Community and Connection: Volunteers Celebrate Nielsen Global Impact Day 2023
Originally published on Nielsen Insights
On October 5, 2023, more than 2,260 Nielsen employees across 39 countries volunteered for our eleventh annual Nielsen Global Impact Day (NGID). NGID is our annual day of service that brings our community and culture to life. Nielsen volunteers collectively logged more than 10,000 volunteer hours across 350+ events and individual activities for nearly 300 organizations.
Nielsen employees volunteer to support the communities where we live and work. “Volunteering is the compass that guides us through the winds of change, pointing us towards a purpose greater than ourselves,” said Benjie Lu, Executive Director – Digital Operations for Asia Pacific and Cares and Green BRG Regional Leader for Asia Pacific. “In times of transformation, I’ve witnessed volunteering programs like NGID not only ignite employee engagement but also foster a resilient spirit within organizations. When we give back to our communities, we strengthen the bonds that hold us together, and in doing so, we find the strength to navigate any storm with unwavering unity and purpose.” And volunteering doesn’t just happen on NGID—all employees have 24 hours of annual volunteer time to use not only during our global day of service but throughout the year.
This global initiative is the annual call to action for Cares, one of Nielsen’s 13 Business Resource Groups (BRGs), which focuses on driving social action through volunteering. With the guidance of Cares leaders, more than a hundred employees across the company mobilized to lead volunteering events around the world and encourage their peers to participate.
For example, Nielsen volunteers made flashcards to support the elderly with digital inclusion, sorted and packaged food, cleaned up parks and beaches, conducted workshops on leadership skills, created maps to aid humanitarian organizations, provided connection and companionship to the elderly, and so much more.
As part of our company’s purpose to power a better media future for all people, Nielsen also collaborated with Common Impact for our first in-person skills-based volunteering event at our New York City office. 28 Nielsen volunteers worked in teams to propose solutions and provide actionable recommendations to four nonprofits driving representation in media and technology and the use of technology for social impact. The participating nonprofits included: AI4ALL, The National Association of Broadcasters Leadership Foundation (NABLF), The Paley Center for Media, and Potential Energy Coalition. Teams worked on a variety of projects covering website strategy, audience targeting, sponsorship growth, and data management. In a follow-up survey, all of the nonprofits reported they will be able to use or implement the work created and guidance provided in the next 12 months.
“While we’ve done virtual skills-based volunteering events before, it was amazing to see how this in-person experience really deepened the engagement between Nielsen volunteers and the nonprofits,” said Andrea Bertels, Vice President, Corporate Citizenship at Nielsen. “All the benefits of skills-based volunteering— exposure to senior leaders, sharing expertise across sectors, innovative thinking from using your skills in a new context, and a deeper social impact for nonprofits, just to name a few—came to life at this event.”
While our annual day of service is a high-point of our volunteering efforts, Nielsen’s commitments to our communities are year-round. As part of our ESG goals, we are striving to increase employee participation in community-oriented programs to 30% by 2024, and contribute $30 million in pro bono data, public reports and other support to organizations and efforts powering the better media future that we all envision. In 2022, we achieved 24.3% participation in community programs and provided an estimated $21.7 million in kind donations through pro bono projects and skills-based volunteering.
