Recently more and more Indian companies have signed up their employees for volunteer work. The companies are from different sectors including banks and IT companies that committed up to several thousands of employees to diverse projects, investing hundreds of hours.

Many companies decide to send their employees to volunteer because everyone is doing so and because it will put their company in a better light. Employees often specifically look for companies that have elaborated corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs. The main reason for this is the way it looks on a CV.

But whatever the reason is for volunteering to help others, the results are outstanding. Around 70 of Barclays employees went to an Indian city to build 165 toilets in the area, so each household would have one. This project took two months and the volunteers sacrificed many Sundays for this great cause. The next goal for them is to go to Delhi and have an eye on the spread of dengue.

Other projects include the purchase of prosthetic limbs for people from tribes enabling them to get a job, earn money and increase the living standards for them and their families; adopting girls schools to teach them about the dangers of HIV as well as general life skills along with English and Math; and literacy programs for women from the poorer areas. Even though the thought of helping others is great it did not meet the enthusiasm that was expected.

iVolunteer, a platform for individuals to volunteer and find other like-minded people was launched in 2004, but did not get the interest of corporate companies until 2009. But managers at large companies understood that if important topics such as education, literacy and health increase the sales for the companies’ products will also increase.

 Some of the other benefits that companies have discovered from volunteering their workers to NGO’s and helping them with their marketing, communications or financial objectives is the educational. The volunteers learn about social behavior and what good it does for them, how to work together in communities, how to create awareness for others and simply what a good feeling it is to do good things for others who are less fortunate.