Poles are helping others with increasing willingness, as shown by the success of initiatives such as Noble Package (Szlachetna Paczka) and the Grand Finale of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity (WOŠP). According to the report World Giving Index 20131, from year to year, more and more people in Poland declare that they engage in charitable activities. While we decidedly give our money more often than our time, the Charities Aid Foundation's latest ranking shows that we are increasingly willing to undertake volunteer work. One way to promote this form of charitable assistance is employee volunteering. According to survey by The Citi Handlowy Leopold Kronenberg Foundation at Citi Handlowy, nearly 74 percent of employees surveyed came into contact with volunteering for the first time through the bank's volunteering program.
The World Giving Index is a report published annually by the organization Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) based on polling and data from the Gallup Institute. According to the last edition of the survey, Poles are still quite reluctant to help others. Less than a third of us - 27 percent, to be exact - state that they help others. We are far from the top, where we find Americans, as many as 61 percent of whom report charitable activities, and Canada, New Zealand, Ireland and exotic Myanmar all tied for second place, where 58 percent of residents help others. The latest results of this survey, however, inspire great optimism - in the course of a year, the percentage of Poles involved in volunteering grew considerably. Already 12 percent of us declare that we are helping others in this way, while a year earlier only 8 percent of Poles chose this response. This moved us up 19 places in the ranking.
The growing popularity of volunteer work in Poland is very good news. An important role in the process of building greater commitment to support the community can be played by companies through promotion of volunteerism among employees. According to our surveys, it is inspiration from employers that makes people more willing to engage in such activities - says Krzysztof Kaczmar, President of The Citi Handlowy Leopold Kronenberg Foundation.
The second edition of the survey conducted by the Foundation shows that up to 74 percent of respondents first came into contact with this type of work through the employee volunteering program at Citi Handlowy. Participants were also asked about the reasons for engaging in this form of assistance - 73 percent said that they were motivated by the desire to help others and to do something useful, while 45 percent cited a sense of satisfaction as the main reason for involvement in volunteer activities. The third most frequently mentioned factor was the feeling of being needed (40 percent). 94 percent of the respondents believe that volunteering has a positive effect on the perception of Citi Handlowy as their employer.
It is significant that volunteers taking part in the survey were also able to indicate the benefits that they derive from involvement in voluntary activities. For 70 percent of the respondents, the most important benefit is getting to know people from the types of backgrounds for which assistance is provided. The second advantage of involvement in this type of work, chosen by 62 percent of respondents, is the opportunity to strengthen personal and social skills.
The possibility of being with other people is an additional motivation for getting involved - 93 percent of surveyed volunteers prefer to work in a group. Volunteer work is particularly helpful with team-building among a group of employees. As 56 percent of people indicated, team-building with co-workers is one of the main benefits of employee volunteering - adds Krzysztof Kaczmar, President of The Citi Handlowy Leopold Kronenberg Foundation.
1 Charities Aid Foundation, World Giving Index. A Global View of Giving Trends, December 2013
2 A survey of participants in the Employee Volunteering Program at Citi Handlowy was conducted in May-July 2013. The aim of the survey was to gather data necessary for effective development of the Employee Volunteering Program at Citi Handlowy. The majority of answers do not add up to 100% because for the majority of questions, respondents were asked to choose the three answers most suitable for them.
