism has an overwhelmingly positive effect on the social impact of a company and the satisfaction of its employees. Here are just a few benefits corporate volunteerism has on companies, employees, and communities:

Corporate Volunteering Boosts Employee Satisfaction, Motivation, and Retention

Offering corporate volunteerism increases employee morale. In fact, a Deloitte survey found 87% of employees consider workplace volunteer opportunities important when deciding whether to stay with their employer. These programs boost employees' sense of purpose, strengthen community connections, and improve overall teamwork. Further studies show that over 80% of millennials and 90% of Gen Z believe companies should act responsibly. This  means that corporate volunteerism is more important than ever and is more likely to attract younger employees.

Happier employees naturally leads to lower turnover rates. When they have a non-work-oriented outlet like volunteering to spend their time, employees feel happier, experience less stress, and gain more skills, which makes them more empowered—and even more productive. In one corporate volunteer’s own words, “Am I able to give this event at 10 out of 10? It was my first time volunteering with Habitat, and I had a blast. The volunteers and site supervisor from Americorps and Habitat were all great and fun to work with. They taught me how to use power tools safely and gave everyone the opportunity to do something that they wanted to and felt comfortable doing. I look forward to going back to this site with another team in 2 weeks!” When employees are given the opportunity to volunteer together outside the typical workday, something powerful happens: teamwork takes on new meaning. Away from desks and conference rooms, colleagues connect on a more personal level—building trust, sharing in hands-on tasks, and discovering one another’s strengths in a new environment.

Volunteer activities like homebuilding invite teams to collaborate in ways that are fresh, physical, and deeply human. This shared experience fosters a sense of camaraderie, purpose, and unity that naturally carries back into the workplace. It deepens relationships, boosts morale, and reminds teams of the collective impact they can have—together.

Corporate Volunteering Reduces Costs

Here’s something most people don’t realize: VTO can actually reduce overhead! Offering volunteer time off provides some great ancillary benefits, such as:

• Reducing HR costs. Again, one of the great benefits of VTO is that it increases employee satisfaction, thereby decreasing the turnover rate.

• Word-of-mouth marketing. Ever thought about how your employees wearing corporate T-shirts while volunteering is a great way to advertise your company? Who knows what other potential employees, business partners, and customers could be at the volunteer site! Besides other volunteers seeing your logo, having your company associated with acts of corporate social responsibility could curry favor among the growing percentage of customers who support socially conscious companies over the competition.

• Increasing productivity. Time spent volunteering together builds camaraderie and employee satisfaction, which improves productivity. Furthermore, the aforementioned decrease in turnover not only saves in HR costs but also keeps the team together, maintaining cooperation and efficiency within the team.

 

Corporate Volunteering Lets You Give Back to the Community

A key benefit of corporate volunteerism is that it actually helps your community (of course)! As the old adage says, "doing good does you good"—and that's just as true of companies as it is of individuals. Consider this example of partnering with Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity:

Working on home build sites provides stable housing for qualified first-time homebuyers who may not have otherwise been able to afford a home. It gives the next generation—the people who will join your team or maybe benefit from it in the future—a safe, stable place to learn and grow. Supporting housing nonprofits also means families have a better chance of providing a steady education for their children, and they'll grow up knowing that organizations like yours made it happen.

“[Consider] how employees see the company showing up in their communities,” says Traci Norum, Community Relations Specialist at Andersen Corporation. “This community is where all of our employees live and work, it really says to that employee that the company cares about where the employees live and work.”

On Top of Everything Else, Corporate Volunteering is Great PR

Image management isn't so much the goal of volunteering as it is a fortunate side-effect, but when you support a nonprofit organization, your name and logo appear where good is being done. The more you're seen by patrons of the nonprofit, the more positive PR your business is receiving. This word-of-mouth PR is a great way to grow a positive reputation amongst your competition.

 

How to Pick the Right Corporate Volunteering Opportunities

Now that you’ve identified the benefits, here's a checklist of things to know when seeking out corporate volunteerism opportunities for your company and your employees.

• Don’t forget about remote workers. With flexible work arrangements becoming the norm, many companies are home to a majority of remote workers. Provide them with VTO so they can volunteer in their communities on company time—and don’t forget to send them a company-branded volunteer T-shirt for maximum exposure!

• Get your employees’ feedback. If you’re trying to find a good corporate volunteer partner or if you’re just trying to mix up who you support year-to-year, check in with your employees. It’s likely that some of them already have relationships with certain nonprofits that fit your organization’s needs. Plus, it’s a good way to build bonds with employees who are brimming with great ideas.

• Make sure it’s something you can do on a recurring basis. It’s great to get involved in one-off volunteering opportunities, but it’s also helpful to have something repeatable (otherwise, you’ll have to come up with a new volunteer opportunity on a regular basis). Of course, you can always refer to your employees’ creativity, but it’s great to have a steady option.

• Be flexible with work schedules. Don’t forget that your employees still need to work. Allow them to volunteer around their work schedules as needed, if possible. The more flexibility you offer, the better off you’ll be.

• Offer gifts to volunteering employees. Gifts are a simple and often cost-effective way to tie your employees into the mission of the volunteer organization. At Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity, for example, we offer branded gifts on our online volunteer store. Something as simple and affordable as a T-shirt can really help employees feel more excited about volunteering.

• Make sure to take plenty of photos. Documenting your time volunteering is just more of that free, positive PR we mentioned earlier. Share those photos on your company’s social media accounts. And most importantly, encourage your employees to share photos on their own accounts and tag your company in the post. There could be someone in their network that sees those posts and would love to work for, partner with, or buy from your company.

 

Conclusion

Your community is the whole point of corporate volunteering. But it does more than help your community—it also helps your company and your employees grow stronger, closer, more empathetic, and more involved in the areas that make your work possible. The benefits are undeniable! If you’re interested in partnering with Twin Cities Habitat, reach out to our team to find a way to volunteer!