The Evidence Connecting Goodness and Wellbeing with Ryan Adams

We've talked a couple of times now about the connection between purpose, volunteerism and wellbeing... but where is the evidence? I'm all for evidence-based decision-making, so today on the podcast we're joined by Ryan Adams, the head of Strategic Partnerships at Benevity.

Benevity is a corporate purpose software that provides charitable donation-management, volunteer-management and grant-management solutions for corporations. It also happens to be my former workplace, and one of my favourite parts of the job was the data that was produced from the 1000+ clients and millions of participants. In March 2024, Benevity produced its most recent State of Corporate Volunteering Report and the data is fascinating, and for me, I couldn't help but see the connections between corporate purpose programs and an employee's wellbeing.

Ryan has a deep background in all things social impact, which we discuss in the podcast, and we also talk about:

• turning implicit understandings about volunteerism into explicit findings
• the push-pull between high participation and the quality of volunteer activities
• the fine line between being courageous and cautious in your social impact program
• the individual search for purpose in the workplace and how it ties to stress
• the connection (to be studied!) between psychological safety and acts of kindness in volunteer programs
• why hard economic times are NOT the time to pull back on corporate purpose programs
• and so much more!

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