Navigation and Content

Employee volunteering

Through various incentives, we encourage our employees to volunteer in local-level projects and lay the foundation for long-term collaboration with charitable organizations. By helping solve problems in their local communities, they not only make a contribution to society, but create a sense of community and teamwork that carries over into the workplace.

Global Volunteer Day

Our Global Volunteer Day program provides the framework to facilitate employee volunteering at the local level in close collaboration with independent local organizations and charities. Introduced in Asia-Pacific in 2008 and globally established in 2011, Global Volunteer Day (GVD) has become a major component and driver of employee volunteering across DHL Group.

Annually, over 100,000 employees are involved in providing support to non-profit projects in their local communities as part of the GVD program, contributing in more than 100 countries around the world. The number of local volunteer projects has grown steadily in the past few years. DHL Group is proud that every year, more and more employees dedicate themselves to volunteer engagement.

Employee Volunteering in the context of GVD is not limited to a single day or single project, but is designed to promote lasting ties between our employees and the many local non-profits and charities in which they are involved throughout the year.

Employees are encouraged to organize activities that are aligned with our Group-wide initiatives: GoGreen (protecting the environment), GoHelp (delivering help), GoTrade (facilitating trade) and GoTeach (improving educational opportunity and employability).

Good reasons to do good: Volunteering at DHL Group

Stories

DHL Express and ITS Services colleagues donated 10 laptops

In September 2020 colleagues from two business units, DHL Express and ITS Services, in Kuala Lumpur collaborated to provide support where most needed.

International Volunteering Day - job application workshop

Former CEO Frank Appel and some colleagues welcomed students from a local vocational school in Bonn to a job application workshop at our headquarters.

DHL Supply Chain volunteers offered digital training sessions

In Mexico our colleagues from DHL Supply Chain volunteered in a skills-based format to support the non-profit organization Fundación Teleteón.

Lifesaving advice for underprivileged students in Bangladesh

DHL Bangladesh conducted a series of Road Safety and Earthquake Preparedness workshops for more than 1,200 students from low-income communities.

DHL Group’s employees support refugees

Trainees at the DHL Freight office in Menden, Germany, organized a day of fun at a local home for refugees.

DHL Colleagues in Madagascar plant 1,000 Acacia trees

72 employees teamed up with a group of 22 young people from the SOS Children's Village Madagascar, the project partner for the event.

Improving Lives Fund

With the Improving Lives Fund, we support employees who are engaged with a non-profit organization on social or environmental matters. Employees can apply for funding of up to EUR 3,000 for each project that is realized in cooperation with a partner organization. The Improving Lives Fund annually donates EUR 300,000 in funding.

Each year, over 100 projects, initiated by employees from around the world, are selected for financial support. Projects are selected for funding by a jury comprising representatives from all board departments, looking for outstanding initiatives that demonstrate sustainability and volunteering commitment.

Stories

"There is only one way to build homes. With love."

For three days, members of the DHL Express senior management team flew to Bogota to join volunteers from TECHO to build new housing in the South American metropolis' most deprived areas.

Helping children in Cambodia

In Cambodia, employees opened a school where local staff and volunteers teach English to children and young people.