On Friday, Points of Light staff in our Atlanta office got together at Medshare for an employee volunteer day. It was a really great experience, and a lot of work went into making it a great experience.

While it may seem easy enough to get a group of people together and volunteer on a weekday morning, a lot of planning had to go into the event to make it successful for Points of Light staff and Medshare.

We were lucky enough to have a relationship with Medshare’s CEO Meredith Rentz, who used to be a Points of Light’s COO. She helped pave the way to bring the Atlanta office’s staff to Medshare to spend the morning volunteering.

Whether you’re planning a single volunteer opportunity for your staff, or you’re working to build a long-term employee volunteering program, you need to make sure that resources are in place to support the program. Having a staff member whose responsibility it is to work with a nonprofit partner to ensure successful volunteer events is essential to the program’s acceptance and growth.

Here are a few more things to keep in mind when planning an employee volunteer event.

Planning

• Verify all of the logistical information before sharing the information. This includes making sure that directions to the site are accurate, and that everyone knows what time to show up.
• Be sure to choose a task that doesn’t require any special skills, or plan time to train the employees before the event. The staff at Medshare did a great job of explaining their mission, the work that volunteers would be doing, and how to do the work that Points of Light staff were being asked to do.
• Communicating with the partner agency is essential to a successful and enjoyable event. 

Project Design

• Work with organizations that have projects where employees can see and experience the impact of their work. As we packed medical supplies, we got to see the piles of boxes on pallets grow. The staff at Medshare also took the time to tell us short stories throughout the day about the impact our work would have on the recipients of the supplies we were packing.
• Make sure the project meets a real community need and is seen as a benefit to the community
• Don’t simply have the employees and their families do a task, turn the project into a learning experience. A lot of staff never knew that unopened medical supplies could be reused. We learned that our work not only helped hospitals around the world, but helped to divert thousands of pounds of usable medical equipment from landfills in Atlanta.

Management

• Provide an orientation to staff prior to the project. Medshare staff did an awesome job of teaching Points of Light staff about their organization and the work they would be doing.
• Provide opportunities f or the staff to interact with one another. Points of Light staff members that don’t normally get to work together got to volunteer together and learn more about one another!
• Explain to your volunteers the mission and goals for the organization and what is hoped to be accomplished as a result of the project.

Points of Light staff had a really great experience volunteering with Medshare. We learned a lot about medical issues in developing countries, helped support healthy communities around the world, diverted usable supplies from landfills, and got to spend time with each other outside of the office. Overall, we packed more than 321 boxes and 3,137 pounds of supplies for hospitals that desperately needed the supplies.

We had a great time volunteering with Medshare, learned some great lessons about employee volunteer projects and medicine in the developing world, and had a lot of fun while we were doing it!

Have you planned a one-shot or long-term employee volunteering event? Let us know about it in the comments!