Close-up of the back of a blue t-shirt printed with VOLUNTEER

Employees want to volunteer with their coworkers, and most companies already know it. In the Deloitte Volunteerism Survey, 89% of working Americans said companies that sponsor volunteer activities offer a better overall working environment, and 70% said volunteering is more likely to boost morale than a company-sponsored happy hour.

But wanting to volunteer and actually doing it are two different things. According to CECP's Giving in Numbers research, about 25% of employees on average take part in their company's volunteer program. The gap is usually structure: no clear goals, no simple way to sign up, and no first event that makes it easy to say yes.

Here's how to start an employee volunteer program, step by step, along with the guidelines and best practices that keep one running. It draws on published research and on what we have seen running charity team building activities for companies since 2010.

How to Start an Employee Volunteer Program: The Short Answer

To start an employee volunteer program, work through these steps in order:

Set goals, a budget and an owner.
Ask employees which causes they care about.
Partner with one or two nonprofits that fit your mission.
Write simple guidelines: time off, eligibility, safety and sign-up.
Run a first event the whole company can join.
Give volunteers an orientation and role-specific training.
Train volunteer captains to lead each group.
Debrief after every event.
Gather feedback and measure the results.
Recognize volunteers and build the program into onboarding.

The rest of this post covers each step in detail.

Why Companies Start Employee Volunteer Programs

Corporate volunteerism is on the rise as employers recognize the importance of having a corporate social responsibility program in place. Millennial and Gen Z employees rank purpose at work as more important than a paycheck, which makes these programs a recruiting tool as much as a community one.

Employees value opportunities to volunteer during work hours, because it lets them give back, get to know coworkers outside their own department, and take pride in their employer. Businesses benefit from better retention and a stronger brand. The community benefits from the time and skills employees bring.

The value of CSR programs can be measured in several ways. For example, 53% of workers say that “a job where I can make an impact” is important to their happiness. And according to a Project ROI study, organizations that invest in a well-designed corporate responsibility program see:

Employee engagement increase by up to 7.5%
Productivity increase by 13%
Turnover decrease by 50%

10 Steps to Build an Employee Volunteer Program

Every successful employee volunteer program begins with a plan. Start with the end in mind: decide what you want the program to achieve, then work backward to the structure, the calendar and the training.

1. Define the Goals and Scope of Your Program

Setting clear goals gives the program structure and purpose. Examples of measurable goals include volunteer participation rate, hours served, community outcomes (bikes donated, meals packed), and scores on workplace well-being surveys.

Next, define the scope: who will take part, how many events a year, the budget, and who owns the program. A volunteer program with no named owner tends to stall after the first event, so give one person (or a small committee) the job and the time to do it.

2. Ask Employees What They Care About

The quickest way to raise participation is to support causes your people already care about. A short survey (three or four questions on causes, preferred times and in-person versus virtual) tells you where to start. You can support more than one cause, as long as each connects to your company's mission or your employees' interests.

When employees see a direct connection between the volunteer work and the organization's larger purpose, participation feels authentic rather than assigned.

3. Partner with Nonprofits That Align with Your Mission

Aligning your company values with specific nonprofit missions leads to stronger partnerships. For example:

Food and beverage manufacturers may want to partner with food banks or organizations that provide meals to unhoused people.
Businesses whose products or services involve children or education may look for organizations that provide toys, bikes, or STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) kits for kids.
Healthcare organizations may look for partners that donate rollators to people with mobility issues, or that work on causes such as autism awareness, Alzheimer’s disease, or cancer care.

Once you’ve chosen a cause, coordinate with the nonprofit to define volunteer roles and any training they require. Set expectations early; a nonprofit that knows your calendar and headcount can plan around you year after year.

One example is a custom CSR event Best Corporate Events developed for a global pharmaceutical company. The company wanted a project that matched its charitable giving guidelines and its mission of advancing the prevention and treatment of disease. We helped it partner with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and employees assembled and donated 400 care packages for pediatric patients in a single evening of their summit.

The lesson: when a volunteer activity is supported by a nonprofit that genuinely fits the company's mission, employees understand why they are there, and the program has a better chance of lasting.

4. Write Your Employee Volunteer Program Guidelines

Guidelines answer the questions employees will ask before they sign up. Keep them to a page or two, and cover:

Time off: whether volunteering happens on the clock, and how many paid volunteer hours or days each employee gets per year.
Eligibility: full-time, part-time, contractors, remote employees.
Approved causes: which organizations qualify, and how employees can suggest new ones.
Sign-up and approval: where to register and who approves time away from work.
Safety and conduct: waivers, age limits at some sites, dress code, and how to represent the company.
Tracking: how hours are logged, so you can report on them later.

Paid volunteer time off is worth deciding early. CECP's research found that volunteer time off declined at large employers as return-to-office mandates expanded, and that barriers to participation, more than the number of opportunities, are what hold programs back. Time on the clock removes the biggest barrier.

5. Run a First Event the Whole Company Can Join

A volunteer program needs a launch that people talk about. The easiest first event is a hands-on charity activity held on site (at your office, a hotel, or your next company meeting), where everyone volunteers at once and the donation is finished by the end of the session.

That kind of event is what our charity team building activities are built for, and it is a big share of what we do. In our booking records from 2022 through 2025, charity activities made up about 36% of all the events we ran, with a median group of 55 participants. For example:

Bike Build Donation®: teams of about 10 complete challenges to earn parts, then assemble bicycles for local kids. It is about a third of the charity activities we have run since 2022, and a nonprofit representative (often with the children) can be there to accept the bikes.
Mini-Golf Build and Food Donation: each team designs a mini-golf hole out of canned and boxed food, everyone plays the course, then the food goes to a local food bank.
Build-A-Rollator: groups assemble and test rolling walkers for people with mobility challenges.
Donation Nation Care Packs and Operation Military Care: teams assemble care packages for a cause of your choice or for service members.

Most of these run 1.5 to 2 hours for groups of 30 to 1,000+, and they work as well at a sales kickoff as on a regular workday. Because a facilitator runs the session and we arrange the nonprofit, your program owner can focus on getting people in the room. (They are also fun, which helps when you want people to come back for the second event.)

6. Provide Orientation and Role-Specific Training

Before employees begin volunteering, give them a short orientation: the nonprofit's mission, the community it serves, and what their work will accomplish. Cover basic conduct, such as professionalism and respect, so volunteers know how to represent both the nonprofit and your company.

Then add role-specific training. When employees know exactly what is expected of them, whether that’s assembling care packages, mentoring students or helping at an event, they arrive prepared. Training should also cover safety and what to wear.

Just as diversity in the workplace pays off at work, it matters in community settings employees may not regularly visit. Include cultural awareness and inclusive language in the orientation.

7. Train Volunteer Captains to Guide Teams

Volunteer captains give each event structure and accountability. These team leads are the main point of contact for their groups: they answer questions, keep tasks on schedule and keep people focused on the goal.

Captains need a little training of their own, on the nonprofit’s mission, safety protocols and event logistics. Employees often feel more comfortable when a peer is leading, and the program owner's workload drops.

8. Debrief After Every Event

Reflection time helps the experience stick. Volunteer events can be emotional, especially when children or veterans receive the donation in person. Giving participants a few minutes to talk about it locks in what they learned.

Debriefs don’t need to be complicated. A facilitator or captain can use questions such as:

What moment today had the biggest effect on you personally?
Did this experience change the way you think about the community we served? How so?
How does giving back in this way connect with your personal values?
What skills did you use today that you can also use in your job?
How did your team work through challenges during the activity?
What could we do differently next time to make our volunteer efforts more effective?

9. Gather Feedback and Measure the Results

Collect feedback after each event from both employee volunteers and nonprofit partners, through short email surveys and informal conversations. For employees, ask what they enjoyed, what got in the way, and whether they would come again. For partners, ask about the effect of the support, whether the logistics worked, and what to change next time.

Then report the numbers that match the goals from step 1: participation rate, hours, community outcomes, and any change in engagement or employee well-being check-ins. A one-page summary to leadership each quarter is what keeps the budget in place.

10. Recognize Volunteers and Build the Program into Onboarding

Recognize employees who volunteer, through shout-outs, internal awards, company-wide emails, or a lunch for the volunteer group. Recognition encourages the next round of sign-ups.

Then make volunteering part of new employee orientation. Explain your values and how they tie into community service, show new hires how to sign up, and set expectations for events (timeliness, effort, etiquette and attire). According to Forbes, “Nearly 40 percent of employees quit within their first year, around 31% within six months,” and among the top reasons are poor onboarding and misaligned expectations. A volunteer event in the first month gives a new hire a reason to feel part of the company.

Employee Volunteer Program Best Practices

Once the first events are behind you, four habits help the program grow.

Standardize what works. Templates and checklists make it easy to repeat a successful event in another department or office without starting over. Written rules on safety and conduct protect both your employees and your nonprofit partners.

Offer more than one format. A company-wide build at the annual meeting, smaller department projects during the year, and options for remote employees reach more people than a single annual day of service.

Use team building to prepare volunteers. Hands-on activities rehearse the skills volunteering in a group requires, even when they are not tied to a cause. For example, in Bridge to the Future teams build a bridge from cardboard and duct tape that must hold the weight of the whole group. Business performance is closely tied to the effectiveness of corporate training, and the same is true of volunteer outcomes.

Review the program on a schedule. A quarterly or annual review is the time to check results against goals, update resources and drop what isn’t working.

Tools to Run Your Volunteer Program

Project management tools like Teamwork, ClickUp, Basecamp and Monday.com help you assign tasks to volunteers and trainers, track deadlines and keep everyone on the same page.

Volunteer coordination platforms like Timecounts, Plan Hero and Volgistics handle sign-ups and reminders, and they give you the participation data to report on.

Finally, a learning management system (LMS) can host training materials and track completions, so orientation stays consistent as the program grows.

Employee Volunteer Program FAQs

How do I start an employee volunteer program?

Start with goals, a budget and an owner, then survey employees about causes, choose one or two nonprofit partners, and write short guidelines on time off, eligibility and safety. Launch with one event the whole company can join, such as a charity build at your office, then measure participation and repeat what works.

What should employee volunteer program guidelines include?

Cover paid volunteer time off, who is eligible, which causes qualify, how to sign up and get approval, safety and conduct rules, and how hours are tracked. Keep it to a page or two so employees actually read it.

What is a good first event for a new volunteer program?

Choose something everyone can do at once, in one place, with a finished result. Charity builds like Bike Build Donation® work well because teams of about 10 build bikes for local kids in under two hours, and the nonprofit can accept them on the spot.

How do you measure an employee volunteer program?

Track participation rate, volunteer hours, community outcomes (bikes, meals, care packages) and feedback from employees and nonprofits. For comparison, CECP reports that about 25% of employees take part in company volunteer programs on average.

Ready to Plan Your First Volunteer Event?

If your organization already has an employee volunteer program, use these steps to audit it for gaps. If not, use them to build one from scratch, starting with a first event that gets the whole team involved.

Want help with that first event? Explore our charity team building activities, download the charitable team building eBook, or contact Best Corporate Events to start a conversation.