Looking for corporate social responsibility event ideas to add to your next conference?
Give-back events are a great way to connect with your community and support your corporate social responsibility efforts.
We understand the challenge—finding volunteer opportunities that align with your business’s mission and goals can be tough.
Choosing a corporate social responsibility event that your attendees will enjoy and find valuable is even more challenging.
How can Integrating Social Responsibility Events Enhance Your Conference Experience?
By adding corporate social responsibility events to your conference schedule, you can enhance attendee engagement and make a positive impact in the community.
If you're a socially responsible company, shared volunteer work can also build a sense of trust and camaraderie among your conference attendees.
Stanford University research has shown that company-sponsored volunteer initiatives and give-back events can boost social bonding among co-workers.
1. A Break From the Content
Looking to boost employee engagement?
Conferences can be long and mentally demanding. Incorporating corporate social responsibility events allows your attendees to take a break from focusing on presentations and content to engaging in meaningful activities.
2. Networking Opportunities
Collaborating on social responsibility initiatives provides attendees with unique networking opportunities and a chance to connect in a more casual setting.
3. Holistic Learning
Involvement in events about corporate responsibility broadens attendees' perspectives beyond traditional conference topics, encouraging a deeper understanding of social issues.
8 Corporate Social Responsibility Event Ideas
After interviewing our project management team, we’ve compiled a list of 8 ideas to help you brainstorm your next corporate social responsibility event.
1. Bike Builds
Get your team into the competitive spirit by having them build bikes for a local children’s charity or donate them to local Boys and Girls Clubs.
Organize a 2-hour session where teams compete to build as many bikes as possible with provided kits and directions.
Friendly competition not only boosts excitement but also results in more bikes being built.
After the activity, you can even bring kids on-site to receive the bikes.
This corporate social responsibility event format, with small teams, promotes personal interactions and teamwork among attendees.
2. Joy Jars
Bring a bit of joy to children with cancer with a Joy Jar stuffing event.
Provide your conference attendees with all the necessary supplies, including colored markers, stickers, small stuffed animals, candy, and toys.
Arrange a 2-hour event featuring Joy Jar stuffing, engaging trivia games, and packing boxes for shipping. To keep the atmosphere lively, hire an emcee to provide entertainment and trivia throughout the event.
Consider ending the corporate social responsibility event by having a few employees personally deliver the jars to kids in the hospital.
3. Military Care Packages
Sending military care packages not only offers a comforting reminder of home but also delivers morale-boosting items to deployed service members, enhancing their well-being during their time away.
Plan a 2-hour event for your conference attendees, featuring a care package assembly guided by an engaging emcee who provides entertainment and trivia games.
Provide your attendees with supplies such as snacks, hygiene products, books, and playing cards to fill the boxes.
Once assembled, arrange for the care packages to be shipped out to service members.
4. Sports Kits
Conference attendees can engage in a corporate social responsibility initiative by participating in a sports equipment donation event, where they assemble sports kits.
These kits, filled with sports gear like balls, jerseys, water bottles, and training equipment, serve as important resources for local organizations promoting youth sports.
By partnering with the community where the conference is being hosted, attendees contribute to increasing access to youth sports and recreation for underprivileged communities.
In previous events, attendees have enjoyed this activity, noting that it contributes to increasing employee engagement.
At the end of the activity, pack up the boxes of sports kits and have them delivered to a local youth league, local charities, or other nonprofit organizations.
5. Comfort Kits
Consider incorporating a 1-hour activity into your conference agenda dedicated to assembling comfort kits to offer support to families enduring long stays at their loved one's bedside in hospitals.
Conference attendees can assemble items including toiletries, snacks, reading materials, and comforting amenities into kits, crafting a practical and comforting gift for those navigating challenging times.
Play music, host a live band, or have the activity be guided by an emcee with engaging activities to make the kit assembly session fun for attendees.
6. Filter Builds
Consider hosting a water filter build event for your conference attendees as an impactful give-back opportunity, even if your schedule is tight with just 30 minutes to spare.
Assembling a water filter takes less than 10 minutes, with all parts conveniently packaged in a plastic bag provided by WTW.
With simple, step-by-step instructions, attendees can contribute to environmental sustainability and provide clean water to communities worldwide.
Following assembly, attendees can personalize each filter with a heartfelt note before sending them off.
The WTW Filter Build Experience offers a hands-on approach to global impact through clean water access, making it an engaging and meaningful activity to partner with. Check out WTW.org to learn more about how your conference attendees can assemble water filters.
7. Skill-Sharing Workshops
Organize workshops where attendees can share their professional expertise to support local communities and individuals seeking to enhance their skills, such as those transitioning from halfway homes. These workshops could offer valuable services like marketing consultations or IT support.
Tap into the collective expertise of your company to create workshops covering a range of topics, spanning leadership, communication, and industry-specific insights.
Your team may also provide support for virtual projects. Providing this type of support can look very different — from building websites to helping with financial reporting — but the goal is to empower your attendees to use their skills for good.
While integrating this skills-based volunteering activity into your conference schedule may be challenging due to time constraints, it is a great way for your team to leverage their talents for the greater good.
8. Translate Documents or Content
Is your workforce multilingual?
Consider hosting a 1-2 hour give-back event during your conference where multilingual conference attendees can offer valuable support to nonprofits in need.
Leveraging the multilingual skills of employees, you can provide assistance with translating a variety of documents or content, ranging from medical or legal documents to social media posts or web projects.
These corporate social responsibility initiatives not only facilitate communication and access to important information for non-English-speaking communities but also empower your team to make a meaningful contribution through their linguistic abilities.
This activity may also be harder to implement due to time constraints.
Which Corporate Social Responsibility Event Should I Choose?
Choosing the right corporate social responsibility (CSR) event depends on several factors, including your company's mission and goals, attendee preferences, and agenda time constraints.
Don't stress too much over selecting the perfect corporate social responsibility initiatives for your company.
Any choice socially responsible companies make is likely to foster a strong sense of employee purpose and boost engagement.
According to a study by Gallup, when a company has engaged employees, they see a 17% increase in productivity, are 21% more profitable, and can have 41% lower absenteeism.
Additional Ways to Make a Positive Impact on Your Conference
There are other ways to make a positive impact on your community during your conference beyond hosting a give-back event.
1. Opt for Digital Event Communications
Opting for digital event communications over printed handouts such as agendas or sponsor packets shows a commitment to the environment by minimizing paper waste and reducing your conference’s carbon footprint.
Embracing digital platforms offers attendees convenient access to up-to-date information while promoting a more eco-friendly approach to conference organization.
2. Give Refillable Water Bottles in Your Conference Swag Bags
Providing reusable water bottles to conference attendees in swag bags discourages the use of single-use plastics and disposable bottles.
Just make sure that you provide water refill stations for your conference attendees throughout the venue.
3. Share Your Impact
During your conference presentations, you can highlight your sustainability efforts by sharing the stats with your attendees, "We preserved _____ trees by opting for digital materials over paper", "We donated ____ to a local food bank", or "We provided reusable water bottles and water refill stations, saving _____ gallons of water.”
Does your event use renewable energy to power the lights? Are you investing in other sustainable solutions?
If your company is committed to being socially responsible, make sure your attendees know.
Let’s Plan Your Next Give Back Event
From bike building to backpack stuffing, GoGather can help you craft interactive and meaningful corporate social responsibility events. Let’s chat about how we can help you improve employee engagement and plan your best give-back event yet.
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