Socially Responsible Work: Using Your Professional Skills toward CSR

Lastnight, Catchafire’s 50 Project Kickoff Party at NYU’s Puck Building brought outmasses of bright millennial jobseekers, entrepreneurs, and volunteers at yetanother meet up focused around the importance of working smart, working good,finding fulfillment and making a difference—the tenets of this generation’sideal workplace. The 50 Project is an ambitious attempt by Catchafire,a for-profit social mission business, to connect 50 nonprofits with 50 professionals on social enterprise projects,predicted to generate 2,000 volunteer hours and over $300,000 in value.

Catchafireconnects professionals who want to volunteer their skills, such as projectmanagement, social media consulting, PR strategy, and web design, withnonprofits that need them by creating short-term, discrete, andindividual-based projects. The Catchafire system creates off-the-shelfsolutions for basic nonprofit needs and makes it easy for professionals to findtime to volunteer in the midst of their busy daily lives.

Theevent was on fire indeed, with young professionals crowding into a conferenceroom to hear the inspiring words of social entrepreneur star, Cindy Gallop,founder of IfWeRantheWorld. Gallop’s remarks honed in on key valuesthat appeal to this generation and their establishing a new work landscape. Shespoke about the importance of creating revenue-generating models fororganizations with a social cause in order to build self-sustaining change andcreate opportunity for talented individuals to devote their skills to growingorganizations and invest in the satisfying work they seek when they volunteertheir free time for nonprofit organizations. These ideas are part ofa larger change that these young professionals are championing for: Top-grade,well-structured, socially responsible work that benefits communities and surroundings,not just individuals.

For more information on pursuing a career in thenonprofit world, see our Vault Guide to Nonprofit Careers. If it’s the environmentalside of corporate sustainability that appeals to you, see our Vault Guide to Environmental Careers.

--By Ruhi Shamim

Ruhi Shamim is a social media marketer andblogger, specializing in corporate social responsibility, urban planning andsustainable transportation, and cultural diplomacy. She has worked withSosauce, Justmeans, Sparkseed, and the Interfaith Center on CorporateResponsibility, and is currently developing a Green Network for JobThread, aNew York based technology startup.