Common Impact
Encyclopedia
Common Impact is an American nonprofit organization
headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts
. It connects business
professionals to local nonprofits that need assistance in information technology
, marketing
, human resources
, operations and finance. Common Impact's model for social change
involves social innovation
, employee engagement
, and corporate social responsibility
.
. Ellis helped connect her friend, an IT professional, to a Washington, D.C.
nonprofit needing assistance with a database
while she was working for another nonprofit. She founded Common Impact to help more corporate professionals volunteer their professional skills and help solve social problems
in the areas of health
, housing
and education
.
professional skills as more employees want to help their communities More than 400 corporate employees from companies such as Cisco, Genworth Financial, Fidelity Investments and State Street Corporation have volunteered their skills by working with Common Impact. Some examples of projects Fidelity Investments volunteers worked on are fundraising, case management, databases, and website design. The organization has connected business professionals to over 150 nonprofit organizations in Greater Boston
, New York City
, and Richmond, Virginia
. The employee engagement
relationships Common Impact fosters have translated into an estimated 9,000 hours of skilled volunteer time donated to nonprofit organizations.
Nonprofit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
. It connects business
Business
A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...
professionals to local nonprofits that need assistance in information technology
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
, marketing
Marketing
Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
, human resources
Human resources
Human resources is a term used to describe the individuals who make up the workforce of an organization, although it is also applied in labor economics to, for example, business sectors or even whole nations...
, operations and finance. Common Impact's model for social change
Social change
Social change refers to an alteration in the social order of a society. It may refer to the notion of social progress or sociocultural evolution, the philosophical idea that society moves forward by dialectical or evolutionary means. It may refer to a paradigmatic change in the socio-economic...
involves social innovation
Social innovation
Social innovation refers to new strategies, concepts, ideas and organizations that meet social needs of all kinds - from working conditions and education to community development and health - and that extend and strengthen civil society....
, employee engagement
Employee engagement
Employee engagement, also called worker engagement, is a business management concept. An "engaged employee" is one who is fully involved in, and enthusiastic about their work, and thus will act in a way that furthers their organization's interests...
, and corporate social responsibility
Corporate social responsibility
Corporate social responsibility is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model...
.
History
Theresa M. Ellis co-founded Common Impact in 2000 with Zach Goldstein, both graduates of Dartmouth CollegeDartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
. Ellis helped connect her friend, an IT professional, to a Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
nonprofit needing assistance with a database
Database
A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...
while she was working for another nonprofit. She founded Common Impact to help more corporate professionals volunteer their professional skills and help solve social problems
Social problems
Social problems are problems and difficulties that people often face in society. These include:*crime*corruption*poverty*homelessness*hunger*disease*drug addiction*alcoholism*schizophrenia*depression*pollution...
in the areas of health
Health
Health is the level of functional or metabolic efficiency of a living being. In humans, it is the general condition of a person's mind, body and spirit, usually meaning to be free from illness, injury or pain...
, housing
House
A house is a building or structure that has the ability to be occupied for dwelling by human beings or other creatures. The term house includes many kinds of different dwellings ranging from rudimentary huts of nomadic tribes to free standing individual structures...
and education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
.
Projects
Many of the projects between corporate employees and nonprofit organizations involve improving databases, creating new marketing materials and restructuring human resources tools. Before each project, Common Impact screens the nonprofit and matches it to a trained team of business professionals who are skilled in the project area. A few examples of projects include redesigning a website and evaluating marketing materials.Impact
Common Impact "helps nonprofits evaluate their internal operations. Then it finds corporate volunteers who can work with them to improve their technology, marketing, and human resource functions." These projects have generated over $6 million in resources for the nonprofit sector. Businesses are increasingly recognizing the importance of volunteeringVolunteering
Volunteering is generally considered an altruistic activity, intended to promote good or improve human quality of life, but people also volunteer for their own skill development, to meet others, to make contacts for possible employment, to have fun, and a variety of other reasons that could be...
professional skills as more employees want to help their communities More than 400 corporate employees from companies such as Cisco, Genworth Financial, Fidelity Investments and State Street Corporation have volunteered their skills by working with Common Impact. Some examples of projects Fidelity Investments volunteers worked on are fundraising, case management, databases, and website design. The organization has connected business professionals to over 150 nonprofit organizations in Greater Boston
Greater Boston
Greater Boston is the area of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts surrounding the city of Boston. Due to ambiguity in usage, the size of the area referred to can be anywhere between that of the metropolitan statistical area of Boston and that of the city's combined statistical area which includes...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, and Richmond, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
. The employee engagement
Employee engagement
Employee engagement, also called worker engagement, is a business management concept. An "engaged employee" is one who is fully involved in, and enthusiastic about their work, and thus will act in a way that furthers their organization's interests...
relationships Common Impact fosters have translated into an estimated 9,000 hours of skilled volunteer time donated to nonprofit organizations.