At VM Summit 16, we heard from members of the Hunger Volunteer Collaborative including VolunteerMatch, the
Alliance to End Hunger, and the Taproot Foundation about how they fight hunger with pro bono programming that leverages logistic and safety expertise. Learn about ways to get involved and reduce food insecurity in the U.S., as well as examples of how companies are joining the effort.
6. #VMSummit16
LEVERAGE FOR IMPACT
PAGE 6
BOARD
SERVICE
PRO BONO
SERVICE
SKILLED
VOLUNTEERING
“HANDS-ON”
VOLUNTEERING
BOARD PLACEMENT
MARKETING
HR ASSISTANCE,
STRATEGIC
PLANNING
TUTORING,
LITERACY
PROGRAM
SOUP
KITCHEN
TYPE OF VOLUNTEERISM
SUSTAINABILITYOFIMPACTON
ORGANIZATION
NUMBEROFEMPLOYEES
ENGAGED
Low
High
High
Low
#VMSummit16
8. #VMSummit16
Hunger Volunteer Connection: Vision and Goal
Can we find a way to scale
strategic anti-hunger
volunteerism nationally?
8
Hunger Volunteer
Connection: Started from a
single question
9. #VMSummit16 9
Hunger Volunteer Connection: Initiative Framework
VISION: To minimize food insecurity in the United States
MISSION: To bolster anti-hunger efforts through high-impact volunteering
OBJECTIVES:
• Enhance nonprofits’ organizational capacity and reach
• Engage more volunteers
• Increase strategic volunteerism
PARTNERSHIP PRIORITIES:
National Infrastructure
Development
Nonprofit & Volunteer
Capacity Building
Thought Leadership
BENCHMARK OF SUCCESS:
• Garner 500,000+ hours of service in the fight against hunger
by September 2018, half focused on strategic volunteerism.
10. #VMSummit16 10
Volunteer Outreach
& Engagement
Expertise
Skill-Based
Volunteerism
Hungervolunteer.org
AmeriCorps-VISTA
Hunger Advocacy City Governments
Organizational
Development & Target
Marketing
Hunger Volunteer Connection: National Partners
11. #VMSummit16
Source: Hunger Free America Beyond The Food Drive Toolkit
11
Hunger Volunteering Connection: Opportunity Spectrum
Clearly define the pathway for volunteers to
deepen their engagement
12. #VMSummit16 12
Hunger Volunteer Connection: Build Collaboration
Establish protocols to guide partner involvement
• Work together to achieve a common goal
• Support measurement and data collection
• Actively participate in inter-organizational activities
• Convene regularly to assess progress and milestones
• Participate in joint communication efforts
• Align under initiative branding
• Maintain open lines of communication
• Seek opportunities to deepen partner relationships
13. #VMSummit16
Create a public interface for volunteers and
organizations to connect
The site features:
• Easy color-coded navigation to guide the user experience
• Key information and data about the cause and relevance of
volunteerism to anti-hunger efforts
• Emotional and compelling narrative to inspire engagement
• Simple calls to action for visitors
• Access to technology to support volunteer recruitment
13
www.hungervolunteerconnection.org
Hunger Volunteer Connection: Website
14. #VMSummit16 14
Hunger Volunteer Connection: Signature Tools
14
Set the pace by accomplishing initial small wins
Step-by-step guidance on 30
advocacy actions
Blueprints to aid mayors in the
develop citywide hunger relief
campaigns
Diagnostic that benchmarks organizations
against core fundamental for an effective
volunteer engagement program
Assessment to help organizations
determine readiness for skills-
based volunteers
1
2 3 4
15. #VMSummit16 15
Hunger Volunteer Connection: Key Results for 2015
10.1+ million media impressions drawing attention to domestic hunger and volunteerism as a solution
1,026 uses of signature tools
1,897 leaders trained
$262.4 million in social value created
110,752 connections to hunger listings
32% conversion rate for volunteer connection from opportunity searches
16. #VMSummit16 16
Help spread the word about www.hungervolunteerconnection.org AND share your tools and success stories
to enhance the site
Send an email to join our mailing list for updates: hvc@alliancetoendhunger.org
Follow us on Twitter and Facebook:
@HV_Connect
@hungervolunteerconnection (Facebook)
@toendhunger
@citiesofservice
@taprootfound
@pointsoflight
@volunteermatch
@hungerfreeUSA
THANK YOU FOR JOINING US TODAY!!
ACTING TOGETHER, WE CAN BE PART OF THE SOLUTION
#Collaborating4Good
Stay Connected
18. #VMSummit16
VolunteerMatch’s Role
1. Power the Hunger Volunteer Connection website
with the VolunteerMatch Network
2. Volunteer Program Improvement Tool
3. Nonprofit Trainings
4. Outreach to Volunteers & Nonprofits
5. Results since May 2014
– 42%+ monthly skilled listings
– 33%+ monthly skilled connections
18
21. #VMSummit16
Nonprofit Trainings
• Examples:
– Developing a Strategic Plan for Volunteer
Engagement
– Successfully Implementing Volunteer Program
Changes
– The New Volunteer Manager’s Toolkit
– Writing Accurate and Useful Volunteer Position
Descriptions
• 2,483 Hunger organizations attended
21
22. #VMSummit16
Outreach to Volunteers & Nonprofits
• 13 Direct Email Campaigns (450,000+
unique contacts)
• 5 e-Newsletter Features (450,000+
unique contacts)
• 90+ Social Media Posts (150,000+
followers)
• 6 Blog Posts (25,000+ unique visits
monthly) (7 Innovative Ways to Fight
Hunger)
• Ongoing ads on VolunteerMath.org (Over
6 million impressions)
• And more! (Webinars, links from other
sites, etc.)
22
23. #VMSummit16
The Taproot
Foundation drives
social change by
leading, mobilizing,
and engaging
professionals in pro
bono service.
ABOUT THE TAPROOT FOUNDATION
► Working in the US and abroad
from 5 offices: San Francisco Bay
Area, Los Angeles, Chicago, New
York, and Washington DC
► 13,700+ professionals delivering
1.4 million hours of pro bono
consulting valued at over $150
million since 2001
► Consulted to 60+ Fortune 500
and other companies to build and
advance employee pro bono
programs
#VMSummit16
24. #VMSummit16
WHAT WE DO
PAGE 24
PROGRAMS
CORPORATE
ADVISORY SERVICES
PRO BONO
LEADERSHIP
Taproot pairs nonprofits
with skilled volunteers
in areas like marketing,
strategy, HR, and IT.
Taproot advises and
supports companies in
developing high-impact
pro bono programs for
employees.
Taproot drives social
change with events and
research, in the US and
through a global
provider network.
#VMSummit16
25. #VMSummit16
WHAT: A diagnostic tool and accompanying resources to assess and build an
organization’s readiness for pro bono.
WHY WE BUILT IT: Skills-based volunteering can be a great solution when an
organization has the right project and the right strategy and team in place to
carry it forward. The tool helps organizations assess their readiness and make
sure they’re set up for success before they get started!
WHERE IT LIVES: The tool lives on Taproot’s website under Web Tools for DIY
pro bono as well as on Point’s of Light’s website. In September 2015 the tool will
also live on Hunger Volunteer Connection.
HOW TO USE IT: The tool is available and relevant for ALL organizations and
we can all direct nonprofits to the tool.
28. #VMSummit16
THE NEED: Greater Berks Food Bank wanted to
improve their safety initiatives in anticipation of moving
to a new, much larger facility.
THE PROJECT: Hillshire Brands worked with the food
bank to identify short, medium, and longer term steps
that Greater Berks could take to establish a stronger
safety program.
THE RESULTS: Employees at Greater Berks now use a
procedure to identify and report potential safety hazards
which has resulted in a number of innovative employee-
led solutions including one related to unloading trucks at
loading docks.
CASE STUDY: GREATER BERKS FOOD BANK
PAGE 28
Everyone loves a checklist. Today this will be your checklist for what you should be able to walk away knowing how to do, the questions we know most of you have had to think about at one point or another when considering these kinds of programs.
BREE TO DISCUSS UP TO GENERAL SKILLS
JENNIFER BOARD SERVICE & PRO BONO PROFESSIONAL EXPERTISE
We’ve found the easiest way to think of this is that “skills-based volunteering” is an entire category of volunteering activities, covering a few ways that different types of a volunteer's skills can be used to help an organization or the community directly, ranging from tapping some general skills needed to help an organization directly deliver specific types of community programs, to providing professional expertise and professional services to support the organization itself.
The main distinction is that pro bono service is one very specific type of skills-based volunteering that focuses on using a volunteer’s core professional expertise.
o help make it easier to understand how everything fits together, the Taproot Foundation created this helpful diagram showing the full spectrum of common corporate community engagement activities. They’ve grouped them by the common types of nonprofits needs that need to be addressed and then the different ways companies help support them.
At the top is a very simplified categorization of nonprofits’ needs:
‘Making budget’ – having the funding they need to run the organization’s programs
“Extra hands” to deliver services and programs directly to the community
And “infrastructure and leadership” – having those critical components in place that are the backbone of any healthy institution
Then beneath that are the common buckets of support that companies tend to provide to address these needs:
Providing financial support
Providing volunteers to help actually deliver the nonprofits’ programs/services directly to the community –through traditional hands-on volunteering
And then we get into the broader category of types of skills-based volunteering activities, which covers a few ways that different types of a volunteer's skills can be used to help an organization, ranging from:
Tapping some general skills needed to help an organization directly deliver specific types of community programs. These can be skills a volunteer brings to the table or sometimes it’s knowledge that the nonprofit will provide. A very common example is Junior Achievement.
Providing employee board members to support the leadership of the organization
And providing professional expertise and professional services to support the organization itself. Despite popular belief, pro bono is definitely not just for lawyers! Nonprofits have need for just as many types of professional expertise as for-program companies do. From IT support to marketing to HR services - it’s not all about fundraising.
As we go through this presentation, Start thinking about which of these feel most familiar to you based on your company’s existing programs and your goals. Which of these do you already do? In which of these categories to you want to expand your offerings?
<<This slide and the one after should not be used in the same presentation because they explain the same concept. This slide is helpful when explaining how pro bono service leverages volunteers for more impact.>>
So in thinking about volunteerism, where does pro bono fit it?
Starting here at the base of the triangle…
The most traditional well known volunteering is what we call “hands on” or Extra Hands – that’s usually things like distributing food, cleaning up a park, or painting a school. These are incredible resources for nonprofits, however they need a lot of people-power to keep their operations humming and in general, have a very low sustainability of impact on the organization.
Moving to the next level, we come to Skilled Volunteering which uses skills to help with tutoring, judging a science fair, or supporting a literacy program. These skills, however, may not be the skills that professionals use in your every day work.
Then comes Pro Bono Service. This is when skilled volunteers or pro bono consultants complete projects that they might do in their day job for organizations that are tackling important social issues. Pro bono projects often produce deliverables or processes that a social change organization can use for years to come resulting in a very high sustainability of impact on the organization.
For example, website improvements, improving a database system or building a HR performance management system.
On the top here, is Board Service. While board service may not tap into skills someone uses in their day job, it does allow volunteers to use not just their skills, but also their networks and relationships to engage the community. The most successful boards engage a board with diverse skill sets to strengthen the organizations infrastructure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8oHxnN4ICw
VISION:
To ignite and catapult volunteering by inviting the public to join together in the fight to end hunger through strategic volunteerism, while preparing community and civic organizations to engage more volunteers in deeper ways.
GOAL:
Strengthen the capacity and reach of nonprofits through the donation of at least 500,000 hours of service in the fight against hunger by September 2018, with half of the hours focused on strategic volunteerism.
Increase national awareness of hunger and role of strategic volunteerism as a solution for long-term sustainable change
Bolster nonprofit capacity by filling gaps in resource needs
Increase utilization of technology
Establish a centralized hub for stakeholders to connect and engage
Provide national and local training opportunities
Increase access to technical assistance, coaching, and peer learning
Establish a library of online tools and resources
Building the long-term capacity of organizations to ease the burden of using their limited funds to pay for professional services (skills-based or pro bono, organizational governance)
Helping communities to grow, distribute and sustain access points to farm-fresh foods (gardens, community supported agriculture, farmers' markets)
Increasing the awareness of and connecting families to the Federal Nutrition Programs such as SNAP, summer meals and school breakfast programs
Participating in advocacy actions that will inform and engage elected officials to champion and preserve Federal funding for nutrition and anti-poverty programs and to strengthen the ability of these programs to aid Americans in need
The goal is for the website to become the premiere aggregation place for hunger information, resources, and stories that empowers individuals and organizations.
Increase in skilled listings 3385 4818 since May 2014 to May 2016
Increase in skilled connections 3704 4908 since May 2014 to May 2016
Jenn
Most organizations tackling social problems don’t have access to the resources that are available to most companies like marketing, strategy, HR, and IT….Taproot connects these organizations to skilled volunteers who provide their expertise pro bono.
Our mission is to drive social change by leading, mobilizing and engaging professional in pro bono service. To date, we’ve worked with more than 13,700 professionals across the country to delvier 1.4 million hours of pro bono consulting which is values at more than $150 million in pro bono consulting to the nonprofit community.
<<“What we do” slide for presentation slides. There’s less text, though the full language is written below>>
PROGRAMS: Taproot pairs nonprofits with skilled volunteers in areas like marketing, strategy, HR, and IT. From one-on-one consultations to team-based long-term projects, we offer in-person and virtual engagements.
CORPORATE ADVISORY SERVICES: Taproot advises and supports companies in developing customized, high-impact pro bono programs for their employees and communities.
PRO BONO LEADERSHIP: Taproot drives social change by enabling pro bono service in the US and through a global provider network. Taproot convenes leaders at signature events and facilitates field-building research.
Talking Points:
Background on the tool, why we built it, where it lives, how to use it
Taproot + slide
Get started on your own and hear about how this food bank successfully leveraged skilled volunteers.