CSR Champion: Evan Hochberg
Evan Hochberg, National Director of Community Involvement, Deloitte Services LP
AngelPoints is honored to highlight lifetime volunteer Evan Hochberg as a true CSR champion. He carries his passion for volunteerism to Deloitte, where he mobilizes and inspires thousands of employee volunteers worldwide to donate their unique skills through skill-based volunteerism. We salute Evan for his "good deeds."
The Future of CSR
"You can't think of volunteering as an employee benefit. It’s a strategy that should aim for the maximum social impact. Too often the focus is on the volunteer. The fact is nonprofits are resource constrained and current volunteering is inefficient and ineffective. We have a responsibility to the mission of the nonprofits to put people in roles that have the greatest impact."
Evan Hochberg, National Director of Community Involvement, Deloitte Services LP
Why I volunteer
"I started volunteering in High School. I got school credit to volunteer at a nearby nursing home a couple of days a week. I still can't remember why I decided to volunteer but I can tell you it was one of the most memorable experiences I'd had. It propelled me into my future volunteering endeavors and dictated my career and my ultimate goal of mobilizing a large scale effort that effectively strengthens the core of nonprofits around the world."
What causes I support
"I'm particularly drawn to causes related to children & youth, the elderly, and urban issues. I taught school for a year and have coached throughout my life. I also care deeply for the elderly. Besides my high school volunteerism with the elderly, I have spent hundreds of hours in nursing homes, being a grandson myself. I am truly taken by what happens to people when they get older.
Things I've personally gained from volunteering
- Perspective - Volunteering truly opens your eyes and forces you to experience situations you wouldn't necessarily encounter. Whether it be underprivileged children or the elderly, it's an opportunity that significantly broadens your perspective on life.
- Pure Enjoyment – Regardless of what you are doing, you can make a difference helping others. It's a direct difference that you can see and feel.
- The People - Volunteerism exposes me to inspiring people who think bigger than themselves. Thoughtful and generous people that I normally wouldn't necessarily meet in a workplace setting. Volunteerism has always driven my social settings.
Redefining Success
"What will define my success will be when HR professionals are investing their own resources in community involvement because they recognize that community involvement is one of the best paths to meeting their HR goals."
Skills-Based Success...
"Deloitte's Signature Volunteer Day, IMPACT Day, initiates skills-based volunteering by leveraging its diverse intellectual capital. Two years ago on IMPACT Day, I was overseeing a skills-based volunteer project that consulted a nonprofit on property maintenance and real estate issues. One employee that volunteered for a skills-based project walked in with her normal business suit attire on and not her usual IMPACT day outfit of a t-shirt, jeans and a hammer, commenting that it just didn't feel like an IMPACT day volunteer experience. By the end of the day, this employee saw the huge impact she made on this nonprofit and was completely converted over to the skills-based approach! This experience focused right on her core competence and created a much greater impact than anything she would have done for the nonprofit in a physical capacity."
Pearls of Wisdom from Hochberg
"Remember that what makes community involvement truly strategic is recognizing that social impact and business value are interconnected. You don't have to choose one or the other."
"Be aware of the business case for community involvement. Understand how it advances strategy and HR goals. There is a broad business case that any HR manager should be aware of."
"Get to the more tactical level. Determine how you really align volunteerism and community-involvement initiatives to drive specific goals such as teaming and professional development."
Skills-Based Volunteerism
How I use AngelPoints to advance skills- based volunteerism
For two years now, we have used AngelPoints to mobilize our employees for IMPACT Day. This year we mobilized over 30,000 volunteers at more than 600 different events in 35 countries. We're able to streamline this effort and measure it with AngelPoints.
Plus, every volunteer that registers fills out a volunteer profile, where they can indicate what causes they care about most and what skills they have. This helps us target our communications effectively. For example, if I was organizing a skills-based opportunity in Atlanta which required tax prep skills, all I'd have to do in AngelPoints is select Atlanta as a location and tax prep as skill. My email promoting this opportunity would go to all employees in Atlanta who have tax prep skills.
Why I push for skills-based volunteerism
"I've worked over five years in nonprofits. It always struck me how strong the mission of the programs were and how fragile and weak the business structure was. Skill-based volunteering can help strengthen the business structure of any nonprofit effectively."
What are the challenges of implementing skills-based volunteerism?
- Approach - Companies need to alter their whole approach to volunteerism to maximize their impact. In order to be most effective, companies need to shift the focus to the nonprofits. Questions like "What opportunities will be the most popular for my employees?" need to be changed to "What does this nonprofit need the most?"
- Big and Decentralized - Deloitte has about 40,000 employees worldwide that focus on a myriad of specialties. The importance of skill-based volunteering needs to resonate within every office and every type of employee.
- Culture Change - It's a volunteer culture change for nonprofits and individuals. The definition of volunteering needs to be broadened. It's not just painting fences and other forms of manual labor. It can be preparing tax forms or offering legal advice. Nonprofits also need to be trained to ask for these skills-based opportunities from companies.
- Finding Meaningful Opportunities - How do you truly engage in a meaningful way? Identifying meaningful logistical volunteer opportunities takes more time. However, once you've overcome this, you can begin to change the way people think about volunteering.
