We all understand personally how volunteering plays a vital role in improving our communities and society. Volunteering allows individuals to serve those less fortunate in a selfless way and promotes many personal benefits such as good health, enhanced interpersonal skills, new relationships, and a higher sense of self. For businesses, volunteerism can also create a significant positive impact on the communities where your organizations are based and serve. The great thing about volunteering is that there are unlimited ways to contribute, no matter how much experience you have. One way that businesses can contribute to the improvement of the community is by offering pro-bono coaching and advising to local, minority-owned businesses looking to grow.
This month, Dylan Foglesong of Women’s Opportunities Resource Center (WORC), a Philadelphia-based Community Development Funding Institution (CDFI) promoting social and economic self-sufficiency primarily for economically disadvantaged women and their families, shares how volunteerism is beneficial for minority-owned businesses and ultimately creates more equitable communities.
Businesses should encourage volunteering to create more inclusive and equitable communities.
So, why is it important for businesses to encourage volunteering? According to Foglesong, “If we encourage volunteers to be more active in serving minority communities, we can further grow and develop businesses that simply do not have the means to do so otherwise.” According to a 2020 report by the Center City District (CCD) and Central Philadelphia Development Corporation (CPDC), Philadelphia has the lowest number of Black-owned businesses in relation to Black residents and the lowest number of businesses in relation to the overall population amongst comparable cities.
Along with other initiatives, such as the Inclusive Growth Coalition, that advocate for citywide job and business growth in Philadelphia to grow our economy, reduce poverty, maintain quality services, and make our city safer, volunteering can lead our city and region toward more equitable prosperity. Together they provide our region’s existing minority-owned businesses with the resources and knowledge needed to grow and become pillars in their communities. Sharing one’s expertise with minority-owned businesses is an investment not only in the business itself but in the surrounding community.
Foglesong also believes that there is value in non-profits encouraging volunteering within their communities because “the group of volunteers available grows larger the more it is encouraged by non-profits within the community.” Simply put, “the more volunteers available, the more help we can provide to minority-owned businesses.”
Impact of Volunteerism on Minority-Owned Businesses
Volunteerism, specifically through pro-bono coaching and advising, has an immense impact on growing minority-owned businesses. WORC’s extensive technical assistance program helps their clients to “get on the right track towards securing capital to start or expand their business and provides them with entrepreneurial knowledge that would otherwise be inaccessible to these underserved populations.”
Foglesong gives this example to put their impact into perspective:
“Some of our incoming lending clients do not have a profit and loss statement put together – if they were to approach a bank and ask them for a loan, they’d likely be turned down due to a lack of bookkeeping. Instead, WORC’s approach is to work directly with the individual, teaching them how to develop their own profit and loss statements and strengthen their bookkeeping practices in the future.”
WORC also offers one-on-one technical assistance as a complimentary benefit to engaging with any of its training and savings programs, as well as the unique opportunity to be mentored in-person or virtually by WORC Staff and a wealth of different businesses professionals.
The Chamber Can Help Your Organization Find Volunteer Opportunities
WORC is currently participating in the Chamber’s Volunteer Advisory Services Program, which aims to recruit volunteers with experience in accounting, legal, risk management, and/or marketing from our member companies and connect them to local, Black- and brown-owned companies for pro-bono coaching.
This volunteer program is part of a larger $100 million effort supported by the Greater Philadelphia Financial Services Leadership Coalition to provide more loans and technical assistance to Black and brown businesses by way of Philadelphia-based Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs).
For information on how you and your company can get engaged, please email jcampbell@chamberphl.com.
As the Chamber continues our longstanding commitment to the fight for equality, we’re highlighting ways our business community can meaningfully increase diversity, equity, and inclusion to bring about lasting change in the workplace.
Through our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiative, we work to drive economic competitiveness, highlight diverse employee populations, and promote inclusive growth throughout our region.
