CSI 101
A starter course for small business owners who want to build deeper community relationships & a stronger team. With an emphasis on skills-based volunteering. Without the Fortune 500 budget.
Why this?
What you’ll learn
Fortune 500 companies have been investing in their communities for over a century.
Gardening. Mentorship. Pro Bono & Skills-based Volunteering (SBV).
Not because it’s cute. Because it works:
—> Stronger teams that actually want to stay
—> Deeper relationships with the community and the customers in it
—> A reputation built on what you do, not just what you say
There are departments, consultants and six-figure contracts dedicated to this.
Small businesses? Most have never even heard the terms.
Corporate Social Impact 101 breaks down the core concepts enterprises use.
We’re here to democratize access to the field, so businesses like yours can share in the benefit.
The foundations
What Corporate Social Impact is on a practical level, the language the field uses, and why it matters for your business.
Traditional vs. Emerging approaches
What’s worked for decades, what’s changing now, and where small businesses actually have the advantage.
Employee volunteering, demystified
How companies give teams time to serve, from traditional volunteer days to skills-based volunteering, where your team gives its professional expertise.
Making it fit your business
How to think about community impact when you’re a team of ~10, not 10,000.
Meet Your Strategist
Brianna “Anna” Thomas
Founder & SBV StrategistAnna started volunteering at the age of 10 and now in her 30’s, has become an advocate for building bridges between the nonprofit and for-profit sectors. Known for her empathetic, solution-oriented working style, she believes small businesses deserve access to social impact education and services, regardless of budget.
By work week, I manage a membership for enterprise teams leading regional, national and global employee volunteer programs.
By weekend, I lead Thomas Social Impact, where I work on making core knowledge from the field accessible to the businesses that need it most and get it least.
This course is what I wish every entrepreneur that wanted to start making an impact knew.
Frequently Asked Questions
-
None. This course was built for people hearing these terms for the first time.
-
[About X minutes total], broken into short lessons you can watch in one sitting or over a week.
-
Yes. Everything in this course is translated for small businesses, and some of it works especially well for micro teams.