A Quarter Century Of Corporates Giving Back To Communities

ANNE HEAL, CHAIR OF TRUSTEES OF VOLUNTEERING MATTERS

25 years of volunteering. A million hours of employee time given by 160,000 employees. £40 million of company time invested in high impact social action volunteer programmes, helping 192,000 beneficiaries

So, those are the raw numbers behind the 25 years of employee volunteering by Volunteering Matters and our corporate partners. The volunteers work in teams, and on a one-to-one basis, to support disadvantaged people across the UK. The beneficiaries include school children being tutored in English and Maths, unemployed people receiving training on CV writing and interview techniques, and disabled people being offered work experience opportunities at a range of national organisations.

But those impressive numbers don’t tell the whole story. What they don’t show is the benefit to the individual employees who have given their time, effort and commitment. Because employee volunteering doesn’t just benefit the recipient, it benefits the volunteer too. When I led BT’s volunteering programme, time and again I heard from employees who had achieved far more than they had expected through volunteering, and who had learnt new things and broadened their horizons as a result…

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