Stories

Corporate Volunteer Summit Recap

Connect. Inspire. Impact

SHARE Charlotte and the United Way of Greater Charlotte partnered together to host the first Corporate Volunteer Summit on 2/29 to share best practices from both the corporate and nonprofit sectors on how to have an impactful and engaging employee volunteer experience.

Corporate volunteers can be a huge force for good by providing the human power and passion to provide much-needed support to our local nonprofits. Additionally, 71% of companies are using volunteerism as a way to unite their workforce.

The goal of this summit was to have both voices in the room - the corporate partner and the nonprofits - to help co-create a great experience for employees. 

The summit was definitely an overwhelming success! We sold out a room of 220 attendees three weeks before the event and received rave reviews from the attendees with 100% saying they can’t wait for next year.

Here are highlights from the day:

• Presenting Partner Welcome from Kim Henderson, Executive Vice President at Novant Health talked about the 40K Novant Health employees that they work to deploy as volunteers in our community.
• Keynote speakers, Cheryl Kortemeier, Executive Director of the Corporate Volunteer Council of Atlanta and Michele Blondheim, Director of Corporate Citizenship at Aprio spoke about the State of Corporate Volunteerism & Health Benefits of Volunteering.

Highlights from the State of Corporate Volunteering:

• 51% of volunteer hours are virtual and 35% of total volunteer hours are Volunteer Acts of Kindness (delivering groceries to a neighbor)
• Volunteer growth is a global trend (Singapore has the highest rate of volunteerism), 57% year-over-year increase (from 5.9% to 9.2%)
• Companies could increase their volunteer participation by an average of 12x if it allows for both company-created and employee-initiated volunteer opportunities.

The Wellness Connection:

• 94% of people who volunteer say that volunteering improves their mood.
• 76% of people who volunteer say that volunteering has made them feel healthier.
• 96% of volunteers say that volunteering enriches their sense of purpose.
• 78% of volunteers say that volunteering lowers their stress levels.

We also hear best practices from our panel of Corporate Partners who each addressed areas where their companies exhibit best practices on different facets of employee volunteerism. 

• Idea Exchange: Corporate Panel Discussion with  corporate partners on their best practices for increasing employee volunteerism 
  • Panel Moderator: Jarian Kerekes, President of Equitable Foundation
    • Building a Hometown Community Impact Program, - Marcel Solomon, Lowe’s
    • Deploying large groups of volunteers  - Brianna Alexander, Manager of Corporate Citizenship & Employee Philanthropy, Ally
    • Giving employees the tools to plan their own volunteer events  - Julie Cross, Director of Social Responsibility, TIAA 
    • Creating a meaningful “Month of Impact” - Susan Francis, Stakeholder Engagement, Duke Energy 

Then we switched and heard from a panel of nonprofit leaders who spoke about their areas of expertise in engaging corporate volunteers.

• Idea Exchange: Nonprofit Panel Discussion 
  • Panel Moderator: Maureen Krueger, Executive Director at Charlotte Community ToolBank
    • Live United Day, impact of place-based volunteering - Jamaal Kinard, Executive Director of Lakeview Neighborhood Alliance
    • Large group in-office volunteer opportunities - Alyssa Sharpe, CEO at DigiBridge
    • Supplemental and Support Volunteering, Will Jones, President/CEO of THOMPSON Child & Family Focus
    • Utilizing large groups of volunteers, Zach Surber, Sr. Manager of Volunteer Services at Habitat for Humanity
    • Skills-based volunteering  - Kim Lanphear, CEO at Apparo

Key takeaways from the day in creating volunteer partnerships between corporations and nonprofits:

• Nonprofits should strive to create strong partnerships, less transactional and more transformational and volunteerism can be a component.
• Nonprofits should lean into their area of expertise and can offer corporate partners and their employee resource groups employees lunch-n-learns or time to learn more about the challenges they are addressing.
• Corporate partners need to understand the costs and time associated with creating and managing volunteer engagement and ensure they are planning and compensating appropriately.
• Nonprofits should feel they can have difficult conversations with their corporate partners if their volunteers aren’t being a good steward of the partnership.
• Ensure you are building volunteer programming WITH your community, not just FOR them. Volunteers need to be respectful when coming into neighborhoods and communities. Volunteering is not just about getting the picture to put on social media.

We are excited to continue these discussions through the framework of a Corporate Volunteer Council and excited to host the summit again in 2025! See IG link for pictures