Did You Know? "Skills-based volunteering is the fastest growing form of corporate giving, with nearly 50% of companies reporting having a skills-based volunteer program in place." - Common Impact
Volunteers are always looking for meaningful opportunities to share their time and special talents. Skills-based volunteering enables nonprofits to leverage specific skillsets to support their work and it engages individual volunteers in the opportunity to create lasting community-wide change. The Heart of Illinois United Way's Skills Link network is dedicated to linking talented volunteers with nonprofits to impact our community.
What is Skills-Based Volunteering?
Any time a volunteer uses their abilities, talents, networks, expertise, or resources to support a nonprofit organization.
Skills-Based Volunteering:
- Enables volunteers to put their skills or specialized expertise to use
- Enables nonprofit organizations to expand services
- Includes planned projects typically in the areas marketing, operations, strategic planning, finance, technology, skilled-labor, etc.
Why is Skills-Based Volunteering Important?
- Volunteers want to share their personal and professional skills while nonprofits get access to expertise that helps address
organizational needs. - Expertise provided is not a skill that the nonprofit needs every day on staff.
- Employees develop significant skills which benefit them and their companies.
- Skills-based volunteers better understand nonprofit organizations and the complexities of the social challenges they are trying to address.
When does Skills-Based Volunteering Happen? What is the Typical Time Commitment?
- Short, medium and long-term projects that, on average, last from 6 weeks to 6 months
- Ongoing efforts such as board or standing committees
- Individual volunteers often work remotely after work or on weekends
Who Participates in Skills-Based Volunteering?
"...connecting the talent of the private sector with the needs of the social sector-at scale-can't happen without a network to bring them together." - Stanford Social Innovation Review, The Promise of Skills-Based Volunteering
