Skills-Based Volunteering Crosses Six Continents: Global Pro Bono Summit Convenes Representatives from 27 Countries in Singapore this March
SINGAPORE, March 7, 2016 /3BL Media/ - Taproot Foundation and BMW Foundation convene the 4th Annual Global Pro Bono Summit March 15-18, 2016 in Singapore with local host, Conjunct Consulting. The Summit gathers leaders from across sectors and across the globe with a shared vision to make the wide range of talents and skills of the entire business community, from marketing and design to strategic and business development to technology and HR, fully accessible to organizations serving our collective good. Representatives from six continents and 27 countries will be joining this invitation-only gathering.
This Summit brings together corporate pro bono leaders, pro bono service providers, government and foundation representatives to address how to provide more high-quality, impactful pro bono service to our world’s critical social issues. Attendees will include corporate social responsibility representatives from companies such as GE, Accenture, Credit Suisse, Citi, and GSK as well as social entrepreneurs who lead organizations that offer pro bono service programs including Australia, China, Chile, Germany, Hungary, India, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and the United States. (Complete list below.)
The Taproot Foundation and BMW Foundation have been co-hosting this annual Summit since 2013 and together have developed The Global Pro Bono Network, a select group of pro bono providers from around the world who actively participate in a collaborative effort to share best practices and learnings to drive the pro bono movement forward.
For the first time, the Summit will be convened in Asia and has reached maximum capacity. In-kind support for the Summit program has been generously provided by Autodesk and Google.
"By convening an impressive roster of passionate movement-builders for the first time in Asia, we are taking the Summit to a truly global level. If you want to know how governments can use pro bono to enhance the common good, Singapore is the place to go," said Markus Hipp, Chief Executive Officer, BMW Foundation.
According to the CECP’s Giving Around the Globe: 2015 Edition, 53% of European companies surveyed offer a pro bono program domestically and 33% offer it internationally as well. In Asia, domestic pro bono programs are reported by 67% of companies surveyed, while 20% are international. This convening allows participants to collaborate with their peers and partners, share best practices and learnings, and create strategies to advance the pro bono movement. Ideas and topics that surface during the course of these three days aim to transform into actionable commitments for the coming year.
“The fastest growing corporate employee engagement program in the US and worldwide is pro bono service. More and more, Taproot’s corporate partners are telling us that it’s not enough to create a pro bono employee engagement program only for U.S. employees—they also need to provide ways for employees across the globe to give their time and skills and most importantly, to make an impact in the communities where they have business operations,” says Liz Hamburg, President and CEO of the Taproot Foundation. Hamburg continues, “It’s fascinating to listen to the peer-to-peer sharing at the Summit and hear how different countries approach skilled volunteering, taking all cultural and regional differences into account.”
Samantha Lee, President of Conjunct Consulting, the local host of the Summit relays, “It’s very exciting for us at Conjunct to help bring the Summit to Singapore. In Singapore, there’s an overwhelming number of people interested in doing pro bono work. On LinkedIn alone, 39,235 people based in Singapore have put their hands up for skills-based volunteering. Given that there are only about 2,000 charities in Singapore, that’s approximately 20 people per charity!” Lee continues, “Despite Singapore being such a small nation, we have seen an increasing number of people coming to us to volunteer their skills. More recently, this development is also being driven on a national level, where the government is actively pushing the pro bono movement. The Summit has been a great way for us to start conversations with people about pro bono, and it’s a fantastic reason to bring together all the different players (including intermediaries, nonprofits, government, and corporations) in the local pro bono scene and to have a discussion around what we are already doing well and where there is still room to grow. I think that will be a fantastic win for both my country and my organization.”
2016 Global Pro Bono Summit
follow us: #GPBS2016 website: http://www.probonosummit.org/
Participating countries/regions: Australia, Brazil, Chile, China, European Union, France, Georgia, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Japan, Morocco, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, and Vietnam.
About the Taproot Foundation
Taproot Foundation, a US nonprofit, connects nonprofits and social change organizations with skilled volunteers through pro bono service. Taproot is creating a world where organizations dedicated to social change have full access—through pro bono service—to the marketing, strategy, HR, and IT resources they need to be most effective. Since 2001, Taproot’s skilled volunteers have served 4,000 social change organizations providing 1.4 million hours of work worth over $150 million in value. Taproot is located in New York, San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. and in partnership with the BMW Foundation is leading a network of global pro bono providers in over 23 countries around the world. www.taprootfoundation.org, @taprootfound
About the BMW Foundation
The BMW Foundation brings together leaders from across communities, cultures, and countries to drive Social Innovation, promote Global Dialogue, and encourage Responsible Leadership. We are convinced that our approach breaks down barriers between politics, business, and civil society and allows society to benefit from the creativity and diversity that result from cross-sector collaboration. www.bmw-stiftung.de/en/, @bmwfoundation
About Conjunct Consulting
Conjunct Consulting is Southeast Asia’s first social change consultancy: engaging, mobilising and empowering pro bono talent to strengthen social good organisations in Singapore. They do this through pro bono consulting projects, strategic collaborations, and one-day corporate scalathon events. Since it’s inception in August 2011, Conjunct Consulting has delivered 100 consulting projects with a total of 70 nonprofit partners serving various community needs, creating over $2 million worth of social impact. http://conjunctconsulting.org/, @conjunctConsult
