Companies are increasingly turning to NGOs to help them design and implement corporate volunteerism programs, accoridng to a benchmarking study released this spring by CDC Development Solutions.
Intel, for example, has been working with World Vision since 2011 to field its Intel Education Service Corps program, which deploys teams of employees to help NGOs develop educational technology solutions in Vietnam, Egypt and other host countries.
At the heart of that partnership are two professionals with cross-sectoral experience.
Luke Filose, an NGO engagement manager at Intel, is a returned Peace Corps volunteer and former Winrock employee, while Lou August, global co-lead for ICT for development at World Vision, is an MBA who founded and ran a successful technology company.
Speaking with Devex Impact on the sidelines of the International Corporate Volunteerism conference in Washington D.C., Filose and August offered practical advice on how to work together to “navigate bureacracy” and bring the partnership to life.
August and Filose also spoke about the impact of corporate volutneerism programs.
“Probaby the biggest impact is the viral nature of innvoation,” said August. “Every single service corps project that we’ve done has had echoing effects in that country.”
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About the author
Andrea Useem
As former associate editor and content director for Devex Impact, Andrea created and managed cutting-edge content on the intersection of business and international development. An experienced multimedia journalist, Andrea also served as leadership editor at the Washington Post and spent three years as a foreign correspondent in Eastern Africa reporting for publications including the Boston Globe, Dallas Morning News, and San Francisco Chronicle.