A Billion + Change

Garden State Woman Joins A Billion + Change to Envision the Future of Corporate Service

200 companies pledge nearly $1.8 billion in pro bono services to nonprofits.

Garden State Woman has joined A Billion + Change, a swiftly growing national campaign to mobilize billions of dollars of pro bono and skills-based volunteer services from corporate America to build nonprofit capacity. In less than a year, 200 companies have pledged an estimated $1.8 billion worth of skills-based services to nonprofits, keeping the campaign on track to inspire 500 companies to create or expand a skills-based volunteer program in their workplace by 2013. Garden State Woman will join the campaign at the White House on June 27, 2012 for a forum on "A Billion + Change in Action: Connecting to the Future of Corporate Service." Leaders in industry, civic engagement and policy will convene at this forum to discuss opportunities for businesses to scale efforts and partnerships to meet the social, economic and environmental challenges of the 21st century through skills-based service. They will also explore ways to align corporate skills-based service programs with national initiatives to boost innovation, competitiveness and models of effective collaboration.

"We are proud to be part of this campaign and a role model for woman-owned businesses to encourage their employees and family to volunteer.  Garden State Woman has demonstrated our commitment to volunteerism through the founding of the Garden State Woman Education Foundation in 2007".   -Judy Chapman

Wednesday's forum will challenge each pledge to look ahead at what they are poised to do. "Our challenge now is to expand A Billion + Change while partnering effectively with nonprofit professionals so we can change communities for the better," said Senator Mark Warner, Honorary Chairman of A Billion + Change. "It's through collaboration and collective impact that A Billion Plus really does add up to meaningful change."Every day, A Billion + Change pledge companies harness the skills and talents of their best and brightest to build nonprofit capacity, create empowering opportunities for veterans, strengthen our workforce, improve STEM education and to promote global development.

Corporate skills-based volunteer programs have also proven to be effective talent management tools, and can help businesses boost their own competitiveness while giving back to their communities. According to True Impact, skills-based volunteers are 142 percent more likely to report job-related skills-gains than traditional volunteers, and 82 percent more likely to report that volunteerism generated new recruits for their company versus traditional volunteers. For nonprofits, the value of skilled support in areas such as general operations, technology and professional services can be 500 percent greater than the value of traditional volunteering.

A list of pledge companies, and information about how to take the pledge, is available at: www.abillionpluschange.org.