Telefónica: International Volunteering Day with non-profits

For many years now, Telefónica is implementing the International Volunteering Day in many countries worldwide. For one whole day, thousands of Telefónica employees commit themselves to society on a voluntary basis. In Germany, Telefónica approached PHINEO to find suitable non-profit partner organizations for their Volunteering Day.

First of all we identified the needs: Telefónica was interested in partner organizations located in Düsseldorf or Munich that operate with transparency and impact-orientation and where helping hands would be appreciated. For our research we used our extensive database of appropriate Corporate Volunteering projects and created a shortlist of suitable organizations. We then went into personal discussions with the organizations to find out e.g. to what extent their projects could be implemented for the International Volunteering Day.

Lastly, we ensured that the needs of these organizations would be met accordingly through the volunteering of the Telefónica employees: all sorts of suitable activities were found – from protecting biodiversity in the Munich surrounding area to fixing up old computers for the purpose of education in newly industrialized countries.

We identified three partners matching the volunteering activities of Telefónica:

• Labdoo.org, 
• the ReDI School for Digital Integration, and
• the Bavarian Society for the Protection of Birds (Landesbund für Vogelschutz Bayern – LBV)

These three organizations offer the possibility of creating impact in one day – and to develop a feeling of relevance for their social commitment.

The International Volunteering Day was a great success for both the Telefónica employees and the organizations. All participants learned a lot from each other, achieved social impact together and therefore fully met the objectives of their cooperation.

Katrin Riedlberger, the project leader of the volunteering programme of Telefónica in Germany, is delighted with the collaboration: “Thanks to PHINEO, we have found three wonderful partners for our International Volunteering Day. Our volunteers had a lot of fun – and showed that together great impact for society can be achieved.”

The was also positive response from the non-profit partners. Ralf Hamm from Labdoo.org is convinced that activities like those of Telefónica will also encourage other companies to carry out Corporate Volunteering: “The International Volunteering Day shows that volunteering can be implemented in a meaningful way into corporate work. We are looking forward to a fruitful partnership.”