Meet the 2013 VolunteerMatch Client Summit Speakers: Bea Boccalandro

On May 16-17, 2013 VolunteerMatch will gather its corporate clients for a day and a half of learning, sharing and networking. The 2013 VolunteerMatch Client Summit will feature several sessions led by corporate social responsibility (CSR) thought leaders. In this series of posts, we’ll introduce you to each of the speakers and what they’ll
discuss at the Summit.

Name: Bea Boccalandro

Title/Organization: President
Organization: VeraWorks

Day 1 Workshop Topic: ”Starting and Evolution – Program Assessment & the Volunteer Program Change Model”

Best Practice Cafe Topic: “Reporting Program Impacts & Achievements”

Regardless of size, it’s often difficult for companies to accurately assess and report on what makes an employee volunteer program successful. Once again this year we’ll be joined by Bea Boccalandro, one of the foremost experts in helping companies establish, grow, and assess employee volunteer engagement programs, who will lead both a workshop and a round table discussion during the first day of the summit.

During the workshop, which will be presented in partnership with VolunteerMatch’s Samir Shah, attendees will be broken into working groups around a common program challenge (for example, engaging retail or manufacturing employees, global programs, or CRA requirements) to address the issue and come up with a solution using the program change model from VeraWorks’ consulting practice.

Later, Bea will co-lead a Best Practice Cafe discussion with Carmen Perez from CECP. Their presentation will explore  the pros and cons of reporting impact and achievement in an employee volunteer program.

About Bea Boccalandro:
Bea Boccalandro helps companies evolve their corporate community involvement strategy, programming and evaluation. She has taught courses and seminars on corporate-nonprofit partnerships, employee volunteering and other community involvement topics for Georgetown University, the German Center for Corporate Citizenship (CCCD), the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship and the Points of Light Institute.

Boccalandro also conducts research. She led the project that developed the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship’s Drivers of Effectiveness for Employee Giving and Volunteering Programs and conducted the related Fortune 500 company research. She wrote "The End of Employee Volunteering: A Necessary Step to Substantive Employee Engagement in the Community" and "A Helping Hand or a Hijacking? How Nonprofits Can Respond to Ever-Increasing Corporate Involvement in the Community", both published by the CCCD. Boccalandro has helped Aetna, Allstate, Bank of America, FedEx, HP, IBM, Levi Strauss & Co., The Walt Disney Company and many other companies transform their community involvement programs.

This year’s event is generously supported by JetBlue, New York University, Newell Rubbermaid and 3BL Media.