The value of volunteerism

    On April 21, President Obama signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act. What better day than today to spotlight businesses that reflect the late Senator's mission to expand national service. More and more companies–IBM （IBM）, UPS （UPS）, Target （TGT）, General Electric （GE）, Citigroup （C） and Pfizer （PFE）, among them–are aiding not-for-profits by having their employees share skills. Done right, this sort of volunteerism can be win-win-win: image-enhancing for the company, morale-boosting for employees, and generally good for the world.

    A Billion + Change （"Great Talent for the Greater Good"） is the national program through which corporations pledge to expand their volunteered professional services to the nonprofit sector. Another member, besides the companies above, is Deloitte, whose CEO is committed personally. Here's Deloitte CEO Barry Salzberg's take on the value of volunteerism:

    Recently, I was sitting with several dozen inner-city teens, talking with them about college and careers. It was a free-wheeling conversation. I was peppered with questions–including, "How can I get your job?"

    I left absolutely convinced that as a result of that session, at least one kid who otherwise would have missed going to college will, in fact, be going. Let me tell you, it made my day, if not my week.

    And it reminded me of an often overlooked way to meet people's needs, particularly in these hard times as non-profit organizations are seeing double-digit drops in funding–as demand goes through the roof. I'm talking about skills-based volunteerism. That is, donating high-value, professional skills–for free.

    Our company, Deloitte, recently conducted a survey on corporate volunteering. We found that 91% of respondents agreed that skills-based volunteering would add value to training and development, especially in fostering leadership and business skills. But only 16% of companies offer skills-based volunteering as an option for employees. Only one out of six.

    Given the obvious need out there and also given President Obama's impassioned call for national service, we've gone way beyond surveying about volunteerism. We've pledged $50 million in services–that's right, $50 million worth of our employees' time–over three years to help non-profit organizations boost their effectiveness.

    Deloitte employees are donating skills in such areas as IT, marketing and personnel management at all sorts of non-profit organizations. For me, education is a special passion. I wasn't the first in my family ever to go to college–my older sister claimed that honor. But I know what a profound difference it made in my life and in the lives of my two sons. So I work with a non-profit called College Summit.

    College Summit, in fact, brought me and those inner-city kids together. The organization's goal: to take kids–many from families in which nobody has ever gone to college-and get them into college. The approach: Create a 'college-going culture' in high schools where college-going rates are low. We provide cash, lots of volunteer hours from our people, and pro bono work on systems that give principals and schools districts much better data about their students' progress.

    Through personal experience, I've learned that skills-based volunteerism is one of those double bottom-line investments. It helps non-profits build capacity to serve more people with greater efficiency–which makes the non-profit more attractive for corporate support. That's the no-brainer benefit. The less obvious benefit is the real-world training for our people, especially our younger people. We do valuable, low-cost training and we also do some good for the world.

    Barry Salzberg, with Deloitte for 32 years, has been CEO since 2007.

    2009年4月21日，奧巴馬總統簽署了《愛德華？肯尼迪服務美國法》。愛德華？肯尼迪（Edward M. Kennedy）這位已故的參議員一直倡導擴大國家服務，而現在正是關注這一事業的最佳時期。越來越多的公司，如IBM、UPS、塔吉特（Target）、通用電氣（General Electric）、花旗集團（Citigroup）以及輝瑞制藥（Pfizer）等公司紛紛通過讓自己的員工分享技術的形式，幫助非營利性組織。一旦有效地實施，這樣的志愿服務就能做到"一箭三雕":提升公司形象、振奮員工士氣、造福整個世界。

    "十億+改變"（"能力越大，行善越多"）是美國一項全國性計劃，許多公司都承諾將增加對非營利性領域的志愿專業服務。除了上面提到的公司，德勤（ Deloitte）也加入這一行列當中。德勤的CEO已親自做出承諾。以下就是德勤CEO巴里？扎爾茨貝格（Barry Salzberg）對志愿服務價值的看法：

    作者：Barry Salzberg

    最近，我和幾十名市內貧民區的青少年在一起，暢談大學和職業，討論的氛圍非常自由。他們的問題幾乎讓我應接不暇，其中包括"我怎樣才能進德勤呢？"

    那次談話后，我很確定，至少有一名原本可能會放棄上大學的孩子去上學，事實上，他本來就要放棄了。讓我告訴你，能幫助他們，我真的是很高興。

    那次談話讓我想起了一種常被忽略的助人之道，尤其是在目前這種困難時期，非營利性機構的資金來源正面臨著兩位數的下滑，而需求卻達到了最高限度。我所說的助人之道就是以技術為基礎的志愿服務，即免費提供高價值的專業技術服務。

    我們德勤最近做了一次關于企業志愿服務的調查。調查結果顯示，91%的受訪者都認為，以技術為基礎的志愿服務能為培訓和發展增加價值，對于增強領導力和商業技巧更是如此。但目前只有16%的公司將以技術為基礎的志愿服務作為員工的選擇，僅占1/6.

    目前需求非常明顯，奧巴馬總統也慷慨激昂地呼吁增加國家服務，我們公司不僅僅停留在調查志愿服務的層面。我們已經承諾，在未來三年內，將提供價值5000萬美元的員工服務，幫助非營利性組織更有效地進行工作。

    德勤員工將在各種非營利性組織中提供IT、市場營銷以及個人管理方面的技術服務。我對教育有著特殊的激情。我不是我們家第一個上大學的孩子--這份榮譽屬于我姐姐，但我知道大學教育對我和我兩個兒子的生活都產生了深刻的影響。所以現在我也在和非營利性組織"大學峰會"進行合作。

    正是"大學峰會"讓我和那些市內貧民區的孩子走到了一起。該組織的宗旨是：讓孩子上大學，其中有很多人家里從來沒有人上過大學。該組織的方法是：在升學率低的高中形成一種"上大學文化".我們不但提供現金捐助和員工志愿服務，還會提供無償服務建立體系，向校長和校區提供更準確的、關于學生進步的數據。

    從個人經驗來看，我意識到以技術為基礎的志愿服務是一種"雙重底線"投資。這種服務能增強非營利機構的能力，更高效地為更多人提供服務，從而又能吸引更多來自企業的支持。這樣的好處是顯而易見的。其實還有隱形的好處，就是能讓我們的員工接受真實的培訓，尤其是年輕員工。一方面，我們能以低成本進行有價值的培訓；另一方面，我們又能造福世界。