Workplace Volunteering: 5 Ways to Make a Real Impact

What You’ll Discover in This Blog

1. Why workplace volunteering matters. Volunteering helps your company live its values, strengthen its community ties, and build a culture of purpose. It’s a practical, visible way to demonstrate your commitment to corporate social responsibility
2. The benefits of volunteering at work. From attracting top talent to nurturing leadership skills and collaboration, workplace volunteering enhances both your company’s reputation and its workforce.
3. Five workplace volunteering ideas to get started. Explore practical ideas like team service days, skills-based volunteering, virtual opportunities, environmental activities, and departmental volunteer challenges.
4. How Charitable Impact can help. Tools like Impact Accounts, Giving Groups, and Campaigns can help you combine charitable giving with volunteering. Our team is here to support you with expert guidance, advise you on how to turn ideas into action, and grow your impact.
5. Build a culture of giving. Get flexible tools, support, and resources for your workplace volunteering efforts from our team. We can provide you with a simpler, better way to give without the added administrative burden.

Workplace volunteering is more than just a feel-good initiative. It reflects a company’s commitment to corporate social responsibility (CSR) and creates a culture of purpose, connection, and shared core values. Whether you’re a large company or a small team, integrating volunteer opportunities into your workplace can boost employee engagement, support community development, and improve your brand’s reputation.

Here are some of the reasons why you should include volunteering in your workplace and how Charitable Impact can support you and your employees in making a difference.

Why workplace volunteering matters

Companies across Canada are increasingly recognizing the importance of building volunteering programs into their corporate social responsibility framework. A 2018 study by Imagine Canada and Volunteer Canada found that all 54 companies surveyed—ranging from large public corporations to small and medium-sized enterprises—offered some form of employer-supported volunteering. 82% of the respondents had company-wide volunteer events and found them to be effective at improving morale and building bonds among team members.

More importantly, workplace volunteering empowers employees to connect with their communities and contribute to causes they care about. By offering volunteer opportunities, your employees can feel proud of where they work and are more likely to stay with the business for the long term.

Benefits of workplace volunteering

Here are a few ways workplace volunteering can benefit your business and employees:

Strengthens team spirit

Volunteering together helps employees build trust, improve communication, and foster collaboration outside of everyday roles. Team-based volunteer initiatives create opportunities for your staff to connect on a deeper level and could improve how they work on a regular basis. 

Increases employee engagement

When employees see their values reflected in the workplace, they’re more likely to be engaged and motivated. Workplace volunteering creates meaningful opportunities for employees to give back through their employer, deepening their connection to the organization. According to Volunteer Canada, 70% of employees say they’d be more loyal to a company that helps them contribute to social and environmental causes.

Enhances company reputation and attracts top talent

A strong volunteering culture demonstrates the company’s commitment to corporate social responsibility and can attract socially conscious talent. Many top performers are on the lookout for employers that can offer them more than just a paycheque. When given the choice between two jobs, 68% of Canadians would choose the one with a strong volunteer culture.

Supports skill development

Volunteering can also support professional growth. It offers employees opportunities to develop leadership skills, project management experience, teamwork, and adaptability in new environments. These real-world experiences often translate back into the workplace and lead to a stronger, more resilient workforce.

Deepens community connections

Consistent support for local initiatives deepens a company’s relationships within the community it serves. Building these ties also enhances the company’s presence and trust at the local level, showing that the business is committed to making a positive impact beyond its bottom line.

5 Volunteer ideas to help you get started

Looking for ways to start or expand a workplace volunteering program? Here are five ideas that can fit a variety of team sizes, locations, and capacities:

1. Host a team volunteer day

Organize a day where employees volunteer together with a local organization, such as a food bank, community centre, or public cleanup event. Make it flexible by offering different roles suited to various interests and abilities, such as sorting donations, planting trees, or assisting with event logistics and planning. For example, the City of Vancouver has an Adopt-a-Block program and opportunities for volunteers to help manage graffiti throughout the city.  

2. Offer skills-based volunteering

If your team has expertise in science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM), consider volunteering to teach these skills to students in underserved communities. Organizations like Canada Learning Code work with thousands of volunteers to make technology education accessible and fun for all of Canada.

3. Support flexible, remote opportunities

Not all volunteer work needs to happen in person. Virtual opportunities like mentoring youth online, translating materials for nonprofits, or offering financial literacy workshops can help remote or hybrid teams get involved with volunteering. Flexibility ensures that more employees, regardless of location or schedule, can give back.

4. Engage in environmental volunteering

Organize outdoor activities such as shoreline cleanups, park revitalizations, tree planting initiatives, or urban gardening projects. These projects not only support sustainability but also offer employees a hands-on way to work together outside traditional settings. Some community gardens harvest produce to be distributed, while other organizations like Fresh Roots aim to educate and inspire meaningful connections with land and food.

5. Create team challenges or volunteer drives

Inspire friendly competition and collaboration by setting company-wide volunteer goals or organizing departmental challenges. Your company can start volunteer drives and fundraisers using Giving Groups. These fundraising tools allow your employees to pool donations for a shared cause. Each team or department can set up their own Giving Group and compete to see who can raise the most money. Then, distribute the total raised funds to Canadian registered charities of your choice.

How Charitable Impact can help with your workplace volunteering

Many companies want to do good, but aren’t sure where to start. That’s where we come in. We offer tools, support, and resources that make it easy to combine workplace volunteering with charitable giving. 

Here are a few ways we can help:

• Impact Accounts: Give employees their own Impact Accounts, where they can add money, hold charitable dollars, and decide which registered charities to give to on their own schedule. You can set up matching gift programs through an Impact Account, encouraging employees to donate by matching their contributions dollar-for-dollar or up to a set amount.
• Giving Groups: Create a shared fundraising space where employees pool contributions toward causes they care about. Giving Groups help connect volunteer activities with fundraising and allow your teams to track their progress and collective impact.
• Campaigns: Use Campaigns to unite multiple Giving Groups under one overarching goal. They are perfect for company-wide giving events, department-based challenges, or organizing multiple ongoing fundraising efforts for a cause. 
• Simplify administration: We take care of issuing tax receipts and disbursing gifts to registered charities chosen by you or your employees. This allows your company to focus on supporting employee giving without the additional administrative burden.
• Ongoing support: Have questions or need expert guidance on workplace volunteering? Our team is here to help you explore what’s possible, turn ideas into action, and grow participation and impact across your workplace giving efforts.

Wherever you’re starting from, Charitable Impact can support your workplace by providing your team with a simpler, better way to give. When your company is committed to both volunteering and giving, you can create an enduring culture of corporate social responsibility, a business that contributes to the greater good, and an inspiring workplace that motivates your employees to make a difference. 

Make volunteering work for your workplace

When companies invest in workplace volunteering and charitable giving, they inspire stronger teams, deeper connections to the communities they serve, and build a lasting commitment to corporate responsibility. If you’re looking for ways to bring workplace giving and volunteering together, we’re here to help. Reach out to us and find out how we can support your workplace volunteering efforts with flexible tools, support, and resources. You can also find more tips, advice, and inspiration on giving by checking out our blogs.