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CANADIAN INDUSTRY ONLINE - JANUARY 2012
MODERN
PHILANTHROPY:
MANULIFE
FINANCIAL
A
S PART OF
a new monthly
look at how companies can
be more socially responsible, CIO is
looking at one Canadian organiza-
tion every issue that is setting the
bar for CSR. This month, CIO had
the opportunity to speak with Nicole
Boivin, Senior VP HR and
Communications
at
Manulife
Financial about why philanthropy
makes sense for corporations.
Boivin, who spent a major portion
of her career in the non-profit sector,
has been working with Manulife for
several years, building the compa-
ny’s philanthropy program and
helping to set an example for other
Canadian organizations, big and
small.
CIO: How did the plan to develop a
philanthropy program come to life?
Nicole Boivin: Manulife was al-
ready on a path with our branding
efforts that were geared toward cre-
ating an emotional connection to a
signature cause. We developed a
process of what that sould look like,
and on the way, it became clear what
the right choice for Manulife was—
the cause was right in front of us:
volunteerism. Our employees are
avid volunteers! We have 50,000
across Canada. Our cause fits with
who we are, where we came from,
and aligns with our values.
CIO: How did you know how to
approach the volunteerism cause?
NB: When we decided to go this
route, we aligned ourselves with
credible subject matter experts—
people who have been volunteers for
a long time. We also commissioned
a report to look at what the state of
volunteerism is for Manulife—this
report was done a year ago.
We established that we had four
targets for our programs: boomers,
youth, families, and employee-spon-
sored volunteerism. We examined
why people were or weren’t volun-
teering and what motivates employ-
ees to volunteer, what makes them
want to do more or even engage in
the first place.
Our goal became to close the
gap by a large-scale investment.
For the youth target, it was
apparent that we needed to invest
more in technology to reach that
audience, so we built an online
matching tool, where for each
effort we would match a volunteer’s
commitment.
Now, there are thousands of
opportunities in the matching
program and we are filling that
gap continuously. We are activat-
ing discussions around volun-
teerism. There are national discus-
sions going on consistently around
volunteerism as our signature
cause.
CIO: How can you possibly evaluate
a cause when there are so many out
there?
NB: Our employees are avid
volunteers, and they all are
committed to their own causes, so
it makes sense for us to support
volunteerism. We originally looked
at all kinds of causes. But the
beautiful thing about volunteerism
is that you don’t have to choose. Our
employees choose their own causes,
and support their causes in their
own unique way.
“
We decided to create a
stronger link between
philanthropy and business
objectives.” -
Nicole Boivin
MODERN PHILANTHROPY - MANULIFE