Skillanthropy

Skillanthropy, as the name suggests, involves choosing to freely contribute your skills towards an organisation that you wish to help, ideally that is seeking the skills you can provide. Pro bono legal work or advice has been a long established tradition with the legal fraternity.

Skillanthropy, or Skilled Volunteering includes the contribution of skills such as marketing, PR, web design, strategic planning, accounting, project management ….you name it! Some skillanthropy happens organically, where someone has a need and you or someone you know is able to offer their specific skills freely, in order to solve a problem or plug a skill gap.  This often happens when people volunteer to assist on their childrens’ school board or sporting organisation.

There now exist not-for-profit organisations such as Good Company, which act as a matchmaker between those with skills to contribute and those seeking assistance with a project requiring a certain skill set, as well as promoting the benefits of skillanthropy to individuals and companies.