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，奧巴馬總統(tǒng)簽署了《愛德華？肯尼迪服務(wù)美國法》。愛德華？肯尼迪（Edward M. Kennedy）這位已故的參議員一直倡導(dǎo)擴(kuò)大國家服務(wù)，而現(xiàn)在正是關(guān)注這一事業(yè)的最佳時(shí)期。越來越多的公司，如IBM、UPS、塔吉特（Target）、通用電氣（General Electric）、花旗集團(tuán)（Citigroup）以及輝瑞制藥（Pfizer）等公司紛紛通過讓自己的員工分享技術(shù)的形式，幫助非營利性組織。一旦有效地實(shí)施，這樣的志愿服務(wù)就能做到"一箭三雕":提升公司形象、振奮員工士氣、造福整個(gè)世界。

    "十億+改變"（"能力越大，行善越多"）是美國一項(xiàng)全國性計(jì)劃，許多公司都承諾將增加對(duì)非營利性領(lǐng)域的志愿專業(yè)服務(wù)。除了上面提到的公司，德勤（ Deloitte）也加入這一行列當(dāng)中。德勤的CEO已親自做出承諾。以下就是德勤CEO巴里？扎爾茨貝格（Barry Salzberg）對(duì)志愿服務(wù)價(jià)值的看法：

    作者：Barry Salzberg

    最近，我和幾十名市內(nèi)貧民區(qū)的青少年在一起，暢談大學(xué)和職業(yè)，討論的氛圍非常自由。他們的問題幾乎讓我應(yīng)接不暇，其中包括"我怎樣才能進(jìn)德勤呢？"

    那次談話后，我很確定，至少有一名原本可能會(huì)放棄上大學(xué)的孩子去上學(xué)，事實(shí)上，他本來就要放棄了。讓我告訴你，能幫助他們，我真的是很高興。

    那次談話讓我想起了一種常被忽略的助人之道，尤其是在目前這種困難時(shí)期，非營利性機(jī)構(gòu)的資金來源正面臨著兩位數(shù)的下滑，而需求卻達(dá)到了最高限度。我所說的助人之道就是以技術(shù)為基礎(chǔ)的志愿服務(wù)，即免費(fèi)提供高價(jià)值的專業(yè)技術(shù)服務(wù)。

    我們德勤最近做了一次關(guān)于企業(yè)志愿服務(wù)的調(diào)查。調(diào)查結(jié)果顯示，91%的受訪者都認(rèn)為，以技術(shù)為基礎(chǔ)的志愿服務(wù)能為培訓(xùn)和發(fā)展增加價(jià)值，對(duì)于增強(qiáng)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)力和商業(yè)技巧更是如此。但目前只有16%的公司將以技術(shù)為基礎(chǔ)的志愿服務(wù)作為員工的選擇，僅占1/6.

    目前需求非常明顯，奧巴馬總統(tǒng)也慷慨激昂地呼吁增加國家服務(wù)，我們公司不僅僅停留在調(diào)查志愿服務(wù)的層面。我們已經(jīng)承諾，在未來三年內(nèi)，將提供價(jià)值5000萬美元的員工服務(wù)，幫助非營利性組織更有效地進(jìn)行工作。

    德勤員工將在各種非營利性組織中提供IT、市場營銷以及個(gè)人管理方面的技術(shù)服務(wù)。我對(duì)教育有著特殊的激情。我不是我們家第一個(gè)上大學(xué)的孩子--這份榮譽(yù)屬于我姐姐，但我知道大學(xué)教育對(duì)我和我兩個(gè)兒子的生活都產(chǎn)生了深刻的影響。所以現(xiàn)在我也在和非營利性組織"大學(xué)峰會(huì)"進(jìn)行合作。

    正是"大學(xué)峰會(huì)"讓我和那些市內(nèi)貧民區(qū)的孩子走到了一起。該組織的宗旨是：讓孩子上大學(xué)，其中有很多人家里從來沒有人上過大學(xué)。該組織的方法是：在升學(xué)率低的高中形成一種"上大學(xué)文化".我們不但提供現(xiàn)金捐助和員工志愿服務(wù)，還會(huì)提供無償服務(wù)建立體系，向校長和校區(qū)提供更準(zhǔn)確的、關(guān)于學(xué)生進(jìn)步的數(shù)據(jù)。

    從個(gè)人經(jīng)驗(yàn)來看，我意識(shí)到以技術(shù)為基礎(chǔ)的志愿服務(wù)是一種"雙重底線"投資。這種服務(wù)能增強(qiáng)非營利機(jī)構(gòu)的能力，更高效地為更多人提供服務(wù)，從而又能吸引更多來自企業(yè)的支持。這樣的好處是顯而易見的。其實(shí)還有隱形的好處，就是能讓我們的員工接受真實(shí)的培訓(xùn)，尤其是年輕員工。一方面，我們能以低成本進(jìn)行有價(jià)值的培訓(xùn)；另一方面，我們又能造福世界。