Businesses Develop New Take on Giving

Volunteering just isn’t what it used to be.

As the number of people donating time to various causes has increased nationwide in recent years, so has a less visible phenomenon: the merger of corporate interests and community activism.

In what proponents view as a meshing of needs, more and more companies are encouraging their employees to volunteer in their communities, from serving food in soup kitchens to sitting on the boards of charitable organizations.

Nonprofit groups in Orange County will reap the benefits this weekend as more than 30,000 people--many of them marshaled by local businesses--are expected to tackle more than 100 projects in the Volunteer Center of Orange County’s annual Volunteer Connection Days.

While part of the impulse to convert employees into community volunteers is born of altruism, experts say there’s also a touch of Machiavelli at play. High-profile charitable involvement improves a company’s image, bolsters staff morale and enhances such workplace skills as team-building, leadership and communication.

“A lot of it has to do with having the business integrated into the community,” said Keith Hume, a research associate for the Independent Sector, a coalition of nonprofits based in Washington. “Over the past several years corporations have been really trying to connect their volunteering to the overall business mission.”

Hundreds of Home Depot workers in Orange County, for example, will repair homes for the needy this weekend by practicing how to use the tools they sell. And a dozen workers at a Brea Embassy Suites have been collecting diapers to deliver to needy mothers, a project taken on by a hotel workers committee that has simultaneously improved staff morale and teamwork.

“We started doing this in the last two months, and since then it’s kind of broken down barriers between upper management and the lower people,” said Jere Lorenzen, 19, a desk supervisor who runs the hotel’s new Care Committee. “We’re all on the same level, discussing the same things, and everyone has just as much input as the next person.”

A Points of Light Foundation survey found in 1998 that 81% of companies intentionally linked employee involvement in volunteer programs to their overall business strategies, compared with only 31% that did so in 1992.

“Respondents to the survey unanimously agreed that corporate volunteering helps create healthier communities and improves a company’s public image; 97% say these programs improve employee teamwork,” according to a summary of the study.

A key component of these efforts is using employees as the public face of community involvement.

For Home Depot, that means encouraging employees at each of the firm’s 18 Orange County stores to team this weekend on repair projects for organizations that try to help low-income families and seniors on fixed incomes.

“We’re constantly looking for training opportunities for our [employees] to get the feel for how the tools actually work in the field. How do we actually lay the sprinkler system in a 12-by-15 community garden area?” said Kelley Schultz, Home Depot divisional manager of community affairs in Orange. Employees “can go out on these volunteer projects and not only do something great for the community but also take care of customers by learning skills that become translatable in the store.”

That free labor has tangible value for the nonprofits receiving the help. The Independent Sector reported last week that the hourly value of volunteer time reached $15.39 in 2000, up from $12.45 in 1994. The estimates are based on federally established average hourly wages for nonagricultural workers, plus 12% to reflect benefits.

And the work is varied. About one-fourth of volunteers nationwide gravitate to direct services such as serving food, and 16% sign up to help raise funds for various causes, according to the Independent Sector. About 14% volunteer at church, and 11% sign up as counselors or advice-givers in various programs.

Frances Rozner, development director for the Volunteer Center, said patterns also have emerged in companies’ approaches to volunteer programs. Smaller, privately owned companies tend to become involved in volunteer programs out of altruism, she said. Larger corporations take a more structured--and cost-benefit--view, which requires more detailed planning and promotion, she said.

“We deal with issues that volunteer managers need to address, like tracking systems” to measure the number of volunteers and types of jobs involved, Rozner said.

Some projects need to be tailored to fit the goals of the companies offering volunteers, she said. For example, a company seeking projects to build teamwork wouldn’t have much interest in signing up for programs that, for example, counsel pregnant teens.

“I think it’s fascinating to sit down with a company to find out what they’re doing and why,” Rozner said.

At Experian, an international computer services firm with a facility in Orange, volunteer coordinators are still trying to find the best way to involve employees in volunteer programs.

Monica Warthen, community relations manager, said about 40 workers at the 1,300-employee company have volunteered independently this weekend to box donated food for the Orange County Community Development Council food bank, clean beaches with the Surfrider Foundation and spend time with seniors through the Hugs for Health Foundation.

Next year, Warthen said, the firm will probably pick one project and enlist a squadron of volunteers to take it on. That change stems from comments by Experian volunteers this year that they would prefer to work in groups with colleagues, she said.

“We believe that giving employees the opportunity to do things beyond their day-to-day work makes them more well-rounded, and therefore they feel better about their jobs and they’re happier employees,” Warthen said. “It’s just part of our corporate philosophy that we need to give back to the community that we draw from.”