Box.org Skills Swap
Pro Bono Services For Your Nonprofit
Box Skills Swap was a result of an exciting Thrive collaboration with Box.org. The goal was to create a space where their employees (Boxers) could offer their skills and expertise to collaborate with nonprofits on important projects to help them deliver on their missions. Thrive promoted this incredible initiative and connected Box with interested local nonprofits. As a result, 15 organizations attended the event and received consulting services on projects ranging from consolidating databases to revamping job descriptions to drafting privacy and data protection policies, all the way to creating dashboards to track progress on key measures (financials, performance, and donations).
Boxers offered pro bono consulting services for local nonprofits within 5 categories:
Box 101 (How to use Box)
IT (Software installation, Salesforce, Service Desk, etc.)
Legal (Grant writing, legal support, contract reviews, vendor negotiation tips)
Human Resources (Recruiting, Diversity & Inclusion, Job Description Revamps, etc.)
Excel Spreadsheets (Creating dashboards, Finance & Accounting assistance)
Interested nonprofits submitted their project ideas in advance, giving an ample amount of time for Boxers to select the right volunteers with the right skills and expertise to work with nonprofit leaders. As a result, the meetings during the event were very productive and most of the projects were completed or significantly elevated within three hours of collaboration with Boxers.
The event was kicked off with a panel discussing Diversity & Inclusion in the Workplace and HR best practices. The panel was moderated by Vinney Arora, Founder at the Arora Collective.
A special thank you to the panelists:
Vamsey Palagummi, Director of Impact, Venture Leadership Consulting
Christy Lake, Chief People Officer
Tiffany Stevenson, VP, Global Head of Talent and Belonging
What Box.org Says about Box Skills Swap #EmpowerToThrive Project
“Here at Box.org we believe that those committed to doing good in the world should have the capacity to do it. Our vision is to power how the world does Good together. We do this by giving our Technology, our Boxers (employee base), and Business assets to help nonprofits. My role at Box.org is to enable our employee base (Boxers) to give their time, talents, and treasures to those social impact organizations.
In my role, I’ve noticed that our Boxers are unbelievably generous with their donations, and I wanted to increase their engagement and mobilize them to use their skills. As a result, Box.org decided to partner up with Thrive to allow Boxers to share their amazing talents with local organizations.
Our first pilot of the Box.org Skills Swap was possible because of our partnership with Thrive. Thrive activated its amazing nonprofit network to help launch this model. Thrive’s team also suggested that we open with a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) panel for nonprofit leaders to learn from our work in DE&I. If it was not for Thrive, this event would have never been so successful.”
