Employee volunteer opportunities are becoming an increasingly prominent feature of corporate life across North America. Fifty-eight per cent of the 248 companies surveyed in 2000 by the Points of Light Foundation in the United States had formal volunteer programs. Their importance is reflected in the fact that over half (52%) of the companies surveyed incorporated a commitment to community service in their mission statement.

Great River Greening works with businesses in many different ways. We look forward to talking with you to develop an experience that meets your company’s goals and achieves all of the benefits that are possible. Following are some approaches. Please contact Mark Turbak, Manager of Volunteer Events and Programs, for more detail (mturbak@greatrivergreening.org; 651-665-9500 x11).

1. Employees work as unit within a larger public event, see our most current Event Calendar for upcoming events.
2. A company sponsors a company-only event with its own employees or its own employees, see example of COMCAST CARES.
3. A company cosponsors a companies-only event with an allied business.
4. A company sponsors a company-only or a public event on its own property, see example of Flint Hills Resources.

Benefits of Employee Volunteerism
Volunteer stewardship experiences are beneficial to companies, employees, and the community. A corporate volunteer project can result in greater employee morale, increased job satisfaction, enhanced corporate image in the community, and greater connections between a company and its customers.

When employees also join our ranks of volunteer supervisors, employees can learn new skills, expand their networks, and experience energizing personal growth that carries over into the workplace. And, of course, our community benefits from the work that volunteers accomplish and the enhanced sense of community that is created when people give their time freely for the common good.

Following are sample quotes from a 2002 survey of volunteers from the Ford Motor Company:

“I really like to be able to toot our company’s horn a bit. This company does a lot of things...and I love to be able to tell people that yesterday I spent the day [volunteering]. It’s a pride issue for the company.”
 
“Doing things outside of work, I feel, helps the work atmosphere...Sharing something where you laughed or sweated or had a good lunch brings this closeness to people and when you have that you work better together...In the long run, it helps the morale among employees here if you do things as a group.”

 “After you’ve gone there [to volunteer] you feel good about yourself, you do feel like you had made a bit of a difference and there is I think a lack of that feeling from day-to-day work.”

“When I come back to work [after volunteering], I’m pumped, I’m ready to go to work.” 
 
“[It] makes me feel good to be part of an organization that is contributing back to the community and to do something valuable in a non-work setting with my work colleagues...We interact on a different level when we’re out doing that...It brings us together as a work group.”

Fall Colors photo © Susan Troha