This is the second in a three-part series on the “3 Ms of Skills-Based Volunteering.” This series will address the aspects of pro bono engagements that businesses are least ready to grapple with: matching employees to nonprofit partners, managing SBV projects, and measuring impact. This post was submitted by Katy Elder, Senior Director of Training & Consulting at Points of Light and Yvonne Siu, Marketing Manager, A Billion + Change at Points of Light. For the purposes of this post, the terms “skills-based volunteering” and “pro bono” are used interchangeably.
In the first installment of this series, Alexander Shermansong shared a few tips and best practices on how to be an effective matchmaker for pro bono projects. In this post, we’re going to tackle what you can do to set yourself up for success by taking the time to plan and manage a pro bono engagement. We’ll also share free tools and resources to help you through this process. Let’s get started.
Like refurbishing a community center, a pro bono project will get your employees excited about helping the community and giving back. But unlike refurbishing a community center, a pro bono engagement can last weeks or even months, and requires a commitment to in-depth engagement from both skills-based volunteers and nonprofit partners. Even "Done-in-a-Day" marathon events -- while shorter projects by definition -- entail prep work. Readiness and planning are key drivers of success.
A big part of readiness and planning is project scoping. This is such an important element to skills-based volunteering that Deloitte, a leadership partner of A Billion + Change, has kicked off a series of “Scope Coaching” sessions in seven cities across the country. These sessions are dedicated to bringing Deloitte professionals together with nonprofits to identify solutions to their organizational challenges and scoping a pro bono project.
The results of these “Scope Coaching” sessions are immediate: the nonprofit receives a roadmap for a project that will add tremendous value to their organization and volunteers are excited to put their professional skills to work in way they may not have considered before.
"Last year on IMPACT Day, I was pulling weeds and it turns out I'm not very good at that. So when this opportunity came up to actually use my skills, I jumped on it!” said a Deloitte practitioner. Another said, “I really appreciated the opportunity to apply my consulting skills to a small startup-like nonprofit, it was a refreshing change from my day-to-day.”
Another Billion + Change pledge, NetSuite, emphasizes appropriate matching to set themselves up for success. “In traditional ‘hands-on’ volunteering, we know that each project is appropriate for all skill levels, so employees can sign-up for whichever project most interests them,” says Erin Dieterich,
“When we create our pro bono SuiteVolunteer projects, we take a different approach. Employees sign-up to participate in the program as a whole, and our team assigns employees to each project, providing a blend of expertise, knowledge and skill level. It’s my responsibility to constantly monitor each project and assess that the correct resources have been allocated – this – in addition to a well scoped project, are the best ways that we can set each engagement up for success from the beginning.”
Ultimately, skills-based volunteer projects are most successful when all of the following criteria are met:
- The project is completed and delivered in a timely manner.
- The deliverable is implementable and sustainable.
- The nonprofit’s and volunteers’ expectations are met or exceeded.
- All parties involved report high satisfaction with the group’s interactions.
- The nonprofit reports the project made an impact.
So, how do we arrive at these outcomes? For employee volunteer program (EVP) managers, here’s a quick list of how best to manage these projects and avoid potential pitfalls.
- Work with your nonprofit partner to scope the project. Outline the project’s scope including goals, realistic timelines and milestones, expectations, responsibilities, resources and skills needed. Identify specific deliverables and how you will measure success. Do this work before you begin anything else and ensure you have mutual agreement before moving forward. You can download a template Scoping Form online.
- Write job descriptions for each volunteer role and review them with the nonprofit partner to ensure you’re both on the same page.
- Introduce everybody and clarify roles: Introduce recruited volunteers to the nonprofit partner and to each other, especially if they are from different departments or business units. If this is a virtual opportunity, ensure your first conference call allows time for getting to know one another. Make sure the nonprofit partner explains their mission, the services they provide, why this project will be beneficial, and expresses the buy-in they’ve received from their leadership and board of directors.
- Implementation and execution: If the project requires a team of volunteers, assign one to act as project manager – this volunteer makes sure the group is staying on task and working toward the common goal. This volunteer will also continually communicate with the nonprofit partner and fellow volunteers to make sure that all project participants are meeting deadlines and working collectively to reach expected results. The Readiness Roadmap offers a robust set of pro bono implementation tools, which are available online at: www.readinessroadmap.org/implementation
- Check-in with the group’s project manager and the nonprofit partner to ensure there are no challenges to executing the deliverable within the timeframe specified. Regular check-ins will ensure that issues are brought to the forefront and addressed before they become major hurdles.
Along the way, keep these tips in mind:
- Watch for scope creep. Adding elements to the project’s scope will ultimately change the timeline and perhaps the skills needed to get the deliverable completed. If any items change (scope, timeline, volunteers, etc.) re-evaluate if the project needs to be modified.
- Build training into the timeline and work plan so that volunteers don’t leave the deliverable in the hands of the nonprofit with no clear sense of how to move forward on their own.
- Ensure the nonprofit has access to the needed equipment or that you’re able to use your company’s assets.
- Outline any hard costs the nonprofit will have to budget for to ensure successful implementation of the project into the project scope.
Once the project is completed, get feedback from the nonprofit and your volunteers to gauge satisfaction and find ways to improve the program—especially if you expect to have a long term relationship with the nonprofit. Refer back to the measures of success you identified in the project’s scope—how did you perform against those measures? Finally, celebrate and recognize your volunteers’ success.
For our next installment: the ABCs of measuring your business and social impact.