Employee volunteering
Employee volunteering in India
What makes employees show up, come back and make a difference, from someone who has run volunteering with 250+ companies and a community of 1M+ volunteers.
The gap it closes
Most companies already spend on CSR. The gap is that their people never see it. Employee volunteering, run as a programme rather than a day out, closes that gap: the same Schedule VII project the CSR budget funds becomes something employees helped build, and the question HR teams bring shifts from how to spend the money to how to make people feel part of it.
A day, or a programme
Both can be useful. Only one of them changes anything.
A volunteering day
- Planned around a photograph for the newsletter
- One activity for everyone
- A venue and a T-shirt order beforehand
- Ends at lunch
- Counts heads
- Mostly serves the brochure
A volunteering programme
- Planned around an outcome a community can feel
- Roles people choose, including skills-based ones
- A brief, a short training and a partner who knows the community
- Teams come back until the work is done
- Counts hours, activities and outcomes, without inflating them
- Serves the community, the employees and the company, in that order
Formats that work
Six ways companies in India run employee volunteering, and what each is good for.
In the office
Kit assembly
School kits, hygiene kits and solar study lamps assembled by teams at their desks, then delivered to schools and families.
In the field
Drives
Miyawaki plantations, lake and beach clean-ups, school painting and murals, with a briefing and safety plan before anyone picks up a tool.
With skills
Skills-based volunteering
Mentoring students, pro bono technology, finance and communications for nonprofits: the work that a paid consultant would otherwise do.
From anywhere
Virtual volunteering
Recording audiobooks for visually impaired students, online mentoring and remote research for NGOs.
With families
Family volunteering
Weekend activities that employees can bring their families to, from plantations to library drives.
Through the year
Volunteering weeks
A week of activities around Daan Utsav in October or International Volunteer Day on 5 December, planned months ahead.
Kit prices, timings and logistics for each format are set out by OurVolunteer.com and Marpu Foundation.
Volunteers in the Marpu community
1M+
Partner companies
250+
Corporate partners who stay on across years
85%
States with programmes
23+
Sector by sector
Every industry volunteers differently. He has written about each.
- How IT services companies use CSR to drive employee engagement
- What working with GCCs taught me about employee volunteering
- How banks and insurers approach employee volunteering
- How pharma companies approach employee volunteering
- How healthcare companies approach employee volunteering
- What consulting companies taught me about employee engagement
- What Working with Automotive Companies Taught Me About CSR
What HR and CSR teams ask
What is employee volunteering?
Employees giving their time and skills to community work, organised by their company, usually with a nonprofit partner. In India it often runs alongside a company’s CSR programme under Section 135.
How does employee volunteering fit with CSR under Section 135?
The CSR obligation is about spending on Schedule VII activities; volunteering is how a programme can be delivered, not a substitute for the spend. A volunteer-first programme puts employees into the same projects the CSR budget funds. How volunteer time is accounted for is a question for your CSR committee and auditors.
How do you get employees to actually sign up?
Give them a choice of roles, a clear reason, a time that fits the working week and a follow-up that shows what their hours achieved. How Marpu keeps volunteers coming back explains the method.
How should employee volunteering be measured?
By hours, activities and outcomes, not headcount alone. Why CSR should be measured by volunteer hours sets out the case; the top 1,000 listed companies also report community work under BRSR Principle 8.
Who runs employee volunteering programmes for companies?
Raghu created OurVolunteer.com, which plans and runs programmes end to end, from in-office kit assembly to on-ground drives. Marpu Foundation implements CSR programmes that employees can volunteer in.
Plan a programme
OurVolunteer.com designs and runs employee volunteering end to end, in the office or on the ground.
Train the people who run it
A working session with Raghu for HR, CSR and ESG teams, or a keynote for your volunteering week.