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Volunteering: leadership that isn’t taught in classrooms

Volunteering: leadership that isn’t taught in classrooms

Community

Volunteering is taking on a new role within organisations: it is no longer merely an expression of social responsibility, but is establishing itself as a strategic asset. It was with this in mind that the Galp Foundation organised the conference “Volunteering: Time That Matters” in Lisbon, bringing together a range of voices to reflect on the impact of these initiatives on people, businesses and communities.

 

Adapting to unfamiliar contexts. Making decisions with incomplete information. Understanding realities different from our own. These are skills found in any leadership handbook, but they are developed through direct experience of the world. It is in this area that volunteering plays a role that traditional training programmes cannot replicate.

In Portugal, the reality is more challenging. As Carla Ventura of CASES points out, only around 6% of the population regularly participates in volunteering activities. “There is a paradox here: we find social organisations with expectations of growth, but participation levels remain low.”

The role of businesses is crucial to reversing this situation. “Corporate volunteering will be one of the transformative elements, because it helps to structure volunteering and introduce management practices that have an impact on the sector,” she argues. When businesses integrate volunteering into their operations, the impact becomes clear: more cohesive teams, greater closeness among employees and a stronger connection to the community.

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Isabel Jonet

President of Entrajuda and the Federation of Food Banks Against Hunger


Having spent almost 34 years at the helm of the Food Bank Against Hunger and having chosen to be a volunteer, she has first-hand knowledge of the transformative impact of volunteering, a pattern she says she has seen repeated over time.

When a volunteer dedicates themselves to a cause, their life is transformed, because they come into contact with realities they were previously unaware of, but they also have the opportunity to find solutions that enrich their daily life, their family relationships and their professional activity.

For the head of the Food Bank, this contact with reality has a profound effect: “Volunteering shapes us and reshapes us, because we come to see the world in a different, more humane way,” she emphasises, adding that it will be crucial in countering any potential dehumanisation linked to new technologies.

These are the skills that are likely to become increasingly important in the coming years. As Ricardo António of Ethical – Doing Well by Doing Good pointed out, around 39% of professional skills will need to change by 2030. Although many are technical, a significant proportion are human: empathy, leadership and social influence – skills that volunteering is uniquely placed to develop.

Skills-based volunteering: more than just team building
Skills-based volunteering: more than just team building

Whilst corporate volunteering creates an environment for employees to develop new skills, skills-based volunteering is a way of giving these benefits back to the community. In this model, employees contribute what they are good at: technical knowledge, professional experience or problem-solving skills.

 

Sandra Aparício, Executive Director of the Galp Foundation, sees this approach as part of the very logic of business. “Companies have a purpose, which is profit, but today sustainability is part of their market presence. Volunteering emerges as an expression of that commitment,” she explains.

One example is the energy transition programmes developed by the Galp Foundation. In Alcoutim, partner social institutions have become energy self-sufficient, a result that combines financial investment with the direct involvement of the teams.

“To implement these projects, we need our employees, and many volunteer their skills, supporting institutions that lack the resources or technical capacity to meet these challenges.” The impact shifts from being merely charitable to becoming structural, and volunteering, as Sandra Aparício emphasises, “takes on a purpose, no longer being seen merely as team building”.

 

The importance of measuring social impact
 

As corporate volunteering gains prominence within organisations, so too does the demand for a clearer understanding of how its impact is assessed.

The data shows that this shift has already begun, but is far from being fully established. A benchmark study involving 236 organisations across 39 countries reveals that 96.6% of companies incorporate volunteering into working hours, 99.2% align their initiatives with the real needs of communities, and 93.7% link them to the Sustainable Development Goals. Nevertheless, when it comes to measuring actual impact, practice does not match this ambition.

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“Hours do not equal impact”, Ricardo António

“For years, volunteering was measured by the enthusiasm it generated. Today, that is no longer enough,” says Ricardo António, from Ethical – Doing Well by Doing Good.

The challenge lies in measuring real impact, not just hours or participation. “Hours do not equal impact. Participation is not transformation. We need to go further and understand what effective changes have been brought about in people, organisations and communities.”

This shift in thinking involves looking beyond the most immediate indicators and asking what has actually come of these initiatives. The impact is there – it is visible to those taking part and to those benefiting – but without being translated into data, it remains difficult to demonstrate and scale up.

 

The Time That Matters
 

The conference opened with João Diogo Silva, co-CEO of Galp, who highlighted the importance of placing the depth of impact at the heart of decision-making.

 

João Diogo Silva, Galp's Co-CEO.

 

Next came Isabel Jonet (Food Bank Against Hunger), Carla Ventura (CASES), Luís Almeida Capão (Cascais Municipal Council), Elizabete Silva (Gaia Municipal Council), Mafalda Roriz (Maia Municipal Council), Ricardo António (Ethical), Filipe Mello (CUF), Joana Castro e Costa (Nova SBE), Andreia Marques (Galp), Adolfo Mesquita Nunes (Galp), Sandra Aparicio (Galp Foundation), Daniel Fonseca (SONAE), Pedro Morais Barbosa (BPI) and Ana Silveira (Galp). The session was moderated by Maria João Ruela.