NIKE WE: Design Meets Social Good

Community service had a long history of success at NIKE. Often, employees did not even see their work as “volunteering”—they felt like they were doing what they loved and making a difference to the people around them. Despite this enthusiasm, corporate support for volunteerism was extremely fragmented; people who wanted to get involved did not always know who to contact for help. If a department wanted to do a community service project rather than a holiday party, it was difficult to find someone to support this effort. By connecting to employees and dedicating resources to their work, NIKE believed it could enable these individuals to increase their giving, both in terms of monetary and time contributions. Nike created a web portal called WE to support its employees in doing community service. This involved untangling existing efforts, connecting to relevant sites, and creating a new portal and erasing confusion around responsibility for different efforts. This task was complicated by the fact that Nike had to contend with many sites and geographies, kinds of employees (hourly vs. salaried) and differing attitudes towards volunteering. The portal had four areas- give voice, give time, give money, and give talent- to enable employees to support their communities and communities in need in many different ways.