Best practices and lessons learned in disaster related corporate volunteering include focusing on the essence of your company’s business to decide on volunteering projects as Zurich Insurance did by focusing on flood resilience.  Companies find that when skilled volunteers are required it is useful to work with the HR department to help select employees.  Another effective approach is directly inviting specific employees to volunteer because their skills are required in the response.  This approach creates excitement and visibility around the volunteer effort.

The panel also felt that it was important to allow a grassroots response to disasters, allowing employees to respond with” hands and heart”.  GSK Turkey’s programs fit in this category.  Google utilizes both engineers to develop technical tools and enables employees to respond in person to certain disasters through the organization All Hands. Another way to channel the “CNN moment” is to launch employee-giving campaigns right away, and follow-up the company investment of funds and volunteers in the long-term recovery phase where action is often most needed and frequently neglected.

All four companies stressed the importance of working with local NGOs (for local knowledge and nuance), in addition to multinational NGOs (in order to establish credibility).

Encouragingly, companies are beginning to work with others in their industry and beyond to prepare for and respond to disasters.  Google and Microsoft are starting to collaborate in some instances with technology tools, UPS and its logistics competitors work together to respond to disasters, and the global insurance providers are discussing ways to work together as well.

Prepared by Lorrie Foster, Moderator

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