On October 27, 2007, the SAPlings-initiative, a part of the SAP corporate volunteering programs, took place for the third time. The initiative started in 2006 and was a great success. Since then, twice a year on Saturdays in spring and autumn, SAP employees (or their friends and family members) can truly lend a hand at improving the community where they work by getting involved in the work of non-profit organizations. For each volunteer engaged in the initiative, SAP is donating 10€ to the UN World Food Program within their global initiative.
In October last year, under the motto “SAPlings - Together for our community”, a total of 25 projects were able to benefit from the social engagement of the 290 volunteers. Especially in demand were the professional skills of some SAPlings, who helped create a Web site for the Society for Environmental Education in Baden-Württemberg. The group’s leader, Bernd Schlag, was personally inspired by the work of the SAP colleagues, admitting that he had not anticipated such a great product in such a short period. Physical efforts were also required from the SAPlings volunteers for numerous projects in the Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region.
After the initiative, we asked the SAP-volunteers and charitable organizations to take part in a follow up questionnaire to gather their opinions and thoughts. More than 50 % of the employees and 100% of the organizations gave us feedback and this reflects how important the SAPlings-initiative is for them. The results also demonstrated that both, the organizations as well the employees had a successful day and were able to greatly benefit from the initiative.
Now some facts and figures …
… from the organizations:
- 2030 hours of voluntary work
- 20 m³ sand
- 30 pushcarts of pruning, 10 pushcarts of sand, 5 pushcarts of soil, 12 pushcarts of grit,10 trunks, 10 t grit, 80 bags of bark mulch
- 59 l color
- 1400 saplings were planted
- 300 m² of green house windows were cleaned
- „measurement of „giving pleasure” is not possible”
… from the employees:
The high favoured organization-categories are “Children and Youth�? and “Nature and Environment�?
93 % of the volunteers participated at SAPlings because they wanted to do something useful and 57 % wanted to get to know new colleagues.
More than 80 % want to support an organization by working with their hands and more than 25 % want to bring in their technical and vocational skills.
The greater majority of volunteers really enjoyed the breakfast and evening event, even a few complained about the early ending of the evening ;-).
To conclude, more than 90 % will participate at the next SAPlings-Day, which will take place on April 19, 2008.
For further information, please follow the Link to the detailed survey results.
