The Nature Conservancy. Protecting nature. Preserving life.™

Sometimes corporations offer us crews of volunteers that may include company employees, families, retirees and shareholders. It's possible to get a lot of mileage out of these crews, including financial and in-kind donations. However, these offers usually come with strings attached. In some cases, volunteer managers have concluded that certain corporate relationships are more trouble than they are worth! Why is this so?

• The company usually desires media coverage of the volunteer events.  It may ask you to write or distribute articles and press releases. Sometimes the company requests that an article appear in the your newsletter. 
• Corporate work days tend to be inflexible with regard to date and location, so it takes creativity to develop a project.
• Requests may come in with little notice.
• Relationships may be negotiated on a national basis "from the top down" and may not address the field's  needs or consider the field's resources. 
• The company may be unable to guarantee a number if it asks employees to volunteer on their own time. 

More ideas for developing projects for corporate volunteers