Skills-based volunteering is now an integral component of more than fifty percent of companies within the United States. Employees share their expertise on a pro bono basis with worthy nonprofits, working through programs set up within corporate social responsibility programs.
Business and foundation leaders nationwide recognize the benefits these programs provide, including the projects’ social impact, increased employee engagement, and brand recognition.
Important, employees broaden their leadership experience and gain first-hand knowledge of the difference their expertise and involvement can make.
Younger workers are looking harder at the social impact policies of their employers than their predecessors may have. Articles have noted that 90% of Gen X women and 76% of Gen X men, and 76% of millennials say essential to contribute to the world through work.
A comprehensive 2016 study titled, Volunteer Work Experience: Can It Help Millennials Find Meaning and Interest in their Work and Negotiate their Role Within the Workplace?, detailed the significant benefits of implementing employer-based volunteer programs.
The researchers also note that volunteering for team projects leads to increased emotional intelligence and maturity as members learn to value their coworkers’ knowledge and skills.
Help to Manage Corporate Volunteering Programs
The benefits are indisputable, and corporations need infrastructure to support skills-based volunteering programs. Innovative nonprofits & social purpose corporations such as Team4Tech, the Taproot Foundation, and Moving Worlds help social change organizations connect to skilled volunteers through hands-on, in-person project management services.
Corporations fund trips to send teams of volunteers around the world. Employees strive to be accepted into these teams—in fact, Intel reports they only take 5% of their volunteer applicants. Businesses love the positive PR, and worthy nonprofits around the globe gain immense benefit.
Historically, skills-based volunteers work with local projects providing expertise in software, technology, fundraising, engineering, legal advice, and more.
Suddenly, with the COVID restrictions, the world changed, and travel became impossible. Fortunately, Revere already had plans to launch virtual team projects due to increased client requests. With this head start, Revere quickly scaled and launched our new team projects module in early October 2020.
Exciting Launch of Revere’s Team Projects Module
Since 2015, Revere Software has provided corporations and foundations branded programs that seamlessly connect nonprofit organizations with their pro bono employees. Revere delivers an integrated platform that empowers collaborating nonprofits to connect 1:1 with skilled volunteer employees from companies like Asana, DocuSign, Tableau, and Twilio, to name a few.
Revere’s new team projects module offers the following features for clients who want to offer both one-to-one and team project virtual skills-based volunteering.
The new Team Projects software offers the following expanded features:
● Nonprofits apply to become team project partners of Revere’s corporate and foundation clients.
● Approved nonprofits submit specific project applications.
● Our corporate and foundation clients use best practices to assess all the requests and their employees’ skill sets. Then the approved projects are listed on their skills-based volunteering site powered by Revere.
● Revere’s algorithm matches and creates a best-in-class suggested team for our clients. Clients can either accept the recommended team or remove and replace individual members.
● Volunteer employees can submit their interest in being assigned to one or more projects.
● Clients can pull Revere API to connect the team project data to whichever project & development management software they use — Asana, Jira, Trello, etc
● If a client works with Moving Worlds, Taproot Foundation, or Team4Tech for in-person, team project management, they can also provide the team’s composition to these organizations.
The difficulties of COVID-19 have compelled innovative solutions—including virtual team projects, to help meet the needs of organizations worldwide.
Virtual Team Projects are Here to Stay
We all look forward to the time when nonprofits and social change organizations can again meet with their pro bono volunteers face-to-face, work together, and share their accomplishments.
COVID-19 has made it clear, however, that virtual is here to stay in conjunction with in-person team projects. Post-COVID, it will not be an “or” for most organizations—in-person or virtual team projects. It will be an “and”—in-person and virtual team projects.
Contact Revere Software today to find out more about this new module, which exponentially expands the good we all want to make.