CSR Awards: Employee Volunteer Program – Oracle Corporation

Campaign: Oracle Volunteers

Born out of strong grassroots interest from employees, the Oracle Volunteers program coordinates local volunteer opportunities as well as well as three, large-scale global events:

● Oracle Global Volunteer Days: A multi-week initiative to expose employees to volunteerism

● Oracle Season of Sharing: Includes food drives, toy drives and adopt-a-family programs during the holiday season

● Oracle Earth Day: Promotes sustainable living and green projects such as planting trees, cleaning parks and protecting wildlife habitats

Oracle promotes the program through a dedicated Intranet site and monthly e-mail newsletters. An Oracle-built volunteer management system tracks registrants and monitors employee feedback for continuous program improvement.

The results demonstrate Oracle’s outstanding commitment to volunteerism: More than 8,600 employees volunteered 40,000 hours to support more than 300 service project in 54 countries. And, from 2008 to 2009, the number of Oracle volunteers has increased by 45%. “The excitement and passion our employees bring to volunteer projects—doing a habitat restoration, helping kids learn math and science, or painting a community center—that’s the best kind of PR there is,” says Colleen Cassity, executive director of Oracle Giving & Volunteers. “It’s grassroots and from the heart.” â– 

Honorable Mentions:

Broadview Networks: YAI and Broadview Networks Central Park Challenge —

Online messaging and print collateral were used to spark internal interest and competition in volunteering for the Central Park Challenge run. Partners Broadview and social services organization YAI also used Facebook to create buzz around the events, resulting in four times the amount of employee participants than the year before.

Colorado Springs Utilities: Community Focus Fund Volunteer Program - Low Income Assistance —

The Community Focus Fund, which supports employee volunteer efforts within the Colorado Springs community, is managed by an employee-run steering committee that keeps workers informed through an employee newsletter and intranet page. Although the company does not offer work-hour volunteerism, 32% of employees participated in the program.

ITT: ITT Watermark —

To promote safe water and sanitation worldwide, ITT engaged its 40,000 employees with a matching gifts program, the opportunity to visit a Watermark school site and community-based activities such as barbecue fundraisers, river cleanups and water education fairs. The effort resulted in 3,500 employees actively engaged in volunteer projects, giving 20,000 hours of their time.