employee engagement

The Alzheimer’s Association, Making a Difference

Although the Alzheimer’s Association has been in San Diego for 30 years sometimes there’s a little confusion over who we are and what we do.

To give you a short back story, the Alzheimer’s Association was founded in 1980 by a group of family caregivers and individuals interested in research. Today, the Association reaches millions of people worldwide affected by Alzheimer’s through our headquarters in Chicago, a public policy office in Washington, D.C., and a presence in communities across the country.  We’re the leading voluntary health organization in Alzheimer’s care, support and research.

That sounds like a lot, but what exactly do we do? Grab a cup of coffee and sit back. Here is a partial list of some of our activities:

Care for the caregivers and those suffering from Alzheimer’s and other dementias:

  • Our professionally staffed 24/7 Helpline (1.800.272.3900) offers information and advice to more than 300,000 callers each year and provides translation services in more than 200 languages.
  • We offer caregivers and families comprehensive online resources and information through our Alzheimer’s and Dementia Caregiver Center.
  • Our free online tool, Alzheimer’s Navigator®, helps those facing the disease to determine their needs and develop an action plan, and our online Community Resource Finder is a comprehensive database of programs, service, housing, care services, and legal experts.
  • Our safety service, MedicAlert® + Alzheimer’s Association Safe Return®, is a 24-hour nationwide emergency response service for individuals with Alzheimer’s or a related dementia who wander or have a medical emergency.
  • We connect people across the globe through our online message boards, ALZConnected® to answer questions and provide support.
  • We host educational sessions in the community.

Research, the path to a cure or prevention:

  • We accelerate research because simply put, there won’t be a treatment or prevention without it. As the largest nonprofit funder of Alzheimer’s research, the Association is committed to hastening the progress of new treatments and preventions.
  • We do more than encourage patients to participate in clinical studies, we help to connect healthy volunteers, people with the disease and caregivers to current studies through Alzheimer’s Association TrialMatch®, a free, easy-to-use clinical studies matching service.
  • We advance the understanding of Alzheimer’s through our peer-reviewed research grant program that has invested over $385 million in more than 2,500 scientific investigations since 1982. In 2015, the Alzheimer’s Association granted $8 million to San Diego researchers.
  • We bring researchers together worldwide to advance scientific data sharing through GAAIN, the Global Alzheimer’s Association International Network, a first-of-its-kind database with advanced analytical tools to accelerate discoveries.
  • Our scientific journal, Alzheimer’s & Dementia®, provides a single publication for the global scientific community to share its diverse knowledge.
  • Our annual Alzheimer’s Association International Conference® (AAIC)® is the world’s largest conference of its kind, bringing researchers together to report on groundbreaking studies.

Advocacy:

  • We advocate for the needs and rights of people facing Alzheimer’s. The Association is the leading voice encouraging Alzheimer’s disease research, prevention and care initiatives at the state and federal level.
  • Each year, our advocates participate in our annual Alzheimer’s Association Advocacy Forum, and a march on Capitol Hill to meet with elected representatives.
  • We advance commitment to Alzheimer’s funding from the federal government. In 2015, the Association helped secure a historic $350 million increase for Alzheimer’s disease research funding.
  • We secure quality health care services for those affected. We were instrumental in a 2016 decision by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to ensure that people with Alzheimer’s will have access to care planning with a medical professional.
  • We develop policy resources, including Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures, to educate decision makers on the economic and emotional toll that Alzheimer’s takes on families and the nation.

Intrigued? If you’re interested in getting involved with activities and volunteering for a local chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association, check out one of these opportunities:

  • Consider nominating someone for our Advisory Board.
  • Start a team for the Walk to End Alzheimer’s®, the world’s largest event to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer’s disease care, support and research.
  • Start a team for The Longest Day®. Honor the strength, heart and endurance of those facing Alzheimer’s with a day of activity on June 21, the summer solstice.
  • Become an advocate. Advocate for those affected by Alzheimer’s and urge legislators make the disease a national priority.
  • Make a donation.

Join us! Visit our website https://alz.org/sandiego to volunteer for any of these activities and help us help others.

Thank you to  Jeffree Itrich, Alzheimer’s Association San Diego / Imperial Valley Chapter for this guest post. Corporate Giving Partnerships works with companies to identify meaningful volunteerism opportunities with nonprofit organizations such as and including the Alzheimer’s Association. If you are interested to learn more, contact us  to learn about the positive impact volunteerism can have on your culture, your business growth, and employee engagement. #alzheimer #volunteering #corporatevolunteering

By |2018-04-25T05:56:33-07:00May 4th, 2017|Featured NonProfit|Comments Off on The Alzheimer’s Association, Making a Difference

7 Considerations to Develop a Successful Employee Volunteerism Program

Engagement is pivotal to the success of productivity. It plays a significant role in corporate marketing, philanthropic and human resource strategies. According to a study by Dale Carnegie 54% of employees revealed they felt more engaged as a result their company’s contributions to society. The 2011 Deloitte Volunteer IMPACT Survey which studied millennials who participated in workplace volunteer activities, uncovered they were twice as likely to rate their corporate culture as very positive. Volunteerism has a role in any corporate social responsibility (CSR) program. The following may help in the design of yours.

1. Get Your Leadership Team on Board

  • Even in volunteerism, programs cannot succeed when leaders are not supportive, engaged, or perhaps have their own agendas. Spend time to bring leadership into the values and benefits of building a program from the inside out.
  • When it comes to hiring practices, managers often feel pressured to hire aggressive “takers”, assuming they’re the real go-getters. Managers who realize value and commit to hiring “givers” can receive an enormous boost to their department’s productivity. To learn more about this concept, read Give and Take, by Adam Grant.

2. Cultural Shift

  • “What you are is where you were when”, said Sociologist Morris Massey. Generational perceptions, work-style differences and personal experiences influence how employees approach a volunteerism program. Provide employees with a variety of custom tailored resources and opportunities that appeal to a wide array of people.
  • Enthusiastic employees are influencers. Empower your employees who volunteer. Use their passion and storytelling to invite others to participate. These champions should ultimately lead the program. Corporate culture transforms when volunteerism becomes intrinsic.

3. Mentor Your Volunteer Champions

  • Mentoring increases engagement, enthusiasm, confidence, and teamwork.
  • Mentoring volunteers inspires new leadership within the organization.
  • Mentoring can be done both formally and informally.

4. Build Brand from the Inside Out

  • Connection with community that is encouraged and supported by the employer is natural win-win. Engaged employees will build your brand in a variety of measurable ways, including higher productivity and better customer service.
  • Volunteerism lets employees build personal skills and connections outside of their normal job requirements, which grows brand loyalty.

5.   Rethink Team Building and Social Events

  • Instead of a round of golf or other activity, use volunteerism as an opportunity to team-build with a vetted cause.
  • When asking for a donation of time outside of normal work hours, make activities family friendly. This provides employees with opportunities to teach their children and/or share an experience with their spouse or partner.

6. Storytelling

  • Use corporate volunteerism as an opportunity to evangelize compelling stories. Incorporate into your marketing programs to attract new customers and inspire higher levels of talent, especially among millennials.
  • Empower and encourage employees to share their stories. Find creative ways to promote volunteerism stories including social media, marketing, events, newsletters, lunch and learns, apps, etc.

7. Measure

Benchmark and add analytics to document your company’s progress. Consider measurements between those that volunteer and those that don’t such as:

  • Skill development
  • Employee turnover
  • Team productivity
  • Talent recruitment
  • Absenteeism
  • Job satisfaction

Every company has the opportunity to deepen engagement through contributions to society. Volunteerism requires strategy and thoughtful implementation. What steps has your company taken to build engagement through employee volunteerism?  We’d love to hear from you.

Karen Knight, is the founder of Corporate Giving Partnerships (CGP). CGP is a consulting firm that helps companies to achieve cultural and financial benefits through corporate social responsibility (CSR). Through executive coaching, workshops, employee volunteerism and cause marketing, CGP equips companies with the tools they need to leverage strengths and create dynamic engagement. To learn more, please email engage@cgpartnerships.com or call 760.717.9685. ©2017 Corporate Giving Partnerships

#CSR #corporatesocialresponsibility #employeevolunteerism #corporatephilanthropy #volunteerismweek

By |2018-04-25T05:56:33-07:00April 24th, 2017|Employee Volunteerism, Uncategorized|Comments Off on 7 Considerations to Develop a Successful Employee Volunteerism Program
Go to Top