Employee Volunteer Programs

Are you maximizing your team's potential during downtime? Here's a game-changing idea: turn your "bench time" into impactful pro bono work. Here's how it works: • Assess the skills and interests of team members between projects • Determine the available timeframe • Appoint a project manager to lead the engagement • Select a nonprofit project that matches your team's expertise The benefits? • Productive use of resources during downtime • Enhanced employee motivation and retention • Opportunity for skill upgrades and professional growth • Strengthened reputation as a socially responsible company Pro tip: Break the project into small deliverables to manage unexpected commercial project conflicts. As Leo Cerda, CPO at PALO IT, says: "It's a win-win given it also gives NGOs the chance to access hard to find tech talent. Our teams love it." How do you maximize your team's "in-between" time? Have you considered pro bono work? Share your thoughts below. #TechForGood #ProBonoImpact #TalentManagement --- This post is part of a series "10 Tested Ways to Engage
in Impactful Pro-Bono Projects". Follow me for more insights!

As a young lawyer, I volunteered for cases nobody wanted... I once took a case pro bono with 0 documents after summary judgment just to get trial experience. The judge thought I was crazy. The opposing counsel laughed. But at 26, I knew something they didn't: You can't become a trial lawyer without trying cases. Too many young attorneys wait for the "perfect opportunity" to get trial experience. They think: • "I need more preparation" • "I should watch a few more trials first" • "I'm not ready yet" This mindset is exactly why, years later, I meet "experienced" lawyers who've never tried a single case. The truth is uncomfortable but necessary: You have to get swings at bat more than anything else. It's impossible to be good at trials if you never do them. This is why I tell every law student: Take those landlord-tenant cases no one wants. Volunteer for small arbitrations. Handle the minor disputes others avoid. These smaller matters are your training ground. Because when you're 10 years into your career and suddenly facing your first trial in a high-pressure situation with millions at stake, it's too late to learn. Trial work is a skill that develops through repetition and experience. The first few won't be pretty. You'll make mistakes. You might even lose. But each time, you'll get better. And eventually, you'll walk into any courtroom with the confidence that only comes from experience. Don't wait for permission to become a trial lawyer. Take cases. Try them. Learn. That's the only path forward. #TrialLawyer #LegalCareer #LitigationTips

Nonprofits, if I had to turn volunteers into revenue-generating brand ambassadors from scratch today, here’s the real playbook: 1. Stop “showing up.” Start co-owning. Never open with: “Could you help us at the event?” Instead say: “You’ll captain the impact station that powers every donation in real time, ready?” Give them a role with P&L vibes, not a task list. 2. Draft a “Skill-Swap” Roster, fast. Run a 24-hour survey: three questions, zero fuss. • Superpower? (Design, data, negotiation, TikTok, etc.) • Corporate day job? • Hours they’ll trade monthly? Auto-tag skills into a Trello board. That board is your on-demand agency, free and fanatical. 3. Launch the 7-Day Micro-Influencer Challenge. • Hand each volunteer a Canva template + 20-second reel script. • Goal: share one mission story per day, tag two friends. • Track reach on a public leaderboard (everyone loves friendly rivalry). Average volunteer network: 400 people. Ten volunteers = 4,000 warm impressions, no ad spend. 4. Build “Give & Get” Affiliate Links, yes, really. Every volunteer gets a unique URL: • When a donor gives through it, donor receives a 10-minute virtual tour. • Volunteer earns impact credits redeemable for exclusive swag, leadership coffee chats, or a spot on your next field visit. Gamified altruism converts like e-commerce. 5. Host a Quarterly Fail-Fest, Not a Thank-You Brunch. Invite volunteers to roast your bottlenecks: “What slowed you down last quarter?” Reward the sharpest critique with a “Fix-It” micro-grant they control. Solution-hungry cultures trump cupcake-fueled gratitude. 6. Turn “Volunteer of the Month” into LinkedIn Case Studies. Write each spotlight like a mini Harvard Business Review piece: • The problem they solved • The metric they moved (revenue, reach, retention) • A quote about why they serve Tag their employer, watch HR and CSR teams slide into your DMs. 7. Offer a Zero-Friction Upsell Path. Every volunteer receives a digital wallet pre-loaded with $25 of giving credits. One tap lets them top-up or gift to friends, Apple Pay style. Remove every barrier and impulse donations happen on Tuesday lunch breaks. With purpose and impact, Mario

After graduating university, I got a big girl job that I was NOT ready for.  It was a mid-senior role that I had applied to because I was slightly delusional. Miraculously…I got it. LOL Some of the responsibilities: recruiting, training, onboarding, and managing people. 11 volunteers to be more specific. My first year? Eeek. Scary times. Volunteers weren’t responding to my emails or their clients. Appointments were missed. Chaos prevailed. I spent most of my time putting out fires and doing the work myself. Thanks to a lot of trial and error (mainly error) I was ready to #slay my second year. By my second year, things looked very different: ✅ 50 volunteers recruited (28 onboarded) ✅ $250,000+ in refunds delivered to clients ✅ 72% increase in clients served I built systems from scratch and here’s what worked: 👥 Recruiting 1️⃣ Ghosting is real, so start early (I began 4 months before the next cycle) 2️⃣ Be intentional. Reach out to professors, orgs, and networks where your ideal volunteers already are. 3️⃣ Leverage social media. Highlight previous volunteers. Repurpose content.  4️⃣ Host info sessions + 30-min 1:1 calls with every registrant. 5️⃣ Communicate via their preferred method (email, phone, Zoom). 6️⃣ Follow up 2–3 times. Silence doesn’t always mean no.  7️⃣ Track every lead’s stage: Registered → Info Session → Committed. 8️⃣ Document your outreach. Use a simple spreadsheet or CRM to track where leads are coming from. 9️⃣ Treat recruitment as a two-way street: ask about their skills, capacity, & what they hope to gain from volunteering. Determine if the position is a right fit for both of you! 👩💻 Onboarding 1️⃣ Offer multiple sessions (mornings, evenings, weekends, in-person, remote, self-paced) 2️⃣ Use newsletters to keep everyone aligned and resourced. 3️⃣ Give LOTS of examples + scenarios they’d encounter! 4️⃣ Train them on tools, tech, and scheduling systems that will be used. 5️⃣ Create a central hub. Store onboarding materials in a Google Drive or on Notion. 🌱 Managing 1️⃣ Offer shadowing opportunities (to be shadowed and for them to shadow) 2️⃣ Create resources: how-tos, checklists, FAQs, etc. 3️⃣ Create + share a scheduling calendar. 4️⃣ Use Calendly + add your volunteers to the plan (it's a lifesaver I swear). 5️⃣ Start a group chat that won’t be ignored (GroupMe is awesome). 6️⃣ Give and receive feedback often. 7️⃣ Recognize accomplishments + celebrate wins. 8️⃣ Schedule office hours + check-ins. 9️⃣ Throw in some dad jokes!!! It was intimidating to step into this role without a blueprint, so I’ll forever be grateful for the opportunity to work with some incredible, mission-driven people who taught me so much about leading with empathy, transparency, patience, and adaptability. For my fellow first-gen and early professionals, what’s one thing you wish you’d known before stepping into a new role without a roadmap? 🌱 (p.s. Thank you to all of the supportive volunteers who laughed at my dad jokes.)

This is the question we don’t talk about enough. When should you work for free/pro bono? I know many of us wrestle with this when building a personal brand. Especially in the early days before the opportunities (and invoices) start flowing, you’ll find yourself here: Someone asks you for advice. Or to speak at their event. Or to help with a project… and deep down, you know this is something you could charge for. So what do you do? I asked the same thing a few weeks ago during the TASN Launch Event in Nairobi. The speakers all had significant projects they’d done, many of which they’d offered pro bono at some point. And those same projects? They became the stepping stones that opened doors to paid work. It made me realise: Sometimes working for free isn’t about being undervalued; it’s a strategic choice. But how do you know when to say yes? Here are 3 things you could consider before accepting a pro bono opportunity: 1️⃣ Brand alignment – Is this aligned with what you do, your values and where you want your brand to go? 2️⃣ Mutual benefit – Beyond money, is there another gain? A new audience? A chance to be on a stage you’ve never been on? 3️⃣ Access & exposure – Does this connect you to a network, community or opportunity you couldn’t easily reach otherwise? One of my best examples? I once ran a session for a community I admired. Over 70 people attended, the highest I’d ever mentored at once. That single session gave me speaking experience and visibility. A second example? My first guest speaker session was scary (and very fun), but it gave me the courage to share my marketing expertise publicly for the first time. That single “yes” led directly to my next opportunity: being invited as a keynote speaker. A personal brand is a long-term investment. If you focus only on “getting paid now,” you might miss the doors that could open later. That said, you should know your boundaries. Not every “free” request is strategic. Some are just… free. So I’m curious,  how do you decide when to work for free and when to charge?

Many organisations offer their employees paid one-off volunteering days. This sounds great on paper. The intention is brilliant. But the truth is, this RARELY helps charities. In fact, it often causes their staff team MORE work. Not exactly the impact you're hoping for. I know this from personal experience. One-day corporate visits are logistically challenging to make genuinely useful. What charities actually need is Commitment. Consistency. Real partnership. But the good news is it's absolutely possible. It starts with a conversation. Ask the charity: What do you actually need? What can we realistically facilitate? Not what we assume they need. What they actually need. Here are five helpful alternatives to one-day per year volunteering: 1. Weekly telephone befriending calls: 30 minutes per week. Your employees enrich the lives of isolated and lonely people, all from their desk. Consider a local Age UK charity or similar. 2. Half-day monthly support: Regular, predictable help. Food banks. Clothes banks. Community gardening. Environmental cleanups. Charities can actually plan knowing you're coming. It means something. 3. Evening and weekend volunteering with TOIL: Let your employees volunteer when charities actually need them, such as weekend fundraising events. You give them time off in the week. Everyone wins. The charity gets help when it matters most. 4. Offer a set amount of paid hours a year for volunteering that can be used flexibly: Such as give employees 48 hours per year to offer a charity. Let an employee and charity plan volunteering around that. 5. Skilled volunteering: Send brains, not just bodies. Marketing. Website work. Legal. Strategy. Don't waste your employee's expertise on practical tasks alone. (Your finance director's knowledge is worth more than their ability to move boxes). This Volunteers Week, could you pitch one of these to your workplace? Or if you work for a charity, share what would actually help you most? I'll share five more alternative ideas tomorrow 🙌

UNBUNDLED Post 1: The Early Bird | Start earlier than you think THE MYTH: You have to wait until you retire to become a non-executive   THE TRUTH:  You don’t need to "exit" to begin your transition. In fact, unbundling your career works best when you start early and still have that executive halo. Four years before I transitioned to a non-executive plural career, I joined a Multi-Academy Trust in the education sector as a trustee and committee chair. Why do this when I was a Chief Executive and spending half my life in the boardroom? Because things do look different from the other side of the table, and having experience of looking at things from a different perspective is important. Many executives assume their first Board seat will be a paid PLC role. In reality, the most successful portfolio careers often start pro bono in a school hall or a local community centre. If you want to unbundle, you need to prove you can govern. One of the most rewarding ways to do this is in the Education Sector. Schools and Academies are crying out for the high-level strategic skills you use every day - finance, legal, HR, digital transformation, and estates management. The Roadmap to your first "Unbundled" role: 1/ Find your passion locally: Look for an organisation locally or in a field you’re passionate about. It’s work you can often do in the evenings, it’s close to home, and the impact on the next generation is a powerful motivator alongside the experience you build. 2/ Have a "permission" conversation: Don’t keep your ambitions a secret. Talk to your current employer about seeking a volunteering role and why you think it’s additive. Frame it as professional development: you are gaining governance experience that will make you a more rounded, strategically aware executive for them. 3/ Target the Committee: Don't just sit on the main board of an organisation. Join a specific committee (like Finance or Audit). This is where the heavy lifting happens and where you build the "transferable skills" evidence required for your Board CV (to come in Post 4). 4/ Skills-based giving: You aren't just a volunteer; you are a specialist. Your ability to read the P&L or navigate a complex HR dispute is a massive asset to many organisations. So believe the value you can offer, no matter where you are in your career journey. My key takeaway: Governance is a muscle and a critical part of being a good non-executive. If you wait until you've left your big role to start training it, you’ll find it’s already blunted. Start now, have an impact locally, and build the foundation of your future portfolio. I’d love to hear from others who started in a similar way and the great ‘first jobs’ you had to offer some inspiration to those thinking about the transition. #Unbundled #Schoolgovernor #Trustee #Executivetransition #Givingback #Governanceskills

When I tell people Marshall Goldsmith Stakeholder Centered Coaching has never charged the U.S. military, they usually give me a puzzled look. “How is that profitable?” they ask. Here’s the story. Years ago, we were invited to work with a group of fighter pilots. No contract. No fee. Just an opportunity to serve. On paper, it made no business sense. But the experience was priceless. I still remember standing on the tarmac, watching those pilots talk about leadership with the same seriousness they bring to flying. The discipline, the accountability, the teamwork it shaped how I think about coaching to this day. And from that pro bono work came relationships and credibility that money couldn’t buy. Those doors led to paying clients, new networks, and stories I still share in boardrooms around the world. Pro bono isn’t charity. Done strategically, it’s currency. It can build trust, expand your reach, and give you experiences that make you a better coach and a more valuable one. So don’t dismiss unpaid work out of hand. Sometimes the gigs that don’t pay the bills end up shaping the business that does.

Volunteering Together Isn’t Just Altruism—It’s Chemistry. OXYTOCIN #5 When employees spend a day planting trees, packing food, or mentoring youth, something profound happens. Yes—they give back. But just as importantly, they bond. Deeply. Lastingly. Biologically. 🧠 Oxytocin is released when people engage in shared acts of kindness or prosocial behavior. And when those acts are done together, they don’t just help the community—they transform the internal dynamics of the team. 🔬 The Science: Acts of generosity and shared altruism stimulate oxytocin, increasing group cohesion and empathy (Zak, 2005). According to Post et al. (2007), volunteering boosts mental health and life satisfaction through emotional reciprocity—a key oxytocin pathway. Teams that volunteer together report higher engagement, lower interpersonal conflict, and greater post-activity collaboration (Journal of Business Ethics, 2014). Positive Organizational Interventions (POIs) like: ✅ Meaning-Centered Work ✅ Positive Identity Building ✅ Purpose-Driven Culture … often use volunteering as a platform for shared values and emotional bonding. 📌 What to Do: Build team-based volunteering initiatives that align with your company’s mission or your team’s unique passions. Ideas: Partner with a local nonprofit and offer quarterly service days Organize a day of giving tied to your company anniversary Invite cross-functional teams to co-lead community service events Offer paid volunteering hours for employees to use individually and in teams Integrate service stories into internal comms and team meetings To boost oxytocin, frame volunteering not just as "doing good"—but as connecting meaningfully through shared purpose. 🕰️ When to Do It: During onboarding, to ground new hires in community values After stressful quarters, as a restorative and re-centering activity At offsites, strategy retreats, or team summits To celebrate milestones or reconnect disconnected departments The key is consistency and emotional reflection—not just the event, but the shared meaning behind it. 📊 KPIs to Track: Participation rate in team volunteering Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) Engagement levels post-volunteering Sense of belonging (“I feel proud of my company’s values”) Collaboration metrics across participating teams 🚧 Common Objection: “We’re too busy to volunteer as a team.” 🔄 Reframe it: You’re not taking people away from work. You’re giving them a reason to care more deeply about the people they work with. One day of volunteering can: ✔️ Rebuild broken trust ✔️ Reduce burnout ✔️ Spark unexpected connection ✔️ Strengthen purpose retention If full days aren’t possible, start with micro-volunteering: One-hour virtual tutoring Packing kits in the break room A cause-related challenge (e.g., 10,000 steps for clean water) Start small—but start together. #oxytocin #purposeatwork #positiveorganizationalinterventions #servantleadership #meaningfulwork #communityimpact #organizationaltrust

📈"Led valuation analysis for three major acquisitions totaling $150M..." Impressive? Maybe. Unique among finance applicants? Not even close.    In the sea of finance applicants, your models, Excel skills, and deal experience blur together with everyone else's. But there's an underutilized asset on your resume that most finance professionals mismanage: your NGO volunteering.  Most applicants list volunteer work as an afterthought. "I serve meals monthly at a homeless shelter." "I participate in beach cleanups." These activities show compassion but miss a crucial opportunity to demonstrate how you think. ❓The secret to standing out? Finance skills + NGO volunteering = Strategic impact = Unforgettable application. Here's how to transform basic volunteering into application gold: 🔎Financial analysis prowess: Don't just serve. Analyze. Apply valuation skills to measure impact. Create metrics that guide resource decisions. 💹Budgeting mastery: Nonprofits need financial planning. Adapt your corporate tools. Teach forecasting to passionate founders lacking business skills. 🎯Risk assessment instincts: Scan operations with a critical eye. Spot vulnerabilities like in deal analysis. Implement controls that protect the mission. 🔀Funding diversification knowledge: Apply portfolio theory to revenue streams. Reduce single-source dependencies. Show how diversification builds stability. When you leverage your finance toolkit in volunteer settings, your application transforms: ➡️Resume impact: Replace "Volunteer, City Food Bank" with "Financial Advisor: Developed sustainable funding model increasing meal service capacity by 25%" ➡️Essay depth: Instead of "I'm passionate about education," write "I applied scenario analysis techniques to help an education nonprofit weather funding fluctuations while maintaining service to 200+ students" ➡️Interview stories: When asked about leadership challenges, contrast motivating unpaid volunteers with managing analysts—revealing deeper insights about human motivation ➡️Recommendation quality: Brief recommenders on how volunteering has enhanced your professional judgment, creativity, and ability to work with diverse stakeholders 💡The compelling MBA candidate isn't the finance professional who occasionally volunteers. It's the strategic thinker who applies specialized expertise where it's desperately needed but rarely found. 💭Remember: In finance, you compete with thousands of similar profiles. In the nonprofit world, your analytical skills are rare and transformative. This contrast creates the narrative that admissions committees can't ignore. What financial skill could you contribute to a cause you care about this month? Even a focused 10-hour project might be what makes your application unforgettable. Payal, Abha, Rashmi, Dhruv, Kashish, Bhahulya, Gargee, Faye Mackenzie, Bara Sapir, MA, Candy Lee La Balle #FinanceToMBA #ApplicationStrategy #NonprofitImpact #TheDifferentiationSeries