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Philanthropy research
Business should offer charities specialist skills, shows new research
, Added: 09 May 2008Research into how charities and companies can work better together for mutual benefit has been launched by the Nationwide Foundation, together with the Abbey Charitable Trust and Volunteering England.
The research ‘Developing Understanding Around Non-Financial Support’ found that companies can add significant value by offering the specialised skills of their staff through volunteering programmes. Skills-based volunteering in core areas such as management strategy can drive the growth of a charity and help build capacity. The research concluded that an increase in this type of support would be greatly valued by charities.
Lisa Parker, chief executive of the Nationwide Foundation, which funds charities’ core costs and capacity-building, commented: “The research found that whilst companies typically offer team volunteering days at charities, undertaking activities such as painting, or gardening, they could give charities more and better quality support by offering individual staff with specific skills (such as PR and finance) as volunteers.
“The benefit to companies in offering such support provides improved personal development opportunities and new experience to staff. It also shows a greater and more meaningful commitment to the community and could form part of a CSR strategy.”
The research showed that more companies are developing programmes to offer professional services in long-term partnerships with charities, so the market is in someway developing to meet the need, although it revealed that more can be done. It was also found that brokers can play a crucial role in helping charities and companies to maximise the benefits of working together.
The research was undertaken by The Smart Company – now Corporate Citizenship – a consultancy which specialises in corporate community investment, cross-sector partnerships and corporate foundations.
The Foundation is now working with Volunteering England and Abbey Charitable Trust to share the findings of this research with companies and charities across the UK. The full report can be found on the Foundation’s website.
- Naitonwide Foundation and Abbey Charitable Trust were featured in Philanthropy UK’s December 2007 Newsletter in an article on best practice in corporate giving. To read the article please click here.
