Thank you for your interest in the 10th Annual Give Back Iowa Challenge!
We are excited to coordinate the annual challenge, an eight-week competition to engage Iowans in employer-supported volunteering.
As an employer, you are in a perfect position to encourage your employees to participate. Research on employer volunteer programs has shown a positive impact on businesses and organizations, including improved employee engagement, organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and retention.
Competing in the Give Back Iowa Challenge is a great chance for you to see how volunteering can positively affect your employees and company.
Who Can Participate?
It doesn’t matter how many employees you have – ANYONE can participate! Explore the participation toolkit (below) for ideas on engaging your employees in the challenge.
Give Back Iowa is an opportunity for employees who volunteer to receive recognition by tracking and reporting their hours, as well as for employees that may be first-time volunteers to try something that could help them develop additional skills or enthusiasm for their work. Employers with the highest average number of volunteer hours per employee will be recognized with a press release and a glass award.
In order to increase overall participation, we encourage you to register for the challenge in advance and to show your leadership by sharing the information with your networks. Employers may register any time each spring through May 31.
Explore the frequently asked questions for the Give Back Iowa Challenge, an 8-week challenge to promote volunteerism among Iowa businesses and employees.
Employers (including nonprofits and government entities) register in advance to participate in the Give Back Iowa Challenge. As part of registration, employers identify whether they wish to be included in pre-challenge promotions and whether one point of contact will log hours for the organization overall, or if employees will individually log their own hours. Volunteer hours completed during the Challenge (April 1-May 31) are reported through a simple online report form.
It doesn’t matter how many employees you have – ANY employer in Iowa can participate (for-profit, nonprofit, and government organizations). You can participate as an entire organization or by location if you have multiple sites (e.g. 123 Construction or ABC Insurance-Anamosa).
Nonprofits are welcome to participate in the challenge as employers and are encouraged to share information about the challenge with corporate volunteers, encouraging them to register. Lastly, nonprofits can continue to provide quality volunteer opportunities in your community for employees participating in the challenge.
Yes! This is a great chance for your company to get started with volunteering to see how it can positively affect your employees and company.
The online registration form asks for the number of company employees, which is then used to determine the average number of volunteer hours completed per employee. Categories based on company size will be created, and winners will be selected in each category.
After the conclusion of the challenge, employers with the highest average number of volunteer hours per employee will be recognized through social media and a statewide press release and are given a glass award to display.
If you operate in a community with a Volunteer Center, you are encouraged to contact the Volunteer Center for information on group volunteer opportunities.
You can also search for volunteer opportunities through our statewide volunteer portal Get Connected.
Registration FAQs
Learn more about how your business can register for the Give Back Iowa Challenge.
Companies with multiple locations can register as one company by including locations only in Iowa or have each location, branch, or site register and participate individually. If registering as one company, please be sure the number of employees reflects all the employees that are located in Iowa. If registering by individual location/branch/site, the number of employees should reflect only the employees at that particular location/branch/site.
The company’s point of contact should be authorized by the company to register for the challenge, track and submit employee hours (if necessary) and have the ability to share information about the challenge within the company.
Tracking Hours FAQs
Learn more about tracking volunteer hours and what counts as volunteer activities for your business and employees.
Employers may elect to submit total hours volunteered on behalf of all employees in the company or may ask each employee to individually submit hours. This selection should be indicated during registration. Companies that already have a system to collect employee volunteer hours may prefer to use that system. Otherwise, they may develop simple internal systems, forms, or spreadsheets to collect the information, or can ask individual employees to track and submit their own hours.
No login is required! Both individuals and company points of contact simply fill out and submit the online Report Volunteer Time form that's available during each annual challenge period (April 1-May 31). Submitting hours weekly is recommended to help make sure volunteer hours are not forgotten. All hours must be submitted by June 3 to be included in calculating the winners.
Any activities performed willingly and without compensation. Volunteering may be through or for an organization (association, school, nonprofit, or governmental entity). Using official Volunteer Time Off (VTO) or volunteering on personal time outside of work may all be included. Examples of volunteer activities include, but are not limited to:
Coach, referee, or supervise sports teams
Tutor or teach
Mentor youth
Be an usher, greeter, or minister
Collect, prepare, distribute, or serve food
Collect, make, or distribute clothing, crafts, or other goods
Fundraise or sell items to raise money for charity
Provide counseling, medical care, fire/EMS or protective services
Provide general office services
Provide professional or management assistance
Serve on a nonprofit board or committee
Engage in music or other artistic performances
Engage in general labor
Provide transportation for people (to medical appointments, grocery store, etc.)
Each employer/employee may determine the ideal reporting periods for themselves. For example, a company may request that employees track and submit hours each week, or just once or twice during the challenge. We recommend that employees submit hours weekly to ensure no hours are forgotten; it is important to avoid overlapping reporting periods or double-counting a volunteer activity.
An e-mail confirmation is sent each time a submission is made on the website. At this time, the site does not have the capability to log in and view total hours submitted by individuals, so you may wish to keep the confirmation messages to document the hours reported.
