Patrice Key-Rhone is the Global Director, Employee Giving & Volunteerism at IBM, an international producer of computer hardware and software. With a diverse background spanning advertising, corporate communications, corporate compliance and corporate social responsibility (CSR), she now leads IBM’s workplace giving and global volunteering efforts. 

I’m really big about helping people find their purpose, whether it’s through work or their personal passions or just finding that deeper meaning and connection in life.  

– Patrice Key-Rhone – Global Director, Employee Giving & Volunteerism at IBM 

Purpose programme  

With over 300,000 employees in more than 170 countries, IBM’s diverse workforce is engaged in volunteering and giving through IBM Corporate Service Corps. This social impact programme encourages community members and IBM employees to collaborate on economic and social challenges faced by communities around the world, addressing the focus areas of education, sustainability and skills-based volunteerism.  
 
To achieve this, the programme is broken up into three key initiatives:  

• IBM SkillsBuild programme – Allows anyone with a digital connection to power their future in technology with skills, credentials and courses for free.  
• IBM Sustainability Accelerator – A pro bono social impact programme that focuses on organisations that are vulnerable to environmental threats – including climate change, extreme weather and pollution.
• IBM’s workplace giving and volunteering programmes – Provides various opportunities for their employees to make an impact in ways that are meaningful to them. 

Like with many other companies, IBM’s programme has changed in recent years in response to the global Covid-19 pandemic. Instead of focusing on an annual fundraising campaign with a big communications push, they began engaging their employees with giving opportunities throughout the year to help them make an immediate impact around the world. From a volunteering perspective, the Covid-19 pandemic changed the landscape from in-person volunteering to virtual, to a hybrid approach. 

 Through all of this, Patrice believes companies must be nimble in decision-making and flexible in their programmatic approach. At IBM, for example, they’ve responded to societal issues and re-evaluated their programmatic strategies, their disaster relief plans, how they respond to social and civil unrest, and how they define advocacy and inclusiveness.  

There’s been many moments that have forced us to continue to evolve our programmes to ensure that we’re meeting the needs of our IBMers, the communities we live and work with, and the nonprofits and NGOs we partner with.  

– Patrice Key-Rhone – Global Director, Employee Giving & Volunteerism at IBM 

Read on to learn how Patrice activates global employee giving and volunteerism that meets the moment for IBMers around the world.   

Ensure global programmes work locally    

When taking virtual activations to a global scale, it’s crucial to consider cultural norms, compliance and privacy in every market where employees are located.  

For Patrice, the first step is working with a volunteering and giving partner like Benevity that vets nonprofits to ensure they comply with country standards.   

From there, Patrice works with in-country leaders in close to 100 nations, where the majority of employees are located. These in-country leaders help Patrice understand regional educational partners and how volunteerism works locally. They also ensure IBM achieves alignment across all regulatory and government partners.  

It’s my responsibility to make sure I understand the cultural norms of volunteerism in those countries so I can activate a volunteerism plan that is achievable and not try to apply a one-size-fits-all approach on a global scale. 

– Patrice Key-Rhone – Global Director, Employee Giving & Volunteerism at IBM 

For example, in Pakistan there are strict rules and laws regarding imports. After recent floods in Pakistan, IBM wanted to provide meals but couldn’t bring their packing kits to the country. Having a volunteerism partner and individuals in that region who understood the specificities was crucial when providing employees with this volunteering opportunity.  

Keep in mind, volunteering is profoundly personal. In-country leaders provide context and an on-the-ground perspective that enables CSR leaders to personalise volunteering and giving as much as possible.  

Use your company’s strengths to make an impact  

IBM’s effective skills-based volunteerism programme enables the company to provide more constructive aid by taking the ideas of employees and bringing them to life. By collecting inspiration from their business units, their products and services and their specialised talents, they are able to provide technology for humanitarian response, disaster relief, educational systems and the social sector that makes an impact on a larger scale.  

“We get to leverage all of the talent and skills that are honed within the IBM community, the IBM enterprise, in various ways to truly make a difference in communities and make meaningful impact at scale,” says Patrice. “We fill in the gaps and become a resource for some nonprofit partners.”  

These types of volunteering initiatives can be mutually beneficial for the nonprofit, the company and its employees. For example, IBMers who volunteered for the IBM Education Security Preparedness Grant developed experience in cybersecurity, project management and communications. This was an opportunity to learn new skill sets to grow in their role at IBM, while making a difference in the community.  

Target employees with personalised communications 

While CSR programmes grow, oftentimes their budgets remain static. Thus, Patrice has learned to grow IBM’s programmes organically through strong communication strategies. Her advice:  

• Give employees a reason to volunteer: Dig into your data and discover individuals who haven’t been active in your programme (IBM does this through their volunteering and giving platform). By offering them targeted communications, you can inspire new participation.   
• Focus on new hires: Patrice finds that new hires often want to get involved. Hit them early with messaging about the programmes by including it in your onboarding and sending them personalised messaging.  
• Provide all the details they need: With specificity, there’s a greater chance your people will be interested. Answer questions about cost, how much time it takes and how often they can get involved. 
• Present people with options: There’s a much greater chance that employees will fit volunteering into their schedules if you provide them with options. And if they can’t donate their time, maybe they’ll donate their money. 

Finally, Patrice explains there are different types of messaging. While a top-down message can empower the workforce, it’s often general and high level. “A bottom-up message gives employees context,” Patrice notes. “It’s like, ‘this is what we do as a team. This is how we rally.’”  

Find your company’s big moments with cause marketing  

While Patrice believes in year-round opportunities to give, including holidays and global themes such as International Day of Volunteerism and International Literacy Day, she likes to focus on the “big moments”.  She finds cause marketing to be an effective way to create meaningful campaigns that turn moments into movements.  

Offering incentives may spark interest, but IBM recognises the importance of recruiting employees who truly want to be engaged in volunteering and giving. That’s why they use cause marketing to showcase who IBM is and why their employees matter. By inviting their employees to seek a deeper connection with the causes they care about, they simultaneously build deeper connections with the company. 

“The cause marketing campaign is where we have that movement,” says Patrice. “This is where your employees come and stand behind your corporate purpose. This is when they are happy to be a part of the programme, where they’re happy to volunteer their time, where they’re happy to record it.”

The impact  

Thanks to their dedication to the programme, IBM has made immense positive impact. Take, for example, their response to the Ukraine crisis: 

In 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, IBM didn’t know how to react to the unprecedented situation. To determine the best response, they held several leadership meetings and followed the lead of other organisations. 

They set up a fundraiser and collected over $1 million in employee donations with a $1 million company match.  

They also built language services and technology products for those impacted in the region. In a short time, they were able to come together and make a difference by building something that was greatly needed.

“I was enamoured and just humbled by the generosity of our IBMers,” states Patrice. “On top of the $1 million that IBM was donated, IBM as a company matched that with $1 million. On top of that, we had many volunteerism offerings across the globe – virtual – where we provided and built chatbots for assistance.”  

Tips & advice for other companies 

• Cultivate and grow your CSR network. This is a space where companies can grow and share, and they’re not competing with one another. People are usually willing to share their top tips with one another for the greater good.  
• Invest in a platform solution. While employees will appreciate having a dedicated space, your company benefits from ensured compliance and the ability to offer volunteering activities globally.  

Being able to build out a CSR programme and globalising it would be impossible without a platform solution. I’ve consulted with a lot of companies that still use spreadsheets and things like that. At some point, it’s just worth the investment.  

– Patrice Key-Rhone – Global Director, Employee Giving & Volunteerism at IBM