Global Month of Volunteering

by Amazon India

Amazon India launched the Global Month of Volunteering (GMV) on August 15, 2022. It was launched in conjunction with India's 75th year of independence celebration and aimed to create long-lasting change, with individuals playing a critical role. 

The two critical challenges the program launch needed to address were:

  • Open the doors to development of a culture of giving within the organisation

  •  To inspire support from the Amazon leadership

Gnothi Seauton was tasked with working closely with Amazon in the Community (AiTC) team to plan and implement the successful launch of Global Month of Volunteering. Through the briefing process and the research undertaken it became clear that we needed to give employees and partners  a sense of purpose and pride. We needed to move them from the mindset  of merely volunteering when they have free time to volunteering together to make a difference at scale.

We faced the clashing challenges of  a lack of understanding of AiTC’s role on the one hand and excessive unengaging communication and email fatigue on the other.

It was clear we had to break the mould. 

Our strategy

  • A top-down approach with the CEO and leadership leading the announcement.

  • Gamification to energise ‘why volunteer’ and break down any possible lack of enthusiasm.

  • Programs that could deliver local community level results for participant's pride.

  • Dashboards for individual and organisational level results monitoring.

Execution

The program was spearheaded by the production of an "anthem" titled Neki Kar, composed by India's top composers Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. The anthem celebrated the impact of volunteering over the last 75 years (tying back to India’s 75 years of independence)  and spoke about the importance of volunteering over Amrit Kaal (the next 25 years). 

Amazon India leaders who volunteered during GMV were supported by videos created and shared on internal and external platforms.

Region specific influencers paid surprise visits to volunteering events; social media influencers gave GMV a shoutout on their Instagram handles.

Momentum was maintained with mailers and newsletters, video messages from the top leaders of Amazon India, merchandise and collateral   and a WhatsApp campaign. Blogs posts, social media guidelines and concepts were circulated internally. 

Results:

  • Launch video with anthem garnered 141k views

  • Impact video gained over 80K views on YouTube.

  • The influencer outreach and hashtag campaign received over 7.1 million engagements across social media.

  • 25,000+ school kits were delivered, 130+ schools were impacted, 23,000+ trees were planted, 640 kg+ of waste was collected, and over 118,000 meals were donated. 

We ended GMV with 15,000 volunteer sign ups, 3X our given target of 5000. The campaign achieved the second-highest volunteering participation in the world. 

The Amazon India team saw a 30% uptick in employees wanting to donate, volunteer, or give back to the community after GMV.