Community Southwark’s Corporate Project Year One Report
In 2023 we were awarded funding from the National Lottery Community Fund to expand our corporate relationships project INVOLVE for our members.
For many years we have been running successful employee volunteering days for businesses to help support our members, but we wanted to increase our offer.
Our State of the Sector research report in 2023 highlighted almost half of members surveyed (46%) cited volunteer recruitment and retention among their key challenges. Since the cost-of-living crisis, volunteer hours have decreased as many volunteers need to prioritise paid work.
We wanted this project to explore and increase employee skills-based volunteering – where employees contribute the skills they use in their ‘day job’ to help address skills gaps among charities – e.g., accountants offering accountancy support.
The project started in September 2023, the first six months was spent delivering a pilot project finding solutions to bring together the charity and private sector in Southwark and the second half of the year was spent building upon the recommendations, supporting businesses to deliver skills based workshops and one to one support to our members, along with offering corporate advice appointments for the VCS.
You can read the full report HERE
Key Outcomes
- 38 Team Challenges (practical projects) took place
- 11 Skills-Based Challenges (small group or individual support)
- 27 new corporate partnerships established
- Three events took place
- In total 79 outputs were met
- £200,000 of corporate monetary value was secured
- Investment from another funder wishing to build on the work of this project.
Key Recommendations
- Design time-bound pro bono skill sessions/workshops instead of open-ended skills volunteering keeping in mind limited Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) and corporate time and capacity.
- Offer corporate advice appointments for VCS groups wanting to better define their ask or to receive support with existing corporate relationships.
- Offer training and regular communications for businesses about how they can best support Southwark’s VCS, bringing in volunteering, funding, premises, and in-kind donations.
- Build on the analysis of trends which successful activities have identified. We have learnt when engaging VCS groups and corporates, there is a strong need for Community Southwark to:
Manage expectations
Identify one specific area of need from the VCS group
Identify an internal champion within the business
Continue to facilitate dialogue
- Suggest corporates provide more practical tools as part of their activity e.g. customizable templates and hands-on guides.
- Build on the success of networking events such as Business Brunches.
We welcome any comments, feedback or suggestions – please get in touch with elizabeth@communitysouthwark.org
