Volunteerism ROI Tracker Case Study: UPS

For the second year, UPS is participating in the Volunteerism ROI Tracker as part of its leadership with the Points of Light Institute’s Corporate Service Council. The strength of the UPS's Volunteers program is its alignment with the human capital and infrastructure strengths of UPS; coordinating large events and providing team-based services for nonprofits.

Teams of UPS volunteers are able to leverage their skills in shipping and supply chain management in service to humanitarian aid organizations like the Red Cross and UNICEF. And who better to teach safe driving to teens at the Boys and Girls Clubs of America than professional UPS drivers?

The 2010 Volunteerism ROI Tracker found that this alignment between UPS community involvement and the company’s expertise benefits nonprofit partners, UPS, and the community. In March, 2010 alone, UPS volunteers reported significant impacts in social value, satisfaction, skill development, and business leads.

We talked with Jerald Barnes, Region and District Grants Manager at The UPS Foundation about community involvement and its impact on UPS employee skills and satisfaction. To read more about how UPS employees volunteer to connect to their values and the company's mission, download the UPS Volunteerism ROI Tracker Case Study. For more information on tools for measuring volunteerism, contact us.

Measuring Corporate Citizenship: Does CSR Enhance Performance?

 

Evidence that corporate social responsibility programs can increase revenue by attracting and retaining customers continues to grow.

In the working paper, Impact of a Corporate Culture of Sustainability on Corporate Behavior and Performance, researchers from Harvard Business School analyzed the adoption of various environmental and social policies among 180 companies and found that High Sustainability companies outperformed their counterparts on the stock market and in accounting performance. 

 

Previous studies have explored the connection between environmental and socially conscious products and consumer behavior. Ailawadi and Luan at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business found that perceived environmental friendliness, employee fairness, community investments, and locally sourced products all improved consumer attitudes toward the grocery store. But people only bought more when the grocery store’s investments were related to employee fairness or local sources and suppliers. These findings suggest that CSR enhances brand loyalty if there is a direct connection between the social investment (e.g., fair wages) and the product. 

The HBS findings go beyond consumer decision-making and indicate differences in company decision-making between High and Low Sustainability companies. Companies that instituted sustainable practices in the early 1990s were more likely to disclose nonfinancial information, have organized stakeholder engagement, and be more long-term oriented. Incentives for executives were also more likely to be a function of the company’s sustainability metrics.

In measuring corporate citizenship, this paper offers yet another counterpoint to CSR as a short-term marketing technique. High Sustainability companies make long-term investments that alter governance structures and corporate culture. The DNA of the company, not just the product, is altered by social and environmental commitments. And with a long enough time horizon, those investments seem to have a substantial financial ROI. 

Reviewing Evaluation Toolkits: Guides to Measuring Volunteerism

 

Before the release of our Volunteerism ROI Tracker White Paper in collaboration with The Points of Light Institute, we reviewed a few of the existing resources for planning program evaluations. The following three reports provide guidance for measuring employee volunteer programs, each differing in audience, emphasis, and methodology.

Making a Difference

Making a Difference: Corporate Community Investment, a Whole Programme Report to Measuring Results, reports on a six-month project, facilitated by Corporate Citizenship, to develop a consistent way of measuring the outputs and impacts of community investment projects.

From their learning came a set of inputs and impact indicator groupings, supplied with an indicator checklist. The insight here is a shift from output indicators, like charitable donations given and people served, to metrics that capture outcomes. Indicators are measured base on a 5-point scale from no change to sustained change. Indicators include:
·      Participant behavior and attitude
·      Quality of life
·      Skills and personal development
·      Organizational capacity building
·      Environmental measures

Another key take-away from the project was that mapping outcomes is as useful for project planning as it is for evaluating a program’s impact. Embedding metrics for measuring corporate citizenship into the initial stages of project development helped companies make goals explicit for progress monitoring.

The weakness of this report is that is almost entirely skips the final steps of program evaluation- defining a method, collecting and analyzing data, and integrating results into reporting. The report explores measuring impact without actually providing impact measurement solutions. However, assessment tools are available for LGB clients on their website.

Measuring the Difference Volunteers Make

The Minnesota Department of Human Services developed the Measuring the Difference Volunteers Make a decade ago, but it remains a readable and comprehensive resource for planning and implementing a volunteer program evaluation. Ideal for a company with the bandwidth to create an evaluation from scratch, the toolkit provides examples of how to define outcomes, compare data, and monetize the impact of volunteer efforts.

 

The toolkit outlines the following evaluation plan:

·      Defining process indicators and outcomes of volunteer programs

·      Types of evaluation

·      Gathering data

·      Survey techniques

·      Communicating outcomes of volunteer programs

·      Comparing results

 

Readers looking for examples of corporate employee volunteer program evaluations will be disappointed. While the examples are generally of state funded volunteer programs, they are illustrative of the same objectives, outcome measures, and performance indicators as an employee volunteer program. The toolkit even provides “good,” “better,” and “best” examples for writing program outcome statements. This toolkit offers the clearest content to help you develop tools for measuring CSR- with broad buy-in and a lot of elbow grease.

 

Measuring Volunteering Toolkit

Measuring Volunteering Toolkit, released by United Nations Volunteers in collaboration with Independent Sector, is designed for an international audience seeking to measure volunteerism across an entire country.  It offers multiple methodologies and survey approaches, along with a brief explanation of the principles of sound program evaluation- measurement validity and reliability, and sampling. Even for an initiative hiring an outside evaluator, this is key information for measuring and reporting on volunteer impact with confidence.

 

The Toolkit walks readers through an evaluation plan:

·      Planning the research

·      Designing the survey

·      Problems of reliability and validity

·      Collecting, processing, and disseminating the information

·      Sample inventory of volunteering activities

The toolkit is not designed for employee volunteers, so it doesn’t provide examples or survey question suggestions that capture the business impacts of volunteerism, like employee engagement and commitment, the effect of volunteering on employee retention, or the PR and brand effects of volunteer programs. For those looking for an in-depth, step-by-step evaluation plan, the Measuring Volunteering Toolkit is a rich resource. But its scope is too broad for most readers, and its technical guidance may be overwhelming for practitioners without a research background.

Measuring Volunteerism, Employee Training and Satisfaction

High-quality volunteer programs provide an experiential learning opportunity for employees to develop new relationships, solve problems, and take leadership outside of their comfort zone. The practical application of coaching, adapting to new demands, and resolving conflicts makes these skills highly transferable to professional roles. The business case for employee volunteerism lies in shortened learning curves for new employees, increased productivity from new and strengthened skills, and reduced turnover through employee satisfaction.

Employee skills is a core concept in creating what Harvard business professor Michael Porter calls shared value, an advancement of the idea that sophisticated companies enhance profit when they do good.

When properly designed and supported, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities can be structured to help staff learn and practice a variety of skills that can boost productivity in the workplace.  Through our work with the Points of Light Institute and our Volunteerism ROI Tracker, we’ve found that volunteerism can develop new professional skills or personal skills.

Some industries have institutionalized social service as a way to strategically develop skills in their employees: law firms, consultancies, and medical schools, for example, often have strong pro bono service programs that simultaneously help staff gain experience and develop skills in certain areas.  Similar opportunity exists for virtually any company in any industry to design their own CSR programs, to deliver goods and services, and to meet social needs in ways that train inexperienced employees. For example, pro-bono projects provide an excellent opportunity for novices to begin developing some of the elemental organizational skills required to be a successful project manager. Cisco’s Leadership Fellows Program and the UPS Community Internship Program are examples of companies building professional skills through community investment.

Even when not providing direct job-retated skill training, volunteerism can contribute to employees’ satisfaction and well being on the job, which has been linked to improved productivity.  Evidence suggests that sustained programs with substantial commitment from participants can provide a significant level of fulfillment to an employee. Even if a CSR activity is not directly related to a person’s job, volunteering can boost job satisfaction, general performance, and keep a person from moving to another job that fills unmet needs (preventing turnover). And one of the twelve attributes of a great place to work is a job that gives employees a sense of meaning beyond making a profit.

Our Volunteerism ROI Tracker measures how employee volunteer programs impact job satisfaction. We’ve found that by designing activities to match volunteers’ interests, companies can significantly influence employees’ reports of job satisfaction through volunteerism. In the 2010 Volunteer ROI Tracker initiative, employees were 40% more likely to report that they were extremely satisfied with their job if their volunteerism matched a personal cause interest.

For more information or to participate in this ongoing initiative, visit us at True Impact.

Measuring Volunteerism: Impacts on Employee Development

This week, Common Impact released “Making the Case for Skills-Based Volunteering,” sponsored by Capital One. The report shares a step-by step approach to implementing a successful skills-based volunteering project and two case studies of skills-based partnerships. Common Impact also interviewed volunteers, reporting the benefits of skills-based volunteerism to employees:

• 87 percent of skilled volunteers say their project increased their interest in volunteering
• 91 percent of skilled volunteers say they see their project will “make a real difference to the nonprofit client”
• 92 percent had a relevant professional development experience
• 92 percent feel more inclined to recommend their company as a great place to work

These findings are not new. Several major CSR studies measure volunteerism and its influence on skill development. Using surveys from employee self-reports and manager and executive interviews, reports highlight the impact of employee volunteerism on motivation and satisfaction, training, and transferable skill development.

 

Motivation and Productivity

All studies reviewed indicate a relationship between volunteerism or pro bono service and job satisfaction.

• Seventy percent of managers believed pro bono work improved job satisfaction.[1]
• Employees involved in volunteerism are significantly more likely to be motivated in their jobs.[2]

 

Training

In LBG Associates’ Pro Bono Service: The Business Case and Can Corporate Volunteering Support the Bottom Line, companies reported that volunteering enhanced skills by:

• Giving employees an opportunity to practice their skills
• Providing a cost-effective method for building transferable professional and leadership skills
• Build relationships with other employees
• Empowers employees to use professional skills to make a difference[3]

 

Transferable Skill Development

Executives and managers view pro bono and employee volunteerism as a way to enhance employee skills. According to a report on volunteerism and the bottom line, over 50 percent of corporate executives and CR managers interviewed believe volunteer programs help employees build or enhance professional and leadership skills and abilities.[4] Corporate Citizenship found significant reported skill gains for employees involved in community programs.[5] Volunteerism offers opportunities for growth in multiple skill sets. The top 3 skill gains for employee volunteers were:

1. Communication
2. Team-related competencies (collaboration, influencing others)
3. Creative thinking[6]

 

Take Away

A review of current research on company-sponsored volunteerism shows a strong relationship between volunteerism and employee skill development, job commitment, and satisfaction. Traditional volunteerism like direct service enables employees to communicate and problem solve outside of their comfort zone. Skilled volunteerism enables employees to adapt business skills to novel problems and take leadership opportunities outside of their experience level or job description. Either way, volunteerism is a win-win strategy for employee training and development.

3 Ways Corporate Volunteers Build Nonprofit Capacity

 

Volunteerism is a popular community investment strategy, ideally intended to help nonprofits advance their social mission. But are volunteers really building nonprofit capacity and making genuine social change? Are companies and nonprofits getting a social return on investment?

Too often the measurement of volunteer programs is limited to process indicators (inputs and outputs). But it doesn’t get us closer to measuring social value or quantifying corporate volunteerism. In the chart below, inputs and outputs are classified as measures of execution, where outcomes are measures of change.

Image: The Guide to Actionable Measurement, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

 

There is a simple way to measure an employee volunteer’s influence on a nonprofit partner. Volunteers contribute to a nonprofit’s mission by increasing its capacity to make change. By focusing on how volunteers improve capacity, measuring their impact becomes a question of how initiatives affect an organization’s reach, efficiency, and effectiveness.

 

Volunteer Contribution 1: Expanding Nonprofit Reach

Key outcomes question: How many more beneficiaries are served because of volunteers?
Measurement solution: Change in clients served due to volunteer efforts.
Example: A local shelter is able to provide resources to twice the number of clients with intake volunteers.

 

Volunteer Contribution 2: Increasing Efficiency

Key outcomes question: How much more can nonprofits do with the same resources as a result of the volunteer intervention?
Measurement solution: Increase services provided or operational tasks completed, or decrease in resources required to fulfill the nonprofit mission.
Example: By leveraging skilled volunteers to update the shelter’s computer system, more clients are able to receive intake services using the same staff resources.

 

Volunteer Contribution 3: Building Programmatic Effectiveness

Key outcomes question: How much do volunteers improve the service or product?
Measurement solution: Increase in service quality that is directly related to volunteer efforts or as the result of volunteer projects.
Example: Using a team of volunteers to convene a coalition of social services for the homeless, the shelter is able to provide one-stop referrals to health and child care services, reducing returns to homelessness by thirty percent.

Focusing on reach, efficiency, and effectiveness helps companies and their nonprofit partners move beyond output measurements toward volunteers’ contribution to social change and the social return on investment of employee volunteerism.

To develop a simple, practical logic model tool to develop your strategy for achieving social change through your volunteer effort, try our free Logic Model Tool.

Developing skills through volunteerism and pro bono service

Volunteerism and pro bono service activities almost always involve volunteers exercising personal and professional skills, but which activities actually develop skills with quantifiable business value?

The key is recognizing that skill development generates business value when it enables a person do his or her job better.  Specifically, this means gaining skills or experiences that help to complete job-related tasks more quickly, or produce more successful results (i.e., “productivity” in business jargon).

With this in mind, consider the three most typical types of skill-related experiences in volunteerism -- only one of which directly generates business value:

• Development of personal skills.  This occurs when volunteers develop new skills or experiences that are not relevant to their jobs.  Consider an accountant that participates in a home- or playground-building project in a low-income community.  The construction skills and community engagement experience she gains may be new and profoundly satisfying on a personal level, but neither is relevant to enhancing her productivity as an accountant.
  
  
• Exercising existing skills.  This occurs when volunteers use job-relevant skills as part of their volunteerism, but do not expand those skills.  Consider a corporate PR manager that uses her expertise to help a nonprofit plan and write a press release.  This activity will generate significant value for the nonprofit (i.e., social value).  However, if this is just one more PR activity similar to the hundreds the volunteer has already completed for her company, then it’s not expanding her skills or experiences – or her ability to do her job better.
  
  
• Development of job skills.  This occurs when volunteers realize new skills or experiences that are relevant to their jobs.  Consider a volunteer that gets to take a leadership role that expands his project management or presentation skills; or a lawyer that provides pro bono counsel and meanwhile gains valuable new experience in immigration law.  Both examples are illustrations of “new” and “job-relevant” skill gains that can help the volunteers do their jobs better.  This category generates skill-related business value.
  
  

Next Steps – Planning and Matching

The simple act of distinguishing between the three skills categories presented here, and when possible, steering your volunteers towards opportunities to gain new, job-relevant skills and experiences can pay huge dividends.

For example, among the participants in our Volunteerism ROI Tracker (2010), the percentage of companies that gained new, job-related skills from their volunteers and pro bono service ranged from a low of 3% to a high of 49% -- suggesting that well-designed and strategically matched volunteer activities achieved over 16x the skill gains of those that were not.

Next: How to measure the business value of skill development.

How to measure the business value of skill development

Once you have isolated those volunteer or pro bono activities that generate new, job-relevant skills among your volunteers, here are three ways to capture their business value:

1. Monetize productivity impact.  The arithmetic is simple, but requires some knowledge of the individual’s specific job functions (often easily provided by an HR department).  In brief, by estimating the efficiency gained in performing a specific task by either an individual or team (e.g., how many hours saved over the course of a year in, say, project management), you can use the business rule of thumb that the value of employees’ time is (at least) equal to their salary, and monetize the saving as follows:
   
   • Hours saved per task (e.g., 5 hours) * frequency of task (e.g., 12 times a year) * average salary (e.g., $35 per hour) = $2,100 productivity gain per person
     
     
2. Monetize avoided cost.  How much would it cost to have employees trained on the skills that were gained through the volunteerism or pro bono experience?  These component data also tend to be easily available from an HR department:
   
   • Trainer fee (e.g., $1,000) + hours of training (e.g., 5 hours) * average employee salary (e.g., $35 per hour) * number of employees (e.g., 10) = $2,750 in avoided training costs
     
     
3. Track skill gains.  Though not a monetary or outcome-based metric, specifying the type and degree of skills developed can go far towards conveying value among key stakeholders (particularly HR departments and senior leadership) who understand the importance of skill development as a driver of business value.  If possible, access your company’s internal skill-proficiency profiles (i.e., formal or informal frameworks of what skills are expected at various staff levels) to guide what skill categories to track.
   
   Example Skill Development Categories
   
   
   
   Example Skill Gains

• Staff-level proficiency (e.g., associate-, manager-, senior manager-level)
• Relative skill gains (e.g., substantially beyond, upper end/somewhat beyond, or incremental to employee’s staff level)

NOTE: Don’t automatically go for the most precise measurement option.  First find out what level of precision is required among the stakeholders you are reporting to, as often some level of “ballpark” estimation is sufficient (and far less demanding) than the option you might otherwise assume is required.

When will companies act more like businesses?

How many times have you heard it said that nonprofits should act more like businesses?  Aaron Hurst, president of the Taproot Foundation -- with characteristic insight -- responds:

When I ask them what they mean by that statement, they usually talk about a lack of analytically-driven decision making that leverages real data.

The vast majority of companies still support employee volunteering programs that consist primarily of painting fences and cleaning parks, despite the fact that data clearly shows it has less community impact and provides less employee satisfaction, skills development and networking value compared to pro bono service.

On behalf of the nonprofit sector, I would like to ask companies to act more like businesses. If you truly care about making a sustainable difference in the community, do less hands-on volunteering and focus on where you can make your talent matter.

As long as there are nonprofits with constrained budgets, there will be a need for traditional (hands-on) volunteerism.  But meanwhile, Aaron calls attention to how just a little bit of analysis can yield much greater opportunities to generate social and business impacts from within your volunteerism portfolio (and meanwhile brings to life some of our research finding with Points of Light).  Click here to view some of the benefits of pro bono service.

Health metrics: measuring success or failure?

Stanford professor of psychiatry Keith Humphreys illustrates the value of making sure your performance metrics match what you consider a successful outcome.  Alas, too many do not:

Consider four psychiatric patients, all discharged from an inpatient unit on the same day following stabilization of an acute psychotic episode. A week later, the following events takes place:

Arnold’s symptoms return and in despair he commits suicide.

Barbara’s symptoms return and she goes on a cocaine binge, fueling her aggressive tendencies to the point where she punches a cop, landing herself in jail.

Carlos’s symptoms return and he becomes convinced that his apartment is full of listening devices. He moves to living under a bridge far from town.

Derrick’s symptoms return, and, having learned about his illness in the hospital, he recognizes the problem and returns to his site of care. He is admitted for 24 hours, re-stabilizes, and is then maintained as an outpatient in the community.

So, why would some powerful players in our health care system consider Derrick to have had the worst outcome? Because he and not the others was re-admitted to care within 30 days of discharge.

...

If you follow the logic of the anti-readmission crowd out, you arrive at the conclusion that the best hospitals are those that close and those that kill every patient on the surgical table, because both types of facilities have a re-admission rate of zero.