PM Decoding #7: CSR & Project Management
My name is Mariia, and I am a Project Manager at SoftServe. For the last 1,5 years, I’ve worked in several teams for one big US client. Before SoftServe, I worked as a tax and accounting consultant in one of the BIG4 companies. Also, in the past, for about ten years, I used to work in the sporting sphere as a professional athlete, judge, and coach.
The main idea of this article is to talk about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and share my volunteering experience. I hope this article will answer your questions and help you start volunteering if you want to but don’t know where to begin.
What is CSR?
Investopedia says the following:
“Corporate social responsibility is a self-regulating business model that helps a company be socially accountable to itself, its stakeholders, and the public. By practicing CSR, companies can be conscious of the kind of impact they are having on all aspects of society, including economic, social, and environmental.”
In simple terms, it’s some actions that companies do in ways that enhance society and the environment instead of contributing negatively to them.
Good examples of CSR — are social foundations inside companies (The Coca-Cola Foundation, The Bank of America Charitable Foundation, The SoftServe’s OpenEyes Charity Foundation, etc.)
In addition, CSR could include programs to attract employees: charity races, charity auctions, charities to actively fight climate change, blood donations, and many others.
CSR, me, and this February
Before February 24th, my CSR activities were limited to small donations for different fundraising activities inside/outside the companies where I worked. Oh, and I participated in a book auction to collect money for kids… Then it seemed quite enough.
The first week after the full-scale invasion, I focused on relocation and caring about myself, my family, and my associates. At the same time, I started donating to big foundations like Save Life and the Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation and local volunteers from Kyiv and Kharkiv. Our Army could have stopped Russia at the time if I had donated all the money. That’s why my fiancé and I donated more than 100k UAH only during the first week of the invasion.
But as time passed, it came to the understanding that the war keeps going and this a marathon, not a sprint. Thus, I need to start using my resources more efficiently. I wanted to help, but the aim was to do it efficiently. I was looking for ways to combine my professional skills and donations to be more beneficial for Armed Forces than spending money every time I see fundraising. I decided to use Stop-Think-Act Method to decide what to do next.
While I thought and compiled lists of possible areas where I could be helpful, my fiancé received our friend’s first request for help. He was in the army, and guys needed a car and many different things for their defense. This is how my way of volunteering began. That was mid-April — for the first time in my life, I fundraised money, searched for a car, and bought 100 men’s underwear.
Project management and Volunteering
I treat each request from our Armed Forces as a short-term project with all phases: initiation (Request), planning (Where and how to get the item? How to raise money?), implementation (Fundraising, procurement, and logistics), and closure (Documentation and reports). That is why I am using the PM core skills during volunteer activities.
- Effective Communication
To complete the request, you should communicate with many people from different spheres and backgrounds — volunteers, military, foreigners, suppliers, etc.
And, of course, you all need to remember that it is harder for people to control themselves during the war. People may also have emotional blind spots. People may be in a rush. Your task is to deal with them to complete the request.
- Multitasking & Problem Solving
Good volunteer = Agile. To accomplish the request quickly, you have to do several actions simultaneously.
I recommend creating documents (Excel, Notion, etc.) for requests from the military with the status for each position (if you need set tags for prioritization). Full-fill list of to-dos, and group tasks together where possible.
And never give up. Continuously looking for opportunities.
Volunteering case from Project Manager
One day, we received a request for 10 Motorola portable two-way radios. At that time, everyone was looking for them because of the wide frequency range and strong communication encryption, which made it impossible to intercept the negotiations. So, we started to search the ways to buy them. In a couple of days, an acquaintance of ours found and even purchased the shipment from Great Britain. But after purchasing, he figured out that the delivery time was about 88 days (for comparison, it was the 83rd day of full-scale invasion).
We didn’t know what to do, but we understood that something had to be done because our defenders needed a portable radio ASAP. So, we continued our search. And one day, my fiancé saw an announcement on Instagram. The other charity fund has found a supplier who was prepared to provide the radio stations starting from 50 items. So that fund was looking for additional volunteers to unite the request and purchase all the batches. It was a typical win-win: we finally got a trusted supplier, and the fund could buy only the needed quantity, not all the bunch. Thus, we were able to get 10 Motorola radios with delivery to Lviv in 14 days instead of 88.
On the other hand, some areas of project management work weirdly during volunteering — for example, risk management.
You can identify risks, but in most cases, your mitigation plan is to accept them. And trust people.
Volunteering and Associates
Cooperation with people is always the most challenging part, especially during wartime. But at the same time, it is the most exciting part. As for now, I have 14 associates from Ukraine on my team. I appreciate my crew and thank them daily for their hard work. We help and support each other during this challenging time. And, of course, they know about my volunteer activities.
I can confidently say they are conscious Ukrainians with a clear pro-Ukrainian position — they donate, volunteer, and help others — everyone does something to help us win. Moreover, this year, our team donated almost the entire budget for gifts for St. Nicholas’ Day. We bought bracelets from Azovstal, and all the income was presented to the United24 foundation.
A critical annotation — no people in this world must donate to you.
It is not easy, but you should remember not to expect something from people around you. Friends, family, teammates, and even your boyfriend can choose whether to donate to your charity initiative. But there is good news: you’re free to choose your friends and boyfriend based on their actions.
For me, donations from teammates are always a great surprise rather than a rule.
Lessons learned from Volunteering
Most project managers know the importance of lessons learned. It is essential for the team, company, and current and future projects.
My Top 4 in Volunteering:
- Prepare all documentation by yourself. If you need documentation (believe me, you need it), share templates with people or, even better — create all the documents for them. The best option — send them by Nova Poshta printed copies.
- Always have Plan B, C, D…
- Stop searching for needed items only once you are 100% sure: all the necessary shipments will be delivered in the time and conditions you expected.
- Don’t be shy to ask for help. It’s hard to describe how helpful people around you can be.
Conclusions
Volunteers’ way is full of work, challenges, and obstacles, but getting closer to the Ukrainian victory is worth doing.
Today, we have helped with requests for 4 Armed Forces divisions (56, 24, 72, 65) and the National Guard (Azov, National Guard of Ukraine). At our own expense, by raising money and with help from other funds, we could get to the front: cars, drones, laptops, portable radio stations, thermal imagers, power banks, medicines, food, clothes, and other military equipment. The list is not too extensive, but every help is much better than nothing.
Thus, do not be afraid of volunteering, donate to somebody you trust, and support the Ukrainian Army.
P.S. Thanks to all SoftServe folks who donate to every volunteer, primarily via our MS Teams. Without you guys, we weren’t able to do such incredible things.
P.S.S. Thank you to all my teammates. You are fantastic, folks.
