With just 14% of small businesses currently taking advantage of employer supported volunteering (ESV) schemes, Volunteering England has today launched a campaign asking small and medium sized businesses to give more help to charities.
Volunteering England is urging small to medium sized businesses to set up ESV schemes in a campaign, supported by The British Chambers of Commerce, the Federation of Small Businesses, the Forum for Private Business and a range of other industry bodies, which is the culmination of a three year project aimed at developing Employer Supported Volunteering. It aims to encourage smaller companies - which account for 59% of private sector employment, – to join the ranks of bigger firms that enable employees to volunteer their time to good causes through a work context.
Justin Davis-Smith, Chief Executive of Volunteering England, said: “Our research has shown that having an employer supported volunteering programme is good for business.
“In spite of the pressure on resources which many small and medium sized businesses face, an employer supported volunteering programme can bring considerable benefits; often companies with ESV programmes find that employees are proud to work for them and potential employees want to join them. It often makes a difference with customers too, who feel good about buying from them and can lead to added investment."
“But many smaller businesses are unsure of how to go about setting up a scheme and have signalled that they would like more information. Hence VE is launching this campaign, to raise awareness of the fact that it will now be much easier to set up a scheme with the new tools and information on our dedicated web pages. "
The highly successful ‘Give a few bob’ campaign, is being used as an illustration of the benefits that volunteering can bring to both charities and small businesses.
Robert Prevezer, the Chairman of The Communications Agency (TCA - a marketing company with around 45 staff), had offered the services of TCA free of charge, to the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation at a time when one of his friends was suffering from the disease.
The campaign developed by TCA appeared to bring the late comedian Bob Monkhouse (who died from the prostate cancer in 2003) ‘back to life’,. It was launched in June last year and to the delight of everyone involved, including Bob’s widow, Jackie who supported the campaign passionately, it generated over £3m worth media activity for free, raising the profile of prostate cancer research and helping to more than double donations to the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation
David Frost, Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce added:
“We back employer supported volunteering and recognise the benefit it can bring business. It can help raise profiles, reach new markets, recruit the best employees and influence government. Volunteering England has provided an excellent web portal to help SMEs achieve these tangible business benefits through employer supported volunteering.”
The campaign will help SMEs with three key points: Why volunteer? How can I get started? and What's available in my area? and is focussed on encouraging businesses to log on to the website www.volunteering.org.uk/smes where they can find useful and inspiring information and tips on how to get started, as well as a short film about the ‘Give a few bob’ campaign.
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Notes to editors:
- For more information or interviews please contact Mary Ann Day on 020 7520 8932 or email: maryann.day@volunteeringengland.org.
- Case studies and quotations from supporting organisations are available on request.
- Volunteering England aims to improve the quality, quantity, impact and accessibility of volunteering throughout England. For more information please visit www.volunteering.org.uk
- Go to www.volunteering.org.uk/smes for campaign site
- For a database of local employer supported volunteering opportunities, visit http://www.do-it.org.uk/wanttovolunteer/evsvolunteering and enter postcode
- Read a list of brokers. Brokers are intermediary agencies which help match people and employers with suitable volunteering opportunities. Each broker delivers different levels of service and may charge a fee.
- The research, from Volunteering England’s Institute for Volunteering Research (IVR) and the National Centre for Social Research showed the number of employees with access to ESV schemes has increased from 16% ten years ago to 36% today, but the proportion of employees who are involved with such scheme has remained steady at 29%.
- Employees of large companies with over 250 staff were more likely to have an ESV scheme available (47%) than those who worked for a medium size enterprise (20%) or a small company (14%).
- 54% of employees without access to an ESV scheme said they would like to have one.
- The Helping Out survey was carried out for the Cabinet office by the Institute for VolunteeringResearch and the National Centre for Social Research.
- Funding by Capacitybuilders via the Volunteering Hub enabled Volunteering England to undertake research into the barriers faced by small to medium sized businesses when thinking about employer supported volunteering. This research, undertaken in 2006, showed that small to medium sized businesses were favourable to the idea of encouraging their staff to volunteer, but lacked easy access to information on how to get started and how to find local volunteering opportunities. Further Volunteering Hub funding in 2007 enabled YouthNet UK to develop bespoke webpages where businesses can tap in their postcode and find local opportunities. It also funded the production of 12 case studies of businesses and their passion for employer supported volunteering. These case studies and all the other information that small to medium sized businesses will need to start employer supported volunteering can be found on www.volunteering.org.uk/smes
