There are a number of differences between a successful and unsuccessful volunteer program. After working with hundreds of companies on their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Employee Engagement programs, I wanted to highlight one particular finding that can make or break volunteer experiences. This finding keeps employees coming back for more volunteering rather than deterring them from signing up in the future.

Where corporate volunteering so often misses

Today, we see hundreds of companies sprinting to launch employee volunteer programs. This momentum is wonderful! However, in this rush, we see some critical aspects being overlooked that make employee volunteering so special. The big one I’m going to flag today is empathy.

Volunteering creates empathy in motion. It’s a way to actively connect with causes, communities, and social groups that employees may not be familiar with. Unfortunately, what’s happening far too often is companies being hyper-focused on the activity rather than empathy and storytelling. Both aspects of the event are important but the storytelling is critical to create empathy around the cause and to enable employees to understand why the work they’re doing is so important.

In many cause areas, nonprofits are one of the few points of access to really understand what is happening on the ground. When it comes to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion within companies, these volunteer experiences become a critical component to drive “empathy in motion” in a safe and productive fashion. This lack of empathy and storytelling is the reason some companies struggle with reaching volunteer and engagement goals.

“We are, as a species, addicted to story. Even when the body goes to sleep, the mind stays up all night, telling itself stories.” — Jonathan Gottschall, The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human

Humans love stories! Why? When we hear a story that resonates with us, our levels of a hormone called oxytocin increase. This hormone lifts our feelings of things like trust, compassion, and empathy. It motivates us to work with others and positively influences our social behavior. When volunteers have these experiences, they come back over and over again for more volunteer experiences.

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How to embed empathy in your volunteer experiences

So how do you ensure empathy and storytelling are core to your volunteer experiences?

Work with great nonprofits — Identifying great nonprofits to partner with for your volunteer experiences is critical. They are the storytellers, the impact partners, and are a driving force in generating empathy. I also want to iterate the importance for companies to get away from doing volunteering “to” and “for” nonprofits. The key mindset is solving challenges and creating an impact “with” nonprofits. This is core to a good nonprofit relationship and a better volunteer experience for employees.

Build storytelling into the core of the volunteer experience — Once a really good nonprofit relationship is developed, the storytelling experience can be defined. In WeHero volunteer experiences, we have the storytelling come first before the impact work takes place. We feel that this is important in defining the WHY and starting the empathy journey as soon as possible. To double click on this, the more you can bring people into the shoes of others being impacted through the storytelling, the greater the empathy that will be generated.

Report the impact (the right way) — Understanding the impact the donation of time and energy from employees has made is a crucial practice. The key is tying the impact back to the story. Volunteering can and should be an emotional experience in many ways and impact reporting is the conclusion of the movie and the teaser for the sequel on how employees can come back for more.

In conclusion

More storytelling, more empathy, and the results for CSR professionals will follow. Need some help embedding storytelling into your volunteer experiences? Reach out to me!