City Action Matchmakes City Firms Wishing To Volunteer

The City of London Corporation's City Action, a matchmaking service for City firms and SMEs that wish to volunteer with community organisations in the City fringe boroughs, is launching an online database to set up more long term, satisfying relationships which fulfill the needs of both parties.

The website – www.city-action.org – will host a virtual matchmaking/dating site for private/third sector relationships. It will provide online opportunities for community organisations and charities to advertise and provide information on the specific skills and services which they require from corporate partners. There will also be an RSS feed function giving live updates of new volunteering opportunities – the very latest 'singles' on the market.

The scheme encourages City firms and SMEs to volunteer their professional expertise, skills and knowledge; example volunteering initiatives include recruitment professionals providing careers advice to students, lawyers offering legal seminars to community groups and IT experts offering basic computer training for lone parents. City Action works closely with both parties to establish long-term, structured volunteering programmes that will provide valuable, lasting benefits and meaningful, self-sufficient partnerships.

Funded by the City of London Corporation, City Action facilitates meetings between volunteering firms and their chosen community group or charity and provides guidelines relating to their volunteering activity. In such cross-sectoral projects, miscommunication and conflicting agendas or timeframes are not infrequent – particularly at the outset. City Action works as an intermediary liaison service. Each volunteering match is followed up with an evaluation, which is of particular use to CSR and HR departments, to look at the impact to the individual and which workplace skills were developed or put into practice during volunteering – and see how the relationship is progressing as a whole.

City Action has been running for 10 years since 1998 and is the only free brokerage service of its kind which, in the last year alone, has linked 45 active corporate partners with not-for-profit and community organisations, charities and schools in the seven City fringe boroughs.

According to a survey by City Action, volunteering is now expected of modern companies, with employee volunteering initiatives as a key way of engaging staff. The survey shows that companies are also motivated by the desire to promote their company values, raise their company profile, provide training opportunities for staff and give a good impression to both existing and potential clients. They also state that involvement with community organisations improves staff morale as well as positively contributing to recruitment intiatives.