6th Global Pro Bono Summit: Creating Impact, Building Vision; Hosted by iVolunteer

MUMBAI, February 8, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Delegates from six continents (i.e. all, except the uninhabitable Antarctica) from almost 30 countries converged today in Mumbai as part of the 6^th Global Pro Bono Summit 2018. The objective is pretty unique too - how to make top professionals with skills to work for most critical social causes. Pro Bono stands for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment or at a reduced fee as a public service.

The Global Pro Bono Summit (GPBS) is an annual invitation-only gathering of leaders from across sectors and around the world with a shared vision to make the talents and skills of the entire business community accessible to organisations serving the collective good. The 4-day Summit (Feb 6th-9th, 2018) is brought to India and hosted by iVolunteer - the largest social enterprise focused on promoting and facilitating volunteering in India. It is supported by the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt, Germany and the Taproot Foundation, USA, and held under the aegis of the Global Pro Bono Network (GPBN) - a body of 50+ social enterprises that has the mission to connect, mobilise and equip the leaders in pro bono movement from across the world. iVolunteer presently is the only organisation representing India at this global forum.

On the first two days, the international representatives of the GPBN member organisations met at the historic Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (popularly known as the Prince of Wales Museum) to work on strategy and planning to promote the global pro bono movement. Today, they were joined by the Indian leaders representing leading Indian and multinational companies that support pro bono service, non-profit leaders who believe in the social impact that such provisional service could create and experts from organisations like iVolunteer that specialise in providing such services. Today's Summit proceedings were held at ISDI-ACE, Lower Parel, which offered its contemporary infrastructure pro bono.

Shalabh Sahai, Co-Founder & Director of iVolunteer, opened the Global Pro Bono Summit emphasising that, "The global pro bono movement is an opportunity for people from all professions, cultures and regions to commit to the best that they can expect of themselves." Markus Hipp, Executive Director, BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt, said, "For us, pro bono is an instrument to get professionals and leaders involved in voluntary engagement. They use their skills in the service of a good cause, without being for it."

To conclude the last day of the 6^th Global Pro Bono Summit, iVolunteer will conduct community site visits for the international delegates to see the challenges and impact of pro bono service on the lives of the underprivileged. Parallelly, a corporate convening will work with Indian and multinational companies to build their understanding and capability to deliver pro bono service. CSR and HR professionals from leading as well as small Indian and multinational companies have committed to join the workshop.

About iVolunteer
iVolunteer, is a social enterprise that promotes volunteering with the mission to bring volunteers and organizations together to share time, skills, and passion to promote India's social development.

Founded in 2001 by Shalabh Sahai and Rahul Nainwal, both alumni of the Rural Management programme at IRMA, iVolunteer offers a variety of volunteer engagement models for individuals, corporations and NGOs to choose from. Volunteers commit from anywhere between 2 hours to volunteer in their neighbourhood or virtually up to 2 years of volunteer service across India. iVolunteer actively engages 10,000 volunteers annually and reaches out to more than 350 credible NGOs across 20 states in India through iVolunteer Centres in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune and Hyderabad. Over the years it has also sent Indian volunteers to 40 other developing countries across Asia- Pacific and Africa.

For further information on the Summit, please log on to www.probonosummit2018.org or follow iVolunteer on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Youtube .

Media Contact:
Surbhi Tiwari
[email protected]
+91-22-2610-5235 | +91-8860295575
Marketing & Communications Manager, iVolunteer