Together with five organizational co-hosts, on 25 February 2008 the CSR Initiative brought together more than 90 corporate leaders to discuss best practices in international corporate volunteering. The event, held at The Harvard Club in New York City, showcased how leading companies are aligning corporate volunteering programs with their business strategies and designing volunteering programs that leverage employees’ skills. Co-hosts included The Brookings Institution, City Volunteers of New York, The Conference Board, The International Business Leaders Forum, and FSG Social Impact Advisors.
Discussion was led by Jane Nelson, CSRI Director; David Caprara, Director of Initiative on International Volunteering at the Brookings Institution; Mark Kramer, Founder and Managing Director of FSG Social Impact Advisors and CSRI Senior Fellow; and Akhtar Badshah, Senior Director of Global Community Affairs at Microsoft.
In cities and communities throughout the United States, companies have become leaders in supporting local volunteering efforts. As the operations and investments of American companies increase around the world, there is a growing business case for them to share volunteering good practices. In 2006, the Brookings Institution launched an Initiative on International Volunteering and Service. As part of this initiative, FSG Social Impact Advisors, with support from Brookings and Pfizer, published one of the first comprehensive studies of international corporate volunteering, Volunteering for Impact: Best Practices in International Corporate Volunteering, and developed a strategic framework to help companies develop and achieve high-impact global programs.
Participants shared their experiences starting and running corporate volunteering programs, highlighting opportunities to achieve a range of benefits from building employee morale to accessing new markets through volunteering.
|
