In thinking and writing about the convergence of 'doing well'
and 'doing good' I tend to focus on money. Perhaps that's my nature as an
investment manager. Or maybe I focus on money because in today's burgeoning
cause-marketing filled environment that also tends to be how companies approach
their social initiatives.
Still, in perusing Cone marketing's always interesting Do You Stand for Something? blog I came
upon an item about volunteerism. According to a 2008 Deloitte Volunteer IMPACT
Survey 91% of Human Resource professionals surveyed say that skills-based
volunteering does or would add value to corporate training and leadership
development programs. I can think of few other examples that so clearly
illustrate win-win situations. The organizations receiving the volunteers get
additional resources but with a specific
skill set they can use and the companies enabling the volunteerism get more
effective employees over the long-term.
Add to this the fact that such volunteer programs can actually
make employees happier and can be an effective recruiting tool especially now
when younger generations of workers consider giving back a core part of what
they want to accomplish in life. I found the videos that are part of the Wall Street Journal article on this
topic pretty compelling, as Ernst & Young employees pretty sincerely talk
about their experiences with the company's volunteer programs.
All in all this reminds us all that in the quest to find the
spaces where economic and social value overlap we need to think broadly about
all the opportunities in front of us and leverage all the resources we have,
not just money.
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