With the holiday season just around the corner, it's that time of year when companies like to plan community service events to rally the troops and give back to others. The only challenge is that orchestrating a volunteer activity for 20, 30 and even 50 employees can be challenging. Plus, many of the volunteer places, like Ronald McDonald House or Salvation Army, tend to book up early with groups.

In this issue of Promotional Consultant Today, follow these tips to plan a successful volunteer day for your organization from researcher and communications consultant, Jayne Cravens.

1. Designate a primary contact. Have one person on your team serve as the primary contact for the community groups you interact with. This person will receive all communications on behalf of the group regarding volunteering, and will be responsible for communicating with all group members. This person will also attend any orientations required before volunteering, communicate information from this orientation to other members and be responsible for any waiver forms that would need to be signed.

2. Understand your group's availability and interest in volunteering. This will help you to understand how many people are available to volunteer and the types of activities they are willing to do. You can do this by doing a short, quick survey of your team. This also ensures that you meet their expectations and create a positive experience.

3. Determine if your group wants to be engaged in the same activities during the entire group volunteering endeavor or, if the group would be willing to separate at the event or location to engage in a variety of tasks. I once worked for a company where we split into teams and worked at various charitable groups across the city at the same time.

4. Identify any talents your employees are interested in sharing. Do you have someone who is great at woodworking, gardening, sewing, home repair? These skills can be very valuable to a charitable organization, and can be fun for your employees as well.

5. Make sure the organization or company supports the group volunteering activity and all the responsibilities such entails. Also, ask the organization or company how it wishes to be represented. For example, should employees wear a company t-shirt while volunteering? Does the company want to send out a press release with pictures of the employees volunteering? Ask what the expectations are of the organization.

6. Find out whether participation can take place on company time or if it must take place during PTO (personal time off). In either case, make sure you have permission and support from supervisors and leadership. Hopefully, the leaders are volunteering too!

7. Plan ahead. You need to give organizations sufficient lead time to place your group into a volunteering activity. With a larger group, sometimes extra time for preparations are needed as well.

8. Provide details. Once you've booked the activity, communicate the details to your company. Share the exact times and dates volunteers will need to be there, where they are to arrive, information on what to wear, where to park, transportation to the event, tools to bring, and food and snacks that will be provided.

Companies can have a very positive impact on local communities. Follow these simple steps to make it easy for your team to make a difference.

Source: Jayne Cravens is an international consultant, researcher and trainer. Her work is focused on communications (her first love), volunteer involvement / community engagement, and management for nonprofits, non-governmental organizations and government initiatives. She has more than a decade of international experience, including extensive experience regarding community and institutional development. She is passionate about the importance of mission-based organizations, including nonprofits, NGOs, UN agencies and others, in ensuring a healthy, peaceful, happy planet with equal rights and opportunities for all people.