Expanding skills-based volunteerism

The world of corporate philanthropy has changed markedly over the last decade, so much so that the name itself now seems almost trite. Today’s best corporate citizens utilize levers from across their organizations, increasingly engaging employees through their talents and expertise, in addition to gift matching and volunteerism.

Skills-based volunteerism can elevate the impact of nonprofit partners in ways that money alone cannot. Whether through technology support, legal pro bono work, human resources planning, or other skill sets, aligning employee talents with the needs of nonprofits can yield remarkable results.

At Liberty Mutual Insurance , we are lucky to have incredibly engaged employees who believe deeply in giving back. Our teams consistently work together for the greater good, bringing the same zeal to advancing a community-driven initiative that they do to achieving a core business objective.

Today, more than ever before, I’m inspired by the work of our nonprofit partners and the exuberance our employees express around partnering with them.

Amongst our most consistent and impactful teams is our Corporate Strategy & Research group. They serve as trusted, strategic advisors and drive transformational change by taking an enterprise-wide customer-centric perspective.

Each year, they embark on a three-month volunteer consultancy with one of our community partners. Since 2021, they have helped four NPOs take on large scale initiatives with profound implications for their organizations. Through their strategic research and guidance, the Corporate Strategy and Research team has helped:

1.? HopeWell Inc launch a new high-impact early literacy tutoring program called RISE that moves with young people in the foster care system, even as those students change foster care placements or schools. This initiative aspires to help close the academic achievement gap and increase the percentage of youth in foster care who eventually graduate college, which currently sits at just 3 percent. ?

2.? YMCA of Greater Boston , a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, update their membership model to strengthen their financial model enabling them to provide vital resources for low-income communities. The revenue from these memberships is instrumental to their efforts to provide adult education and job training, access to healthy food, and childcare, amongst other programs. In fact, ‘the Y’ is the largest provider of state-licensed childcare in Massachusetts.

3. More Than Words expand their mission to empower system-involved young people take charge of their lives while taking charge of a business with a strategic model review and planning process. As a result, More Than Words launched new programming including an expanded on-ramp of supportive services for youth entering the job training model and new funds available for graduates to get on a path to a living wage career.

4.? CommonWealth Kitchen (CWK) navigate their rapid growth through strategy definition, focus area identification and the development of effective success measures. CWK is unique in the Greater Boston community. It supports food entrepreneurs with five major programs, a shared kitchen and co-manufacturing capabilities. Members gain access to deep wells of knowledgeable teachers that help navigate the permitting process, operations and growth, all with an eye towards equity. In fact, three quarters of CWK’s member businesses are BIPOC-owned and 7 in 10 are women-owned.

Liberty Mutual will continue to expand our skills-based volunteering program and I look forward to the untold ways our partnerships will benefit vulnerable people and communities.