If we think of volunteering as a vote with your time, as civic engagement, then we must do more to make it equitable for everybody to participate. Just like we would in an election year when we’re trying to turn out the vote, we also have to create levels of access for other forms of civic engagement for communities of color.
Growing up, there weren’t any women around me who had taken the same career path I did, but what they did do was instill in me a belief that I could aim high, and these Black women are still a part of my life and my story.
If we really believe in creating lasting change, we have to find ways for everyone to be part of that – not just our friends, not just the people we know, and maybe not just doing the things we can think of… 2021 is a great time for that to happen.
Common Impact is proud to partner with the Clinton Foundation’s Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Action Network. This December 2020 webinar helps nonprofits understand opportunities for leveraging skills-based volunteering to build capacity. The presentation features information on skills-based volunteering resources, how to find volunteers, and how pro bono projects can be used strategically to benefit your …
Pro Bono 101 Webinar with the Clinton Foundation Read More »
[There is] this narrative of ‘This is not who we are,’ when a lot of us, and I think a lot of folks from marginalized communities – Black, Indigenous folks, etc. – are saying, ‘This is exactly who we are, who we have been.’ I think about it like a twelve step program where you cannot really heal and change if you don’t go through the first step, which is to admit you have a problem, and we just haven’t done that. We as a nation just have not acknowledged that we have a problem here. This is who we are.
There’s been an intense focus on getting back to normal, but what this year and our Pro Bono Perspectives guests have highlighted is that normal is not okay and we don’t want to go back there. That to me is the light that is shining through the cracks: we are coming out of 2020 with a new and clear mandate for social and racial justice and a renewed sense of purpose.
It’s really important for those of us in a position of power – as a funder with nonprofit organizations especially – to be very transparent about it and not allow it to be a barrier for meaningful partnership. We’re not going to have the impact that we want to have if it’s us telling you exactly how we want you to run programs for us; it will be far more fruitful for us to have a conversation about the outcomes we seek to achieve – ideally together – and then to think about resources we have or you have and hopefully align on the impact we can have together.
A new edition of a CSR toolkit from Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation and Common Impact, Making Good Happen at Work 2: A Guide to Building an Employee Service and Giving Program offers basic starting points and principles from Harvard Pilgrim’s programs and adds a deeper dive into skills-based volunteerism, one of the fastest growing corporate giving programs. This …
Making Good Happen at Work 2: A Guide to Building an Employee Service and Giving Program Read More »
In the middle of COVID and post-COVID, we have to have a lens of racial and social equity. We have to recognize the gaps and imbalances that exist in our community, the misdistribution of resources, and how that has disproportionately impacted the places and spaces where Black and Brown communities live and struggle to thrive.
This free virtual event is designed to help CSR leaders build employee engagement and corporate philanthropy programs in response to changing community needs.
