Creating positive change in our communities through the Pro Bono Residency

Our employees are a giving bunch – they give back to the communities where we work and live across the globe year-round, and our employees in India recently wrapped up one of our highest impact volunteer programs, the Adobe Pro Bono Residency.

This program provides a unique professional development opportunity for employees, while at the same time providing high-value consulting support for Adobe’s nonprofit partners. Applicants are selected and matched in pairs with nonprofit clients based on their area of expertise and clients’ needs, whether it’s with design, marketing, or technology support. Ultimately, these projects help our communities and develop employees’ own expertise and leadership.

During the Pro Bono Residency in India, fifty-three employees worked in small teams with twenty nonprofit clients. And although this year was especially challenging given COVID-19, our employees dedicated over 2,000 hours over three months to helping our nonprofit partners. “From projects on re-branding their online presence to promoting experiential learning, the versatility of solutions was inspiring,” shared Sonal Dhir, program manager on Adobe brand purpose team.

At the final virtual mixer, teams shared testimonials and videos about their projects, which ranged from helping a non-governmental organization improve its marketing efforts and boost donations, to working on a strategy for more accessible content and social media engagement.

Anjana Nagabushana, on our core technologies and products team, shared, “This was a great experience for me. I gained a lot of new skills in the course of 16 weeks that I will use for years to come.”

Anirban De, an employee on our shared services operations team, said, “We thoroughly enjoyed working together and we enriched ourselves by combining our experiences from the various walks of life we come from. We challenged each other to bring our best ideas to the table.”

Our convening partner for the program in India, NASSCOM Foundation, helped judge all the projects in an entrepreneurial pitch showcase competition, with the winner receiving a cash bonus. Some teams will continue to give pro bono assistance to their nonprofits to further create change in our communities, and three employees accepted Board placements to further bring their skills to nonprofit Board management through Adobe’s Board Service program.

Despite COVID-19, our Pro Bono Residency program highlights how corporate volunteering can be catalytic to nonprofits’ reach, effectiveness and efficiency – creating lasting impact driven by corporate social responsibility. We can’t wait to see how our employees will continue to create change from home throughout the year.