On the occasion of the European Year of Volunteering, the association IMS-Entreprendre pour la Cité is launching the first edition of the Défis Mecenova. Throughout the week of June 20, 2011, businesses and their employees across France will mobilize to carry out solidarity actions in favor of associations. The goal of the June 20 event “Become a Volunteer, Take the Challenge!”? To allow employees to find their perfect match in an association!
From June 20 to 24, around thirty companies*, including twelve in the Alpes-Maritimes, will call on more than 500,000 employees to engage them in solidarity causes.
Running races to raise donations, meetings with associations to become a volunteer, mentoring young people to prepare them for employment. The whole week will be dedicated to the voluntary commitment of employees to the benefit of associations.
In Nice, more than one hundred employees from twelve companies will meet with fifteen local associations looking for volunteers!
Organized in the form of speed-dating at the Acropolis of Nice, the meetings between employees and associations will take place from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
They will be followed by testimonies from employees, the launch of the website www.mecenova.org, the presentation of the national study ‘Volunteering and You’, and the signing of partnership agreements between IMS PACA and the mobilized associations.
The event will conclude with a friendly cocktail party: a chance to continue informal discussions with association leaders present and with other company employees eager to get involved!
Volunteering is continuously developing within companies. Companies are one of the places where people can still act together to rebuild social ties and prevent the fragmentation of solidarity. An increasing number of companies want to involve their employees in their sponsorship and solidarity partnership programs.
According to the Benchmark Fondations conducted by IMS in 2009, 62% of the companies surveyed offer sponsorship and/or skills volunteering to their employees.
These actions have become one of the cornerstones of policies aimed at strengthening the internal cohesion of the company, as well as its innovation capabilities and its relations with its local environment.
They also allow for bringing meaning back to work by creating a positive dynamic, as well as encouraging employees to develop skills that are transferable to the business field.
Note: A survey on employee volunteer engagement in France conducted among committed companies will be published by IMS at the launch of this week of Défis Mecenova
- The companies involved (in bold those active in the Alpes-Maritimes): Albax, Banque Populaire Côte d’Azur, Bayer, Capgemini/Sogeti, Cegid, Convers Télémarketing, Crédit Agricole Centre-Est, Crédit Agricole S.A., Deloitte, Fondation Groupe Seb, Fondation Schneider Electric, Fondation SFR, Galderma R&D, GlaxoSmithKline, Groupe Casino, Nice Acropolis, Le Groupe la Poste, Hewlett Packard, HSBC France, KONE, Laboratoires MSD-Chibret, Linklaters, Marineland, Markem-Imaje, Le Palais de la Méditerranée, Renault Trucks, Schneider Automation, Société Générale, Texas Instruments, Veolia Eau Lyon Agglomération, WIT.
The participating associations: APF, Association Valentin Haüy, Bibliothèques Sonores – Associations des Donneurs de Voix, Croix Rouge Française, Graines de Fermiers, IMS-Entreprendre pour la Cité, ISI, La Maison du Bonheur, Le Secours Populaire Français, Les Banques Alimentaires, Les Blouses Roses, Les Restaurants du Cœur, Méditerranée 2000, Mosaïcités, Rêves.
