Busy workers seem to have less time than ever. Between work, family obligations, second jobs or part-time school, more people are seeing their free time swallowed up. When people have fewer free hours, they contribute fewer of them to volunteering.

Traditional volunteer duties can take hours that many just don’t have. But some companies are jumping on the “microvolunteering” bandwagon, and making it more convenient for their employees give back to their communities.

Microvolunteering was inspired by the thought of the number of hours employees spend on social media each day—and turning that time into volunteer time. Now, employers like Kraft Foods Group, Inc. are allowing employees to volunteer from their desks, in short bursts.

Employees might write a newsletter, translate documents, participate in online brainstorming sessions or update a nonprofit’s social media pages. There is no need for workers to leave the office and drive to another location, spending a day or half day onsite. Volunteers can help out at any time—not just specific hours or events. Plus, they don’t have to give up precious family and friend time on weekends or evenings.

Tapping into volunteers’ at-work free time, such as breaks or lunch hours, is a great way to recruit new volunteers, or re-engage volunteers who have fallen by the wayside. Using their writing, graphic design, data analysis or language skills makes it easy to put them right to work.

Employers who really want to help out their communities don’t limit employees to using only their free time for microvolunteering. Some allow a certain number of hours per month to be spent giving back. The companies also gain from the relationship, since employees are building skills, creating connections between the corporation and community, and learning more about professional development.

If you’re looking to corporate partners to provide some volunteers for your organization, pitch the microvolunteering idea. It’s a great way to turn a few minutes of time into a lasting gift to your non profit organization!

If you’re a volunteer manager, recruiting new help is often a constant task. But it doesn’t have to be difficult. Today, there are more tools to get the word out about your organization and your volunteer needs than ever before.

Here are a few tips to attract new volunteers and energy to your non-profit:

1. Ask! More than 50% of people who volunteer say they did it because someone asked them to. Think about all the people you know, and all of their friends, co-workers and family members. Hold personal conversations with community leaders, board members and business partners; let them know you’re looking for volunteers. Ask them to spread the word.
2. Speaking of spreading the word, take full advantage of social media networks. You can reach many more people in your community (and beyond) through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn. Set up pages on each social network, and post frequently to increase your reach and create a community.
3. Some people might be hesitant to commit to a volunteer gig. Take away their fear by offering a “free preview.” This gives volunteers a chance to check out your organization, as well as giving you the opportunity to assess their skills and attributes, so you can determine to which jobs they’re best suited.
4. Visit community service organizations and business networking groups. They often invite local non-profit representatives to speak at their meetings. Use these opportunities to further spread the word about your cause, events and need for volunteers.
5. Partner with local businesses. Many would jump on the chance to provide volunteers for a specific event or start an ongoing employee volunteer program—but are just waiting for the opportunity to present itself. Business owners are busy people. Help them out by going to them.

Today, employees are often looking for meaningful work. Younger people, especially, want to make a difference in their lives and are more likely to expect to find purpose in their employment.

In fact, a Wall Street Journal survey in 2006 reported that 70 percent of young people “want to work for a company that cares about how it affects or contributes to society.” Further, 64 percent responded, “their employer’s social and environmental activities inspire loyalty.”

So one can make the case that employees who volunteer are good for the community and for their company. Here are several ways to integrate public service into your company.

• Pay employees to volunteer. It doesn’t have to be an every-week thing, but consider giving employees paid time to serve others in the community. A half day’s work at the food bank or VA hospital brings meaning and a sense of accomplishment to your employee, while doing a great deal of good for people who need help. Employees often return refreshed and inspired—ready to work hard and perhaps appreciate their jobs a little more!
• If you can’t spare any employees during work hours, offer perks or financial rewards to those who volunteer on their own time. A $50 gift card to a local grocery store or restaurant, an offer to buy lunch for a week, or just letting volunteers leave a half-hour early for a week are inexpensive ways to reward community service.
• If you can spare half your employees and run a skeleton crew once or twice a year, organize a half-staff work party. Contact an environmental group to see what outdoor projects a group of your size could help with. Or call the senior center to see if they need any painting or repair work done. Give them half your staff one day, and the other half the next. Consecutive days are not necessary, if that’s too disruptive. Do it on alternating Wednesdays—or whatever your least-busy day is.

Helping employees form stronger bonds with the community and with your company is one big advantage of implementing an employee volunteer program. Try it out and see if you don’t get more than you give!

Alcoa Foundation exists to serve the global company’s communities. Founded in 1952, its mission is to invest in residents’ quality of life.  In 2008, Alcoa and the Alcoa Foundation gave over $50.6 million to communities in 35 countries, while the company’s employees volunteered over 705,000 hours to community service projects.

Here are a few ways Alcoa improves lives all over the world:

The Foundation is committed to improving opportunities for women and girls. In the US, Alcoa works with Girls Inc., Boys and Girls Clubs, Girl Scouts and Big Brothers and Big Sisters. The goal is to empower young women to reach their full potential through programs in health, science, math, technology, economic and financial programs, and leadership skills.

In Europe, Africa, and Asia, Alcoa Foundation continues this goal with vocational training and skills-building workshops, gender and equity training for teachers of young girls, encouraging female engineering students to continue in their fields, and providing basic health care services.

Climate Change: Alcoa Foundation has provided $22 million in grants to build awareness and inform public policy. The Foundation partners with community organizations and funds outreach programs that address sustainability, energy use, water management, and development.

Month of Service: The Alcoa Volunteers program encourages every employee to help make the world a better place. And they do: each October, Alcoa dedicates time for employees to perform community service. In the past three years, nearly 53,000 employees volunteered in over 2100 events in 36 countries. Activities range from planting trees, to serving meals, to repairing community facilities and helping students in local schools.

Disaster Relief: Alcoa donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Red Cross in China after last May’s earthquake. They encourage employees to give, and make it easy to do so on their website.

Alcoa and the Alcoa Foundation does good all around the globe, from Australian volunteers building and providing kids with wheelchairs, to helping community programs train and employ at-risk youth in the United States.

Alcoa helps build bridges, both physical and metaphorical, in virtually every country in the world, and its impact on those communities is huge.

Here’s an impressive statistic: since 1946, Target has been giving 5% of its income through community grants and programs that support education, the arts, social services, and volunteerism. Target’s giving totals $3 million per week—both to local community and national organizations.

Because of the company’s belief that the arts bring communities together, celebrate cultural diversity, and help people see a perspective that may differ from their own,
Target supports arts activities, music festivals, and concerts all across the country. Thousands of children and adults who might not otherwise have access to museums and theaters take advantage of free or reduced admission days, sponsored by Target.

Education is a high priority for Target’s giving programs—because it’s a high priority for the company’s customers (which Target calls “guests”). TO that end, Target seeks programs that combine art with education, such as those bringing arts into schools or that make it affordable for youth and families to experience cultural activities like symphony performances, artists’ workshops, and theater.

Target’s education initiatives put the focus on teachers, classrooms and early childhood reading. Take Charge of Education® and Target Field Trip Grants are national school fundraising programs that awarded more than $18 million to schools across the country since January of this year. Take Charge of Education provided $14.7 million in undesignated funds—so they can be used for whatever school need most. Target Field Trip Grants give 440,000 students the chance to learn outside the classroom—in places as unique as convalescent homes.

Target also sends volunteers to revamp school libraries, filling them with new furniture, shelves, computers and books. Additionally, Target’s 1,700 stores grant $500 book awards to schools in their communities. From cash grants to reading and writing contests, Target places a high priority on getting kids to read early and often!

Target’s belief in strong communities has led to a commitment to fund programs that strengthen the families that every community is made of. Target has chosen three core areas for support—family violence prevention, disaster preparedness, and relief and safeness—and provides badly-needed cash to The Salvation Army, American Red Cross, and the United Way.

Another way Target supports families in need is through providing apartments free of charge to families of children facing major health challenges. Just this week, a 10-year celebration will be held at Target House, a housing facility for families of patients at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. Celebrities such as Shaun White, Scott Hamilton, and Amy Grant will help former and current Target House residents celebrate in style. Families are allowed to stay as long as they need, with some residing in Target House for as long as three years.

The list of Target’s volunteer and community giving goes on. Team members have volunteered literally millions of hours to programs in their communities. The company provides opportunities to team members at each stage of their employment. Delivering food to the needy, responding to disasters, and helping renovate school libraries are just three examples of the thousands of ways Target’s employees work in their towns and cities.

Target embraces service to its communities as a core reason for being in business. Through cash grants, volunteer hours, and innovative programs, the company helps improve the lives of millions of kids and adults across America.

Best Buy is committed to its employees, its communities, and the environment. The company is one of corporate America’s biggest donors to charity. Through cash, merchandise and time donations, the corporation and its employees give back to America’s youth in a big way.

Best Buy donates up to 1.5% of its pretax earnings to dozens of national organizations through the Best Buy Children’s Foundation. Their focus is on social programs that help children, plus disaster relief, scholarship programs, and services that strengthen communities. Examples include Boys and Girls Clubs of America’s Tech Club, MOUSE (Making Opportunities for Upgrading Schools & Education), and Toys for Teens (in conjunction with the US Marine Corps’ Toys for Tots program).

@15 is a special segment within Best Buy Children’s Foundation, designed to empower youth. Through @15, teenagers advocate for and advise about the programs that will receive funds. It’s a wonderful learning opportunity for the teens, and ensures that the programs kids really care about are supported.

@15 Best Buy Scholarships have been helping fund higher education for needy students since 1999. This year, 1,000 students will be rewarded for their academic achievements, volunteer efforts, and work experience. Since its inception, the @15 Scholarship Program has seen awards totaling nearly $13 million to more than 10,000 students.

The Community Grants Program is administered by Best Buy employee groups through the Best Buy’s Children’s Foundation. The employees select non profit organizations (NPOs) that they would like to support. Their guidelines? The NPO must provide services and programs that provide opportunities to young teens related to education, leadership skills, life skills, or relationship development.

This year, the Best Buy Children’s Foundation will give away $1 million through the Community Grants Program!

And, each Best Buy store is individually empowered to support its local community non-profits. Stores can donate Best Buy gift cards to help NPOs with their fundraising efforts, as long as they are located within 50 miles of a Best Buy store and the funds go to support schools, libraries, educational, or after-school programs for youth.

Best Buy’s Teach Awards help schools bring more technology to students with gift card donations. Since 2004, the awards total over $17 million to over 6,000 schools nationwide.

At Best Buy, giving back to their communities is central to the way they do business. And the company’s level of giving is very impressive!

Cisco CEO John Chambers believes giving back is not only the right thing to do, but good for business, too. The entire management team believes Corporate Social Responsibility is the foundation for their business—and it shows in how they treat their employees, the environment, their customers, and their communities. Cisco really makes a difference through their employee volunteer program, called Cisco Citizens.

During fiscal year 2007, Cisco employees volunteered over 168,000 hours in their communities and around the world. From one-day team building projects to long-term initiatives, Cisco Citizens are busy volunteers! Many projects are researched and planned by their Civic Councils, teams of employee leaders who are passionate about giving back to their communities. The Civic Councils also develop partnerships with nonprofits, coordinate product donations, and facilitate grants.

Cisco’s Volunteer Connection Tool is a matching system that brings employees and volunteer opportunities together. This powerful tool matches employee skills with nonprofit organization (NPO) needs. NPOs can register online and request Cisco volunteers for specific projects, jobs, or even mentorships. It also allows volunteer coordinators to recruit, track, manage and communicate with their volunteers from Cisco quickly and efficiently.

The Cisco Foundation matches employees’ time donations with cash contributions to qualifying NPOs. The Foundation encourages all Cisco employees to volunteer at least one day a year to qualified charities in a company-wide effort to strengthen employees’ ties to their communities.

In other displays of Corporate Social Responsibility, Cisco supports boardnetUSA, a website that helps link interested community leaders with nonprofits that need board members, and holds an annual Holiday Global Hunger Relief Drive. These two programs educate Cisco employees about issues in their communities and around the world, and show them how they can make a difference—all with the staunch support of their employer.

As Cisco demonstrates, corporate volunteer programs are good for the communities they serve and for business, too. Customer good will, employee loyalty, and positive press coverage is priceless for any size company.