IBM100 – A Global Volunteer Network

IBM’s tradition of volunteerism is as old as the company itself. In the 1910s, IBM President Thomas J. Watson Sr. challenged employees to share their time and talents with their communities, and IBM’s culture of community service was born.

This excerpt from an IBM film examines a volunteer medical center in South Phoenix, AZ, which benefited from an IBMer’s involvement and a grant from the company’s Fund for Community Service. The film was made in 1974. (3:57)

In 1985, IBMer Craig Stein was a volunteer firefighter with Ulster Hose Company #5 in New York. When the company needed more equipment to expand its ability to provide medical treatment, Stein turned to IBM’s Fund for Community Service program to secure the necessary funding.

Frances Stevenson, a secretary in IBM’s Salem, Oregon, sales office worked on the district committee of the Willamette Council of the Camp Fire Girls. She helped in all phases of the group’s activities. In this photo, taken in 1960, she and Donald Strausbaugh, chairman of the committee, accept a group contribution for the Camp Fire Girls’ Golden Jubilee Anniversary from Blue Bird (a junior Camp Fire Girl) Linda Springer.

Nine decades later, IBM expanded on this tradition by developing a new way for IBM volunteers around the world to engage with their communities. With the launch of the global volunteer and service network called the
IBM
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On Demand Community in November 2003, IBM reinvented the way it supports the volunteer work of its employees and retirees. With On Demand Community, IBM’s approach mirrors its business strategy. The program supports community efforts in multiple ways, including providing solutions and activity kits with how-to resources, calculators and tools for organizations. It enables volunteers to track volunteer hours, apply for grants, sign up for and propose activities, learn more about their peers’ volunteer efforts and receive recognition. IBMers can look for volunteer opportunities related to disaster preparedness and response, including training.

In the words of IBM Chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano, “The On Demand Community … underlines our support for volunteerism around the world, and focuses on the contribution that not-for-profit community organizations and schools have told us they value most—the skills and expertise of IBMers. A global program with a local focus, On Demand Community facilitates IBMers’ own volunteer efforts—and provides a concrete vehicle to give our values of success, innovation and personal responsibility added, real-world meaning.”

The On Demand Community can drive significant and measurable change by taking advantage of IBM’s technology and the vast skills of its employees and retirees in 170 countries, and by linking community service with the company’s Smarter Planet business strategy. It offers hands-on involvement to schools and not-for-profit organizations that might never have had access to such levels of volunteer expertise and support.