Employee Volunteer Program (EVP) 101 Sponsored by:

1. Employee Volunteer Program (EVP) 101 Sponsored by: connect.inspire.impact.

2. About Us • Founded 1992 • Purpose • Membership • Programming connect.inspire.impact.

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. connect.inspire.impact.

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 connect.inspire.impact.

5. Why do EVP’s Matter? • Data shows that EVP’s boost corporate performance. • EVP’s also bolster cost efficiency connect.inspire.impact.

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) connect.inspire.impact.

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) connect.inspire.impact.

8. Supporting Programs • Dollars-for-doers • Matching grants • Flextime or release time • Vacation/PTO • Team project grants • Outstanding volunteer recognition connect.inspire.impact.

9. Getting Started Business Community Needs Employee Interest connect.inspire.impact.

10. Employee Interests • Surveys • Creative voting • Other? connect.inspire.impact.

11. Community Needs • Work with partners! • Other CVC member companies • Business partners • Local Federations and Nonprofits • Existing agencies/partners connect.inspire.impact.

12. Focus Areas • Considerations in selections • Criteria for selections connect.inspire.impact.

13. Building Your Program • Management Support • Mission/Goals/Strategies/Objectives • Tasks • Timelines • Communications Plans • Budgets • Evaluation connect.inspire.impact.

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 connect.inspire.impact.

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? connect.inspire.impact.

16. Disasters • Taking care of employees first • Partner in advance • Facilitating other involvement connect.inspire.impact.

17. Friends and Family • Do you count company supported projects done on company time by employees only? • Family volunteering? connect.inspire.impact.

18. In-kind or financial • Leveraging core business with less out of pocket • Skills based volunteerism • Supporting employees during crisis connect.inspire.impact.

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 connect.inspire.impact.

20. Recruiting & Retention • Volunteer motivations • Building on success • Staff Development • Recognition – from coffee mugs to performance reviews connect.inspire.impact.

21. Project Planning • Engage your employees • Determine project scope & budget connect.inspire.impact.

22. Project Planning cont’d • Metrics! • Set expectations with partner agency • Sketch out “day of” event activities #1 reason people stop volunteering is poor volunteer management connect.inspire.impact.

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 connect.inspire.impact.

24. Communications cont’d • 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. connect.inspire.impact.

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 connect.inspire.impact.

26. Recognition cont’d • Internal recognition • External recognition connect.inspire.impact.

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 EVP’s? connect.inspire.impact.

28. What about budget? • EVP budgets vary greatly, investing anywhere from <$15 to >$800 per employee (not per volunteer) • On average - Excellent EVP’s invest $179/per employee Information courtesy of the 2010 Trends of Excellence Series connect.inspire.impact.

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 connect.inspire.impact.

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 connect.inspire.impact.

31. Questions? connect.inspire.impact.

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@cvcofatlanta.org Special thanks to Katy Elder, Points of Light for her support of this presentation. connect.inspire.impact.