For Corporations: Do Pro Bono

If you are willing to provide pro bono assistance to a public benefit organization, please fill out the questionnaire for companies and/or contact us.

Mediating Pro Bono Assistance: How it Works

Pro Bono Program Management in the Company

    • Discuss and agree the program with the company management;
    • Determine a pro bono coordinator within the company;
    • Define the number of paid work hours each employee may use per year for pro bono activities;
    • Determine the areas of your expertise in which you would like to provide pro bono assistance, also define models of pro bono that suits your company;
    • Disseminate the information via the intranet and identify the employees willing to participate in the initiative;
    • Hold an informative workshop with those employees;
    • Keep track of the provided services and establish a system for collecting and analyzing feedback from the beneficiary organizations;
    • At the end of the year, summarize the results, analyze the impact, and disseminate the report within the company, among your employees and management, as well as to the broader public.

Top Five Tips For Pro Bono Managers

Are you thinking about developing a pro bono strategy in your firm?

Here are our top five tips for developing a pro bono strategy, developed with the help of pro bono managers and committes:

  • Ask your CEO, managing partner or other senior partner to be the voice and champion of pro bono work. Pro bono work requires senior support, as it will need managers to understand the additional work being carried out by their employees. Senior support can reinforce the value and importance of pro bono work and ensure that your time is being managed appropriately;
  • Set some clear targets - start small and think big! Targets do not have to be around the "number of hours" or "number of cases" you want your firm to be involved in. You might want to consider the number of employees you want to engage over the year or the number of organizations/individuals you are able to assist or even those various types of work your company will fulfill;
  • Set up a pro bono matter code if you don't have one already. If you wish to put this activity on a more formal footing and get more deep understanding about pro bono work capacity, an important first step is to ensure that your employees are recording their time spent on pro bono matters. Recording the amount of pro bono work carried out by employees is a crucial first step to understanding the vast amount of unpaid consultations that employees donate throughout their time in practice;
  • Find out which causes or social issues your staff care about. Listening to what your employees want to do is crucial to maintaining an enthusiastic team of pro bono consultants. Carrying out surveys and talking to group heads and employees to understand what interests them will help you in this matter. Local projects are often a great start. Local mediator organization can help to pick up and communication with pro bono beneficiaries;
  • Ensure that pro bono work is facilitated and managed centrally by an individual or a committee. Everyone is busy, so it is helpful to have a single person or committeee who can take the lead on managing the pro bono work of the firm. This does not mean the have to do all the work. But if they can act as a focus point for the rest of your firm, a source inspiration, guidance, general motivator than pro bono is more likely to continue and thrive beyond the first project.

Principles of Good Pro Bono


Before the Project

  • Dont't make promises, you can not keep;
  • Learn about the work of civil organization and keep all the information confidentially;
  • Communicate and share your motivation and expectation on pro bono collaboration.

During the Project Implementation

  • Keep your promise and spend the necessary time for your commitment;
  • Define the milestones during the first meeting and agree on series of appointements;
  • Keep an eye to ensure that the project remains within the agreed content and timeframe;
  • Do your best to deliver excellent work;
  • Communicate with the social organization on equal level and treat it with the same professional attitude as you do with your customers in business situations;
  • Communicate regularly and clearly with the social organization. If you are unable to respond to inquiries within a few days of the week, just let them know and also inform mediator organization about updates.
  • Be open to constructive feedbacks about your work;
  • Challenge the organization and ask questions about previous work practices and routines.Their external perspective is valuable.

After the Project Ecexution

  • Communicate with beneficiary organization and keep interest about the outcomes of pro bono projects;
  • Put all the information about fulfilled pro bono project and partner beneficiary organization on your official web page;
  • Get connected with beneficiary organizaiton on LinkedIn and follow the organizaiton in other social media;
  • Tell your friends and collegues about the beneficiary organizaiton and your pro bono collaboration.

The Text is adapted from online sources provided by Proboneo