With an ambitious vision and over 270,000 employees, Albertsons Companies Foundation strived to build a robust employee volunteer program. This led them to partner with Catchafire, the leading virtual volunteering platform, to power their employee engagement program and expand their community impact. With access to Catchafire, Albertsons’ employees can lend their professional expertise and donate their skills to thousands of nonprofits serving every type of cause and community. Their Catchafire program is one avenue for their employees to directly contribute to food security and to their CSR initiatives in general.
Through the Catchafire and Nourishing Neighbors partnership, employees can now choose from hundreds of volunteer opportunities that expand their knowledge, grow their portfolios, and create meaningful change for the communities and causes they care about. Each employee can choose the time commitment that works best for them, ranging from one hour calls to 1-18 week projects.
Albertsons has embraced skills-based volunteering as a way to maximize the impact of their employee giving initiatives. While traditional volunteering, like bagging apples for food banks, is valuable, they recognize that their workforce possesses a diverse set of skills, ranging from transportation and supply chain management to marketing and legal expertise. By utilizing these skills to assist nonprofits, they can provide a higher level of support that is not only more impactful but also cost-effective for the organizations involved.
We've wrapped the messaging around going beyond the feeding today, into ending hunger—we're pushing the boundaries. We love the ability for our employees to really give what's most valuable to give.
Executive Director and President,
Building employee engagement
The Nourishing Neighbors program with Catchafire provides employees with engaging, meaningful opportunities to give back. This has a variety of benefits:
- An investment in professional development–employees can expand their learning and skills while building relationships with nonprofits and communities. They also have the opportunity to connect with nonprofits seeking board members, providing an additional, long-term way that individuals can give back.
- Supporting employee passions–they can volunteer for the communities and causes they care about
- Building company relationships, communications, and morale–team volunteering strengthens team connections and fulfillment
This approach allows Albertsons employees to directly engage with and understand the challenges faced by these organizations, fostering a deeper connection to the cause. It goes beyond immediate hunger relief, aligning with Albertsons' broader mission of ending hunger. Through skills-based volunteering, employees can contribute what is most valuable—their expertise—to make a lasting difference in their communities. This approach benefits the nonprofits but also enhances the employees' attachment to the cause, making it a win-win solution for all parties involved.
Expanding nonprofit support
At the same time, Nourishing Neighbors sponsors nonprofits with access to Catchafire as a way to expand their team and skill set. Nonprofits receive support through a global network of volunteers who complete tangible projects and consultation calls that help them make a greater impact.
Nonprofit leaders choose from thousands of virtual volunteers who are experts in their fields, and are ready to complete hundreds of projects in areas like marketing, operations, and strategy projects. This includes Albertsons employees, combining the program’s employee engagement and corporate philanthropy initiatives.
We are excited to see the impact that Albertsons' talented professionals will make on causes they care about and the connections they will form with the neighbors near and far in the process.
Request a demo