Guide for Employers

Help your community and your business. Join Make A Difference Day.

The workplace doubles as one of the nation's most effective message boards for volunteer opportunities. It's where one volunteer in four learns about specific chances to help others. On Make A Difference Day, multinational corporations and mom-and-pop businesses alike use skills and resources to contribute where the need exists. Projects often pull in employee families and community non-profits to address a range of social concerns, strengthening ties between your company and community. The Points of Light Foundation, USA WEEKEND's partner in sponsoring Make A Difference Day, counts many corporations among its Connect America partners.

Why participate?
Consider the benefits of a Make A Difference Day project:

Company Benefits

• Improve your community.
  
• Enhance your company's image.
  
• Distinguish your company by associating with a local or national cause.
  
• Boost customer loyalty by giving customers a new reason to support you.
• Improve employee retention and attract new workers.
• Garner positive media attention.
• Increase store traffic and sales by making retail locations the center for Make A Difference Day activity (drop-off locations for food or clothing drives, sign-up/meeting sites for volunteers, points of purchase for supplies).
  
• Attract positive media attention. Participating in public service events makes good sense.
  
• Increase retail activity. Make retail locations the center for Make A Difference Day activity to build store traffic and sales. (Drop-off locations for food or clothing drives, sign-up/meeting sites for volunteers, points of purchase for supplies.)

Employee Benefits

• Increase teamwork, morale and trust among your employees. Boost retention.
  
• Enhance communication, organization, time management skills and accountability.
  
• Develop leadership skills among your staff.
  
• Increase employees' understanding of co-workers and respect for diversity and other cultures.

Good causes are good business
Supporting a cause can boost sales, win customers and attract employees. More and more companies are incorporating volunteer programs as part of their overall business strategy.
Morale of employees was up to three times higher at companies with a commitment to community service.
97% of companies surveyed say volunteer programs improve teamwork. (Source: Corporate Volunteer programs - A Strategic Resource: The Link Grows Stronger, Points of Light Foundation in partnership with the Allstate Foundation, 1999)
87% of employees feel a strong sense of loyalty to companies that support a cause. (Source: The 1999 Cone Roper Cause-Related Marketing Trends Report)
83% of consumers say they have a more favorable opinion of companies that support good causes. (Source: Cone Roper)
65% say they would likely switch to a retail store associated with a good cause.
61% of consumers say they would likely switch to a retail store associated with a good cause. (Source: Cone Roper)

Receive national recognition and a donation to the charity of your choice
Outstanding Make A Difference Day efforts are featured in a special issue of USA WEEKEND and recognized with charitable awards:

10 National Awards.
Project organizers receive $10,000 donations for the charity of their choice from actor-philanthropist Paul Newman, Honorees are featured in an April special issue of the magazine that coincides with National Volunteer Week. The 10 national honorees are saluted at local ceremonies across the country.

Repeated Excellence Awards.
Past national honorees who continue to participate and increase their impact may receive a donation to their charity of choice.

Hundreds of local honorees.
Read about them in the pages of USA WEEKEND, and on the Web at makeadifferenceday.com.

Real-life examples of how businesses make a difference

Five retailers join forces.
Normally fierce competitors, five retailers in Dubuque, Iowa, joined forces for a good cause on Make A Difference Day. Target, Wal-Mart, Kmart, Venture and Tysons raised $1,200 from the sale of root beer floats to benefit a local food pantry. Another $4,000 worth of paper products was collected by Target and Younkers, a local department store.

Five Chicago workers help area residents.
In their second effort for Make A Difference Day, 1,100 Chicago Transit Authority employees united with other city agencies to beautify the city, including picking up six tons of garbage.

Baltimore coalition cleans up.
The Corporate Volunteer Council of Central Maryland and 125 volunteers from Baltimore area companies and organizations joined together for a one-day cleanup project. The entire interior of a local shelter's bedrooms, bathrooms and hallways were painted, repaired and cleaned. Picnic tables and flower boxes were constructed for the shelter courtyard. A collection drive provided linens, children's toys and toiletries for the shelter.

Wal-Mart welcomes volunteers.
Across the U.S., hundreds of Wal-Marts helped volunteers collect money and items for the needy outside their stores. In Tulsa, homeless musician Ed Dixon raised $1,000 at an outdoor concert for a struggling shelter; Southwestern Bell Pioneers distributed free gun locks at the McAlester, Okla. store.

Computer company helps kids.
Hewlett-Packard employees paired up with the U.S. Air Force Academy, Peterson Air Force Base and Fort Carson to help needy kids in Colorado Springs.

Dressing for success. In Washington, D.C., Jos. A Bank Clothiers teamed up with volunteers from the Washington Hospital Center to give away 200 suits and other new clothes to the needy and out-of-work, and sponsored a job-search boutique as well, taking applications for employment at the hospital.

Planning your company's project
It's a lot easier than you think. Past corporate participants have told us that once the concept is embraced, the excitement spreads quickly. Employees are eager to contribute ideas and energy, and take responsibility for making sure the project is a success. Your company's particular resources also may naturally lend themselves to a Make A Difference Day project. By donating either your goods and services, or the skills, talent and caring of your employees, you help others and promote your company by investing in the community. (And, of course, in-kind donations are tax deductible.)

Seven Steps to a Successful Project

1. Start a Make A Difference Day committee
Ask the president or CEO of your company to designate a committee leader. This person should then select a diverse group of people from different departments.They then can help recruit volunteers from all parts of the organization.

2. Choose a project
To focus your discussion, consider:
A. Your employees:

• What social issues are employees concerned about? The environment, the homeless?
  
• To what charities and causes do employees already give time and money?
  
• Do employees have skills that might make them effective for a particular cause?
  

• Do your company's products or services have a natural affiliation with a social issue or local need? If so, do they lend themselves to a Make A Difference Day project? For example:
  • LensCrafters offered free eye exams and glasses to the underprivileged.
  • Home Depot employees repaired homes for the elderly.
  • Many dry cleaners accepted clothing donations for the homeless, then cleaned the clothing at no charge.
• Consider your current community service projects. Could you expand any project for this day of service?
  
• Use Make A Difference Day as an opportunity to build relationships with customers, suppliers, vendors.

• What are the most pressing social issues?
  
• Who needs the most help?
  
• Could you link up with a nonprofit such as your local volunteer center?

• Local volunteer centers. To locate a volunteer center near you, call 1-800-VOLUNTEER.
  
• Local volunteer organizations such as the United Way, Red Cross or Salvation Army. Look in the business pages under "Volunteer" or "Social Services."
  
• National service programs such as AmeriCorps and the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) organize projects in more than 1,000 communities around the country. Find your local contact through the Web site at www.nationalservice.org .
  
• The mayor's office or Chamber of Commerce. Call and ask whether there is a volunteer referral service to match volunteers with local organizations.
  
• The Make A Difference Day Hot Line: 1-800-416-3824.
  
• The Web site www.makeadifferenceday.com, which has an "Idea Generator" to help you identify a project to fit your interests. Be sure to register your project plans in the Make A Difference DAYtaBANK of volunteers.
  
• Volunteers of America opportunities in your area: 1-800-899-0089.

• Contact the media in advance and distribute press releases detailing your project and its impact on the community.
  
• Publicize your company's Make A Difference Day participation. Use the logos in this kit to make fliers and signs to post in the workplace.
  
• Distribute a memo from your chief executive encouraging employees at every level to get involved and volunteer.
  
• Get the support of informal leaders within the company: executive secretaries, union leaders, office managers.
  
• Have Make A Difference Day committee members rally employees from their respective departments.
  
• Advertise your company's Make A Difference Day project on tent cards in the cafeteria and on posters in appropriate areas

• Call an open Make A Difference Day meeting for all employees. Assign people to specific tasks. Pass around a sign-up sheet.
  
• Recruit senior level management by offering employee team-building activities built around Make A Difference Day projects.
  
• Create projects that encourage family participation, such as park cleanups, walk-a-thons, or planting trees and plants.

• Define specific tasks to be completed, time requirements and deadlines (see timetable).
  
• Determine the logistics: locations, supplies needed, transportation.
  
• Match skills of employees to particular aspects of the project.
  
• Develop a short orientation or information session for volunteers.
  
• Be sure to express appreciation to everyone involved as the project wraps up.

• Be sure the supplies you need are available before you begin.
  
• Make sure you have enough work for all of your volunteers.
  
• Give volunteers clear instructions.
  
• Alert local media and public officials to what your employees are planning for Make A Difference Day.
  
• Plan a recognition event for your employee volunteers. Highlight volunteers in your annual report, internal newsletter, or plan a special luncheon. Distribute certificates of appreciation.
  
• Evaluate your Make A Difference Day project. Does the project's success warrant a formal employee volunteer program and/or a larger project next year?