Meet Darcy Brown-Martin and Ebony Frelix, 2015 VolunteerMatch Summit Speakers
Originally Published in "Volunteering is CSR" Blog
What is your session about?
CSR leaders and nonprofit staff alike are wrestling with the movement in corporate philanthropy to “go beyond the check.” CSR staff grapple with the need to create authentic impact through volunteerism without disrupting workplace priorities, while nonprofits that don’t rely directly on volunteers to fulfill their mission battle for funding in a corporate arena leaning hard on employee engagement. Learn how Salesforce and Playworks arrived at a replicable solution to this set of dilemmas, built on mission alignment on both sides.
Why should attendees care about this topic?
Darcy: Whether you’re on the for-profit or nonprofit side of the CSR equation, finding practical ways to repeatedly engage volunteers is key in building successful corporate partnerships in the current market. After this session, participants will be able to look at their organizational assets with fresh eyes. Respectively, they will be able to plan fiscally to support a robust corporate volunteer program or deploy existing program assets to secure corporate funding by helping corporations realize community impact through one‐off volunteer-group engagements.
Ebony: Gone are the days when corporate philanthropy was simply writing a check to a charity of choice at the end of the year. Today’s employees–and millennials in particular–expect a robust and integrated corporate citizenship program. Yet at the same time, CSR practitioners compete for attention, time and effort of employees. Hear about both top-down and bottom-up strategies that can drive impactful employee engagement.
What do you love about your work?
Darcy: Stewarding corporate partnerships for a national nonprofit allows me to engage in mission-driven work while continuously learning about the methods and cultures of significant for-profit companies. I love that blend.
Ebony: I love that every day when I go to work, I’m helping make a difference. Sometimes it’s in a big way, like our partnership with the San Francisco Middle Schools and the Mayor’s Office which, through $8+ million in grants and 5,000+ hours of Salesforce employee volunteering, is helping prepare students for the jobs of tomorrow. Or in small ways, like mentoring last year our amazing YearUp intern–who now, I’m proud to say–is a full time employee of the Salesforce Foundation.
To learn more about Darcy and Ebony, check out their biographies on our Summit speakers’ page. And if you haven’t yet, register today for the 2015 VolunteerMatch Summit!
