Firms find giving time costs
less than money
More companies opting to lend
employees to charities on paid time
By RICK
BARRETT
of the Journal Sentinel staff
 When Amy Boatman was offered a
chance to volunteer at a food pantry as part of her paid working hours at
Gustave A. Larson Co., everything just clicked.
"I thought, 'Wow, they've
really made this easy,' " said Boatman, who works in the credit department
of the Pewaukee firm that sells heating and cooling products.
Gustave Larson is one of a
growing number of companies in Milwaukee and across the country that are
opting more often to provide charitable donations in the form of manpower
rather than hard cash.
"When wallets get a little
slim, especially, companies look for alternatives," said Kimberly Meadows,
a spokeswoman for the Points of Light Foundation, a Washington, D.C.,
group that promotes volunteerism. "It helps when you don't have to write
that big check."
Nationwide, more than half of
116 companies polled by the foundation in 2001 had a program that allowed
employees to volunteer on company time.
Gustave Larson employees can
volunteer for non-profits of their choice, said company President Andrew
Larson. It doesn't cost the company a lot of money, because volunteerism
on company time is limited to a few hours per month per employee.
Impact
felt
But when multiplied by hundreds
of employees from various companies, those hours quickly add up for the
non-profits.
"That's where it really becomes
effective," Meadows said. "The non-profits have a pool of talent to draw
from, and no one company has to shoulder all of the workload."
Businesses benefit in several
ways. They stay visible in philanthropic causes without making an outlay
of cash, in precious short supply at many firms. And, perhaps most
importantly, those involved say, such programs give a big boost to
employee morale.
"After a few hours at the
pantry, I come back to my job feeling really good," Boatman said. "It's
hard to describe the feeling. . . . Yet after seeing what some people have
to go through in their lives, it makes me realize how lucky I am."
Unlike with cash donations,
however, companies cannot claim a charitable tax deduction for the free
labor, says the accounting firm Virchow Krause & Co.
But that doesn't stop
workplaces such as Waukesha State Bank from allowing workers to volunteer
as part of their paid duties. Every month, a committee of 13 bank
employees meets to decide what volunteer projects the bank should
participate in.
"There are some things, such as
working in the schools, that can only be done during the day," committee
member Cheri Lynott said of the need to allow people to volunteer on bank
time.
There's a constant need for
volunteers with specialized skills, said Elaine Kroening, of the Volunteer
Center of Waukesha County.
"Whatever your skill is, we can
tailor a volunteer opportunity to match it," she said. "Almost every
agency we work with, for example, is begging for people who can do
building repairs. If they can find volunteers for that kind of work, it
saves them a lot of money."
Susie Klein, human resources
director for Gustave Larson, has recently used her skills to assist
Waukesha's Donna Lexa Community ArtCenter in its search for an executive
director.
"The company has been very
understanding in allowing me the time to work on this," Klein said. "And
it has been helpful because I am the only person on the art center board
with a human resources background."
For some companies, it's easier
to allow salaried managers, instead of hourly employees, to do volunteer
work on company time, said Ron Orman, spokesman for WE Energies Co.
We Energies contributes to
numerous area charities but doesn't have a companywide policy that allows
employees to volunteer on paid time.
"It's a hot-button issue with
many companies now," Orman said, because they want to offer volunteer
opportunities but also have to abide by labor contracts and tight work
schedules.
Through a contract agreement
between the United Auto Workers and Delphi Corp., the Oak Creek
manufacturer of auto parts recently donated labor to area charities when
its employees were laid off.
Delphi employees received full
pay - about $16 an hour - and benefits for lending a hand at HOPE Network
for Single Mothers, American Red Cross, Salvation Army, Zablocki Veterans
Affairs Medical Center and Children's Hospital of Wisconsin.
GE Medical Systems, based in
Waukesha, allows its engineers and scientists to offer work time to teach
courses such as robotics and business at area schools.
"My manager has never had a
problem with it," said Sabih Zaman, a GE electrical engineer who teaches
an international business class.
GE Medical Systems donates
about 15,000 labor hours a year to various non-profits, with some of it
done on company time.
As valued as volunteer labor
is, however, it will never replace cash donations, Kroening said.
"Giving money is great
because the non-profits can't survive without it," she said. "But we have
found that some businesses actually give more money after they've donated
employee time. That's because they have seen the needs and the results of
their efforts."
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