Corporate volunteering

What is it?

Corporate volunteering, also known as Employer-Supported Volunteering (ESV), is when businesses give employees paid time away from their day-to-day roles to support good causes.

Some organisations choose to run group volunteering days, bringing teams together for a shared experience. Others take a more flexible approach, encouraging employees to volunteer little and often, whether that’s a few hours a month or even just 30 minutes a week.

Both approaches create positive impact, but flexible volunteering can make it easier for more people to get involved in a way that fits around their work and personal commitments.

Volunteering offers businesses and their employees a meaningful way to connect with their local communities, give back, and support causes they genuinely care about. Along the way, employees also develop valuable soft skills, such as leadership, coaching, and organisational abilities, that can enhance their performance in the workplace.

Beyond this, volunteering can lead to a wide range of personal and professional benefits, including:

• Stronger communication skills
• Increased confidence
• Improved teamwork
• Greater creativity
• Enhanced resilience
• A deeper sense of purpose and fulfilment

Importantly, these efforts also create a positive and lasting impact within the local community.

Please note: Some charities and voluntary organisations may charge a fee to deliver volunteering activities. This helps cover the time, resources, and coordination required to provide meaningful and well-managed opportunities for your team.

Rather than offering all your employees volunteering days together, have you considered embedding volunteering opportunities throughout the year as part of a more flexible employer-supported volunteering approach? This allows staff to contribute their skills in a way that fits around their workload and personal commitments, while creating more consistent and meaningful impact for local organisations.

The SkillShare initiative shows how businesses can rethink corporate volunteering by moving away from one-off team days towards ongoing, skills-based engagement that benefits both employees and the communities they support.