How I Help
Corporate Voluntarism Scores a Win-Win
Bell employees (left to right) Sue Murray, Jennifer Taylor, Simon Morris and Neil Allen have fun building healthy, local food baskets to be sent out later that day. In July, United Way arranged for a Bell employee team to volunteer with FoodShare Toronto in order to give back to the community.
Peeling carrots and chopping fruit doesn't sound like much of a break from the office, but for Bell employee Jennifer Taylor, it's exactly the type of activity that she hopes to do again soon.
Taylor, an Operation Strategy and Planning Manager with Bell Canada, organized a corporate volunteering opportunity for her team through United Way Toronto. The team's desire to give back to the community led them to the doorsteps of local Toronto social service agencies bright and early on a Tuesday morning. What they experienced from their half day of good deeds was much more than they expected.
On July 31, 65 members of Bell's BMOC (Business Management Operations and Controls) team divided themselves among five different United Way member agencies including FoodShare Toronto, two local YMCA Childcare Centres and two Toronto Kiwanis Boys & Girls Clubs. At FoodShare Toronto, volunteers worked with youth in the food prep kitchen or filled baskets and boxes full of fresh local produce. Activities centered on the then-upcoming Caribana festival at the Toronto Kiwanis Boys & Girls Clubs and making themed costumes and snacks. Playing and connecting with kids was on the schedule at the YMCAs.
When asked about the outcomes of the day, Taylor responded with a genuine excitement: "There has been incredible feedback… the team was quite moved by everything they experienced – and definitely got as much out of it as they gave back."
In fact, the experience connected Bell employees to each other as much as it did to the community.
At FoodShare Toronto, some Bell employees who work on the same team but had never met were introduced for the first time. "We all work in different areas so it's a great way to tie in what each of us is doing. Even for people that work together day to day, the experience was a great way to get to know each other from a different perspective. It energizes you and injects creativity."
Taylor listed several reasons why corporations and their employees should get involved in the community: finding a common purpose that enhances teamwork even outside the workplace, building community awareness, and feeling good about what you do.
In 2006, Bell became a founding member of Volunteer Canada's Corporate Council on Volunteering, a group that promotes employer-supported voluntarism in Canada in hopes of inspiring business leaders to become agents of change. Bell has been working hard to lead by example.
Last year in the GTA, Bell employees contributed more than 92,000 hours of volunteer work to community causes, about 30 per cent of Bell's overall national community investment total of more than 300,000 hours. Using a Heritage Canada formula for estimating the value of volunteer work, this translates into an economic contribution of more than $5 million. Bell recognizes employee volunteer hours with corporate grants to the charities with which they volunteer. In 2006, the program generated $1.3 million in company grants in recognition of employees' volunteer time.
As a foundational element of its community investment approach, Bell has a longstanding relationship with United Ways across the country.
In 2006, more than 400 Bell employees nationwide volunteered in United Way's workplace fundraising campaign, 179 of them in the GTA.
"Volunteers are the lifeblood of our annual campaign," says Quinn Bingham, Director, Corporate and Community Engagement at United Way Toronto. "They provide the breadth and depth needed for a successful campaign that would otherwise not be possible."
Although fundraising volunteers are a vital part of United Way's work, the organization has developed other employee volunteer opportunities that deepen a volunteer's connection to the community at a grassroots level.
"We created these community connections to get back to the roots of voluntarism," says Bingham. "Volunteers want to provide hands-on help, which in turn allows them to both directly make an impact and better understand the communities that they serve."
United Way customizes volunteer opportunities for organizations supporting annual campaigns by matching organizational or employee volunteer interest with existing or emerging needs in Toronto agencies. Volunteers can get directly involved at the agency level or even use their skills to help individuals with specific needs, such as assisting newcomers with their interviewing techniques in order to find employment. These opportunities are born of United Way's "community collective" philosophy – the idea that business, labour, individuals and the community working together is the most effective way to address the social issues of our city.
The result of this corporate and community engagement is high-impact voluntarism.
Organizations and staff donate their skills, expertise or time, which enables agencies to increase the capacity of their services in the community. Volunteers receive the benefits of giving back: a sense of fulfillment, new skills, leadership development, company pride, and community awareness.
Corporations foster employee engagement and retention, which can ultimately benefit actual organizational performance.
While it is clear voluntarism builds stronger communities, it only works if people get involved. Which is why, as United Way says, "Without you, there would be no way."
To find out more about how you can get involved with United Way, visit unitedwaytoronto.com