Pro bono for social good conference- 2015- Welcome remarks- Colleen Bell

• published: 16 Mar 2015
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Besides classical forms of volunteering activities pro bono* and professional skill-based volunteering is gaining ground also in Hungary. The number of people who realise that pro bono is representing high added value both for the companies and the recipients is continuously expanding. Pro bono consulting and professional assistance represents significant professional skills to the recipient organizations in areas where in most cases the organizations would not be able to afford to pay for the market price of the services. Consequently, the highly educated employees of Hungarian enterprises can provide valuable assistance in the fields of organization and management development to domestic civil organizations. The flow of this kind of knowledge into the civil sector is of extremely high significance. Pro bono projects represent and offer outstanding educational and development opportunities to the enterprises as well, thus development could be mutual and could be an important tool for motivation-enhancing and talent management within the given company. During the pro bono projects employees may face situations which require new approaches or facilitate their understanding of certain social issues. Based on our experiences many leaders of Hungarian enterprises are open to opportunities provided by pro bono volunteering, but in most companies the development of this field has not started yet. It is in our mutual interest to benefit from pro bono projects along with the traditional forms of corporate volunteering programs. PRO BONO for Social Good Conference is organized for people who would like to be better informed and prepared in this field in order to develop the most tailor-made programs for their own organization or company in the short run. We invited leading foreign experts to this event to support mutual thinking and the realization of Hungarian pro bono projects. Besides foreign lecturers Hungarian company leaders and experts representing different branches of industry will also express their views propagating pro bono volunteering. In the course of the interactive conference participants will have the possibility to raise questions and discuss their views regarding the topic. Organizers of the event provide simultaneous English-Hungarian translation. *Pro bono (volunteering) is an advisory-type professional support within a given timeframe, realized in different fields (e.g. legal, financial, communication, marketing, structural development etc.) and provided free of charge, without any compensation in order to enhance the effectiveness of civil organizations.