Great food, holidays, friends and families, all tied together with a sense of community and gratitude – it’s almost Christmas season (yep, November-end onwards is officially Christmas season if you ask us!), and it’s always a good time to give back to the community.
You can bank on this “giving gratitude” feeling that tends to extend over from Thanksgiving into the last month of the year.
While it has historically been a time to celebrate the hard work and blessings of the past year, it also encompasses being grateful for the nation, its people, and its communities. This is precisely why Christmas and the weeks following New Year are ideal times to chip in and engage in altruistic acts of giving.
Employee Volunteering for Christmas and onwards:
Many businesses provide employee volunteer programs and opportunities in the workplace. Throughout the year, corporations offer paid time off to their employees to participate in volunteering activities. They also donate money and resources to nonprofits through their CSR programs to aid the underserved.
Most nonprofits also run campaigns and focus their marketing efforts around the holidays, when people are more generous. What better time to engage your employee in doing good, than when they’re more inclined to do so?
In a nutshell, the time just after Christmas and New Year is perfect for corporations to reap the many benefits of volunteering in boosting the morale of a purpose-driven workforce. But like any other engagement strategy, corporate volunteering strategies also require careful planning, communication, and the right volunteering partner.
Plan to build a corporate volunteering strategy that works
Volunteering around the holidays can be more difficult than most people anticipate. Volunteering opportunities are abundant, but there is also an abundance of people with diverse interests, who want to volunteer.
Talking about virtual and hybrid volunteering opportunities that involve completely virtual or partly virtual and physical modes of volunteering for large corporate teams, the search for opportunities must begin early.
Plan your volunteer work around the organization’s needs and the nature of the workforce. If your employees are working remotely, virtual volunteering would be the right choice. If you have a hybrid workforce, you might opt for the hybrid volunteering model which allows employees to participate from home & office.
Understand how many volunteers are willing to participate, how their volunteering hours will be distributed, and how best to choose volunteering activities that align with their interests.
One easy solution would be to take the help of a virtual volunteering partner. Such a partner should be able to help you right from curating volunteering opportunities to managing the whole volunteering experience.
At Goodera, we have already planned a suite of volunteering opportunities around the themes of Christmas, International Day of Persons With Disabilities in December, and MLK Day in January. These opportunities are distributed globally and accommodate both virtual and physical means of volunteering.
Let’s take a quick look at four opportunities that Goodera is providing through December and January
Spotlight: 4 corporate volunteering opportunities
The festive season brings happiness aplenty to you and your families. However, there are many for whom the season passes without any festivities. Empower your employees to volunteer and make an impact through small acts of kindness.
Create fun, Christmas themed picture cards for children with hearing loss:
Employees can volunteer along with their kids to create and assemble fun and festive Christmas-themed picture cards to raise the spirits of children with hearing loss. This simple activity requires a time commitment of only one hour, but in the process, your team can bond, and help these children ring in the festive season with some much-needed end-of-the-year cheer
2. Attend a dance workshop to spread the joy of dance led by people with (dis)abilities:
Employees along with their families can participate in a fun virtual dance session led by dancers with (dis)ability. Through this class, employee volunteer time is not only engaged in a socially, emotionally, and physically engaging experience, but your employees are also contributing towards a greater cause.
3. Record Christmas audiobooks to spread cheer to children battling cancer:
The end of November also signals the arrival of the Christmas season. Through this Christmas-themed activity, employees can show their support for children battling cancer, by recording audiobooks on fables or stories. The audiobooks will help provide emotional support to these children who would benefit from feeling a sense of solidarity and comfort.
4. Create informative flashcards on black history to commemorate MLK Day:
Using the flashcards you make, students will learn about the American Civil Rights Movement and the work of Martin Luther King Jr. Using these flashcards, youngsters will learn more about his life and the events that shaped it, and it thus encourages cultural growth and understanding.
There are many more diverse volunteering opportunities apart from the ones mentioned. You can choose from our list of immersive volunteering experiences to engage your employees this festive season.
Wrapping up
Engage in deeds of kindness with your team, involve your stakeholders in your activities, and communicate your contribution to the world.
Innovative volunteering strategies can also help you engage your employees, interns, customers, and partners through purposeful initiatives.
If you’re new to volunteering, you can try out a free volunteering event. You can get up to 20 members of your team in a giving experience that is tailor-made for your team.
Whichever model you choose to celebrate the end of the year at work, ensure that your employees are invested and that you’re inspiring others like you in doing acts of kindness.
Merry Christmas and a happy 2022!