Byznys pro společnost - Fórum odpovědných firem  

Employer supported volunteering is a programme from the area of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) whose aim is to assist businesses with supporting public-benefit programmes. Employer supported volunteering projects are managed by the platform Business for the Society with the assistance of the Donors Forum.

Employer supported volunteering commits employers and their employees to support public-benefit activities. Businesses pay for the time of their employees, and respect and appreciate their volunteering activity. Volunteers provide their time, energy and ideas for the improvement of a public-benefit organisation.

In 2009, the Donors Forum initiated and mediated a total of 3,623 corporate volunteer days in public-benefit organisations in the Czech Republic. The work, which the companies dedicated to public-benefit projects, represents approximately CZK5,865,000 (calculated on the basis of Czech average pay - CZK188.43/ hour).

In 2009, the Donors Forum cooperated, within the programme of employee involvement, with approximately 430 public-benefit organisations of various specialisations throughout the Czech Republic.

Employer supported volunteering programmes brings benefit to all concerned parties.

Public-benefit organisations benefit from free labour and the chance to improve their professionalism. Through contact with volunteers from businesses, they gain new skills and supporters. Sometimes volunteers become long-term partners of a business.

Volunteers benefit from gaining fresh ideas for their personal and professional development, from the improvement of relationships within a team, and from learning about the functioning of the public-benefit sector.

Business boost their image in the society and among their employees, strengthen loyalty and work productivity of employees and have a better position when recruiting new employees.

Character of volunteer activities

• Manual work - volunteers are not in contact with clients, they work in the environment of a public-benefit organisation (example activities: painting fences, cleaning up meadows, cleaning-up jobs, etc.).
• Work with clients - volunteers, under professional supervision, assist in individual or collective programmes with clients (walks, creative workshops, art therapy, etc.).
• Professional work - mostly takes the form of consultations (legal, marketing, PR, etc.), or the shadowing of the members of the management of non-profit organisations.

Types of volunteering events

• Collective community days
  • The date is set up by the business (usually one to two days in a year).
• Tailored community events
  • Work teams demand a date, type of activity and a region, and the Donors Forum recommends a suitable project according to relevant needs of public-benefit organisations.
• Continuous community days
  • Continuous days offer volunteer work in specific dates according to the needs of public-benefit organisations
• Individually organised days
  • Volunteers individually agree on a volunteer day in the selected organisation.