Canonical Hour

As I imagine you know, donating your time as a volunteer is a way for you to make your community stronger and at the same time assist the poor. Of course, freeing up the time to volunteer often consumes some of that very same free time. It hardly needs pointing out, when volunteering becomes a team effort with friends or co-workers, it will be far more fun. By way of addressing this problem, a number of companies are making themselves into points of organization to help their employees support the community. One of the leaders in this is Adaptive Marketing LLC of Connecticut who developed shopping and financial benefits programs such as Credit Diagnosis.

Initiatives like these were always annual, minor occasions - in today’s world, so much more can be accomplished. For example, Adaptive Marketing has offered staff members an opportunity to help with anything from athletic shoe recycling efforts to tree-planting days. Through central organization the initiatives grew into larger events, with specific locations, times and dates posted ahead of time to help volunteers with their time management.

Giving volunteers their say in which activities the company supports is also important. At Adaptive Marketing, the people who brought you Credit Diagnosis, members of staff can pick and choose from a wide range of volunteer drives. You’ll soon see your civic-minded workforce working on environmental initiatives and so on. In many cases, the more they enjoy it, the more productive they are, so through offering such a variety of programs Adaptive Marketing ensure that progress can be made in a great many areas.

Usually a company-sponsored volunteer initiative - getting involved with a homeless shelter or assisting at a local school - is either for a one-off event or on a regular schedule to accomplish a bigger goal. Members of staff may well claim - and really be convinced- that they have no time to give, though we’d be surprised if they genuinely cannot free up enough resources to lend a hand with an event covering just a single day.

It’s hardly an unusual practice for companies to help to support the community in which they’re based. Like many other firms, Adaptive Marketing supports volunteer programs in part to spread goodwill through its home community by the activities of its employees. Another aspect is, one of the benefits of volunteer work is the knowledge that you’ve done something good - a positive feeling that enriches the entire corporation. Helping your employees to find the time to volunteer is beneficial in some very real ways, as we hope we’ve shown.