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Enhancing Your Company's Volunteer and Philanthropy Programs
Enhancing Your Company's Volunteer and Philanthropy Programs
Published 07-26-07
Submitted by Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship
"How do I give my program new life?"
"How do I move my program to a higher level?"
"How can I continuously improve my program and keep pace with emerging best practices?"
July 26, 2007- These are the questions now being asked by many community involvement professionals. Many of them have mastered the basic planning skills required to establish a volunteer or philanthropy program; what they need now is to understand how to move these programs to a higher level of effectiveness and impact.
The Center understands this need and for this reason piloted a highly successful and over-subscribed program in April entitled "Enhancing Your Employee Volunteer Program."
This course was intentionally different. It was not a "how-to" course, but a "how-to-make-it-better" course. Instead of instructor-led PowerPoint presentations, the course focused on a high level of participant engagement, with discussion driven by questions and issues identified by participants who shared best practices and brainstormed solutions to issues discussed.
The course was a huge success and very well received, as evidenced by these participant comments:
"Excellent interaction and peer-to-peer dialogue!"
"Really valuable information. Great candor, great experience in the field. The best BC class I have taken - Bravo!"
"This class could be extended to a week-long course. There is so much information to retain - I need more time."
"This is the BEST class I have attended. The style is very unique - networking is most important."
These results were duplicated in the philanthropy course presented in the same format several weeks later.
As a result of these highly successful pilots, the Center has significantly revised its employee volunteerism and strategic philanthropy executive education programs. Both courses will certainly address important topics in the development of an exceptional program such as the current state/trends of employee volunteerism or strategic philanthropy and the critical components of an exceptional program.
The majority of time, however - approximately 60 percent - will focus on peer-to-peer exchange and dialogue aimed at generating new ideas and identifying and leveraging best practices in those areas of greatest concern and challenge for participants.
These two newly developed programs for volunteerism and strategic philanthropy will be offered this fall:
"I am really excited about these highly energetic courses," said Ron Brown, a popular instructor who will teach Enhancing Your Employee Volunteer Program. "They really respond to the pressing need of community involvement professionals to move their programs to a higher level of impact. The energy in the classroom is unlike any other course I've taught, and this format provides a great opportunity to explore new ideas and establish strong networks. I'm looking forward to offering the course again in October."
Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship
Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship
The Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship connects professionals with research, insights on corporate social responsibility and management education opportunities. Founded by the Carroll School of Management, we help our member companies know more, do more and achieve more with their corporate citizenship programs. We engage over 400 member companies and more than 10,000 individuals annually to share knowledge and expertise about the practice of corporate citizenship through our executive education program, research, courses, and our annual conference. For more information on our courses, research and membership, visit ccc.bc.edu. Connect with Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship: Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook & Google+.
