In December 1914, Thomas J. Watson Sr., gathered his top managers to issue an appeal: “We want you all to get together and everybody have their shoulder to the same wheel and push in the same direction.” His intent was to unite a disparate group after an uneasy merger of three companies. But the sentiment also reflects how IBM’s first CEO would shape the company’s culture over the ensuing decades. He used the same message to both empower his workforce in business and encourage them to contribute to the common good.
IBM’s robust tradition of volunteerism is one obvious manifestation of the edict. From the company’s early days, Watson Sr. made “duty to the community” an imperative, as he highlighted in January 1931 at the annual convention for the exclusive Hundred Percent Club, which he had created to reward IBMers who met 100% of their annual sales quota. “I want all of you to resolve to stand for something big and fine outside of your business life,” he urged. And IBM employees would often heed the call.
By the time Thomas J. Watson Jr. became CEO in 1956, countless IBM scientists, engineers and managers had donated significant time and expertise — frequently accompanying donations of IBM equipment — to the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army, the European Relief Fund and many other NGOs and universities around the world. This was by design. IBM’s philosophy toward corporate giving is anchored in the belief that offering technology and expertise will have a far greater impact than simply writing a check. The company built on this philosophy in the 1960s, when it set out to become a leader in the emergent corporate social responsibility (CSR) movement, and in the early 1970s, when IBM formally established its Community Service Program.
A sense of altruism certainly drives volunteerism among IBMers. But the company has also long considered volunteerism an investment that pays dividends in many forms: employee satisfaction and loyalty, growth in leadership skills, community health — and, of course, an improved corporate reputation to aid in recruitment efforts. As Watson Jr. explained in a 1958 meeting of the Public Relations Society of America, no amount of “super-salesmanship” can make a corporation look good in the public’s view — “the positive must be there in the first place.”
IBM’s sizable employee base in nearly 170 countries, combined with a penchant for taking on complex problems, has uniquely positioned the company to create a positive impact in communities around the world. Sometimes its efforts stem from top-down proclamations. Sometimes they’re grassroots efforts. Sometimes they’re driven by catastrophe.
In 1992, IBMers came to the aid of numerous colleagues after Hurricane Andrew ripped through Florida. They located a temporary shelter, procured and trucked 82 generators from Atlanta to South Florida, and drove 700 miles from North Carolina with donated necessities like diapers. IBMers also made emergency repairs to computer systems and helped build an Adopt-A-Business program to support devastated small businesses. Touched by the outpouring of support, one rescued man painted “Thank you IBM” on his damaged roof.
In 2003, the company introduced a groundbreaking volunteer program for active and retired employees designed to help scale skills-based community service. The On Demand Community program (now known as IBM Volunteers) facilitates volunteering by integrating tools, opportunity listings, NGO partnerships and incentives into a single system.
When IBM built on this program by launching IBM Volunteers, Diane Melley, who helped launch the initiative, praised not only the “sweat equity” of IBMers, but also their ability to use IT, organizational and innovative “tools of the trade.” In 2020 alone, program volunteers logged more than 2 million hours of service, in communities from Slovenia and Spain to Thailand, Canada and the US. The projects address needs in education, social justice and healthcare, as well as homelessness, poverty, the environment, and advocacy for people with disabilities.
In 2008, Stanley Litow, who was then IBM’s VP of corporate citizenship and corporate affairs, helped establish the Corporate Service Corps (now called IBM Service Corps) to create leadership development opportunities for employees while also solving problems in communities around the world. Styled after the Peace Corps, the program selects small teams of top employees to work pro bono for weeks. As of 2020, some 4,000 IBMers had been dispatched in 40 countries to deploy more than 1,400 projects. “It’s not just philanthropy,” explained Litow. “It’s leadership development and business development, and it helps build economic development in the emerging world.” Dozens of multinationals have followed IBM’s lead and launched similar programs.
IBM’s many avenues for volunteering and a decade of planning helped the company mount one of the largest corporate community service events in history. Its Celebration of Service, held in 2011, yielded more than 1,000 years’ worth of service during the company’s centennial year. More than 300,000 IBMers from 120 countries devoted their time, skills and passions to 5,000 projects. On one single day — June 15, 2011 — IBM served more than 10 million people worldwide.
Lately, IBM has been empowering employees and partners to use their high-value skills to help address a variety of existential and humanitarian challenges, including climate change. In 2018, the company committed USD 30 million to a five-year Call for Code Global Challenge as a way of harnessing open source to deliver solutions in local communities.
With contributions from thousands of developers, data scientists and problem solvers, the annual challenges have resulted in the creation of 20,000 apps to help solve humanitarian issues. They range from an AI solution to help rural farmers cope with climate change to a health-monitoring system for firefighters on the front lines of disasters.
In 2020, the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor prompted the formation of Call for Code for Racial Justice, which began internally as the Call for Code Emb(race) Spot Challenge. In less than a year, seven projects were open-sourced, including Five Fifths Voter, a web app designed to help minorities exercise their right to vote by determining optimal voting strategies and limiting suppression issues.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, IBM also deployed IBM volunteers in virtual IBM Service Corps projects. One noteworthy water conservation project included IBM volunteers partnering with The Nature Conservancy India to help monitor, generate evidence-based solutions, and support decisions to sustain the health of Lake Sembakkam.
The COVID-19 pandemic prompted a rush of volunteers from multiple angles. IBM’s World Community Grid enabled IBMers and the general public to contribute spare computing power to help scientists develop treatments and plan for future pandemics. IBM also launched Reigniting Small Business during this time, enabling IBM volunteers to share their expertise with entrepreneurs from traditionally under-resourced communities, many of whom were disproportionately affected by the pandemic. IBM volunteers worldwide also rose to the occasion in other ways, such as training teachers to use Cisco Webex videoconferencing tools to lead virtual classrooms.
Beyond the pandemic, IBMers are mentoring aspiring professionals via IBM’s SkillsBuild for Job Seekers, which provides no-charge technical and professional coursework, as well as localized career-development resources. SkillsBuild is part of IBM’s October 2021 pledge to improve the skills of 30 million people globally by 2030. This includes IBMers who volunteer to mentor high school and community college students who participate in the worldwide, IBM-inspired P-TECH education program, which combines classroom and career training.
Their contributions helped solidify IBM’s sense of corporate social responsibility and made good on the ethos that Watson had established more than a century earlier. “To be successful,” the CEO once said, “you have to have your heart in your business, and your business in your heart.”
IBM has repeatedly devoted technology and employee talent to help communities around the world in times of crisis
A Peace Corps for the corporate world, this program helped distinguish IBM’s leadership in philanthropy
A founding commitment to make the world a better place lives on at IBM today