In 2012, SAP committed to shifting from traditional Corporate Social Responsibility to world-class CSR. We’ve moved to a more strategic and impactful granting structure, launched a signature initiative aimed at creating direct IT career pathways for students and are spearheading new ways to enable not-for-profit organizations to use SAP technology to advance their mission. As part of this transition, there are increasing opportunities for employees to get involved in new and meaningful ways.
SAP has a strong culture of volunteerism. In 2012, SAP employees volunteered 40,000 hours in North America alone. Every October we celebrate our Month of Service where SAP employees across the globe contribute time and talent to their local communities.
Of course, our community partners appreciate a few extra hands in October, but we know there are ways to weave volunteerism into the other 11 months of the year.
Skilled volunteerism is our next frontier. Through leveraging the specialized talents of our employees, skilled volunteers work with organizations to build and sustain their capacity to achieve their mission. Internally, it gives SAP the opportunity to provide employees with professional development opportunities and foster teambuilding in a fun and meaningful way.
We’re making important strides to build skills-based volunteerism into our core CSR approach:
- 20% of 2013 volunteering hours will be skills-based
- 5% of total projects in October’s Month of Service will be skills-based
- SAP Vancouver launched SAP’s first-ever skilled-volunteerism campaign
- Almost all of our volunteer projects outside our Month of Service will be skills based
To our not-for-profit partners, I encourage you to reach out to us with unique opportunities to put our skills to work for you. We benefit, you benefit and our communities benefit. It’s win-win-win.
