Second Annual WOI
by Madeleine Barker
The second annual Week of Impact is finally here! This week, Sept 14–18, we continue our new tradition of coming together with clients to give back. Volunteering provides the opportunity for IBMers to make a difference in the communities where they live and work and to create stronger relationships with their clients.
This tradition began last year when the Communications Sector Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Squad was looking for ways to engage more practitioners of all band levels in give back. At the time, the CSR Squad was unique to the Communications Sector. However, because of the success of the Week of Impact, other GBS markets have now joined in our CSR program! So, what made the Week of Impact 2019 so great? Cue the highlight reel…
Over 100 IBM and client volunteers, 2 countries, 8 cities,
1 $1,000 IBM grant earned in support of the American Red Cross
Events included:
- Cooking for the homeless
- Toiletry drive
- Online food drive
- Food collection for transplant patients
- Blood drive
- STEM workshop with a children’s home
- Road clean up
- Donation collection for children’s hospital
- Visit to an underprivileged school to teach them values of education
What does it take to execute an event like this?
- A dedicated CSR Squad to set the vision and provide direction.
- Passionate people from each account to plan and lead and event for their group.
- Project team members to be willing to engage outside of their job duties.
- Account partners to embrace collaborating with the client in a new way.
- Sector leadership to be enthusiastically supportive.
- IBM CSR and IBM Volunteers to provide guidance.
This year, we expect to have even greater participation across all GBS sectors and growth platforms! We are extra proud of our account teams for pivoting from in-person to virtual or remote volunteering due to COVID-19. Here are a few ways our teams plan to volunteer virtually or remotely in 2020:
- Goodwill challenge- Compete to see how many items you can donate to your local Goodwill.
- Elder Care Cards- Write/create cards for local nursing homes or elder care centers with your family. Our elderly population could use some love during this time! Share pictures of your creations with the team.
- Charity Miles- Download the app and see how many miles you can run/walk during the Week of Impact. Each mile gives you $$ to donate to a charity of your choice.
- By the People- Transcribe, review, and tag digitized images of manuscripts and from the Library of Congress. See who can do the most!
- Career Village- Give students career advice and answer quick questions to help guide their future careers.
These opportunities and more help us stay connected while apart. We can hardly wait to see the creative events our account teams do this week and the impact they are able to make!
Huge thank you to the Communications Sector CSR Squad. I am proud to be a part of this group of passionate people who continue to lead by example for other GBS markets.
