Employee%20Volunteer%20Program%20(EVP)%20101

1

• Employee Volunteer Program (EVP) 101
• Sponsored by

2
About Us

• Founded 1992
• Purpose
• Membership
• Programming

3
What is an EVP?

• An employee volunteer program (EVP), sometimes
  referred to as a workplace volunteer program, is
  a planned, managed effort that seeks to motivate
  and enable employees to effectively volunteer
  under the official sponsorship and leadership of
  the employer.

4
Business Goals

• EVPs address core business goals
• Recruitment
• Training/Development
• Marketing/Brand Identity
• Communications (External/Cross-Company)
• Productivity/Morale
• Government Affairs/regulatory
• Leveraging philanthropy

5
Why do EVPs Matter?

• Data shows that EVPs boost corporate
  performance.
• EVPs also bolster cost efficiency

6
Where do they fit?

• 33 in internal units that are externally
  oriented (Community Affairs, Corp Citizenship)
• 21 in community oriented corporate functions
  (Foundation/Corp. Philanthropy)
• 8 in internally focused departments (HR,
  Diversity, Work/Life)
• 46 in departments that combine internal and
  external orientations (Marketing, Community
  Affairs, Corp Communications)

7
Management

• Employee EVP Manager
• Outsourcing EVP Management
• Employee Committee or Volunteer Councils
  (National/global, at HQ only, in field offices or
  at every office)

8
Supporting Programs

• Dollars-for-doers
• Matching grants
• Flextime or release time
• Vacation/PTO
• Team project grants
• Outstanding volunteer recognition

9
Getting Started

Business
Community Needs
Employee Interest
10
Employee Interests

• Surveys
• Creative voting
• Other?

11
Community Needs

• Work with partners!
• Other CVC member companies
• Business partners
• Local Federations and Nonprofits
• Existing agencies/partners

12
Focus Areas

• Considerations in selections
• Criteria for selections

13
Building Your Program

• Management Support
• Mission/Goals/Strategies/Objectives
• Tasks
• Timelines
• Communications Plans
• Budgets
• Evaluation

14
Policies Overview

• Release time or flex time?
• Disaster Volunteerism
• Skills Based, Direct Support or both?
• Family Volunteering
• In-kind/Product or Financial Support
• Risk Management

15
Release Time

• Appropriate for your company?
• Benefits?  Cost?
• Human Resources?  Management?
• Who is eligible?
• How allocated and monitored?
• What constitutes as release time?  Ineligible
  organizations?

16
Disasters

• Taking care of employees first
• Partner in advance
• Facilitating other involvement

17
Friends and Family

• Do you count company supported projects done on
  company time by employees only?
• Family volunteering?

18
In-kind or financial

• Leveraging core business with less out of pocket
• Skills based volunteerism
• Supporting employees during crisis

19
Risk Management

• Check on insurance off-site
• Good Samaritan laws vary by state
• Set expectations and think proactively
• On-site volunteer programs? 
• Waivers?
• See nonprofitrisk.org

20
Recruiting Retention

• Volunteer motivations
• Building on success
• Staff Development
• Recognition from coffee mugs to performance
  reviews

21
Project Planning

• Engage your employees
• Determine project scope budget

22
Project Planning contd

• Metrics!
• Set expectations with partner agency
• Sketch out day of event activities
• 1 reason people stop volunteering is poor
  volunteer management

23
Communications

• Market the event
• Set communications plan schedule
• types frequency
• reinforce link to corporate citizenship
  initiatives
• Vary channels based on audience
• e-mails, VM, flyers, posters, rallies, sign up
  sheets, ambassadors/team captains
• targeting hard to reach employee groups

24
Communications contd

• Getting your executives there
• peer to peer ask
• give them an assignment
• After event communications
• follow up surveys
• impact communication
• newsletter articles, posters with photos from the
  day, etc.

25
Recognition

• All attendees
• the old faithfuls t-shirts, volunteer pins,
  mugs, etc.
• post pics online (website or social media),
  office bulletin board
• share thank you from agency

26
Recognition contd

• Internal recognition
• External recognition

27
Evaluation

• Typical Questions to ask
• Are programs achieving intended results?
• What is the ROI?
• How does your performance compare to others?
• What is the aggregated effectiveness and impact
  across EVPs?

28
What about budget?

• EVP budgets vary greatly, investing anywhere from
  lt15 to gt800 per employee (not per volunteer)
• On average - Excellent EVPs invest 179/per
  employee
• Information courtesy of the 2010 Trends of
  Excellence Series

29
Expenses to consider

• Daily operations including website
  design/maintenance, printing, communications,
  travel, t-shirts, food, recognition items and
  supplies
• Exclude salaries and community grants such as
  dollars-to-doers

30
Keep it fresh!

• Share ideas with other companies through the CVC
  of Atlanta!
• Take advantage of national resources
• Points of Light
• BCLC
• Boston College

31

• Questions?

32
Thank You!

• Cheryl Kortemeier
• Executive Director, CVC of Atlanta
• 1100 Peachtree Street, NE, Suite 2800
• Atlanta, GA 30309
• 404-745-2458 or 404-889-5112 (cell)
• cheryl_at_cvcofatlanta.org
• Special thanks to Katy Elder, Points of Light for
  her support of this presentation.