Engage your employees this season of giving through virtual and hybrid volunteering
Guest Blog Post by Goodera
Thanksgiving is a time that conjures up feelings of gratitude, love, and empathy. This Holiday season, choose volunteering as the ideal way to engage your teams in acts of happiness and kindness.
Great food, a holiday, friends, and families, all tied together with a sense of community and gratitude – yes, it’s November and almost time for Thanksgiving.
Celebrated every year on November 25 majorly in the U.S. and Canada, Thanksgiving Day is an occasion to reflect on your blessings by spending time with family and friends and “giving gratitude.”
While it has historically been a time to celebrate the harvest and other blessings of the past year, it also encompasses the feelings of being grateful for the nation, its people, and its communities. This is precisely why Thanksgiving and the weeks following Black Friday are ideal times to chip in and engage in altruistic acts of giving.
Employee Volunteering on Thanksgiving
Many businesses provide employee volunteer programs and opportunities in the workplace. Throughout the year, companies offer paid time off to their employees to participate in volunteering activities. They also donate money and resources to nonprofits through their CSR programs to aid the underserved.
Most nonprofits also run campaigns and focus their marketing efforts around the holidays, when people are more generous. What better time to engage your employee in doing good, than when they’re more inclined to do so?
In a nutshell, Thanksgiving is the right time for corporations to reap the many benefits of volunteering in boosting the morale of a purpose-driven workforce. But like any other engagement strategy, corporate volunteering strategies also require careful planning, communication, and the right volunteering partner.
Build a corporate volunteering strategy that works
Volunteering around the holidays can be more difficult than most people anticipate. Volunteering opportunities are abundant, but there is also an abundance of people with diverse interests, who want to volunteer.
Talking about virtual and hybrid volunteering opportunities that involve completely virtual or partly virtual and physical modes of volunteering for large corporate teams, the search for opportunities must begin early.
Plan your volunteer work around the organization’s needs and the nature of the workforce. If your employees are working remotely, virtual volunteering would be the right choice. If you have a hybrid workforce, you might opt for the hybrid volunteering model which allows employees to participate from home as well as from the office.
Understand how many volunteers are willing to participate, how their volunteering hours will be distributed around the holidays, and how best to choose volunteering activities that align with their interests.
One easy solution would be to take the help of a virtual volunteering partner. Such a partner should be able to help you right from curating volunteering opportunities to managing the whole volunteering experience.
At Goodera, we have already planned a suite of volunteering opportunities around the theme of Thanksgiving and Giving Tuesday. These opportunities are distributed globally and accommodate both virtual and hybrid means of volunteering.
Let’s take a quick look at three of the top opportunities that Goodera is providing through November and December.
Spotlight: 3 corporate volunteering opportunities from Goodera
The festive season brings happiness aplenty to you and your families. However, there are many for whom the season passes without any festivities. Empower your employees to volunteer and make an impact through small acts of kindness.
- Assemble the Mt. Sugar Cookie kit for children in crisis
Employees can volunteer along with their kids to assemble a Mt. Sugar Cookie kit which includes fun winter-themed activities and crafts provided by the nonprofit organization that will spread holiday cheer to children in crisis. Employee volunteers will also add thanksgiving wishes to the kits. Every volunteer will receive supplies to build two kits.
- Attend a dance workshop led by people with (dis)abilities
Employees along with their families can take part in a fun virtual dance session led by dancers with (dis)ability. Through this class, employee volunteer time is not only engaged in a socially, emotionally, and physically engaging experience, but your employees are also contributing towards a greater cause.
- Record Christmas audiobooks to spread cheer to children battling cancer
The end of November also signals the arrival of the Christmas season. Through this Christmas-themed activity, employees can show their support for children battling cancer, by recording audiobooks on fables or stories. The audiobooks will help provide emotional support to these children who would benefit from feeling a sense of solidarity and comfort.
There are many more diverse volunteering opportunities where these three came from. You can choose from our list of immersive volunteering experiences to engage your employees this Thanksgiving season.
Wrapping up
Innovative volunteering strategies can also help you engage your employees, interns, customers, and partners through purposeful initiatives.
Engage in deeds of kindness with your team, involve your stakeholders in your activities, and communicate your contribution to the world.
Whichever model you choose to celebrate Thanksgiving at work, ensure that your employees are invested and that you’re inspiring others like you in doing acts of kindness.
Happy Thanksgiving!
