Skills-Based Volunteering Uses Employee Talents to Benefit Nonprofits

Painting the walls of a classroom. Participating in story time at the local library. Planting flowers or a garden at a nursing home: Those are some ways employees have traditionally volunteered with nonprofits through their employer.

Then there are initiatives such as the one this year in which 40 employees from LinkedIn’s advertising unit built and optimized more than 2,400 ad campaigns for 90 nonprofit organizations on the world’s largest professional networking site.

It’s an example of skills-based volunteering (SBV), which “involves a little more effort than traditional volunteering,” said Leila Saad, CEO of Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Common Impact. The organization acts as an intermediary to create partnerships between companies and nonprofits.

Employees use their professional skills in areas such as technology, HR, and finance “to support a nonprofit that has an internal need,” Saad said. In particular, “companies that have [artificial intelligence] expertise are interested in giving that resource back to nonprofits.”

She pointed to the example of a tech team at a financial industry firm that devoted a chunk of time and expertise to fixing the glitches in a nonprofit’s computer system.

“Now that nonprofit has this great resource” it can use, Saad said.

Employers sometimes cast a wary eye on SBV, though, according to an article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, “because it is complex to implement, it requires a longer-term commitment, and the results of the engagement can be harder to measure.”

“Traditional community engagement programs such as grantmaking and volunteerism—by contrast—more readily align with a company’s short-term quarterly outputs. And because the goals of these types of projects are narrower, the results can be easier to measure,” wrote the authors, one of whom is the former CEO of Common Impact.

Different Models

There are different SBV models. A “skilled day of service,” for example, typically involves one to three days, while “project consulting” has a much longer time commitment—as long as six months, according to the Stanford Social Innovation Review.

Skills-based volunteering, Saad noted, requires realistic expectations from the nonprofit on what volunteers can accomplish within a given timeframe. It also requires more involvement on the employer’s part.

“Creating a well-curated experience where volunteers feel engaged from the start involves a little more effort than traditional volunteering,” she said. That includes the employer’s leadership’s engaging with and promoting skills-based volunteering, providing volunteers with the necessary time for the project, and creating an experience that is “right-sized” and has a planned outcome.

Employees at Honolulu-based ProService Hawaii, an HR resources provider, are afforded eight hours of annual paid time off for volunteering.

Tyler Tuipulotu, the firm’s talent acquisition operations partner, has used the time to share his expertise with students at Shidler College of Business at the University of Hawaii during HR-related workshops and at campus club meetings. He teaches students about business etiquette, resume writing tips, and interviewing techniques.

“Making volunteering part of our workplace culture boosts employee morale, fosters teamwork, improves our community, and strengthens company culture,” said Tammy Perkins, chief people officer at ProService Hawaii. “We think of volunteering less as a way for employees to polish their skills and more as a way for us to use our collective expertise to support these vital community services.”

It can also benefit the employer, Tuipulotu pointed out.

“I’m helping set students up for success while building a brand identity for ProService,” he said. “It also turned into a successful recruitment practice, with many students being hired into temporary positions while still in school that turn into full-time opportunities with excellent growth trajectory upon graduation.”

Employers interested in implementing skills-based volunteering need to help their employees understand how their skills can contribute to the organization’s larger mission or purpose, Perkins said.

“Many individuals and even nonprofits don’t stop to think about how HR skills can benefit worthy causes in their community,” she said. Additionally, “it brings purpose to the employee’s day-to-day work life,” promotes their commitment to a social purpose, and helps them develop additional skills in the process.

“Yes, they have skills, but what we see from our surveys is that employees develop … leadership skills, oral presentation skills” and the like, Perkins said.

Meg Garlinghouse, vice president of social impact at LinkedIn, also sees benefits for the company’s workers.

“Employees are gaining and refining skills like empathy, teamwork, communication, problem solving, creativity, presentation skills, and more,” she said, noting volunteerism often involves employees engaging with individuals from different backgrounds, cultures, and companies.

Skills-based volunteering also can have a positive impact on retention, according to Perkins. She cited a six-year study that the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship conducted of a professional services firm that found a 36% reduction in attrition for employees who participated in SBV, compared with those who did not.

Tips

Garlinghouse, Perkins, and Saad offered the following tips for organizations interested in skills-based volunteerism:

• Create a clear, proactive plan for the initiative.
• Identify how the organization can build volunteering opportunities around its core asset as a company.

“It’s critical to engage employees around an opportunity that is connected to their professional work to promote skill building,” Garlinghouse said. She pointed to a 2024 Deloitte survey that found 91% of professionals indicated volunteer opportunities can have a positive impact on their overall work experience and connection to their employer.

“Creating volunteer opportunities that enable employees to gain and refine key skills supports a business need and offers the added benefit of a morale boost,” Garlinghouse said.

• Have leadership promote and signal to the company and the employees the importance of skills-based volunteering.

One way to do so is by providing time off for volunteering. More than one-fourth (28%) of 4,529 respondents to SHRM’s 2024 Employee Benefits Survey said their organization provided this benefit.

• Have one or two key people champion skills-based volunteering.

“It’s usually structured as a team engagement,” Saad said. “Having someone take a leadership role can make a big difference in the outcomes.”

• Develop a strong relationship with a nonprofit to create an initiative that is appropriately sized.

“Sometimes you need to scale back” on an initiative, Saad said.

All parties involved can benefit from SBV, Perkins noted.

“Ultimately, a purpose-driven workforce leads to better performance and a stronger, more unified organizational culture,” she said, “and the nonprofit organizations who benefit are often under-resourced, especially in the area of HR.”