ENGAGE Dubai

About ENGAGE

• Play an oi-active role in the community
• Strengthen employee relationships and enhance staff morale and motivation
• Develop valuable employee skills and expertise
• Improve brand profile and reputation

Register your Projects

As an ENGAGE Dubai Corporate or Community Partner, you can submit your project to call for volunteers. All you have to do is fill in the form given below to register. Upon submission of the online form, the project will be reviewed for approval or rejection. ENGAGE Dubai reserves the right to approve, seek further information on the project, or reject.
Once the project is approved, the submitted project will be visible under the section Volunteering Opportunities.

Please click here to register your volunteering projects.

Volunteering Opportunities

It is sometimes difficult to know what volunteering projects exist in Dubai and how to ENGAGE employees in the community. This page provides the solution as it allows ENGAGE Community Partners to offer volunteering opportunities for the corporate volunteers. The form below requires details that will help the ENGAGE Community Partners get volunteers for their project.

To register your volunteers, please click on the available relevant project below.

Volunteering Projects

ENGAGE Dubai Community Members

Working in partnership is a key principle for developing a community investment strategy. By developing a partnership, companies and community organisations can leverage their combined expertise for mutual benefit. Yet research carried out by the Centre for Responsible Business in 2012 showed that only 23% of Dubai-based companies involve NGO’s/charitable organisations in their community investment. Work with ENGAGE Dubai community Partners to make your community involvement as impactful as possible. Click on the Community Partners logo’s to visit their website.

ENGAGE Dubai Corporate Members

ENGAGE Dubai owes much of its success to generous corporations who donate their time, energy, and talents to help our community. We are especially fortunate to have the support of corporations who send teams of employees to volunteer with our community partners. Corporate groups come with a cohesiveness and sense of purpose that make them enthusiastic and effective.

ENGAGE Dubai FAQ

• What is employee volunteering?
• What are the types of employee volunteering?
• How can companies proactively encourage their employees to volunteer?
• How does employee volunteering benefit companies?
• How does employee volunteering benefit employees?
• How does employee volunteering benefit communities?
• What are the benefits of being a member of ENGAGE Dubai?

What is Employee Volunteering?
Employee volunteering is the mobilisation of time, talent, energy and resources of employees to contribute to the community. Most programmes involve staff doing work for the community on company time. When company employees volunteer outside of their regular hours of work, this is not employee volunteering. An exception may be when the company provides equipment, training or other resources to the staff to aid their volunteering.

What are the types of employee volunteering?

1. Employee Fundraising
   Employees can raise funds for community groups with support from their employer. When the fundraising takes place during work time eg. a bake sale in the office this counts as volunteering.
2. Leadership and Governance
   Supporting community groups in reviewing their governance processes, and developing strategies and policy or becoming a trustee of a registered charity or NGO.
3. Mentoring
   Working with an individual by providing guidance and support on a one-to-one basis. Eg. Mentoring a social enterprise
4. Secondment
   Employees can be formally released to undertake a specific task or programme of work or even a full time for a charity or community organisation. This can vary from one day a week, to three full months or maybe even a year whilst still being paid by your employer.
5. Skills Based Volunteering
   This includes using the skills of an employee to benefit a community organisation. This is also called pro bono. Employees will provide their skills and knowledge such as legal, HR, Marketing advice to a community organisation without any fees.
6. Team Projects
   Refers to specific projects where a team of staff can build relationships with the community by working together as part of a volunteering action day. Again this would be during a working day and not in the employees free time like a weekend. Examples are 10 employees spending a day building a playground in a local school or painting a mural in a charity centre that cares for orphans
7. Supervision of Work Experience Placements
   Companies often provide opportunities for students to gain work experience through a short term placement with the company. Such placements usually require some employee time to induct, supervise and debrief the placement. It is reasonable to count the time spent supervising the placement as employee volunteering.

How could companies proactively encourage their employees to volunteer?
Start by publicising within the organisation the importance of giving back by informing employees of what the company is doing in the area of charitable contributions and activities. Encourage community service participation by rewarding those who do it on their own and providing outlets for others. Have a Volunteering Policy in place so employees know they have 1,2 or 3 days a year to volunteer. Have senior managers lead by example, have them lead a team challenge. Award ceremonies, employer matching programmes and an environment of concern for challenges faced by others less fortunate are all important.

How does employee volunteering benefit companies?

• A company develops a reputation as a responsible business, leading to a greater competitive edge and increased customer support.
• It develops new markets for products and services by increasing its community network.
• It increases staff morale, company pride and job satisfaction, leading to a better quality of work and reduced staff attrition.
• It strengthens employees’ ability to initiate and cope with change
• It develops greater teamwork among employees
• It helps create stronger communities in which to do business
• It develops a better understanding of community issues, how they affect business, and how they can be addressed

How does employee volunteering benefit employees?

• It improves their existing abilities and teaches new skills
• It broadens their outlook through providing work experiences outside the company and their usual field of work
• Explore new situations and challenges.
• It adds variety to their work.
• It changes or enhances the way they feel about themselves and their employer.
• It improves self-confidence and create a sense of enthusiasm by bringing a project to a successful conclusion

How does employee volunteering benefit communities?

• Have access to teams of volunteers who can plan and carry out major tasks.
• It improves the quality of community services
• It adds new skills and energy to community problem-solving
• It builds productive links with business groups
• It helps to increase management skills in the community sector
• It provides additional source of community volunteers

What are the benefits of being a part of ENGAGE Dubai?
For companies ENGAGE Dubai can help through a range of practical tools and information on employee volunteering and can broker introductions to community partners and insight on the local volunteering opportunities.

For community organisations ENGAGE Dubai can connect them to companies enthusiastic to support the community and help provide them with potential volunteers, funds and support.

Give and Gain 2021

Over 2,700 employee volunteers participated in Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Give & Gain 2021 employee volunteering initiative, which was held virtually as well as physically adhering to all Covid 19 protocols.

Overall, volunteers dedicated 70,600 hours across projects benefitting more than 60,000 individuals. The month-long event was organised for the eleventh consecutive year as part of the Chamber’s ENGAGE Dubai corporate volunteering programme.

A total of 66 organisations, 42 corporate members and 24 community partners participated in this year’s volunteering activities, which included educational sessions for children, meals for blue collar workers, humanitarian aid for underprivileged families, support for cancer patients, computer skills for people of determination, plantation and recycling e-waste, paper, plastics and metals.

More than 8,800 kilograms of humanitarian aid, including rice, raw food items, stationery and clothes, were donated, while 24,315 meals were given to those in need. A total of 32,953 back to school items were sent for children, more than 2.2 tonnes of waste was diverted away from landfills, and more than 400 Ghaf tree seeds were planted.

Click here to view the participants list.