Sources of Volunteer Grants

Volunteer grants for community service are offered by many large corporations today as part of their CSR programs. For example, Duke Energy encourages their employees to engage in volunteer work by offering financial support through the Duke Energy Foundation volunteer grant program. The grants are provided to employees who decide to lead a volunteer project, and they cover the cost of supplies and materials needed to complete a work project for an eligible charity organization.

The Foundation also offers another type of volunteer grant for employees called the Nonprofit Board Leadership Grant. This award is available to employees who serve on the board of directors for an eligible charity. In addition to their volunteer grant program, Duke also operates an annual Global Service Event during the spring which helps to rally their employees to engage in volunteer projects.

Prudential Real Estate is another large company which operates an employee volunteer grants program to encourage community volunteering. The Prudential CARE volunteer grants program recognizes the contributions of both active and retired employee volunteers by providing the charitable organizations they volunteer for with grants and awarding employees with certificates to commemorate their work.

Prudential employees and retirees volunteer for community service programs around the world, and these important contributions are recognized by Prudential with grants of up to $5000. In 2010 alone, the company gave out grants totaling over $400,000. They have given over $10 million in grants since the program was started in 1991. The company requires that volunteers complete a minimum of 40 hours of volunteer work annually to be eligible for the grants.

Organizations like AmeriGives help to enable corporate volunteer grant programs by offering a configurable grant solution called Dollars-For-Doers which can be easily customized to meet the needs of any business. The program helps companies to manage their volunteers from grant registration through validation, and also takes care of all the record keeping tasks involved in grant processing and confirmation. Employee volunteers can register for the grant program as individuals or in teams, and the registration process can be done online or via phone.

AmeriGives updates their systems in real time in order to ensure that grant applications are processed accurately and volunteers receive timely correspondence on the status of their grant applications. Clients who sign up with the AmeriGives volunteer grant program receive a dedicated account manager to oversee the development and management of their company grants program.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is an example of an organization which benefits from an employee volunteer grants program. These programs give small grants to non profit organizations where employees choose to volunteer their time each year. In order to qualify for the grants, the charity must have non profit status and serve communities in designated areas. Also, the employee volunteers must keep a log of their volunteer hours worked online or via their HR department and have these hours verified by the charity they are working for.

Employees from different companies who choose to volunteer with NAMI and other eligible charities can be rewarded for their service with grants from their employers to the charity of their choice up to a dollar amount set by the employer.