Working together, making a difference

Employee volunteering is an important part of Nokia's global corporate responsibility approach. Thousands of our employees contribute their time and effort to worthy causes in their communities. In 2008, employees in 25 countries volunteered for over 34,000 hours of service, an increase of 5.9% from 32,000 hours the year before.

North America leads the Nokia family around the world in terms of volunteering with almost 2,800 volunteers registering nearly 27,000 hours in the last two years. Nokia employees in the United States also support the local community financially through the Nokia Initiative for Charitable Employees (NICE). Annually Nokia employees in the U.S. give more than $300,000 to local non-profit organizations which is matched dollar for dollar by Nokia to give a total of more the half a million dollars.

Nokia's mission is to make meaningful contributions to communities in the countries where we operate. However, we do not have a global one-size-fits-all policy. Our program is rather an umbrella for locally relevant volunteering activities. The program revolves around connecting people. We aim to engage our employees as well as influence Nokia's corporate culture in a sustainable way.

Through volunteering we are able to learn new skills and gain new perspectives. Volunteering also helps to create a balance between our personal convictions and professional lives. Caring for others and the environment, contributing to change, and witnessing how the world can be changed, one small step at a time - these are our rewards.

It is important to encourage and support employees who want to contribute. In recognition of this, Nokia employees can take 1-2 working days per year as a Nokia Helping Hands day. This enables our employees to go out into the community and contribute to a good cause that they care about.

Recent projects

Some examples of our voluntary activities include:

• Blood donations in many countries and sites, like Germany, Finland, India and Hong Kong.
• Fundraising for different important causes, including raising money for the physically disabled in Singapore; for UNICEF vaccination programs through making and auctioning rag dolls in Finland; for a children’s home winter camp in Poland; and for our partners, Plan, by taking part in a recycling scheme in Sweden.
• Drives for toiletries, for example in Vancouver for local shelters and in Mexico City for senior citizens homes.
• Drives for school materials, blankets or toys for example in the Czech Republic, Vietnam, Brazil and Christmas Trees in Finland.
• Volunteering at children’s hospitals for example in Venezuela and South Africa
• Renovating local schools and other places: Reynosa, Southwood, US.
• Nature clean-ups and other environmental activities, for example educating zoo visitors in Chennai, planting trees in Bangalore, cleaning a beach in Chennai.
• Giving students a close-up look at working life via job shadowing for example in Beijing.
• Arranging activities for underprivileged children, for example puppet theaters in Malaysia.