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For the last four years Center member CA, Inc. has sponsored CA Together in Action (CTA), a month-long program to support non-profit organizations around the world. Launched in 2006 as a two-week event, the program expanded to a month to allow as many employees as possible to participate. 
TV networks push for viewer volunteers
By Tim Wilson
It may be hard to believe but the people who created generations of couch potatoes are now reaching out to mobilize those sedentary spuds and turn “Must see TV” into “Must do TV.”
The Entertainment Industry Foundation has enlisted major broadcast networks, including Center members ABC, CBS and NBC, for a groundbreaking initiative designed to inspire a new era of service and volunteerism as part of the foundation’s multi-year campaign called “iParticipate.”
This week the networks are encouraging viewers to give back to their community the same way companies have been turning to employee volunteerism as a force for good where they operate and do business. But this will involve more than messages in public service announcements. The “iParticipate” theme will be a part of news, talk and reality shows, and will be woven into scripts of television’s most popular programs.
This groundswell of service promotion mirrors the continuing support for volunteering by the largest U.S. companies. Our recently released 2009 State of Corporate Citizenship in the United States found that support for employee volunteering remained strong, with 83 percent of executives at large companies stating they support employee volunteering in the community.
Despite the financial crunch faced by businesses in the past year, the 2009 survey by the Boston College Center found the recession had a modest negative impact on philanthropy and community support. Perhaps not surprisingly, the larger the companies the stronger the support there was for volunteering and the greater importance it had in executives’ views of corporate citizenship.
In small operations, when budgets are tight it’s that much tougher to spare the few hands they have on board when they are doing their utmost to keep everyone on board. In a large corporation, where people are the most abundant resource, volunteering is a natural approach to keeping corporate citizenship efforts alive and effective in tough times. And when layoffs are a reality, volunteering provides employees a reason to still feel good about the company where they work. In fact, executives from large companies that support employee volunteering cited improving job satisfaction and retention as one of the top three reasons.
Read the full report to learn more about the findings of the 2009 State of Corporate Citizenship. In the meantime, watch your tube for the same kind of volunteerism messages that many companies bought into long ago. And let’s hope that Evan Hochberg, national director of community involvement at Deloitte, was onto something with a remark about the iParticipate TV initiative in his opinion piece for the Chronicle of Philanthropy that should resonate at water coolers across the country.
“When Steve Carell and his co-workers on ‘The Office’ are touting volunteerism,” Hochberg wrote, “it’s fair to say we have reached a tipping point in the service movement.”
Stay tuned. Only time will tell.
