Corporate Volunteering: Your Company's Guide (+ Examples)

Today’s employees and customers expect more. If your business isn’t actively giving back, you risk employee retention, disengaging your team, and falling behind in a purpose-driven market.

The good news? Corporate volunteering offers a powerful way to bridge that gap. It boosts morale, builds culture, and creates real community impact—all while aligning with your company’s values.

In this article, we’ll break down how corporate volunteer programs work, why they matter, and how to launch one that actually makes a difference (with real examples of corporate volunteer programs to get you started).

What is Corporate Volunteerism?

Corporate volunteerism is a structured approach where companies facilitate, support, and encourage employees to volunteer for community causes and nonprofit organizations. Unlike individual volunteering, corporate programs provide organized opportunities, resources, and often paid volunteer time off (VTO) for employees to contribute their skills and time to these initiatives.

These programs typically include direct service projects, skill-based volunteering where employees apply professional expertise, team-building volunteer activities, and employee-driven fundraising efforts. Many companies also offer volunteer grants, matching employee volunteer hours with monetary donations to the organizations they support.

How Do Corporate Volunteering Programs Work?

Corporate volunteering programs connect employees with community service opportunities through organized company initiatives. Companies partner with local nonprofits, provide paid volunteer time off, and use management platforms to coordinate activities ranging from group service projects to individual skill-based volunteering. 

What Are the Benefits of Corporate Volunteering?

Giving back always benefits communities, whether local or global. But they also have far-reaching benefits for businesses, too. 

Corporate volunteering statistics show that company volunteer programs boost:

• Employee engagement and retention: Volunteering programs boost job satisfaction, increase employee loyalty, and help attract top talent who value purpose-driven workplaces.
  
  
• Brand reputation: Community involvement enhances corporate image, generates positive publicity, and demonstrates social responsibility to customers, investors, and stakeholders. 
  
  
• Team building and leadership: Volunteer activities create opportunities for cross-departmental collaboration, help employees develop leadership skills outside their usual roles, and strengthen workplace relationships through shared meaningful experiences.
  
  
• Business development: Volunteering expands professional networks, creates connections with community leaders and potential clients, and can open doors to new business opportunities through relationship building.

What Are the Different Types of Corporate Volunteering?

Corporate volunteering encompasses several distinct approaches that companies can implement individually or in combination:

• Direct service volunteering: Employees engage in hands-on activities like food bank assistance, park cleanups, or building projects, providing immediate support to local organizations.
  
  
• Skills-based volunteering: Employees use their professional expertise—such as marketing, accounting, or IT—to support nonprofits in need of specialized services.

• Team-building volunteer activities: Group projects that combine community service with employee engagement, helping strengthen workplace relationships while giving back.
  
  
• Virtual volunteering: Employees contribute remotely through activities like online mentoring, digital training, website development, or social media support for nonprofits.
  
  
• Fundraising: Employees organize initiatives like charity drives, sponsored volunteer events, or workplace giving campaigns to raise money for community organizations.
  
  
• Volunteer grant programs (or "Dollars for Doers"): Companies donate money to nonprofits based on the number of volunteer hours employees contribute—typically between $8 and $15 per hour.

How to Start a Corporate Volunteer Program

Whether you’re a company CEO or an HR representative leading the charge, here’s everything you need to know about starting a corporate volunteer program, plus some tips for improving the volunteer program you already have in place!

1. Outline Corporate Volunteer Program Goals

Setting goals for your corporate volunteer program will help keep you and your participants focused on what matters.

Here are some examples:

Business Goals

• Reduce employee turnover
• Refine brand recognition and perception
• Improve investment potential

Employee Growth Goals

• Provide more opportunities to develop soft skills
• Increase participation in giving and volunteering
• Enhance opportunities for connection and teambuilding

Community Goals

• Provide 10,000 hours of community service in the calendar year
• Partner with volunteer center to reduce homelessness in the community
• Expand access to resources for working parents and their children

Remember that each goal should be tied to measurable outcomes and key performance indicators (KPIs).

2. Identify Causes and Community Needs

One of the most critical components of your corporate volunteering program is identifying the community needs and causes you want to address.

There are several ways to select and identify the causes that your business will support:

• Have upper management identify opportunities: Executives and management identify opportunities that align with their business objectives and/or personal values, as well as positively impact the community.
  
  
• Survey employees to identify the causes they’re passionate about: Increase engagement by tapping into employees’ interests and skills. Ask where employees are already volunteering and consider taking cues from employees engaged in community issues.
  
  
• Conduct strategic community needs assessment: Program leaders research and analyze local community challenges through partnerships with nonprofits, community surveys, and stakeholder meetings to identify high-impact volunteer opportunities that align with company values and employee interests. 
  
  
• Partner with a local volunteer center to identify community needs: Direct program activities based on the needs identified by your nonprofit partners and community experts.
  
  
• Tap into community networks: Connect with local Volunteer Centers, which serve as central hubs linking thousands of organizations with volunteers in your area.

3. Develop a Corporate Volunteering Policy

Develop a comprehensive corporate volunteering policy that establishes clear expectations and ensures equitable treatment for all participants. This foundational document helps employees understand how to participate while providing program administrators with consistent guidelines for managing the initiative.

You can use this corporate volunteering policy example to structure your program:

• Introduction: Discuss the purpose, goals, and mission of the program.
  
  
• Recruitment and Registration: Outline the process for registering with your employee volunteer program. Include instructions for accessing your volunteer sign-up platform.
  
  
• Approved Causes and Partnerships: Direct volunteers toward your list of approved organizations and corporate volunteer opportunities.
  
  
• Volunteer Time Off Requirements and Approval: Discuss volunteer time off (VTO), expenses reimbursement, and other incentives. Then, detail the steps required for gaining VTO approval.
  
  
• Training: Provide instructions for attending volunteer training and accessing materials.  
  
  
• Hours Logging: List instructions for tracking volunteer participation and hours during corporate volunteering days.
  
  
• Feedback: Explain the process for sharing feedback. Gathering feedback from employee volunteers is important to growing and improving the program.

4. Support Employees and Reduce Barriers

To create a more impactful corporate volunteer program, you’ll need to reduce the obstacles to getting involved—and the biggest barrier to volunteerism for employees is time.

To support employee volunteerism, be sure to:

• Offer paid volunteer time off: Provide dedicated hours or days for employees to volunteer without using personal time.
  
  
• Create flexible scheduling options: Allow volunteering during work hours, lunch breaks, or flexible start/end times.
  
  
• Look for virtual volunteering opportunities: Enable flexible remote participation through online mentoring, digital skills training, or virtual fundraising.

In addition to offering employees more time in their schedule to volunteer, you’ll want to further support their efforts by:

• Providing transportation: Arrange group transportation or reimburse travel expenses to volunteer sites.
  
  
• Establishing clear approval processes: Streamline manager approval and make volunteer time requests simple and transparent.
  
  
• Accommodating different skill levels: Offer opportunities for various abilities, experience levels, and physical requirements.
  
  
• Supporting team participation: Encourage group volunteering to build camaraderie and reduce individual hesitation.

5. Measure and Report Impact

Measuring the success of your corporate volunteer program is key—but it’s not always as simple as tracking hours. To truly understand the value of your efforts, you need to look at both the numbers and the stories behind them.

A reliable volunteer management platform like Volunteer Link can help you collect and analyze the right data across these key areas:

• Participation metrics: Monitor volunteer hours, participation rates, and frequency of employee involvement.
  
  
• Community impact: Document beneficiaries served, funds raised, and specific outcomes achieved through volunteer efforts.
  
  
• Employee sentiment: Assess how employees feel about the volunteering experiences your company offers, and whether it's improved their job satisfaction, team cohesion, or sense of purpose.
  
  
• Retention and recruitment: Track whether volunteers show higher retention rates and if programs attract top talent.
  
  
• Return on investment: Quantify program costs against benefits like reduced turnover, improved productivity, and enhanced reputation

Top 4 Corporate Volunteering Examples

Need corporate volunteering ideas to jumpstart your own volunteerism program? Here are a few companies with employee volunteer programs and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives that drive success.

Home Depot

Home Depot utilizes its online volunteer platform to connect employees with causes they’ll love. Employees can view their impact and browse opportunities and volunteer projects that match their skills and passions, resulting in a highly engaged group of volunteers.

Patagonia

This company is well-known for its environmental activism and corporate social responsibility. Patagonia curated a unique experience by developing an employee internship program. Employees can volunteer at an environmental organization for up to two months while receiving their usual benefits and compensation.

Salesforce

Salesforce offers a week of VTO each year by providing skills-based opportunities. Employees are also eligible for special grant programs tied to volunteering.

Holman

Holman’s Volunteer Program reflects its larger CSR mission, a multi-pronged approach to giving back. From Community Grants that support local organizations to employee volunteering initiatives, their programs all help support low-income families in their community.