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，奥巴马总统签署了《爱德华？肯尼迪服务美国法》。爱德华？肯尼迪（Edward M. Kennedy）这位已故的参议员一直倡导扩大国家服务，而现在正是关注这一事业的最佳时期。越来越多的公司，如IBM、UPS、塔吉特（Target）、通用电气（General Electric）、花旗集团（Citigroup）以及辉瑞制药（Pfizer）等公司纷纷通过让自己的员工分享技术的形式，帮助非营利性组织。一旦有效地实施，这样的志愿服务就能做到"一箭三雕":提升公司形象、振奋员工士气、造福整个世界。

"十亿+改变"（"能力越大，行善越多"）是美国一项全国性计划，许多公司都承诺将增加对非营利性领域的志愿专业服务。除了上面提到的公司，德勤（ Deloitte）也加入这一行列当中。德勤的CEO已亲自做出承诺。以下就是德勤CEO巴里？扎尔茨贝格（Barry Salzberg）对志愿服务价值的看法：

作者：Barry Salzberg

最近，我和几十名市内贫民区的青少年在一起，畅谈大学和职业，讨论的氛围非常自由。他们的问题几乎让我应接不暇，其中包括"我怎样才能进德勤呢？"

那次谈话后，我很确定，至少有一名原本可能会放弃上大学的孩子去上学，事实上，他本来就要放弃了。让我告诉你，能帮助他们，我真的是很高兴。

那次谈话让我想起了一种常被忽略的助人之道，尤其是在目前这种困难时期，非营利性机构的资金来源正面临着两位数的下滑，而需求却达到了最高限度。我所说的助人之道就是以技术为基础的志愿服务，即免费提供高价值的专业技术服务。

我们德勤最近做了一次关于企业志愿服务的调查。调查结果显示，91%的受访者都认为，以技术为基础的志愿服务能为培训和发展增加价值，对于增强领导力和商业技巧更是如此。但目前只有16%的公司将以技术为基础的志愿服务作为员工的选择，仅占1/6.

目前需求非常明显，奥巴马总统也慷慨激昂地呼吁增加国家服务，我们公司不仅仅停留在调查志愿服务的层面。我们已经承诺，在未来三年内，将提供价值5000万美元的员工服务，帮助非营利性组织更有效地进行工作。

德勤员工将在各种非营利性组织中提供IT、市场营销以及个人管理方面的技术服务。我对教育有着特殊的激情。我不是我们家第一个上大学的孩子--这份荣誉属于我姐姐，但我知道大学教育对我和我两个儿子的生活都产生了深刻的影响。所以现在我也在和非营利性组织"大学峰会"进行合作。

正是"大学峰会"让我和那些市内贫民区的孩子走到了一起。该组织的宗旨是：让孩子上大学，其中有很多人家里从来没有人上过大学。该组织的方法是：在升学率低的高中形成一种"上大学文化".我们不但提供现金捐助和员工志愿服务，还会提供无偿服务建立体系，向校长和校区提供更准确的、关于学生进步的数据。

从个人经验来看，我意识到以技术为基础的志愿服务是一种"双重底线"投资。这种服务能增强非营利机构的能力，更高效地为更多人提供服务，从而又能吸引更多来自企业的支持。这样的好处是显而易见的。其实还有隐形的好处，就是能让我们的员工接受真实的培训，尤其是年轻员工。一方面，我们能以低成本进行有价值的培训；另一方面，我们又能造福世界。