As AI reshapes work, volunteering benefits give employers an engagement edge 

• Key Insight: Uncover how corporate leaders are restructuring volunteer programs as AI reshapes the workplace.
• What's at Stake: Nonprofits face mounting operational burdens as corporate volunteer programs expand.
• Forward Look: Prepare for employers to integrate volunteer programs directly into their AI skilling strategies.
  Source: Bullets generated by AI with editorial review

As AI reshapes the workplace, companies are increasingly exploring employee volunteering as a way to build the human skills that technology can't replace, according to a new report. 

Almost all (96%) of the impact leaders surveyed in Benevity's 2026 State of Corporate Purpose Report cited employee engagement as a top reason to invest in volunteering. 

"Volunteering challenges employees to tackle real-world problems alongside people outside their function and from diverse backgrounds," said Sona Khosla, chief impact officer of Benevity, a corporate social impact software company. "They learn to lead without authority and navigate ambiguity — the exact conditions where the skills your workforce strategy requires are actually formed." 

Companies said they invest in volunteering to strengthen social connections (57%), encourage innovation (50%), build empathy (49%), and foster creativity. 

Read more: Why skills-based volunteering is great for employees

"As volunteering proves its value for corporations, the opportunity now is to ensure it also supports long-term capacity building for nonprofits, especially since only 28% say volunteer groups consistently perform tasks aligned with their most pressing needs," Khosla said. 

The recalibration raises broader questions about how companies balance business priorities with employee expectations around purpose. In a recent interview with Employee Benefit News, Khosla explains how those dynamics are reshaping workplace giving and what HR leaders should consider next. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. 

Your report shows a gap between where companies are directing grants and where employees are choosing to give. Why do you think that disconnect is growing?
This isn't a new trend so much as a recalibration. Prior to the pandemic, employee giving largely tracked to what employees cared about while grants were much more of a corporate-led investment. But the years after the pandemic, corporate giving and employee giving briefly moved in step, both leaning into justice and equity, crisis response and climate.

Now companies are recalibrating where they put their strategic weight. They're directing corporate grants toward causes where they can bring their corporate strengths and assets to bear, and are leaning harder into employee programs, including volunteering, as the piece that builds engagement, retention, pride and culture.

Are employers becoming more cautious about publicly supporting certain causes, and what's driving that shift?
The data tells a nuanced story. Yes, 85% of respondents acknowledged that their companies were cautious about which issues they support vocally, and 76% said they communicated more quietly over the past year. But at the same time, 75% said their companies were courageous and willing to take a stand, and 94% of CEOs remained internally supportive of their corporate purpose programs throughout one of the most pressurized periods in recent history.

At the same time, we are also seeing companies remain committed to their corporate purpose and open-choice programs, empowering employees to volunteer for the causes they care about directly. The data from this past year shows record rates of employee participation in corporate volunteering, and 50% of companies are increasing their investments in these employee volunteering programs given their ability to rebuild corporate culture and connection. 

How does this growing gap between corporate priorities and employee values impact engagement, retention and workplace culture?
The companies we see thriving in this environment are the ones that understand that purpose is a trust and reputation strategy that has implications for talent and the business overall. 

Employee giving and volunteering programs work best when they're driven by causes that individuals personally care about. Meanwhile, institutional grants serve business priorities. When both of these tracks are well resourced, well designed and integrated, they reinforce each other rather than pulling employees and employers in opposite directions.

Read more: How to create a successful employee volunteer program

HR leaders sit at the center of that equation. Employee-driven giving and volunteering builds culture and trust because it gives people agency over where their generosity goes. Volunteer programs also have the added benefit of acting as a learning and development ground for employees to build human skills. That matters more now than ever, as AI reshapes which skills companies need.

So this isn't a trade-off. Give employees a little ownership over their own giving, and you build trust while companies can make a meaningful impact on the issues that matter most to their business and communities. HR leaders who operate with this distinction in mind have an opportunity to use their giving strategies to drive corporate trust and reputation, which is critical for business and society right now. 

What should HR and benefits leaders take away from this report when thinking about employee giving programs and corporate purpose?
The biggest takeaway I'd offer HR and benefits leaders is that employee volunteering is one of the most underleveraged employee development tools that needs to be layered into your overarching AI transformation strategy. Well-designed employee volunteering programs deliver opportunities to develop the uniquely human skills that AI can't replace, like empathy, ethical judgment, creativity and social intelligence, while also delivering positive impact to communities. There is a real opportunity for HR leaders to shift from treating volunteering as a CSR checkbox to integrating it deliberately into their talent development strategies alongside their AI technical skilling investments, not separate from them. The companies that make that shift will have a meaningful advantage in building the workforce capabilities that will matter most over the next decade.

What are the biggest mistakes employers make when designing workplace giving and volunteer programs?
One of the biggest opportunities is for employers to design their volunteering programs collaboratively with their nonprofit partners. Our data shows a very visible tension when employers go about creating their programs without this critical nonprofit engagement. For example, companies rank employee volunteering and skills-based volunteering among their top areas of increased spending — but 41% of nonprofits say corporate volunteer engagements rarely or never translate into meaningful financial support. This means that while companies feel good about their volunteering investment, nonprofits are quietly absorbing the operational cost of hosting it.

Looking ahead, do you expect companies to continue aligning their giving more closely with business priorities, or do you think employee preferences will have a greater influence?
The way I see it, it's not quite so binary. When companies think about their giving programs and strategies, they often think about what is material to their business, what their objectives are, and what is meaningful to their stakeholders — including employees — then design from there. The overarching strategy needs to be one that is in step with business objectives. As part of that, companies should continue to actively listen to employees to understand their interests and needs and allow that to shape the overall strategy.

Read more: Why credit unions are paying employees to do volunteer work

Ultimately, employee preferences will always matter in successful giving programs, whether that is through the implementation of open-choice employee giving and volunteer programs, or simply through employee buy-in on the company's corporate purpose. The companies that take this listening-first approach will be the ones that maintain trust, engagement and relevance with their workforce in the long run.