AmCham Slovakia

From volunteering to strategic impact

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has evolved significantly over the past decade. Employees increasingly expect more than occasional volunteering opportunities, while communities benefit more from long-term partnerships than from one-off donations. At the same time, businesses increasingly recognize that social responsibility is connected to a broader goal: helping to build resilient societies.

For us, this has meant taking a more coordinated approach to community engagement. Rather than simply adding new initiatives, we focus on connecting existing efforts, bringing teams and partners together and ensuring that our activities contribute to a shared vision.

Our overall ambition is to be a trusted and value-driven partner in the communities where we live and work.

Why partnerships matter

Meaningful community impact cannot be achieved by companies acting alone. The strongest initiatives are created with organizations that understand local needs and bring specialist knowledge and experience.
 
This is why partnerships are central to our approach. We cooperate with the City of Bratislava and Bratislava City Forests, the Pontis Foundation, universities, Charity of the Year partners and other NGOs. Together, we can combine resources and professional capabilities with local expertise, while giving employees opportunities to contribute their skills, time and enthusiasm.

One example is our cooperation with Bratislava City Forests. As part of our 20th anniversary in Slovakia, we are supporting the restoration of public shelters and organizing our largest employee volunteering event with more than 350 participants. The initiative helps preserve public spaces enjoyed by thousands of visitors while supporting environmental resilience.

Where expertise meets social innovation

Another good example is Shine, the Swiss Re Foundation’s skills-based volunteering program that connects employees with social entrepreneurs and social-impact organizations in Slovakia.

Through a structured learning journey, colleagues act as consultants and co-creators, helping innovators strengthen their ideas, business models, and impact plans. At the same time, employees develop their own entrepreneurial thinking and leadership skills.

In Slovakia, the latest Shine journey supported LoopVine, a circular biotechnology start-up that transforms surplus and unsold fruit into everyday cleaning products. Through controlled fermentation, fruit that might otherwise go to waste becomes a stable, bio-based cleaning base. It is then combined with biodegradable ingredients to create cleaners designed for reliable performance, refill and reuse.

The value of the partnership goes beyond the product story. Swiss Re colleagues worked alongside LoopVine on the questions every early-stage enterprise must answer: Who is the customer? What problem does the solution address? How can the business model become financially sustainable? How should impact be measured, communicated and strengthened?

This is where social entrepreneurship and corporate expertise reinforce one another. A promising innovation gains structure, commercial thinking and access to a broader network. Employees, meanwhile, experience the realities of entrepreneurship, working with uncertainty, limited resources and decisions that have immediate consequences. The program therefore creates value on both sides while keeping social and environmental impact at its core.

Employees drive change

Community engagement becomes especially powerful when it is part of the everyday employee experience rather than an occasional campaign.

We have therefore embedded opportunities to contribute across employee communities and events throughout the year. Colleagues combine physical activity with fundraising through charity sports events, donate gifts to children from socially disadvantaged families and participate in environmental activities with their families.

The aim is to offer different ways to participate. Whether employees want to volunteer hands-on, share professional expertise or support fundraising, they can find a way to contribute that matches their interests, skills and availability.

More than donations

Financial contributions remain important, but sustainable impact comes from combining different forms of support.

Our Charity of the Year program illustrates this approach. Employees choose a local organization with which we build a longer-term partnership. In 2026, colleagues selected Koľko Lásky, which supports seniors across Slovakia.

Its Bridges to Memory and Wellbeing project aims to equip 120 care homes, reach 6,000 seniors and engage more than 200 of our volunteers through Community Days. Combining Swiss Re Foundation support, employee volunteering, fundraising and partner expertise enables us to contribute in several complementary ways.

Education represents another dimension. Cooperation with universities and educational partners allows us to share knowledge and help future talent explore topics such as risk, resilience and sustainability.

Together, these activities represent a shift from asking simply “How much can we give?” to a more powerful question: “What can we achieve together?”

Measuring what matters

One of the challenges in CSR is understanding its real impact. Counting activities or donations tells only part of the story. What ultimately matters is the difference those activities make, how many people benefit, whether partnerships achieve their objectives and whether successful initiatives can support better decision-making.

Building a culture of impact

Perhaps the most important lesson we have learned is that engagement grows when people can see how their individual contribution connects to something bigger.

By bringing together environmental initiatives, employee communities, philanthropy and strategic partnerships, we can create impact that goes far beyond a series of individual activities. Our ambition is to engage 40% of our Bratislava workforce – more than 1,000 colleagues – in at least one community initiative, making social impact a shared part of our culture.

Because meaningful community impact is not created through occasional acts of generosity. It is built over time – through collaboration, shared responsibility and long-term commitment. 

Jela Hettešová, Community Engagement Lead, Swiss Re

Petronela Chudá, Swiss Re Foundation Representative