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This week is volunteers’ week. Does that mean anything to your business?

 

Does your business have a meaningful Corporate Social Responsibility programme? Does it demonstrate Social Value within the community? 

Are you providing and supporting volunteering opportunities to your staff? 

If it means; having a whip round, donating some money to a selected charity, posting it all over the company Facebook page, and expecting the charity to be grateful - you’ve probably missed the point. 

 

Whether we use VCSE or Third Sector as the approved term, it does not sit separate from the Private and Public; all three must overlap and the more they overlap the more effective our society. So, what are the benefits to that overlap; the collaboration and sharing, the interaction.   To some extent, the Private Sector must now reach the Public Sector through the VCSE Sector, to bid on Public contracts since the Social Value Act was applied to all procurement activity earlier this year. But that should not be the point, the point should be about putting Purpose To Profit, building communities, motivating and inspiring staff, and learning new ways of working and thinking to benefit all. 

This week is the perfect opportunity for businesses to seriously look at what relationship they can build with the sector and the local community: 

Firstly, it is about finding out what local VCSE organisations need; what is their capability gap, their pain? And what can you do to support them? And it may be that helping them run their social marketing strategy, as an example, may be one of the most meaningful things you could support them with.   

Can you demonstrate to your staff your commitment?  The Civil Service and many Public Sector bodies allow days for staff to volunteer with VCSE organisations. Can you create meaningful team building days that align with VCSE goals?  And what can you get in return?  Not only what can you buy in from the sector, but what can you learn from their ethics, their vision, and their team building relationships? Sometimes you'll find the sector is way ahead of the Private Sector in the way it deals with staff as the relationship with a volunteer base can be less transactional than that with a purely paid workforce. This opportunity to look again at how we build a community within our own organisations can be transformational for the workplace culture. 

Here are some suggestions on what you could consider to engage with a local VCSE organisation: 

What can you purchase on their behalf with your buying power and your supply chain? Stationary, printing, office equipment, are simple examples. 

What would be the best use volunteer hours your staff could offer to the organisation? 

Do you have a specialism in your business that would be of benefit to one - or many - local organisations?  

What resources could you make available? Examples could be a conference room or a workshop facility. 

What training could you provide to an organisation?  Either to its staff, or to the clients it supports. 

What can you buy from the organisation? Or encourage your own suppliers to buy from them? 

What could you contract out to a VCSE organisation? What by-products to you have that could be utilised or transformed by a  

Do you have the skills to be a trustee to the organisation?  And conversely, would your board benefit by having a VCSE member expressing alternative viewpoints? 

What do you need to do to re-state your Mission and Vision statements to support Social Value? 

What can you do to establish a long-term relationship with the local community and would could the legacy of that relationship be? 

And, if you do want to fundraise, do check with the recipient that there is a specific need; set a target to meet an agreed goal, don’t tie the gift to promoting your business – there are many organisations that deal with sensitive issues and support vulnerable people they need support too. 

And, use your engagement as a barometer of your staff wellbeing, motivation, retention and innovation.