By proclaiming 2026 the International Year of Volunteering for Sustainable Development (IVY 2026), the United Nations is placing volunteering at the heart of the levers for action for more sustainable development.
For HR professionals and business leaders, the challenge is clear: to transform this international momentum into concrete, measurable and unifying action for your employees. In this article, Teams Connect explains how to integrate high-impact solidarity initiatives into your CSR strategy and use them as a lever for employee engagement, social performance and recognition in your Non-Financial Statement. You will also discover how a solidarity-based team-building format can simplify the transition to action.
The United Nations Volunteers programme states that volunteering promotes social cohesion, contributes to reducing inequalities and supports environmental transitions.
For businesses, this international recognition is a game changer: volunteering is no longer a one-off initiative, but a structural lever for overall performance.
Integrating the International Year of Volunteers 2026 into a coherent CSR strategy means:
In 2026, corporate volunteering will thus become a strategic tool at the crossroads of CSR, HR and employee engagement issues.
As highlighted in a study conducted by Deloitte (an audit and consulting firm), employees who are involved in charitable activities through their company are more motivated and loyal.
The benefits of employee volunteering for employer branding and talent retention are now well established: concrete action enhances attractiveness.
A CSR 2026 action plan incorporating a voluntary approach with a sustainable impact enables you to supplement your non-financial reporting with tangible indicators.
Mobilising employees around a charitable project creates a strong sense of belonging.
Volunteering offers a different arena for expression, promoting cooperation, collective intelligence and cross-disciplinary working.
Performance indicators for measuring the impact of corporate volunteering allow teams to see their contribution in concrete terms.
The International Year of Volunteering for Sustainable Development is therefore a unique opportunity for companies to take action. Teams Connect understands this well, offering corporate activities such as the Hour of Power format, which enables companies to transform their CSR commitments into useful, measurable and unifying collective experiences.
See also: How can CSR help attract and retain employees?
The Hour of Power format offered by Teams Connect is a high-impact team building exercise designed to integrate corporate volunteering into your strategy, with everything you could want:
In practical terms, employees assemble solar lamps for children and families living in areas without permanent access to electricity, in partnership with the international organisation SolarBuddy.
Each lamp generates a lasting impact over 10 years:
To calculate the positive impact of your lamps over 10 years in more detail, the SolarBuddy website has developed a calculator to measure the impact of your actions.
Hour of Power therefore enables you to:
Thus, HR strategy and employee engagement through corporate volunteering are part of a coherent and measurable approach. By 2026, companies that can translate intention into concrete action will have a significant advantage.
Contact Teams Connect now to design a tailor-made volunteering initiative aligned with your CSR challenges and HR objectives, and make the International Year of Volunteering a real strategic lever.