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Friday Jan 30, 2009
Employer Supported Volunteering - who's it for?
I went to a conference on ESV (Employer Supported Volunteering for those not in the know…) earlier this week that I found pretty thought-provoking. In particular, a panel debate between two broker organisations and two companies got my brain ticking over. The debate was all about why ESV isn’t the norm for businesses if it’s such a great way of developing skills.
What got me thinking was the overall tone of the messages I got. To grossly simplify things, I felt like the message I got from the private sector was:
“Operate more like us, and talk our language. Sell us creative ways to engage lots of our staff – but make sure it’s genuine and don’t make any of it up. And measure the impact of our activity for us. But don’t ask us for any money.”
I’m fully prepared to admit I’m a bit defensive about this, but sometimes it feels like there aren’t many genuine conversations between businesses and charities when it comes to ESV.
There seems to be an understandable frustration from businesses that increasingly charities and brokers charge for their services (eg. “What? I thought volunteering was free?”), with the sneaking suspicion that charities are trying to make “profit” from ESV.
I can also see a lot of businesses rolling their eyes when they don’t get the level of professionalism that they perceive they should do from their charity partners.
I can understand these frustrations, but it does seem a little one sided. For me, one of the wonderful things about the voluntary sector is its diversity and passion for a wide range of causes. We don’t all speak the same language, and whilst some charities don’t operate like businesses, they are extremely good at operating on a shoestring budget whilst still meeting their mission.
This doesn’t make us incompatible with the private sector, it just sometimes makes us different. And when you bring together organisations that are different, it gives you a tremendous opportunity to learn from each other.
P.S. Whilst I'm ranting about conferences, ages ago I posted about the demographic breadown at most fundraising conferences. Although this is completely un-scientific, I have noticed that a couple of conferences I've attended recently haev been less female dominated - anyone else noticed this?
Posted by Sam Thomas ( 10:18 AM ) Link to this post Comments[0]
