National day of the volunteer: How Business Involved aims to bring people, companies together to make a positive impact

At the start of the pandemic, the power of tech companies and the impact they can make became immediately clear. From procuring N95 masks and ventilators to offering high-performance computing, tech companies really showed their might. However, it is evident that every company on the planet wants to do their best and often lacks a way to volunteer their resources.

In Amsterdam, Business Involved is aiming to solve this very challenge with its platform that matches people with curated volunteering opportunities. The idea of this platform is for companies in the Amsterdam area to contribute to the greater good. With 7 December being marked as the national day of the volunteer, Business Involved is organising an in-person meet at EQUALS Amsterdam.

At the meetup, Business Involved wants to bring together people, companies in the Amsterdam area, and all kinds of social organisations. For those who have never heard of this initiative, this will be an opportunity to get introduced to the platform and even meet some fellow volunteers. Is this the way to make an impact?

A platform to connect

The idea behind the Business Involved platform for curated volunteering opportunities came about during COVID-19. Joël Dori, co-founder of Business Involved and Startup Liaison at StartupAmsterdam, says they organised a meeting between the former deputy mayor and startups contributing to help the situation in the crisis.

One of the startups was Deedmob, which had set up Coronahelpers.nl and multiple other volunteer platforms that facilitated connection between people willing to help and people in need. “After the inspiring conversation, the deputy mayor was eager to find ways of working together and stimulating volunteer work,” says Dori.

As a result of this conversation, Business Involved was formed as a partnership of experts from the City of Amsterdam, Vrijwilligers Centrale Amsterdam (Volunteer Centre Amsterdam, VCA) and Deedmob.

The VCA now has a network of more than 2,500 social organisations offering fitting volunteer work for everyone. As an organisation, Business Involved works with companies of any size originating from Amsterdam or those from other countries looking to connect with Amsterdam.

Business Involved not only organises these events, but also helps with physical activities like cooking or using the expertise of volunteers. “Our unique selling point is that we make sure our volunteer opportunities are available in English and in Dutch,” adds Dori.

Collective impact on the society

On December 7, Business Involved is organising a meetup that will not only bring people together but also mark one year of its inception. Dori says the event is “all about celebrating volunteering and creating relations.”

He says volunteering also helps companies with their CSR initiatives as well as their own challenges. For him, these volunteering efforts enable “team building, stimulating local connections, making international employees feel more at home, giving back, creating a sense of appreciation for their jobs, and being more visible as a company in the city.”

With supporting community impact initiatives becoming an essential part of doing business, the scope is larger than what Business Involved set out to accomplish. Dori says, “By connecting companies to these initiatives, I believe that the social cohesion in our city will grow, and that’s exactly what we need.”

One of the companies joining hands with Business Involved on the mission of creating an impact is SYLVAIN. A certified B corporation, SYLVAIN is a strategy and design consultancy headquartered in New York with a small, growing team in Amsterdam. It advises many global brands on their own corporate impact strategies.

“The perspective about Amsterdam [from Business Involved] helped us offer ideas for adoption and engagement that would benefit not only the city of Amsterdam, but businesses themselves,” says Sherzad Rahmatian, Managing Director of SYLVAIN.

With work spanning insights, innovation, brand, and organisational work, SYLVAIN is helping its clients envision the future of their brand and services. It helps its clients “adapt to rapidly changing cultural and consumer needs.”

Creating a community for homeless

One of the social organisations attending the meetup this week is Koffiehuis. The story of Koffiehuis or the Coffee House in Amsterdam is one that acted as a place for people with nowhere to go. The place also offered them something to eat and drink for a small fee.

However, with the arrival of the pandemic, Koffiehuis was no longer able to host people but it didn’t fall back on its impact. The Coffee House committed to projects where the undocumented or homeless people could participate. They engage in activities like ensuring the inner city streets are cleaner and greener.

“For this, they get coffee, breakfast, a hot lunch and a small daily allowance,” says Loes Olgers, volunteer coordinator at Stichting Het Koffiehuis Amsterdam. “The Koffiehuis is now a place where 25-30 people gather daily to work on the streets.”

In addition to the coffee home, Koffiehuis also has a clothing store where the proceeds from the sale are used to support the homeless or undocumented people. “Clothing is donated. Most of the men’s clothes are given for free to the people working for us. Women’s clothes and items are sold for small amounts to our customers,” explains Olgers.

“There are more homeless than ever in the city and it is something everyone notices,” says Olgers. However, there is also now a lot of compassion among residents. This is made possible by the fact that homeless people are creating a difference in the society thanks to organisations like Koffiehuis.

Even though there is a prejudice against homeless people, their work shows that they want to be part of the community. “Many residents know the difference between the nuisance tourists or the homeless who just hang out and drink with our guys,” adds Olgers.

A vision for Europe

With the Business Involved meetup just days away, Olgers believes that this community volunteering should not only be restricted to Amsterdam. They hope to develop this idea into a franchise formula that can be extended to other cities in Europe.

To get there, however, there will be a need for transformation to happen internally. “Any true transformation starts internally, with the people and structures that exist on the inside of a business,” says Rahmatian.

She says the common misconception about impact is that business leaders must retrofit social impact into their business. Having worked with high growth companies, SYLVAIN and Rahmatian are in a unique place to shed light on the fact that this approach doesn’t work because “it pits impact against growth.”

“In fact, we see the businesses that create lasting impact think of it as an inherent part of their business model, finding unique ways to grow through impact,” she says.

On December 7, when companies and social organisations meet as equals, the agenda won’t only be about creating social impact. However, the agenda would be how to build on the progress made in the past year. Their focus will be on how to become an enabler of impact that benefits society, people, companies, and also growth of those companies.