When the impact sourcing movement was just getting started about a decade ago, industry association IAOP identified it as “a trend to watch.”
From those early beginnings to today’s widespread acceptance of these inclusive employment practices, IAOP has been an advocate and influencer bringing together like-minded professionals to advance social responsibility and impact sourcing.
“Impact sourcing is becoming a critical piece of the business for many leading organizations as a way to create diverse supply chains, business growth and social impact,” says IAOP CEO Debi Hamill. “IAOP is here to help with resources, connections, lessons learned and inspiration from others who are also passionate about this practice.”
In its important role as a unifying force, IAOP has built a community and platform where providers, advisors and buyers who are involved in impact sourcing can learn from each other, share and celebrate successes, and promote best practices.
To that end, IAOP will convene a panel of impact sourcing experts for a mainstage keynote address entitled, Doing Well by Doing Good: The Future of Impact Sourcing during its upcoming OWS 2.0, Feb. 17-19, in Orlando, Florida.
The speakers will share their experiences on how impact sourcing not only presents an enormous opportunity for the professional advancement of marginalized communities through training and steady, fair-wage employment but it is also a business practice that, when done right, maximizes business outcomes.
As an indicator of the interest in this topic, IAOP has received a tremendous response to webinars, virtual and in-person meetings, presentations at OWS and other events it has held over the years on impact sourcing.
In September, members of IAOP’s SRO Chapter met in New York for an informal launch of the chapter aimed at promoting social responsibility awareness, including impact sourcing. The new chapter is among the most active and engaged groups with dedicated and committed chairs from such leaders as the Global Impact Sourcing Coalition, Facebook, Microsoft, Sprint Corporation, Alorica and Accenture.
For the third year, IAOP has once again partnered with the Rockefeller Foundation to present the Global Impact Sourcing Award (GISA) to organizations for their leadership in driving awareness of impact sourcing and for the business results they have achieved. Eight leaders have been recognized so far with the GISA and these awards will again be presented at IAOP’s annual Summit.
Award Presentations
IAOP is accepting nominations for the GISA until Nov. 1. Winners are selected from a panel of judges based on the significance of impact sourcing to the company’s overall business strategy, including procurement, recruiting and hiring and employee benefits among other criteria.
The winners in the inaugural year were pioneer, Digital Divide Data (DDD); purchasing organization, Microsoft; large organization, Teleperformance; and influencer, Avasant Foundation. Last year’s honorees included purchasing organization, Intuit; providers, RuralShores and Samasource; and influencer, Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator.
Being selected as a winner of IAOP’s GISA award helps build awareness and education of impact sourcing, said Balakarthik Venkataramanan, Intuit’s Director Customer Care Small Business Care Group, who accepted the honor during the awards luncheon and also spoke on a panel on impact sourcing at OWS19.
“More and more companies are declaring and integrating impact sourcing as part of their overall strategy,” he said. “The recognition is a great way to tell the story that impact sourcing is becoming important. At OWS19, hundreds of participants discussed many critical business topics. The fact that we created an award for impact sourcing and took time to talk about it shows the trend in the business.”
This important conversation will continue at OWS 2.0. For more information on speakers and the program, visit the IAOP website.
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