Skills-Based Volunteering: Expertise Into Impact

Olena had 15 years of marketing experience and three months of rejection letters from German employers. In her first mentoring session, she learned why: her CV was formatted for Kyiv, not Berlin. One 45-minute conversation. One restructured CV. Three weeks later: her first interview.

That is what skills-based volunteering actually looks like.

Your employees want to volunteer. The engagement surveys confirm it. Exit interviews repeat it. People want their work to matter beyond quarterly numbers.

The problem is not motivation. It is logistics.

Traditional corporate volunteering means coordinating schedules, finding nonprofits, negotiating commitments, hoping something sticks. Most programs either fizzle after the initial launch or become so burdensome that HR stops promoting them.

Mentors for Ukraine solves this. A ready-made platform where your employees share professional expertise with Ukrainians rebuilding their careers—on their own time, from their own laptops, with metrics you can actually report.

What Your Employees Actually Do

They have conversations.

A product manager in your Amsterdam office spends 45 minutes with a Ukrainian PM learning how hiring works in the Netherlands. A data analyst in London reviews a portfolio and explains what hiring managers actually look for. An HR director in New York walks someone through salary negotiation in the American market.

No curriculum design. No long-term commitments. No travel. Just professionals sharing what they already know with people who need to hear it.

The platform handles everything else: scheduling across time zones, video calls, messaging, booking management. Your employees set their own availability. They accept sessions that match their expertise. They show up, talk, and leave.

Time investment: 45-60 minutes per session. Most mentors do 2-3 sessions per month. No preparation required beyond showing up with their existing expertise.

That is the entire employee experience.

What You Get

Measurable Engagement Data

Not “we think people volunteered.” Actual numbers: which employees participated, how many sessions they ran, total hours contributed, ratings received. Exportable. Reportable. Ready for your ESG disclosure.

SDG-Aligned Impact

Direct contribution to Quality Education (SDG 4), Gender Equality (SDG 5), Decent Work (SDG 8), and Reduced Inequalities (SDG 10). Documented, specific, defensible.

Zero Administrative Burden

You are not building a volunteering program from scratch. You are plugging into one that already works. 2,000+ mentees. 400+ mentors. Thousands of sessions completed. The infrastructure exists. Your employees just join.

Employee Development

Mentoring builds coaching skills, cross-cultural communication, and leadership capacity. Your people get better at their jobs by helping others get better at theirs.

Clean Brand Alignment

Supporting Ukrainians affected by war. Education and employment pathways. Professional skill-sharing. This is values-aligned impact that works internally and externally.

How It Works

Week 1: Launch

You send an internal announcement. Employees sign up with their corporate email. They complete a short profile: background, expertise, languages. TEEI reviews and approves within 24 hours.

Week 2: Live

Approved mentors set their availability—two slots on Tuesday evenings, one on Saturday morning, whatever works. Ukrainians browse mentor profiles and request sessions with a short message explaining what they need.

Ongoing: Sessions Happen

Your employees accept requests that match their expertise. They join 30-60 minute video calls through the platform. After each session, mentees leave ratings and reviews. Your dashboard shows engagement in real time.

Quarterly: You Report

Export participation data: number of mentors, sessions completed, hours contributed, topic distribution. Include in your ESG report, sustainability disclosure, or internal engagement metrics. Done.

The Flexibility You Need

Start small. Pilot with one team, one office, one business unit. See how it works. Scale based on results.

Theme it to your expertise. A tech company runs “Data Mentors for Ukraine.” A consulting firm focuses on “Career Strategy for Ukrainian Professionals.” A financial services company targets “Finance & Accounting Pathways.” The platform supports any configuration.

Combine with funding. Want to sponsor learners through TEEI’s upskilling programs AND have employees mentor them? That is a package. Funding plus engagement equals complete CSR story.

Track by segment. See which offices, teams, or regions are most engaged. Identify your internal champions. Recognize top contributors.

What Mentees Actually Get

How do you explain a two-year career gap that started with air raid sirens?

The Ukrainians on this platform are not looking for charity. They are looking for access. These are project managers, engineers, marketers, designers, analysts—professionals with real experience who got displaced by war and now face labor markets they never expected to navigate.

They know their fields. They do not know how hiring works in Germany. They do not know what a Dutch CV should look like. They do not know that the job posting says “fluent English” but really means “British email etiquette.”

Your employees know these things. They explain the unwritten rules. They review CVs and LinkedIn profiles. They do mock interviews. They share what actually works in markets they navigate every day.

One conversation can change a job search. A few conversations can change a career trajectory.

The Numbers

What those numbers mean in practice:

One conversation. One specific insight. One career unlocked.

Integration Models

Companies integrate Mentors for Ukraine into their CSR programs through several approaches:

Internal Campaigns

“20 mentors by end of quarter.” Gamified, recognized, tied to existing engagement initiatives.

Team Challenges

Departments compete to contribute the most mentoring hours. Healthy competition, visible impact.

Leadership Commitment

Senior leaders mentor first, signal priority, and model participation for their teams.

Platform Integration

The program is listed on major employee volunteering platforms including Benevity and YourCause. Your people may already have access.

Three Partnership Options

1. Corporate Mentoring Partner

Your employees become mentors. You get co-branded communications, internal launch support, and quarterly engagement reports. Minimum commitment: 10 mentors.

2. Strategic Program Partner

Co-develop themed cohorts aligned with your industry. “Women in Tech for Ukraine.” “Data Careers Mentorship.” “Finance Professionals Pathway.” Your expertise shapes the program. Deeper integration, stronger story.

3. Funding + Engagement Partner

Sponsor TEEI’s upskilling programs—digital skills, language courses, employment pathways—AND have your employees mentor participants. Complete pipeline: you fund the learning, your team guides the application. Maximum impact, maximum story.

The Business Case

ESG reporting. You need documented social impact. This provides it—specific, measurable, aligned with frameworks your stakeholders recognize.

Employee retention. Engaged employees stay longer. Meaningful volunteering is a retention lever. This is meaningful volunteering without the coordination headache.

Leadership development. Mentoring builds skills your people use at work. Coaching, communication, cross-cultural fluency. Professional development through volunteering.

Brand value. Supporting Ukrainian professionals through skills-based volunteering is a clean, positive story. No controversy. No complexity. Just professionals helping professionals.

Low lift, high return. You are not building infrastructure. You are not hiring program managers. You are connecting your people to a platform that already works.

Next Steps

This is how partnerships typically start:

1. Identify an internal sponsor. CSR lead, HR director, DEI champion, business unit head—someone who owns the initiative.

2. Define the scope. Which teams? Which regions? What is the target number of mentors? Any thematic focus?

3. Launch the pilot. Internal communications, sign-up period, first mentors approved and active.

4. Review and scale. After 90 days, assess engagement data. Decide whether to expand, maintain, or adjust.

2,000+ Ukrainian professionals are on the platform right now, waiting for a mentor who understands their industry.

One email starts the process. One month later, your employees are mentoring. One quarter later, you have documented impact for your ESG report.

That is how straightforward this is.

The Educational Equality Institute is a nonprofit headquartered in Norway with US 501(c)(3) status. 100% of donations go to programmes. Candid Platinum Transparency rating.