Let’s face it, our world is facing urgent and complex challenges, ranging from climate change to hunger, violence, and other systemic inequalities. As the scale and complexity of these issues increase, so must our approach to addressing them.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is one of the ways corporations are responding to these complex socio-economic and environmental issues. At its core, CSR is built on a simple principle: organisations should give back to the societies from which they derive value. This principle has evolved over the years. In their book, Good Works! Marketing and Corporate Initiatives that Build a Better World and the Bottom Line, Philip Kotler, David Hessekiel, and Nancy R. Lee demonstrated both the evolution and impacts of CSR as a force for good and a driver of business performance.
Part of this evolution is the move to go beyond chequebook charity towards a more participatory, purpose-driven model where their employees are not just corporate spectators but active agents in driving shared value for society.
From Purpose to Participation: My AXA Nigeria Experience
When I joined AXA Nigeria about four years ago, one of my biggest attractions was the organisation’s purpose of “acting for human progress by protecting what matters”. But even more attractive after settling in is how the organisation has devolved this purpose into its sustainability and impact strategy.
At AXA, we believe that doing good should not be the exclusive preserve of leadership or the sustainability team. While corporate philanthropy remains important for us, we’ve seen that employee-led volunteering creates a deeper, more sustainable, and wider impact. It transforms CSR from a corporate obligation to a vehicle through which we find expression for our humanity.
During the just-concluded 2025 AXA Week for Good, where over 900 of my colleagues across Nigeria volunteered their time and skills to combat violence against girls, the idea of employees volunteering took on a new meaning. While the results were impressive, engaging with colleagues and hearing how they feel even hit a stronger chord in me. I saw our people returned from the experience more engaged, better connected, and more committed to our shared purpose.
This experience correlates with the emerging trends of employee volunteering as a strategic lever for human capital development. According to Deloitte’s 2023 Global Human Capital Trends report, 77% of organisations believe that purpose-driven work is critical to success.
In 2024 alone, AXA Mansard employees contributed over 23,000 volunteer hours, positively impacting the lives of more than 5,000 individuals. These, for us, are more than
numbers: they are a quantum of empathy, resilience, and our shared humanity as a corporation. The AXA Hearts in Action programme has tested and proven this hypothesis for my team and me.
One of the programmes of our cause this year is to get our employees to go into community schools to sensitize and educate children about the dangers of domestic and sexual violence. The bulk of the organisation and execution was handled by the volunteer groups. And goodness! I was blown away by what our people did! We have groups of employees who, on their own, contributed funds to provide sanitary towels for girls. Others invested in writing materials. We had volunteers who opened up to share their personal stories, those who created safe spaces for the girls, and the list is endless.
The Emotional, Environmental, and Societal Benefits of Employee Volunteering
Seeing our teams work together across cadre, age, gender, and location, I thought about how much some organisations spend on team building. But employee volunteering is helping kill two birds with one stone. In 2024, with proceeds from recyclable waste we collected from our beach clean up, we purchased 100 health insurance policies for vulnerable children in the Chess in Slums Africa community. With a single activity, we achieve both environmental and social impact – we protect marine life, prevent flooding and its consequent economic impact, promote behavioural change, and provide healthcare to vulnerable children. Our employees brought waste from home, their families got involved, and some employees’ children even went into their neighbourhoods to collect waste.
In all, this is not a call to abandon corporate philanthropy. Donations, grants, and sponsorships remain essential to societal progress. But when complemented by initiatives that invite employees to roll up their sleeves and get involved, shared values are created.
