“Do It Pro Bono”

Volunteer work is making strong inroads in Japan, and the concept of pro bono labor is beginning to catch on. This past April, The Nippon Foundation sponsored a “Pro Bono Seminar” at its Tokyo headquarters, at which representatives from a United States group known as the Taproot Foundation spoke to a select group of local NPO leaders.

The Taproot Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping other NPOs succeed in the crucial work of volunteer recruitment and fundraising. At the seminar, representatives spoke on a range of methods that can help make pro bono ventures succeed.

Speakers were Ragner von Schiber, one of Taproot’s top program managers, and Mandi Chappell, a Taproot senior volunteer manager. (A taproot is a tapering plant root that grows vertically downward, forming an axis from which other roots sprout laterally.)

Since 2001, the Taproot Foundation has striven to transform pro bono service into a nationally recognized movement that provides top talent in support of a community’s greatest needs.

Taproot says it follows three strategies in nurturing the field of pro bono service such that it ensures that nonprofits have access to the professional services they need to fulfill their missions:

"We do pro bono”
Every year Taproot’s Service Grant program is said to provide millions of dollars worth of pro bono marketing, human resources, internet technology, and strategy management consulting services to nonprofits, helping them tackle society's toughest challenges.

“We enable others to do pro bono”
Taproot works to increase the capacity of the nonprofit field by enabling others to manage pro bono service programs of their own.

“We inspire the pro bono ethic”
The Taproot approach is to inspire the business community to engage in pro bono service through research and education. Taproot’s goal is to have all business professionals consider pro bono work as an integrated part of their careers by 2020.

Taproot Foundation claims to be the largest nonprofit consulting firm in the United States. Time Magazine named Taproot Foundation's pro bono work as one of "21 Ways To Serve America" in its Sept. 22, 2008 issue.

Aith funding from The Nippon Foundation, Taproot had a chance this past April to spread its social ethic here in Japan as well, reaching more than a hundred NPO personnel with its ideas and message of hope.