Rohini Jog, head of marketing of Kid Stuff turned a loss-making women?s self help group in Uganda into a profit-making venture out of sheer determination. Sumita Mukerjee, earlier an employee of HSBC, is now working with a non-profit organisation in Namibia. Given that Mukerjee and Jog are volunteering for a meager stipend ? equivalent to Rs 5,000 in India ? their efforts are certainly praiseworthy. Curious to know how they got there? An iVolunteer fellowship by Mitra enabled them to lend their expertise to the social development sector. Mitra, an organisation formed to streamline volunteering initiatives, has a network of 315 NGOs, over 20 corporates and more than 5,000 volunteers? Rahul Nainwal, director of Mitra seems content with the progress. Having worked with Xansa, Ambuja Cements, Star TV, Ballarpur Industries to name a few, he says: ?That?s what we had always wanted to do ? institutionalise volunteering.?
Meanwhile, several other corporates are independently trying to do the precious little they can for the society by means of volunteering. Satyam Computer Services? 30,000-strong workforce started volunteering in 2001. But three years later, their volunteering efforts became aggressive ? addressing issues of illiteracy, HIV-AIDS, environment, health, and more. Having already completed more than a quarter of a million hours of volunteering at the beginning of the present fiscal year, they are now targeting to achieve the same number of hours in this fiscal alone. ?We believe that magic happens only when people come together. We don?t believe in book charity. We want our employees to connect with the community, to stay in touch with reality. And as the society becomes all the more complex, this assumes further importance for us,? says Dr Balaji Utla, CEO, Satyam Foundation. In fact, the Satyam Foundation carries out its social programmes primarily through volunteers with only a small core of full-time foundation members. Volunteers are inducted into the Foundation?s work through a three-tier pyramid model ? the involvement and the skills imparted vary with the activity at hand.
Or consider this. Beginning yesterday, Oracle employees and their families in India have been volunteering to provide companionship to isolated seniors, teach computer skills to underprivileged students, spread awareness for reducing and recycling waste, paint school classrooms, clean parks, plant trees? all as part of their two-week long Global Volunteer Days programme. Last year, Oracle offices in 37 countries participated in GVD and contributed almost 23,000 volunteer hours through a variety of projects. Interestingly, Oracle had initiated the programme as just a one-day event six years ago. ?It is an opportunity to go beyond our commercially-focused activities and make a difference to the community we live in,? is how Krishan Dhawan, managing director, Oracle India prefers to put it. An enthusiastic volunteer himself, Dhawan seeks similar opportunities all year round.
Other corporates are also adopting the volunteering mode. Tata Refractories Ltd carries on the community welfare initiatives in Lakhanpur block of Orissa largely with the help of its employees. Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation employees have teamed up with Ganatar to help sections of underprivileged children in Gujarat. Also mention-worthy is GiveIndia?s Payroll Giving programme. Over 12,000 employees from 30 corporate houses raise close to Rs 30 lakh every month for a host of NGOs. HDFC, ACC, KPMG, Piramal Enterprises, Firstsource, Marico are just a few of them. The employees just need to sign up once and specify the amount they voluntarily want to get deducted from their salary every month. The amount accumulates in the donor?s account on http://www.GiveIndia.org and when it reaches a balance of Rs 500, the employee can decide the cause and the NGO to which the money must go. In fact, GiveIndia also certifies NGOs on the basis of stringent credibility norms. ?We evaluated various fund-raising routes and Payroll Giving scored the highest. It enables even junior employees to donate amounts as small as Rs 50 every month,? says Mathan Varkey, VP, marketing.
There?s also a lot of legwork happening ?for a cause.? In 2005 over 600 employees from 21 corporate teams participated in the Hutch marathon Corporate Challenge. They ran and raised Rs 8.15 million for their favourite NGOs. Last year the amount swelled to Rs 12.19 million. The HSBC team emerged as the highest pledge raisers, with Rs 2,18,803! With Hutch expecting more than 30,000 people to participate in its half marathon next month, the cash registers can certainly be expected to ring loud and clear.
On the other end is Nainwal busy screening applications from prospective volunteers. ?It is important to check the motivation level of the applicants. Out of the 100 people who volunteer, only 10 are able to complete their assignments,? he says. This prompted Mitra to make the volunteering programmes flexible. ?Xansa employees had no time to go out of office to work. So, we developed a mentoring programme for them. We got underprivileged children to their office so that the employees could mentor them. The programme ran for more than two years. Similarly, a BPO called Quadra volunteered to share their skills with NGOs through workshops,? he adds. Another challenge that Mitra faces is to build a revenue model around volunteering to make it self-sustainable. Currently, Ratan Tata Trust and ICICI are underwriting the costs for them. ?There ought to be a value proposition attached to it. Once the employees find that the opportunity cost for volunteering is good, they?ll definitely opt for it,? says Nainwal. Let?s hope that works out. For, as Nidhi Vij, campaign coordinator for Amnesty International puts it ?volunteering is the backbone of development initiatives.?
