Volunteer PLUS Strengthens GM Communities — and it’s Going Global
Volunteer PLUS's Charlie Ryan
Charlie Ryan’s charitable work is accomplishing more than ever, thanks to General Motors’ Volunteer PLUS International program.
When Charlie and other GM employees contribute their time and talent to a charity, Volunteer PLUS increases the impact of their generosity by donating $250 to the nonprofit organization.
GM launched Volunteer PLUS in the United States in 1999 and expanded the program to Colombia in 2001 and Canada in 2002. In January 2004, it will take root in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Australia, South Korea, Germany, Poland and Kenya. GM business units in other countries have expressed interest in the program and are likely to follow in a later stage of expansion.
To date, Volunteer PLUS International has donated more than $1 million to hundreds of nonprofit organizations — from Big Brothers/Big Sisters and the Make a Wish Foundation to the American Red Cross and Gleaners Food Bank.
“Volunteer PLUS International promotes volunteerism, improves the quality of life in GM communities, and recognizes and enhances our employees’ generous service to charitable causes,” said Rod Gillum, Vice President of Corporate Responsibility and Diversity, and Chairman of the GM Foundation, which funds Volunteer PLUS International. “It’s gratifying to see this successful, innovative program expanding in North and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia.”
The program is supporting employees’ good works in GM towns like Oshawa, Ontario. Located east of Toronto on the northern shore of Lake Ontario, Oshawa is home to GM’s Canadian Headquarters, two car assembly plants, a truck assembly plant, a stamping plant, an engineering center and other operations. It’s also Charlie Ryan’s home.
Charlie works in the purchasing and logistics department
at GM Canada Headquarters. Over the years, he has donated
countless hours and energy to the foundation supporting
the Grandview Children’s Centre, which provides
health care, therapy and other services to disabled
children and young adults. He has given his time to
the Distress Centre of Durham, a 24-hour telephone hotline
that provides peer support, crisis intervention and
suicide prevention. He also has volunteered at Oshawa
General Hospital, St. Vincent’s Soup Kitchen,
and Lakeridge Health, a community hospital network.
And he has served on the Finance Committee for Parkwood,
a national historic site and the former estate of Colonel
Sam McLaughlin, the founder of General Motors of Canada
(and the man behind the legendary McLaughlin Buick.)
In 2002, Volunteer PLUS International awarded a $250
(U.S.) grant in Charlie’s name to Grandview Children’s
Foundation. This year, he is allocating his annual Volunteer
PLUS contribution to Durham Region Distress Center.
This added support is particularly helpful, Charlie says, to smaller charities that may not be on the radar screen of big donors, and to organizations like the Distress Centre, which, for security and privacy reasons, operate in near-anonymity, hampering fundraising.
The nonprofit groups also receive an intangible benefit — on-the-job skills which make GM employees more effective in their volunteer work. “The charities really appreciate the GM organizational skills we bring to the job,” Charlie says. “That’s just the way we do business.”
It’s gratifying, he says, that GM supports the
communities it operates in and the volunteer efforts
of its employees. “There’s a personal satisfaction
when someone says, ‘Thank you,’ after you’ve
served them a meal at the soup kitchen. It’s great
to see the kids at Grandview using an expensive piece
of software that helps with their speech therapy.
“It’s tremendous to see the results of the
work you do,” Charlie says. “And now, with
Volunteer PLUS International, that work has even more
impact.”
