Business Volunteers Maryland

doing good. better.

The Value of Skilled Volunteering

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Last month, Business Volunteers Maryland President and CEO Julie Kernan shared her reflections on how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed our world. You can read her full post here, but her final thoughts expressed a silver lining of “the development of a greater commitment to caring for others through volunteering and community engagement.”

Usually, when an individual thinks of volunteering they immediately think of direct service- planting a tree, serving meals, tutoring children. But there are a variety of ways that an individual can engage with a nonprofit. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the value of skilled volunteering to the forefront, something that Business Volunteers has been a strong proponent of for years. In the spirit of a greater commitment to caring for others, individuals can engage with nonprofits virtually, even as society begins to transition back to “normal.”

Skilled volunteering (sometimes referred to as pro bono consulting) is when an individual, often with a specific professional expertise, helps a nonprofit solve a complex operational or business issue. This could include helping a nonprofit develop a comprehensive branding and marketing strategy, or assisting with financial modeling and budgeting, or helping to implement new technology solutions.

Businses Volunteers’ communityCONNECT – a forum for nonprofits to post their needs and for our corporate partners and individuals to find volunteer opportunities that fit their skills, comfort, and availability- houses a variety of skilled volunteer opportunities that can be completed virtually.

According to a 2016 report by Maryland Nonprofits, 80% of nonprofits in Maryland are very small, all volunteer organizations with annual revenues of $25,000 or less. Skilled volunteering provides vital resources and support for nonprofits who do not have the capacity or funding to complete such projects on their own.

The Value of Skilled Volunteering

  • Skilled volunteering is about more than just doing good in the community. It’s also about developing talent through real world application of leadership skills. Skilled volunteering is a way to build up-and-coming leaders as the projects naturally require collaboration, communication, and self-awareness. Thus, giving employees the chance to practice agility and effective decision making.
  • Skilled volunteering helps to cultivate your workforce. By connecting employees to the community and causes they care about they are more likely to be engaged and productive within the business.
  • Skilled volunteering fosters strong organizational culture. Skilled volunteering (and the collaboration that is associated with it) is a way for business to live their corporate values. This byproduct of community engagement drives innovation and cross departmental collaboration.

According to Covestro, 80% of executives believe skills-based volunteerism could help employees satisfy their desire for purpose and hone their teamwork and leadership abilities.

At the end of the day, like you, we want to make an impact in our community. We want to see nonprofits thrive by fulfilling their mission. As COVID-19 has done with many ideas, we challenge you to think past the traditional definition of volunteering, engaging with nonprofits in new and innovative ways.

From our CEO: “This is my beacon of hope.”

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When the team at Business Volunteers Maryland did our annual planning for Global Volunteer Month, it was early 2020 and we never could have imagined the April we ultimately faced. What started as planned postings shining the light on local volunteers (#LocalLights) who are continually doing good, better in our community, completely changed from volunteering as we know it. While it is still important to acknowledge our traditional volunteer heroes, we would be remiss if we did not amplify the current and obvious needs.

Local nonprofits, facing unprecedented headwinds as communities respond to COVID-19, reached out to Business Volunteers with unique requests to fill volunteer needs. According to the Urban Institute, three out of five charitable organizations reported that the ability to deliver their mission is critically dependent upon volunteers. We had to pivot to provide the support these organizations require in the current environment – a platform to document their volunteer needs, including on-site, remote, and virtual projects and access to a diverse volunteer source. Thus, the birth of communityCONNECT – a forum for nonprofits to post their needs and for our corporate partners and individuals to find volunteer opportunities that fit their skills, comfort, and availability.

In a matter of days, communityCONNECT moved from concept to implementation, reaching thousands of prospective community volunteers. We have heard from our corporate and nonprofit partners, as well as from the Points of Light Foundation (we are the Baltimore affiliate!) and their global affiliates, that this platform has provided the matching of needs to volunteers they desperately need. Business Volunteers is pleased to play a vital role in connecting resources to requests.

From a personal perspective, I continue to be impressed and amazed at how our community is stepping up. Friends and colleagues are creative in how they engage in the community – they are making masks, tutoring children online, and raising money to support those on the front line. Looking for some way to support our front line workers, my husband and I recently delivered dinner to a nurse friend and her colleagues at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Following is her thank you text after the meal:

Just wanted to say thank you again. You guys made our group very happy. There was enough for both shifts; the food was delicious (several people have been to Joe Benny’s and wholeheartedly endorsed it, others will definitely be checking them out when all of this is over) and felt special. Tensions have been building and we all sat down and ate like a family. It was incredibly heart warming and cathartic. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

What seemed like an easy gesture for us, changed the team dynamics, if only for just a little while, for a group of critical care workers who so desperately needed a break.

These unique, individual contributions amass to a significant outpouring of support and this is my beacon of hope. I am optimistic the way we are living today is not our new “normal,” and whatever our new normal is, I believe we will be more gentle with ourselves and our neighbors. The silver lining to the COVID storm cloud is the development of a greater commitment to caring for others through volunteering and community engagement.

Editor’s Note: Visit Business Volunteers on Facebook and Instagram to read about how our community embraced Global Volunteer Month during unprecedented times. We invite you to tag us in your remote volunteering and use the hashtags #locallight #doinggoodbetter