SOMMAIRE A SHARED VISION FOR PRO BONO

Transcription

1 SOMMAIRE A SHARED VISION FOR PRO BONO Qualitative study for the Global Pro Bono Fellows 0 A shared vision for pro bono January 2015 January 2015

2 A SHARED VISION FOR PRO BONO Why this study? Pro bono has been spreading in more than 20 countries over the last 5 years. Worldwide, businesses and non-profit leaders are using the term «pro bono» more and more. This innovation in volunteering is finding its place as a new way to channel people talents to solve major challenges of our society. Since 2013, Pro Bono Week gather international pro bono stakeholders on a global scale around concrete projects and events. But what is pro bono really? Why do we do it, and how? During the Global Pro Bono Summit 2014, many pro bono leaders gathered to share practices and knowledge on pro bono. This event was a time for everyone, from volunteer to initiative, to realize their belonging to something bigger than themselves. However, the pro bono leaders shared diverse views and ideas on pro bono. They proved to have various practices. The question was then : Can we find a common ground? Can we have a common understanding on what is the pro bono movement and the social change it is driving? As a member of the Global Pro Bono Fellows group, Pro Bono Lab committed to kick-off the public debate on pro bono ethics, values and principles. This study is our first contribution. 1 A shared vision for pro bono January 2015

3 A SHARED VISION FOR PRO BONO How did we do it? Goals : Understanding the similarities and the differences in perception and in practice of pro bono volunteering among international fellows leading in their countries Identify shared visions to help set common bases to strengthen the global movement Methodology : We co-designed an online survey with the help of several international pro bono fellows. A Shared Vision for the Pro Bono Movement We sent it to the Global Pro Bono Fellows and to international pro bono players only (30 organizations); and collected 12 complete answers, from Canada, Turkey, Singapore, Australia, Saudi Arabia, France, Germany, Slovaquia, Japan, USA, China One bias : our study focuses only on pro bono for organizations and not for individuals Team : Global Fellows who contributed : Peter Yang, Jeremy Au, European Pro Bono Coalition and BMW Foundation Pro Bono Lab : Antoine Colonna d Istria, Iris Herbomel, Guillaume Deschamps 2 A shared vision for pro bono January 2015

4 A SHARED VISION FOR PRO BONO What did we learn? Executive summary It s a good news - there is a set of widely shared purposes and ideas in the pro bono fellows group : Respondents to the survey : 12 organizations in11 countries Global Fellows do pro bono to have a positive impact on the society through cross-sector connections and the sharing of professional skills, that has value for both volunteers and beneficiaries. They select their beneficiaries to achieve this goal, and doing so, they prioritize non-profit organizations with real needs and impact on causes. They make sure that all stakeholders cooperate and respect each other. The main challenges they face are a lack of awareness of the pro bono concept, matching needs with skills, and engaging volunteers. However, they are willing to take common actions to solve these problems. They are particularly interested in formalizing an agreement as a group, sharing a framework for impact and performance measurement, and participating in Pro Bono Week to raise awareness. 3 A shared vision for pro bono January 2015

5 SOMMAIRE RESULTS WHY PRO BONO? HOW PRO BONO? WHAT PRO BONO? INTEREST FOR COMMON ACTIONS 4 A shared vision for pro bono January 2015

6 WHY PRO BONO? Why do you do pro bono as an organization? Four main reasons motivate the fellows to develop pro bono volunteering Connect people and organizations from different worlds a world in which individuals, organizations, and institutions from different points on the globe converge pro bono has the power to deepen the dialogue and mutual understanding between the different worlds a way to link community organizations and projects that were addressing neighborhood revitalization issues a society where everybody can cooperate / bridging the sectors & continuously bring the partnerships forward Provide meaningful volunteering opportunities to professionals, valuing their skills "Professionals can do something for themselves and society Make professionals donate their skills and time to help the organizations Provide meaningful volunteer opportunities to professionals Professionals looking for ways to support NGOs and to do something different Strengthen non-profit or social mission-driven organizations by giving them access to skills "Provide nonprofits that cannot afford professional consulting with skilled volunteers to build capacity and improve impact NGOs needing helps and not knowing where to find it Have a positive impact on the society improve the sector to participate in the development make a measurable contribution to enhancing lives and livelihoods around the globe contribute to worthy causes / answer the social and environmental needs to address complex challenges through sustainable and mutually beneficial efforts pro bono is leading the global growth of civil society and social innovation 5 A shared vision for pro bono January 2015

7 WHY PRO BONO? How did you discover pro bono and when? Most respondents started their pro bono activity in the last years, for two main reasons : Making use of professional skills in a volunteering experience Through volunteering with the Volunteer Consulting Group at University of Toronto in Whilst volunteering with Engineers Without Borders Australia when we had friends who needed support for social projects and we asked colleagues to help them with their professional skills Our program started in early 2005, with the idea that the skills and energy of professional people in our city could be accessed to assist community development and community economic development projects Discovering the concept and getting inspired by Taproot Foundation I only learnt the difference between "volunteering" and "pro bono" when discovering Taproot From coincidence to come across Taproot in my former job - In 2004, I was making a research on non-profit management with a department of Japanese government Huizeren imported "Pro Bono from Taproot foundation into China since 2011 Pro Bono Lab s founders studied corporate volunteering programs in France and discovered that the name "Pro Bono" was used and developed with success by Taproot Foundation in A shared vision for pro bono January 2015

8 HOW PRO BONO? Please give us your definition of pro bono These components were present in most of the definitions of pro bono we collected : Use of professional skills (10/12 answers) «supporting an organization or group of people with some specific skills you have «donation of professional skills» «"using professional role/skills» «Professionals contributing [ ] with the skills they use in their job Free or at substantially reduced cost for the beneficiary (9/12 answers) donation / for no money / without any fees / volunteering "Work done for free or at a substantially reduced cost "work undertaken for the public good at no charge For the society, for the public good (9/12 answers) «assistance to local organizations, social enterprises, and government entities Offering professional services to NPO make positive impact on solving social problems for the benefit of the wider community / community support for the common good of the communication 7 A shared vision for pro bono January 2015

9 HOW PRO BONO? What are your principles or values in pro bono service? The answers collected on values and principles where diverse as the questions were broad. Here are a few meaningful points we can stress out of the results : Selection criterias for beneficiaries are key, with some focus : most unsolved needs, nonprofit organizations, projects that have high quality and impact on a social cause we focus on serving nonprofits that 'cannot afford professional consulting / demand driven we believe all nonprofits can profit from access to professional services We insist NGO is our first client in Pro Bono project / Organisations benefiting from pro bono work must be not-for-profit and engaged in activities for the public good The volunteer must benefit from the experience : We think that it is important to consider the interest of society above all personal interests, and that we all need to go beyond the strict satisfaction of stakeholders in our visions all people should have the opportunity to experience their skills through a positive pro bono experience The stakeholders engage in deep cooperation and mutual respect : We believe neither isolate solution can really raise NGOs performance We believe that is has more value to share an action with others than to do it alone, so we try to stay open to anyone who wants to work with us and to promote diversity Free communication, especially if things do not go in the right direction / eye-level relationship Ethical fiber and values is absolutely crucial base for all our work. We ask and receive feedback from our partners and supporters 8 A shared vision for pro bono January 2015

10 HOW PRO BONO? What are the main obstacles and challenges when you lead pro bono service? Awareness, matching and engagement are the main challenges to lead pro bono service : A lack of awareness of the «pro bono» concept Lack of awareness within corporate/professional about pro bono in specific and corporate volunteering in general expression and practice of pro bono is not yet very well known lack of awareness around the whole concept and thus lack of funding Main challenge is promote Pro Bono among companies and volunteers A challenge in matching nonprofits needs with the right skills The organization not prioritizing the match, and committing adequate resources and energy to it Balancing the needs and constraints between volunteers, social organisations and our own sustainability needs Matching exact skills and interests to project What do NGOs really need [ ]finding skilled pro bono consultants" Some difficulties in engaging volunteers : limited time of senior business people to get involved in complex pro bono projects Lack of incentives to engage in pro bono work Finding good engagement managers to lead pro bono projects 9 A shared vision for pro bono January 2015

11 WHAT PRO BONO? A quick summary of the similarities in our practices This part of the survey studied the key impacts and criterias that pro bono intermediaries track with three main stakeholders for pro bono : Beneficiaries, Volunteers, and Funders. Here s a quick summary of the common points in the international community : Beneficiary organizations : Selection criteria : the capacity of the beneficiary to receive pro bono, the development stage, and the social cause or issue that the organization is trying to solve Impact indicators : satisfaction, degree of implementation of recommandations, skills development of the team, network development, performance improvements Volunteers : Selection criteria: specific skillset, willingness & enthousiasm, ability to commit, and also for some intermediaries experience and interest in the non-profit sector Impact indicators : satisfaction, wilingness to reengage, skills & personal development, network development, and extended knowledge on social issues Funders Criterias : responsible ethics/image and practices, mutual respect, enough resources Impacts : engagement in pro bono and/or CSR, impact on employee volunteers 10 A shared vision for pro bono January 2015

12 WHAT PRO BONO? What are your criteria(s) to choose the beneficiary organizations and the volunteers? Beneficiary organizations Volunteers 1 50% Capacity to receive pro bono 1 67% Specific(s) professionnal skills 2 42% Development stage & Cause / Sector 2 50% Willingness and enthusiam 3 33% The organisation aims at solving a social issue 3 33% Ability to commit 4 25% 5 17% Impact (or potential of impact) Legal statuts Clarity of the need Localisation Commitment of the organisation The need is covered by the intermediary *NB : The answers on criterias were diverse, some intermediaries only stated their main criteria, others precised all of them 11 A shared vision for pro bono January 2015 Agree to participate to the costs Territorial impact/activity Financial limitations 4 25% 5 17% Interest in non-profit sector Experience Management & leadership skills Communication skills *12 answers

13 WHAT PRO BONO? Beneficiary organizations : What are the key impacts that you track on beneficiaries? Results Satisfaction (42%) Degree of implementation of recommandations (42%) Quality of production/delivrables (25%) Impact Developped skills (33%) in the beneficiary s team Long term impact on their organisation (the project helped developed or strenghen) / performance improvement (33%) The «transformations» occured thanks to the project (17%) Opened/broaden network (25%) The organisation thinks it helps strenthen/organize the organisation (short term) (25%) 12 A shared vision for pro bono January 2015 *NB : All % in these slides represent answer that were shared. It is not a statistic, rather a way to evaluate the level of agreement and to prioritize *12 answers

14 WHAT PRO BONO? Volunteers : What are the key impacts that you track on volunteers? Satisfaction General satisfaction (67%) Wilingness for repeated engagement (67%) Number of hours (25%) Level of satisfaction concerning the work performed by the pro bono agency (25%) Professional and personal development Skills developed (42%) personnal development (33%) Employee s engagement toward it s firm (33%) Broaden network (33%) Engagement Extended knowledge on social issues and social sector / more awareness on social problem (42%) Insited long terme impact (25%) *10 answers 13 A shared vision for pro bono January 2015

15 WHAT PRO BONO? Criterias and impact mesurement for funders What are your requirements to work with funders? About the corporation «values» and engagements (neutral and or ethical) : 3 What are the key impacts you expect and/or track on funders? There are 2 ways to measure impact for funders: by assessing the volunteers (employees), or by assessing the organisation itself (the «politic» of the organisation / the decisions of the source contact of the organisation) «with the exception of ethically impossible companies» «We do not accept donations from those who threaten freedom, human rights, ethics, democracy, environment currently» «I would be very cautious, in Turkey, on the source of the money to stay as neutral as possible, without any political influence.» Mutual respect on the way to work : 3 «Respect achievement and goal» «Agreement on our methods and way to operate» About the company ressources (human or financial) : 3 «Necessary resources for the cooperation» «Volunteer Numbers, Volunteer Developments : Volunteers data» No special requirement : 2 Impact on organisations : engagement in pro bono program or CSR program (3): «we expect a widening of the funders perspective on how to leverage impact (i.e. the leverage of pro bono) and that they recognize the need for organizational development (included in the overhead).» «Set up social venture framework, and invest Pro Bono for social venture»/ «Funder satisfaction» Impact on volunteers (employees) or beneficiaries : Examples Increased their pride in the company (2) Improved their skills and knowledge relevant to their career (2) Contributed to team-building amongst colleagues (2) Increased their knowledge of the non-profit sector (2) Impacts on their beneficiary partners : #missions, #beneficiaries, impacts on beneficiaries (1) *9 answers *6 answers 14 A shared vision for pro bono January 2015

16 COMMON ACTIONS FOR A GLOBAL MOVEMENT What can we communicate altogether? The yearly Pro Bono Week campaign has value to all the 12 respondents, to raise awareness and to share practices with others It is a great way to recognize and promote our work as intermediaries and the work and involvement of pro bono volunteers, as well as a connection to/promotion of the global movement Participating in Pro Bono Week the last two years to help raise awareness and participation in pro bono it s a good opportunity to promote Pro Bono in China, more meaningful, it s a good opportunity to share experience with partners in China and abroad. Most of the intermediaries who answered would be interested in co-creating / participating in a global/umbrella organization to promote pro bono and organize international cooperation between pro bono fellows, however some mentioned that an informal group can be enough for now, and warned that the intermediaries would not be able to engage to much resources in a global organization : We are interested in engaging in global cooperation between others doing this work Yes, it will help to insure the implementation of all standard and tools. Also, will be center point to share all best practice and material. But the participation it depend on the role and responsibility. Our resources are stretched so our contributions may be limited, e.g contributing information such as through this survey. 15 A shared vision for pro bono January 2015

17 COMMON ACTIONS FOR A GLOBAL MOVEMENT What can we measure and valorize altogether? All the 12 fellows confirmed an interest in : Signing an international document on pro bono principles Sharing impact and/or performance evaluation framework and datas with others It would be a key milestone and tool in building and shaping the pro bono movement It would guide our work/principles and bring more credibility/professionalism to pro bono It might help the global recognition of pro bono volunteering if there is are shared values that the global community of intermediaries stand behind. I believe the dialogue behind creating it is worth itself and such document can help to create the field of pro bono globally. It would show that pro bono is a global movement and maybe inspire other to join us. Most of the intermediaries would be interested in sharing a quality guarantee system with other pro bono intermediaries, though more precisions are needed on such a project It can strengthen our case for the impact of pro bono and improve pro bono measurement and performance It would depend on how the data would be used and our agreements with our corporate partners. If the format is easy such as multiple choices, we can join. 16 A shared vision for pro bono January 2015

18 CONCLUSION What s next? It is up to the Global Pro Bono Fellows to choose what to do with the results of this survey. Here are just a few suggestions to be discussed during and after the Global Pro Bono Summit 2015 Write a «Pro Bono Manifesto», share it, sign it, and invite anyone who does or lead pro bono to do so, potentially with two main goals : Awareness : Give a clear and shared definition of pro bono and its purpose for the great public Inspiration : Introduce the intermediaries and share good principles for any pro bono leader Build a simple evaluation framework and share it within the Fellows network; and take time to fill in the datas and/or to comment on it. Plan a common / synchronized approach to medias for the next Pro Bono Week Define roles and responsibilities within the Fellows group in respect with everyone s ability to commit, and decide how to organize the governance for the group Mutualize ressources within the network : knowledge and tools, contacts and funders, communications, etc. THANK YOU FOR READING! 17 A shared vision for pro bono January 2015