FROM THE EDITOR 

 
We are off and running in the New Year – read all about it here!   

This month we are pleased to announce IAVE’s new participatory campaign to build support for IYV+10 and to bring you a special section on our Global Corporate Volunteering Research Project. 

-- Kenn Allen 

IYV+10…the countdown continues

ONLY 11 MONTHS TO GO!  2011 is the 10^th Anniversary of the United Nation’s International Year of Volunteers in 2001.  As it did in 2001, IAVE is giving leadership to the nongovernmental volunteer community in celebrating this global recognition of volunteering. 

iave launches “sign on” campaign to build support for iyv+10

 

IAVE is calling on volunteers worldwide to sign up in support of the tenth anniversary of the UN International Year of Volunteers (IYV+10) in 2011. To build momentum for this important anniversary, we need you to add your voice to the call to make IVY+10 another landmark year for volunteering and to encourage others to do so.   

Here is all you need to do: 

1.  Go to http://www.iave.org/iyv10 and sign the online statement of support for IYV+10. 

2.  After you have signed on, use the “Tell A Friend” feature that comes up automatically to invite others to join as well. 
 

3.  Help us build this into a true viral online campaign by forwarding the address http://www.iave.org/iyv10 to as many volunteers, volunteer-involving organizations, government agencies and others as you can find.  Urge them to “Sign On” as well. 

Every issue we will give you

IAVE’s IYV+10 calendar

 

Here is how our calendar is shaping up for the lead-in to and celebration of the 10^th Anniversary of the International Year of Volunteers: 

June 2010  North American Regional Meeting at the National

      Conference on Volunteering and Service in New

      York City 

Meeting of the IAVE Board of Directors in New York City (to be confirmed) 

September 2010 Arab Nations Regional Conference in Lebanon  

September 2010 Latin America Regional Conference in Colombia 

January 2011  21^st World Volunteer Conference in Singapore in partnership with the

                  National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre 

November 2011 Global Youth Volunteer Summit in Barranquilla, Colombia in partnership

                  with Partners of the Americas 

      13^th Asia-Pacific Regional Conference in South Korea 

September 2012 22^nd World Volunteer Conference in Ireland in partnership with

      Volunteering Ireland

news from iave

New Volunteer Center Representative Elected to IAVE Board

 

Wendy Osborne, Director of the Volunteer Development Agency for Northern Ireland, has been elected to the IAVE Board of Directors to represent national volunteer centers.  This position became vacant on the retirement of Tan Chee Koon from Singapore and now has been filled by vote of  the board.  

The Volunteer Development Agency is a national infrastructure organisation for the promotion, support and development of volunteering in Northern Ireland. Providing services that: raise awareness of and promote the benefits of volunteering; provide evidence and information about volunteering through research; develop and deliver training to ensure standards of good practice for involving/managing volunteers; inform policy agendas; organize Northern Ireland wide promotional campaigns such as Volunteers Week; and identify and respond to emerging needs in relation to volunteers and volunteering. 

The Agency has embarked on an exciting 5 year project focusing on older people and volunteering and is leading Northern Ireland’s volunteer strategy for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. At a national policy level the organisation was instrumental in calling for the development of a volunteering strategy for Northern Ireland. Government has made a commitment to taking forward such a strategy and the consultation document has been produced with expectation that a strategy will be launched in the Spring of 2010.   

Wendy has served as chief executive officer since 1993.  During her tenure, the organization has grown from a staff complement of 3 to 33. The annual budget has grown from £103,000 to in this current financial year £3.1 million. The organization has a current funding relationship with four government departments, including administering funding to support volunteering, and has a successful track record of accessing funding to support the work from private trusts and through income generation.  

She also has been active in a broad range of local, national and international efforts to promote and strengthen volunteering.  In 2000 she received an Order of the British Empire from Her Majesty the Queen in recognition of her services to volunteering.  In 2009 she received a Business in the Community Sieff Award for individuals based in the community who have best collaborated with business to benefit society. 

Congratulate Wendy and welcome her to our board at wendy@volunteering-ni.org and learn about her organization at www.volunteering-ni.org.

special report

the gcvc global corporate volunteering research project

about the project

As their contribution to the celebration of IYV+10, the members of IAVE’s Global Corporate Volunteer Council have launched the Global Corporate Volunteering Research Project with the goal of reporting the results at the World Volunteer Conference in Singapore next January. 

The purpose of the project is to create new knowledge that will: 

• Help global companies extend and strengthen their employee volunteer programs; and
• Help companies and their nonprofit partners strengthen employee volunteering worldwide.

 

The project has two components: 

• The Global Companies Study will examine how global companies organize and manage their global volunteer efforts – what they do, why they do it, how they do it, the challenges they face, their best practices, their partnerships with NGOs, etc.  The goal is to document the work of 50 global companies that are broadly geographically representative of the world. 
  
• The State of Health Study is a region-by-region examination of how key actors – companies, Volunteer Centers, others promoting and supporting corporate volunteering – perceive the “state of health” of corporate volunteering – what is happening, what the trends and innovations are, what external forces are affecting it, what the challenges are, what the future looks like.

meet our sponsors

 

We are very pleased to announce our first group of companies that are investing in the project with financial support.

platinum sponsor

 

UPS – Founded in 1907, UPS is the world’s largest package delivery company and leading global provider of specialized transportation and logistics services. UPS is the second largest employer in the U.S., and is in over 200 countries, with 425,000 employees worldwide. UPS supports community service and volunteering through numerous NGO partners, through their Global Volunteer Month, and through their Neighbor-to-Neighbor volunteer program. UPS was the 2009 winner of the Community Service Award from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

gold sponsors

 

GE – Beginning with Thomas Edison’s famous light bulb, GE has for more than 100 years been a part of the lives of people around the world. From washing machines to jet engines, from water to entertainment, GE leads the way in innovations that change life for the better. With their current motto of “Imagination at Work”, GE operates in over 100 countries, and over half their revenues currently come from outside of the United States. Through their GE Volunteers Program – with the values of Connect, Strengthen and Respond - GE volunteers logged 1 million volunteer hours in 2008, addressing needs in creative ways around the world. 

MOTOROLA – With an over 80 year history, Motorola is a global communications leader, offering cutting edge solutions for people, businesses and governments to be more connected and more mobile. Motorola operates out of 320 facilities in over 70 countries. Motorola supports employee volunteering through their annual Global Day of Service, through numerous education and community-based programs, and by “connecting the unconnected.”

silver sponsors

 

BD – With 110 years of history, BD is headquartered in New Jersey, USA, and has offices in nearly 50 countries around the world. BD manufactures and sells a broad range of medical supplies, devices, laboratory equipment and diagnostic products. Their motto, “Helping All People Live Healthy Lives”, carries over into their support for community involvement, employee volunteering and programs such as the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief in Africa, in which trained BD volunteers help set up clinics and labs in support of AIDS treatment and prevention programs.  

ELI LILLY – Eli Lilly and Company is one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, marketing their health-enhancing products in 143 countries. The Lilly Company is over 130 years old, and is based in Indianapolis, Indiana, with research and development facilities throughout the U.S. and in most world regions. Lilly supports employee volunteering in many ways, through their Hands and Hearts Program and their Global Day of Service. Lilly was one of the honored recipients of the Points of Light Institute/Hands On Network’s 2009 Corporate Engagement Award for Excellence. 

TELEFONICA – Telefonica is one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world, headquartered in Spain, with operations in 25 countries throughout Europe and Latin America. In Spain the company has a history of over 80 years. Telefonica has 257,000 employees worldwide. Telefonica supports community and volunteering through their Fundaciỏn Telefonica, which “works to improve people’s lives and encourage social progress through the use of Information and Communication Technologies.” Through the Voluntarios Telefonica Program, employees make a difference in a variety of unique ways, from helping eliminate child labor through their ProNino Program, to cultural and environmental programs.

meet our cooperating organizations

 

We are pleased that these key organizations have signed on as “Cooperating Organizations” to assist us with the project.  We will be adding to this list in the coming months so that it is broadly representative of the world. 

Community Business (Hong Kong) 

ENGAGE (London) 

European Volunteer Centre (Brussels) 

International Business Leaders Forum (London) 

International Volunteering Project at Brookings (Washington DC) 

Points of Light Institute (Atlanta) 

United Way Worldwide (Alexandria, Virginia) 

Volunteering England (London)

the first report

 

The first phase of the Global Companies Study was completed in early June 2009.  We interviewed ten companies, nine headquartered in the U.S. and one in Germany.  This phase was designed to do three things: (1) generate data on these companies; (2) give us the opportunity to test and refine our interview protocol; and, (3) create a conceptual framework to organize and analyze the data. 

We produced a “first report” from that phase that was distributed at the National Conference on Volunteering and Service in San Francisco later in June.  It was important exposure for the project and helped spur interest among potential participating and sponsoring companies. 

One of the most important insights from this first work was to begin to sketch out the elements of what might be called “global corporate volunteer systems”.  Here is what was said in the “first report” on that subject: 

Building Global Systems.  Corporate volunteer programs are systems operating within and affected by the larger corporate systems of which they are a part.  In the companies studied, we identified six core components of their global volunteer systems – although the extent to which they are present varies from company to company.

Culture.  Companies talked about how community involvement is “part of our DNA” or “part of the core values” – or they spoke of how one of their goals is to “embed” volunteering in the company’s culture.  Culture in turn creates expectations for volunteering – but corporate cultures differ greatly so programs usually reflect the prevailing rather than the espoused culture.

Policy.  To varying degrees, companies have created a policy framework that positions the volunteer program in the company and provides guidance on how volunteering happens.

Brand.  Volunteering is seen as a component of the corporate brand – and, in some cases, is separately branded but always in a way that directly associates it with the corporate brand. 

Focus Areas.  Overall, there was a described movement toward priority areas or projects that are more tightly aligned with business priorities or corporate core competencies than has been true in the past.  But in some cases this has created tension with the desire to allow maximum local control over activities.

Technology.  Everyone uses it; fewer are happy with it.  There is a tension among using technology as a control and reporting mechanism, as a way to provide tools to enable project leaders and volunteers and as a way, through social networking, to encourage and facilitate communication and mutual support among company volunteers.  It is a strategic rather than an operational issue, based in the need to conceptualize a system design that meets multiple needs.

Management.  There is an ongoing search for the most appropriate way to manage global programs, ranging from relatively tight headquarters control to maximizing local discretion.  An emerging approach seems to be “facilitated from the top, not controlled.”

participating companies

 

To date, we have interviewed these companies: 

Citi  GE  UPS  

Disney  IBM  Starbuck’s

Eli Lilly  KPMG (US) SAP

FedEx  Pfizer

 

In late February, we will be interviewing Marriott Hotels International and Standard Chartered Bank in London. 

In March, we will be interviewing Samsung, Hyundai and SK Telecom in Seoul and Fujitsu in Tokyo. 

Over the balance of the year, we will be interviewing other members of GCVC – Vale and C&A in Brazil; Telefonica in Spain; UBS in Switzerland; and, in the United States, American Airlines, BD, Kraft, Mattel, Monsanto, Motorola and State Street Bank. 

We also are developing a target list of non-member companies throughout the world to ensure geographic diversity.

special forums

 

Part of our State of Health Study will be to stimulate dialogue among companies and others on core questions about corporate volunteering in particular regions. 

Our first such forum is being planned for late April in Valencia, Spain, in conjunction with General Assembly of the European Volunteer Centre.  We also anticipate similar forums at the IAVE regional conferences in Colombia and Lebanon in September.  We will be working with our Cooperating Organizations to identify other such opportunities.

our research team

 

We are pleased to introduce our core research team and to invite you to communicate directly with them if you have questions about the project. 

• Kenn Allen, Project Director.  President of the Civil Society Consulting Group; led the research team that wrote the original book on corporate volunteering more decades ago than he likes to admit; former World President of IAVE.  kenn@civilsocietyconsulting.com  
  
• Sarah Hayes, Senior Consultant.  Serves in a consulting capacity as Director of the Global Corporate Volunteer Council; formerly led global corporate volunteer programs at KPMG and Starwood Hotels.  sarah@civilsocietyconsulting.com  
  
• Monica Galiano, Senior Consultant.  President of Iniciativa Brasil consulting firm in Sao Paulo; former executive director of the National Volunteer Program in Brazil; created statewide corporate volunteer initiative in the industrial heart of Brazil; consults with companies throughout Latin America; researcher and author; fluent in Spanish, Portuguese and English.  Monicabg1951@gmail.com