Welcome to CSRtech.org

Exploring best practice & tech in volunteering

Not why, but how…

Find out how we are applying the CSRtech.org research at EdTech startup Prospela.com

Prospela.com helps companies & charities have authentic scaleable outreach to underserved students through E-Mentoring. Talk to us!

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Who are we?

We’re Emma Sullivan, a 2018-19 Churchill Fellow, and Dexter Boyce, the Co-Founders of Prospela.com, an award-winning social enterprise giving underserved young people insights to work-life reality through their own real employee e-mentors.

Coming from working class & second-generation immigrant backgrounds, we’ve experienced first hand how such students lack the mindset, confidence & network they need to develop their potential, and having had a taste of how the private sector can solve societal problems, left our comfortable corporate jobs to start up Prospela.com.

Our aim is to make it as easy as possible for employers & charities (of all shapes and sizes) to utilise their greatest asset – their people – to reach and inspire the next generation of diverse talent.

What is CSRtech.org about?

Through the generous grants of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust whose Fellowship was created by public subscription in 1965 as the living legacy of Sir Winston Churchill, and the Rank Foundation, Emma was one of 150 British citizens awarded a research fellowship to investigate inspiring practices abroad and return with innovative ideas to benefit people across the UK.

She set out to explore best practice in corporate volunteerism to:

• Establish the pragmatic steps employers & charities (of any size) can take to increase the efficiency, effectiveness and scale of their  volunteering initiatives, including efforts in education; and
• Understand the extent to which the use of tech could be an enabler.
  

On exploring CSRtech.org, you’ll read what was learnt from 11,000 miles of travels across the US & Canada, including 60+ meetings across 17 cities. The journey took her from the East to West Coast and back again.

The Itinerary

From established corporate players like Warner Bros. and Gap Inc. to high-growth & emerging start-ups like Airbnb and Optimizely, from school’s in the Bronx to having a cuppa with Sir Ken Robinson in Los Angeles, from thought-leaders such as the World Economic Forum and UN Global Compact to Silicon Valley investors at the forefront of social impact investing, and more…

Special thanks

I am incredibly grateful to all of the individuals and organisations noted below; Not only for the time and insights they so generously gave, but for the debate, introductions to others, and fresh ideas which helped complete this report. I hope we can keep in touch.

Looking to the future

The aim on completion of the Fellowship is to now draw upon the Key Findings & Recommendations to shape future employee volunteering programmes in education through our start-up Prospela.com. Of course, CSRtech is still relatively new and shiny, and we hope to share emerging best practices in volunteering here on CSRtech.org in the hopes of inspiring others to explore (and execute on!) its potential. 

Get in touch, we’d love to hear your thoughts.

Best regards,

Next: Read onwards to the Fellowship Aim >>