Skills sponsorship: the win-win transformation for associations and Digital Services Companies

It was (already) the 10th edition of the GMI: an opportunity to look back on everything that skills sponsorship brings to associations as well as to the digital service companies (DSBs) that set it up. To increase its impact or even strengthen its societal commitment, we share with you the best lessons from our partners.
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Skill sponsorship, a winning approach for associations

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Eloquentia and its scale-up with Suricats Consulting

Since 2012, Eloquentia has been helping young people gain self-confidence through public speaking courses and competitions. Through “Porte sa voix” educational methods, the non-profit supports young people to work on speaking through five subjects: stage expression, rhetoric, slam and poetry, personal and professional aspiration, and vocal technique.

To scale up and reach more young people, Eloquentia quickly identifies a key need: to allow teachers to transmit their method with more autonomy. The association then made the choice of digital technology to design an adapted educational tool, but a major challenge arose: the lack of human and financial resources to achieve this ambition.

It is in this context that Share it, in collaboration with Meericats, Wavestone and Klee, has structured comprehensive support, ranging from the scoping phase to technical implementation and deployment.

The support started with a strategic framework phase conducted with Suricats Consulting, which is essential to clarify Eloquentia's approach, choose the right platform and integrate the right accessibility standards. This work marked a turning point for the team.
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“We realized that we first had to redefine our positioning and our global project. This framework was a real trigger for me: it allowed me to leave my corner and to bring this vision to life within Eloquentia.”

— Katie Brown, Eloquentia Education Manager

Involving the entire team, aligning the objectives and laying a solid foundation before embarking on the design of digital tools allowed the association to have an accessible and scalable tool, which allows teachers to gain autonomy. The result: a method that can be replicated more easily and an amplified impact by reaching more young people.

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Entourage and the multiplication of its impact with Hubvisory

Since 2014, Entourage has been working against exclusion by recreating social ties and mobilizing citizens and people in precarious situations around three programs: Entourage Local, Entourage Sport and Entourage Pro. The association is based on a key observation: social isolation is a major factor in poverty. Without a network, it becomes more difficult to get by, especially professionally.
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“In France, 11 million people suffer from social isolation and 3 million are in a situation of economic precariousness. At Entourage, our mission is to engage everyone in creating a link with isolated people in precarious situations.”
— Alexandre Mac, Entourage Product Director

With Entourage Pro (formerly LinkedOut), the association allows the most excluded to develop their network and boost their access to employment through the support of volunteer coaches. This program has recently evolved to create a professional, supportive and inclusive network where the strength of the encounter between a coach and a candidate can make all the difference.

To maximize the impact of this new platform, Entourage was able to count on Hubvisory, winning their call for projects allowing 12 months of dedicated and flexible support.

The benefits of this support have been numerous:

- Senior expertise and an external perspective to structure the project.
- In-depth work on the user experience, meeting the needs of volunteers and candidates.
- The rapid production of a first version of Entourage Pro, with key functionalities such as CV review and the follow-up of connections.

Thanks to close collaboration with the Entourage tech and product team, Hubvisory was able to integrate fully into the organization, allowing for fluid and effective support and maximized impact. In less than seven months, the platform already has 600 volunteer coaches and 1,500 active candidates.

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But also a way to make your IT evolve towards a more committed model.

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Why get involved?

At Suricats Consulting, the ambition is clear: to align the personal aspirations of teams with their professional lives. Incorporating skills sponsorship into the organization's DNA was the most natural solution, especially thanks to strong support from management.
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“Sponsorship has been acclaimed from the start at Suricats. One of the founders wanted to do humanitarian work, but he did not know how to integrate it into his profession. Skill sponsorship has become an obvious answer.” 

— Valentine Bonin, Digital Transformation Consultant at Suricats Consulting

For its part, Hubvisory identifies skills sponsorship as an opportunity to transform the organization's culture by being in contact with associations on a daily basis, in particular by allowing employees to explore new working methods while responding to concrete societal challenges.

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Concrete drivers of transformation in DSBs

Relying on existing models to structure your strategy

At Suricats, the process is now simple: each employee can voluntarily decide to commit to missions that resonate with their values and with the promise of an increase in skills. The integration of skills sponsorship into the company's strategy has been reinforced by the B-Corp certification and recognition as a company with a mission:

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“Before B-Corp, there were already concrete actions, including sponsorship. However, certification allowed us to structure all our actions that we had not yet called actions with a positive impact.”

— Valentine Bonin, Digital Transformation Consultant at Suricats Consulting

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The company has also strengthened its partnership with Share it to structure its sponsorship approach, thus providing the necessary framework for both associations and consultants.

Today, the company aims to mobilize 200 days of work in skills sponsorship each year, divided between volunteers within the company's 50 consultants.
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Internalize your calls for projects and create your own endowment fund

At Hubvisory, skills sponsorship first took the form of one-off missions, with apprentices sent on associative projects or coaching sessions lasting a few hours per month.

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“These formats quickly showed their limits. They created frustration among our employees, who wanted to invest more. And in terms of impact, stop & go was not satisfactory.”

— Simon Barelle, Head of Impact at Hubvisory

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Wishing to adopt a more structured approach to engagement, the ESN opted for internal calls for projects and the creation of its endowment fund. By actively involving its employees in the selection of beneficiary associations, the company was able to mobilize its teams around initiatives with a high social impact while aligning them with concrete objectives.

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“Beyond the operational aspect, we have acquired structuring methods that bring real added value to the associations supported.”

— Simon Barelle, Head of Impact at Hubvisory

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In less than two years, Hubvisory supported 30 associations with Share it and launched its endowment fund, the Positive Product Foundation, to support Product Managers in creating more inclusive, sustainable and ethical solutions. This fund is a central tool for structuring company commitment and bringing together a community of professionals around responsible innovation.

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Create synergies between companies and endowments to maximize their impact

For Advens, a company specializing in cybersecurity, skills sponsorship makes it possible to mobilize its employees in order to support the most vulnerable civil society organizations. Giulio Zucchini, Head of Democracy and Digital Affairs at the Advens for People and Planet endowment fund, highlights the importance of interaction between the company and the fund, to ensure real synergy in social impact:
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“The company and the endowment fund share the same raison d'être and a common goal: to protect the people and organizations that contribute positively to our lives and democracies from cyber threats. We help them take advantage of digital technology with confidence.”

— Giulio Zucchini, Head of Democracy and Digital at Advens for People and Planet

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The Cyber for Good program, co-founded by Share it, Latitudes and Advens for People and Planet, has made it possible to raise awareness of 4,000 associations about cybersecurity issues and to support a hundred of them through coaching and mentoring. The ambition is to continue to grow this program to reach a greater number of organizations that are vulnerable to digital challenges.

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“Commitment is a team sport. We see the difference it makes in people's lives.”

— Claire Petillot, Cyber Security Auditor at Advens

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Advens for People and Planet, in collaboration with the company Advens, is implementing a global performance model: an innovative concept where the creation of economic, social and environmental values are inseparable and grow together. Ultimately, the endowment fund could capture up to 50% of the financial value of the company.

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Did this article inspire you to set up skills sponsorship and mobilize your talents? Write to contact@share-it.io, we will always be happy to talk about your projects!

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