September 9, 2008 | Read Time: 2 minutes
The Corporation for National and Community Service wants to redefine pro-bono work with a new campaign that calls on businesses and corporations to encourage employees to volunteer using their professional skills.
The just-announced “A Billion + Change” campaign has so far raised $406-million toward its goal in pledges of time from workers with specific expertise.
Twenty-three businesses — including IBM, Pfizer, Intel, KPMG, ING, and National Geographic — have joined the campaign, which was founded through the the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation, a group of leaders from business, entertainment, sports, education, government, nonprofit organizations, and the news media.
In conjunction with the campaign announcement, the Corporation also released research suggesting that volunteers who use their professional skills are more likely to continue volunteering.
The report, “Capitalizing on Volunteers’ Skills: Volunteering by Occupation in America,” is based on data from 2005, 2006, and 2007 gathered by the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The research finds that most volunteers do not perform volunteer activities that relate to their occupational skills: For example, of volunteers who are employed in arts, design, entertainment, sports, and news-media jobs, fewer than 11 percent engage in music, performance, or other creative activities as their focus when they volunteer.
Role of Associations
One area where professional skills and volunteerism do line up is in the legal field. Lawyers were more likely than any other profession to volunteer using their professional skills, and had a higher rate of general volunteerism than many other occupations.
About 47 percent of those in the legal profession volunteer their time, while the national average volunteer rate across all occupations is 27 percent.
The Corporation for National and Community Service writes that by calling on every lawyer to devote 50 hours a year to pro bono work, the American Bar Association has set an example for other professional associations to do the same and encourage volunteerism among their members.
Businesses that promote pro bono work among their employees benefit from increased publicity, as well as training and development opportunities for their employees through volunteerism, according to the Corporation for National and Community Service.
Pfizer’s Pledge
Pfizer, which has sent 171 employees on volunteer assignments lasting up to six months in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe through its Global Health Fellows program, recently joined the Billion + Change campaign and will expand the number of partners it works with and the number of fellows it sends on volunteering assignments from about 35 per year to 50 per year for the next three years.
The cost of employees’ time spent volunteering will amount to about $18-million.
Robert Mallett, president of the Pfizer foundation and senior vice president of worldwide policy and public affairs, says fellows returning from the program bring expanded skills, knowledge, and enthusiasm back to Pfizer when they return, and that they often stay involved in volunteering through an alumni group.
“They come back with such huge commitment, such rounded perspective about the world and how the company itself should be responding to the world,” he says.
