The San Diego, Calif.-area is home to numerous nonprofits engaged in a wide range of charitable activities. But Mission Edge is different; the organization, itself a nonprofit, provides professional services like accounting, payroll, OSHA compliance and human resources to other nonprofits so they can focus on their primary missions rather than the minutia of running a business. Since 2015, San Diego-based Qualcomm Technologies has worked with Mission Edge to help its roster of nonprofits find and engage with a pool or corporate volunteers.
Julia Dorfman, Qualcomm’s manager of social responsibility, said Mission Edge was unique in that it “acts as a hub to bring different organizations together around social change through their services and programs. Our goal with launching this skills-based volunteer program was to give Qualcomm employees a great giving back experience, but to also hopefully be able to roll the program out to the greater community so other companies and nonprofits could benefit from this type of program.”
Qualcomm funded a pilot program to test out the matching system that pairs volunteers with organization based on “appropriate skills, interests and availability to fulfill nonprofits’ specific needs.” After the pilot, the project entered a new phase focused on scale and long-term matching. “We want the program to match employees to more long-term volunteers solutions that help nonprofits fill the gap for specific skill sets while connecting volunteers to meaningful experiences,” Dorfman said.
Qualcomm employees have volunteered in numerous capacities, including with A Reason to Survive (ARTS), an art education group. Katie Wiest worked with ARTS and said one of her favorite parts of the experience was “brainstorming with other team members and learning about the organization’s mission, as well as connecting and networking with other Qualcomm employees.”
