Encouraging Employee Volunteerism

A nonprofit organization in NYC, Agencies in Action, the brain child of Bill Oberlander, working with the New York Coalition Against Hunger, has initiated an advertising campaign to encourage for-profit ad agencies to organize employee volunteer trips to soup kitchens and food pantries. According to AdWeek, agencies who agree to participate commit to sending teams of 6 staff for at least three hours a month. With only 20 agencies participating, the program has the potential of staffing at least one of NYC's soup kitchens every weekday for a month.

To me, this is a very interesting development in employee volunteerism--rather than a nonprofit reaching out to a company, or visa versa, this campaign is targeting a community of firms to join forces for a common cause. As employee volunteerism replaces corporate philanthropy, we may see more campaigns like this.

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