News

Impact Statement 2022

Niklas Kabel Pedersen

Senior Partner

What we achieved in 2022 towards making more lives more meaningful

Despite signs of recovery from the initial downturns caused by COVID-19, tension, conflict, and insecurity continued to be prevalent in 2022. Globally, according to the United Nations, the number of forcibly displaced people surpassed 100 million for the first time. Furthermore, Europe suffered the resurgence of war with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which disrupted food and energy supply chains and impacted the standard of living for hundreds of millions. Drought and extreme weather conditions were observed on all continents, and rates of already-common conditions such as depression and anxiety went up by more than 25 percent (World Health Organization), while the sense of meaningfulness at work continued to decrease according to our research. Addressing these challenges requires a contextual understanding of the current state of the world as well as the various factors at play.
 

At Voluntas, we believe that every human being has the potential to grow, innovate, and create a positive impact on their workplace, community, country, and the world they live in. Voluntas’ mission is to facilitate and support the realization of this potential of millions of women, men, non-binary individuals, boys, and girls. We aim to catalyse personal and collective growth and meaningful change.

To do so, in 2022, we inspired tens of thousands, worked directly with almost 1.000 leaders, and supported more than 50 organizations in increasing the sense of belonging, purpose, leadership, and personal growth of their constituents, effectively enhancing their performance and impact. As part of this, we have listened to more than 40.000 employees to understand what drives their meaning at work and in life. With fact-based decision-making being at the core of our approach, we conducted 30+ impact studies covering 35+ countries supporting partners to tailor their programming and policies to the actual needs and dynamics of communities. Furthermore, we have had the privilege of collecting and sharing the voices and opinions of almost 100.000 persons that would otherwise go unheard. We have done all this by being present with partners in organizations and communities – even under challenging circumstances and in fragile contexts.

Together with our partners, we have supported migrants living in some of the world’s most unstable environments; we have listened to the stories of survivors of violence and used their experiences to inform our efforts. We have engaged with youth to understand their perspectives on the world and have gathered valuable insights into how different members of society experience and define meaningfulness. These insights have allowed our partners to adapt their internal structures, programming, and policies to maximize their impact.

Beyond projects, 2022 has also been a year of academic ventures and research collaborations. As such, we supported the publication of the first business case with Harvard Business School focusing on how to drive meaningful cultural change in organizations and embarked on the ambitious task of developing a global Youth Meaningfulness index together with the ALV Foundation with the goal of informing public policies and foster well-being for generations to come. We also started a collaboration with Saint Joseph University in Lebanon, allowing us to share our experiences from working in the field with future generations of practitioners through teaching and mentoring, as well as the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in India focused on exploring ESG metrics and linkages with meaningfulness and social impact.

In 2022, we expanded our global footprint to new geographies, including Beirut, Mumbai, Oslo, and San Francisco. We consolidated our work in Libya and Sudan and increased our efforts to prevent violent extremism in Tunisia. We also conducted workshops in Australia, Germany, Japan, the UK, the US, Singapore, Spain, and Sweden on meaningfulness in the workplace and beyond. Our team has nearly doubled in size as a result, going from 40 to 70+ talented individuals boasting different academic and cultural backgrounds and nationalities.

In 2022, our founder and CEO Morten Albaek released a book focusing on dissecting the anatomy of meaningfulness and human potential called ‘False Truths in Life.’ This work continues to shape our culture and external ventures in Denmark and across the world.

We are grateful to all our partners for the meaningful collaboration we experienced in 2022. We do not only care about the work we do, but also about how we do it and only by working together with like-minded partners can we achieve the positive impact on people’s lives we aim for. We appreciate your willingness to join us on this journey and your openness to our approach.

As we embark on 2023, we are excited to continue our work for more meaningful organizations, brands, societies, and planet.