How to Run a Corporate Volunteering Programme from Scratch

Starting a corporate volunteering programme is one of the most rewarding things a CSR or HR team can do. It boosts employee engagement, builds community relationships, generates measurable social impact, and gives you something tangible to put in front of leadership.

But where do you start?

Step 1: Get buy-in before you build anything

Before you book a single venue or send a single invite, make sure you have support from leadership. The best volunteering programmes have executive champions — senior people who participate, talk about it internally, and protect the budget.

You don't need a board resolution. You need one or two people who will say "yes, this matters" when you need a decision made.

Step 2: Decide on your model

There are several models for corporate volunteering:

Structured days — Org-wide events, usually one or twice a year. High visibility, lower frequency.

Rolling calendar — Ongoing events throughout the year, employees self-select. Higher volume, lower coordination burden per event.

Campaigns — Themed blocks (e.g. a climate action month, community giving week). Good for engagement and SDG alignment.

Skills-based — Employees volunteer professional skills (legal, finance, marketing, IT). Higher impact per hour, requires charity partner alignment.

Most programmes blend two or three of these. Start with whatever your capacity supports, then expand.

Step 3: Set a volunteering policy

Decide how much time employees can volunteer during work hours. Common models:

• Fixed day allowance (e.g. 2 days per year)
• Hours per month (e.g. 4 hours/month)
• Matched time (company matches personal volunteering time)

Put this in writing. It protects you, it protects the programme, and it makes it easier for managers to approve time off.

Step 4: Choose your charity partners

You can run an open programme (any charity) or a curated one (approved partner list). Both have merit. A curated list is easier to manage and creates deeper relationships. An open list is more inclusive of employee interests.

If you're aligning to UN SDGs, map your partners to relevant goals from the start.

Step 5: Build your event calendar

Plan your first three months of events before you launch. This gives employees something concrete to sign up for and shows you're serious. Variety helps: mix physical (litter picks, food banks), skills-based (workshops, mentoring), and awareness (fundraising, campaigns).

Step 6: Track and report from day one

This is the step most people skip — and the one they regret. Even if you're running a tiny programme, track:

• Hours volunteered
• Number of participants
• Which SDGs you're contributing to
• Outcome metrics (meals served, bags collected, people mentored)

This data is gold when you need to justify budget or celebrate success.

Step 7: Use the right tools

Spreadsheets work for 5 people. They break for 50. A purpose-built platform like With Kind Folk handles the event creation, participant tracking, approval workflow, and reporting automatically — so you're not spending three days building a report at the end of every year.

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The best corporate volunteering programmes aren't complicated. They're consistent, well-communicated, and properly tracked. Start small, build the habit, and let the data tell the story.