Corporate Leadership and Volunteerism

DOT has been delivering the Corporate Service Corps program in Kenya in partnership with IBM since 2010.

DOT selects cities and host partner organizations from the public, private, academia and NGO sectors and develops assignments for IBM volunteers that contribute to economic and social development in Kenya. The IBM teams undertake 4-week assignments in Kenya with each deployment complemented by 40 hours of pre-service work and post-experience follow-up.

Since implementation, DOT Kenya has facilitated the deployment of three IBM volunteer teams, each consisting of 10-12 IBM leaders from around the globe.

The IBM Corporate Service Corps is a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative that is integrated into IBM's global business strategy and delivered in partnership with Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT).

The program empowers high achieving IBM employees to perform community-driven economic development projects in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America, working at the intersection of business, technology and society. IBM selects top management prospects and then trains and dispatches these leaders to emerging markets around the world. Participants spend four weeks in groups of 10 to 15 to help solve economic and social problems of their selected communality. Teams work collaboratively with their government and community counterparts to understand how to implement socially responsible business practices with measurable results in a global context.

The DOT-IBM Corporate Service Corps program focuses on several priority issues:

1. Economic Development and Innovation
2. Access to ICT
3. Raising Global Standards in Education
4. Broadening Cultural Awareness
5. Promoting Openness and Transparency

DOT has partnered with IBM to implement a global Corporate Volunteerism program throughout Kenya and many other countries.

Social Enterprise Partnerships like the one DOT has forged with IBM bring together the assets and objectives of a corporation (IBM) with the local knowledge and delivery experience of a social enterprise (DOT).

The results of these partnerships can be substantial. Social and developmental impact is delivered more effectively by the experts whose business is social, economic or environmental change; the corporation gains local knowledge through a new lens, good will with less risk, brand awareness in new markets, employee pride and ultimately competitive advantage; the social enterprise, through the extension of its programming, expands its social and business goals.