Sarah Ford | April 24, 2014

Busy Professionals Find Time to be Global Humanitarians

By Vanessa Small

Adriana Ramirez’s black suitcase was neatly packed a week before her big, international trip. There’s no room for procrastination when you’re a mother of two young children going on a month-long business trip.

And this is no ordinary trip.

She is in Brazil assisting an organization that helps poor children with cancer get free medical treatment. Normally, the idea that she might be able to support a cause so far away would be nearly impossible. As a wife, mother and IBM manager overseeing billing and invoicing for federal contracts, she just simply wouldn’t have the time.

IBM knows this.

For the past six years, the company has been offering its employees a chance to have a Peace Corps-type experience on the company’s dime. It’s a type of corporate philanthropy that is increasingly hitting the sweet spot between companies looking to make better employees and busy working professionals seeking greater meaning in their professional and personal lives.

IBM’s Corporate Service Corps works as an international pro bono program where for four weeks, employees offer free consulting services to charities and municipalities in developing countries. Employees have helped a Nigerian province figure out the logistics of providing financial and health-care assistance to poor women and children. In Kenya, employees helped the government write aspects of its constitution that deal with the use of the Internet. A group also trained computer coders in Senegal with business skills.

>> Continue Reading

Get Resources and Insights Straight To Your Inbox

Explore More Articles

Minority Mental Health Awareness Month

July 18, 2025

July is Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, a time dedicated to raising awareness about the unique mental health challenges faced by minority communities. It’s an…

Read Article

International Self Care Day

July 18, 2025

Today, July 24, 2025, we celebrate International Self Care Day, a day dedicated to promoting self-care practices and their numerous benefits for physical, mental, and…

Read Article
How the “Big Beautiful Bill” Will Impact Individual Giving and Employer-Sponsored Workplace Giving Programs

How the “Big Beautiful Bill” Will Impact Individual Giving and Employer-Sponsored Workplace Giving Programs

July 14, 2025

The One Big Beautiful Bill was signed into law on July 4, 2025, introducing a range of provisions that will affect how individuals, companies, and…

Read Article

Get Resources and Insights Straight To Your Inbox

Receive our monthly/bi-monthly newsletter filled with information about causes, nonprofit impact, and topics important for corporate social responsibility and employee engagement professionals, including disaster response, workplace giving, matching gifts, employee assistance funds, volunteering, scholarship award program management, grantmaking, and other philanthropic initiatives.

newsletter-mock