Companies here recently had the opportunity to learn about best practices in pro bono work – from people across some 25 countries in six continents. The Global Pro Bono Summit, organised annually since 2013, was held for the first time in Asia last week, at different venues across Singapore.
Participants included companies whose staff offer skills-based volunteerism, non-profit organisations (NPOs) and groups that match skilled volunteers with NPOs.
Over four days, they learnt how companies volunteered skills in areas including business development, design, IT and marketing to NPOs and social enterprises.
They also exchanged tips on how to encourage staff of companies to be involved, how to get NPOs to be receptive to skills-based help, and how best to match the two types of organisations to address social issues together.
They went for site visits as well, to charities and social enterprises such as Bizlink and Bettr Barista, which help people with disabilities and marginalised women respectively, to get an insight into pro bono projects which benefited them.
This year’s event was jointly organised by the Taproot Foundation based in the United States and Germany-based BMW Foundation, and hosted by local non-profit consultancy Conjunct Consulting. All the groups promote pro bono work.
