To Our Corporate Colleagues Worldwide

“We need a sensible way to test whether our volunteer program is up to standards.”

That is the message we have heard repeatedly from businesses worldwide. In response, we have developed the “Performance Indicators for World-Class Corporate Volunteering.”

Our goal is simple: to provide a straight-forward, easy-to-use tool that will show you the strengths and the areas for improvement in your corporate volunteering.

The tool is built around six Essential Elements:

• Leadership Commitment and a Positive Organizational Environment
• A Policy Framework that Enables High Performance
• Strong Partnerships with the Community
• Managing for Impact, Sustainability, and Innovation
• Learning from Action
• Leadership for Business and Community

These are supported by 12 Core Indicators, specific statements designed to help determine whether the Essential Elements are in place, and a series of specific Performance Measures.

The Performance Indicators are designed to be used at any level of the company – from an overall multinational assessment through to a self-assessment by a single local unit.

After testing the Performance Indicators with companies in the United States and Brazil, we are confident that they are now “ready for prime time.”

Our plan is to make them available in two ways:

• Directly to individual companies under a licensing agreement that includes unlimited use plus consulting support to ensure that they add the greatest possible value.
  


• Through introductory training events that include licensing and consulting support.

How can you learn more about the Performance Indicators and how they can help you strengthen your volunteer efforts?

Kenn and Sue Heiler are always available by telephone (202-628-4360) or email (info@civilsociety.biz) to talk directly with you about your specific needs.

Isn’t now the time to take the next step in becoming a truly “world class” corporate volunteer program?

The Performance Indicators were born in Brazil when the two of us were working together at Voluntarios das Gerais. We recognized that we were hearing the same thing from companies there that we had heard in other parts of Brazil, in the United States, and throughout the world: “Help us measure the quality of our program.”

We worked with fourteen companies in Brazil to develop and test the first version of the Indicators. We drew on their expertise as a complement to our own experience, ensuring that we would come up with something comfortable for companies to actually use.

That we could begin the development process in Brazil is a reflection of the new global realities. Corporate volunteering is becoming a worldwide response to the rapidly emerging worldwide expectations for corporate social responsibility and community engagement. It also is a testimony to the rapid and innovative development of corporate volunteering in Brazil, the fifth largest country in the world and now one of the world’s leaders in volunteering.

While it is difficult to “blow one’s own horn,” let us tell you just a bit about our background and the perspective we have brought to the development of the Performance Indicators.

Monica has been deeply involved in the rapid development of corporate volunteering Brazil over the past seven years. As founding executive director of Programa Voluntarios, the national volunteer program created by First Lady Dr. Ruth Cardoso, she led the first research on corporate volunteering and ignited national interest through convenings, trainings, and promotion. As executive director of Voluntarios das Gerais, the innovative effort to promote corporate volunteering throughout the industrial heartland of Brazil, she pioneered new training and promotional techniques, including creation of “V-Day,” the most successful corporate day of service in the world. Now, as president of Iniciativa Brasil, she is bringing her consulting and training skills to businesses throughout Brazil.

Kenn, although he hates to admit how long ago it was, led the very first research on corporate volunteering in the United States almost thirty years ago, co-authoring the two most comprehensive books ever published about it and leading the Delphi process that first articulated the mutual benefit rationale of “good for the community, good for the workers, good for the company.” As executive director of the National Volunteer Center, he helped create the first national programs to promote and support corporate volunteering. In the course of that work and later on the staff of the Points of Light Foundation, he had the opportunity to consult with some of the largest companies in the country. Over the past ten years, he has worked with businesses, trade associations, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations worldwide to promote corporate volunteering and corporate-community volunteer partnerships.

We believe that you will find “The Performance Indicators for World-Class Corporate Volunteering” to be one of your most valuable management tools. They will become an integral part of your continuing development of the “case” for your volunteer effort, part of your demonstration of the contribution of your programs to the company’s strategic business goals.

We look forward to the opportunity to talk further with you about how we can put the Performance Indicators to work for you.

Thanks!

For more information, please contact Sue Heiler, Senior Director for Corporate Services, at 202-628-4360, or sue@civilsociety.biz.