2012 VolunteerMatch Corporate Volunteer Awards: A Look at Finalist Morgan Stanley

On May 17, 2012, winners of the 2012 VolunteerMatch Corporate Volunteer Awards will be announced at our annual VolunteerMatch Client Summit in San Francisco, CA.

In this series of posts, we’ll introduce you to the facts and folks behind the ten most effective employee volunteer programs in our family of corporate clients compared against our 2011 benchmarks.

VolunteerMatch congratulates Morgan Stanley for its nomination for Employee Volunteer Program of the Year (Large Business). Volunteerism is a key component of Morgan Stanley’s commitment to giving back to local communities throughout the year, and the company has several volunteer initiatives which include:

Year-Round Volunteer Program - The Year-Round Volunteer Program encourages employees to join their colleagues in building long-term partnerships with Morgan Stanley’s charitable partners in order to drive greater impact in our communities.  Morgan Stanley offices across the US will collaborate with their “charity of the year” on developing projects based on the charities’ needs and opportunities.

Global Volunteer Month – Held every June since 2006, Morgan Stanley employees are encouraged to dedicate at least two hours of service to their communities. The company made sure to accommodate the schedules for every employee, providing a range of opportunities from large-scale projects in which an entire division of several hundred painted a school or cleaned a park, to smaller projects for employees who cannot leave during business hours, such as packing backpacks or providing career development advice for youth.

Strategy Challenge – Morgan Stanley’s annual, signature skills-based volunteer competition launched in 2009. Strategy Challenge pairs teams of Morgan Stanley employees with 15 nonprofit organizations across the country to provide pro bono strategic advice on issues related to business model optimization, geographic and program expansion, and new ventures. Each team spends two months crafting recommendations to address pressing challenges for the organization, while developing their own leadership, teamwork and analytical skills.

Some 2011 highlights of Morgan Stanley’s program include:

• Employees volunteered 171,193 hours, surpassing this year’s goal of 150,000 hours of service and improving on last year’s results by more than 30 percent.
• 21,494 Morgan Stanley employees participated in the volunteering program, representing an increase in participation rate of 13 percent over last year.
• During the 2011 Strategy Challenge, Morgan Stanley teams donated more than 6,500 hours of high-impact analysis and advice – equivalent to a market value of approximately $1 million based on pro bono standards developed by the Pro Bono Action Tank, which estimates how nonprofits should value in-kind contributions. Over the past three years, the Strategy Challenge has cumulatively delivered approximately 14,500 hours to 36 nonprofits.

We commend Morgan Stanley for its excellent volunteer program!

Stay tuned for more finalist profiles in the coming weeks, and announcement of the winners on May 17, 2012 during the 2012 VolunteerMatch Client Summit.