Volunteer Orlando's ROI of CSR

Here are our 10 best project-based community involvement actions your company can employ to improve its long-term success. How many are part of your corporate culture?

Corporate group improves a public park during a Volunteer Orlando project.

Employee Onboarding Through Community Impact

Team up new employees with their managers during hands-on volunteer projects that help solve community problems. This immersive experience offers powerful, first-hand proof that your company genuinely cares about the community.

This approach offers multiple benefits:

Builds Trust Early: New employees see company culture in motion, building immediate goodwill and engagement.
Strengthens Manager Relationships: Working side-by-side fosters authentic connections that go beyond day-to-day work tasks.
Reveals Hidden Strengths: Managers gain behavioral insights - teamwork, communication, leadership - that aren’t always obvious in the office.

It’s a differentiating action that sets your organization apart from the competition, and creates a very positive first impression among every new associate.

Volunteers repaint a playground at a homeless shelter in during a Volunteer Orlando project.

Strengthening Connections Across Similar Roles

When employees with similar roles volunteer together, networking happens naturally. Shared experiences during meaningful projects foster authentic connections, and often, lasting friendships. The entire enterprise benefits.

Why it works:

Authentic Networking - Builds peer-to-peer connections in a focused, purpose-driven setting.
Boosts Commitment - Shared experiences create a sense of belonging.
Drives Innovation & Efficiency - Conversations sparked during projects where teamwork is essential can lead to fresh ideas and cross-team understanding.
Improves Retention - Employees who feel connected and valued are more likely to stay.

Peer group volunteering is a powerful means to turn employees into high performers.

Corporate group boards kayaks to remove lake weeds during a Volunteer Orlando project.

Employee Projects: Building Community and Culture Together

Employee projects are a powerful way to show that your company cares about the places where you meet and do business. You demonstrate that your organization is a true force for good in the community.

These projects offer even more when you mix employees across different roles, departments, locations and levels of experience. Collaboration on real-world tasks naturally builds:

Stronger Teamwork - Employees learn to work together in new ways, beyond their usual silos.
Higher Morale - Making a visible difference creates a shared sense of pride.
True Camaraderie - Everyone’s rolling up their sleeves for a common cause.

Whether you’re revitalizing a local shelter or planting trees in a park, these experiences unify employees and deepen loyalty - both to each other and to the company. Community impact fosters culture-building - one project at a time.

Volunteers painting the wall of an outdoor classroom during a Volunteer Orlando project.

Employee Resource Groups: Empowering Purpose-Driven Volunteering

Support volunteer projects organized by Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), bringing together employees who self-identify with shared backgrounds, identities, or interests. When these groups lead or participate in corporate volunteer projects, the impact is twofold:

It strengthens your corporate culture by aligning your values with visible, meaningful action.
Boosts employees' feelings of belonging by giving people a platform to contribute authentically - both within the company and in the community.

Why it matters:

ERG projects celebrate diversity through volunteer action.
Members gain leadership opportunities and visibility.
Volunteering amplifies the group’s mission and builds connections within the company and community.

When companies empower ERGs, they send a powerful message: every voice matters.

Family participating in a Volunteer Orlando project.

Employee Family Projects: Reinforce Employee Retention Efforts

When employees volunteer with their spouses or children, the results go far beyond the project itself. Family involvement reinforces a strong support system among your workforce and builds a sense of shared pride.

Why it works:

Strengthens Support at Home - When families see the positive impact of your company, they’re more likely to encourage and celebrate their loved one's career.
Boosts Employee Pride - Sharing meaningful moments with family members creates powerful memories and deeper loyalty in the workplace.
Enhances Job Satisfaction - Employees feel more connected to a company that values them, their families, and community.

Family-friendly volunteer projects and events create a ripple effect of goodwill - fostering happiness, loyalty, and long-term engagement.

Corporate group uses teamwork to move a heavy vegetable garden box at a homeless shelter during a Volunteer Orlando project.

Company Retirees: Allies For A Lifetime

When groups of retirees organize volunteer projects, offer direct support - funding for project supplies - to the nonprofit 501(c)(3) organizations they choose.

This tangible gesture shows respect and appreciation, reinforcing that:

Their contributions still matter. Retirees remain a valued part of your extended corporate family.
Their community impact is recognized. Your support helps them continue making a difference in meaningful ways.
Your brand is built on relationships - not just roles. Loyalty doesn’t end with retirement; it evolves.

By honoring retirees as lifelong ambassadors, you strengthen positive company reputation and long-term goodwill.

Volunteers painting a large mural during a Volunteer Orlando project.

Employees & Suppliers / Employees & Elected Officials

Relationships will flourish when you invite your suppliers to participate in employee-supplier projects. Do the same for elected officials. These shared experiences create authentic connections in a low-pressure environment.

Why it works:

Builds Trust Through Shared Purpose - Volunteering side-by-side humanizes roles and fosters mutual respect.
Enables Strategic Face Time - Key employees get one-on-one interaction with decision-makers and partners, naturally, in a non-traditional environment.
Positions Your Brand as a Community Leader - You're not asking participants to support you business - you're inviting them to help their community.

These projects aren’t about business - they’re about solving community problems. Your company will stand out for what it does, and for who it brings together to do good.

Volunteers installing an exercise playground during a Volunteer Orlando project.

Employees & Customers: Solving Community Problems Together

Start by asking your customers: "What are our community’s greatest needs?" Then - listen up, team up, help fund, and co-lead meaningful, hands-on volunteer projects with them.

Why it works:

Customers feel heard and valued when their voices shape real action.
Employees hone public speaking, management, risk management and delegating skills.
Stronger relationships form when you're doing things together that benefits the community.

Many businesses default to causes that align with their products, services, or leadership’s personal passions. That’s like offering chocolate ice cream to customers and employees who might actually prefer vanilla.

Volunteers applying sealant to a garden box during a Volunteer Orlando project at a care home.

Employees & the Public: Leading Community Change Together

Open the door for the public to join your employees during select volunteer projects. These collaborations provide first-hand proof of your company’s commitment to being a responsible, engaged corporate citizen.

To make it seamless and successful:

Partner with nonprofit organizations to handle promotion, public sign-ups, and media outreach.
Focus on transformational projects that are hands-on and meaningful.
Empower employees to be ambassadors - leading the project's Welcome, Work, and Wrap-Up phases, modeling your company’s values in action.

When your team stands with the community, you create instant goodwill and lifelong customers.

Volunteers mixing cake batter during a Volunteer Orlando project.

Your Company: At the Center of the Community

Host, sponsor, or supports and participate in local volunteer projects. Invite students from local schools to team up with your company to help solve community problems. Your role as a community supporter will build lasting goodwill.

Here’s how it works:

You provide funding and/or space directly to a nonprofit partner to help make the projects possible.
Your nonprofit partner organizations offers hands-on activities and coordinates logistics - obtaining project supplies, tools, handles volunteer sign-ups and hours verification.
Your employees co-lead the charge - setting up, guiding, and completing activities.

The results:

Projects help people in need of your assistance.
Students gain hands-on experience and make new friends.
Schools and nonprofits gain a reliable partner.
Employees gain skills that translate well to the workplace.
Your company becomes known not just for what it does, but for how deeply it cares.

This is a cost-effective means for your company to become the community’s friend, ally, and leader.

Volunteer interating with a child during a Volunteer Orlando project.

Take Action: Volunteerism is Your Company's Opportunity To Flourish

Some companies consider employee volunteer programs an obligation, burden, a cost of doing business. It’s really an opportunity!

An opportunity to:

Build a stronger, more resilient, talented and productive workforce.
Attract talented job applicants, especially when pay and benefits among peers are comparable.
Elevate your brand among key market segments.
Strengthen customer and community endearment, trust and goodwill.
Be considered a segment leader compared to peer companies.

Your company’s impact can start with one simple decision - to contact Volunteer Orlando.

We're ready to help your company envision, plan, activate, and support your community involvement strategy.