Every day, Amazon employees bring deep expertise in AI, data, technology, strategy, and communications to solve complex problems. Together, Amazon and Taproot are expanding opportunities for Amazonians to apply those same skills to help nonprofits strengthen their missions and deepen their impact.
Corporate volunteering is evolving. Employees want to contribute in ways that tap into what they’re good at in addition to showing up in their communities. Nonprofits are ready to put that expertise to work. The opportunity is to build the infrastructure that connects them—consistently, at scale, and in a way that creates real impact on both sides. That’s what Taproot and Amazon are doing.
The Challenge: Untapped Expertise Leaves Capacity on the Table
The ground is shifting under nonprofits. AI is changing how work gets done, funding is tightening, and community need keeps rising. To keep pace, many organizations need specialized skills, in technology, data, legal, and human resources, that are among the hardest things to hire for and fund.
At Taproot, we have spent more than two decades closing that gap, connecting skilled professionals to the organizations that need them. Our newest partner in that work is Amazon.
Community organizations are ready for more. They bring drive, creativity, and deep knowledge of the communities they serve—and these organizations are eager to tap into the expertise of skilled volunteers to further their missions. Together with Taproot, Amazon set out to better match Amazon employees’ expertise with nonprofit need.
The Solution: Impact Consulting, Built to Scale
Taproot has spent more than two decades building infrastructure for pro bono service, connecting skilled professionals to community organizations that need their expertise. Now, in partnership with Amazon, Taproot is helping design and deploy a new model of skills-based volunteering built for one of the world’s largest employers.
In conversations with community organizations, Amazon found that these organizations had a desire to partner with Amazon but struggled to articulate what skilled volunteers could do for them. In response, Amazon and Taproot worked together to develop a unique approach. Instead of starting from scratch with each partnership or attempting to match open-ended inputs, they developed a catalog of pre-scoped projects built off Amazon’s distinctive capabilities—each with clear deliverables, timelines, and required expertise. Nonprofits and volunteers opt in where their needs and skills align.
In this model, Amazon employees show up not just as volunteers, but as collaborative problem solvers—bringing their professional expertise directly to bear on real operational challenges nonprofits are facing. Taproot brings its nonprofit and pro bono expertise to the partnership, helping power quality, scalable impact consulting for Amazon employees and community organizations.
“This model goes further than traditional volunteering. It gives skilled professionals a way to turn what they know into more of what they care about—and gives nonprofits the capacity they need to truly thrive.” – Cat Ward, Taproot CEO.
Amazon and Taproot are actively experimenting—piloting various formats, gathering participant feedback, and refining tools and training. The goal isn’t just to grow a program. It’s to build the tools and frameworks that enable even more nonprofits to build capacity and unlock innovation.
What’s more, Amazon is offering employees access to Taproot Plus, Taproot’s pro bono marketplace, opening a year-round pathway for Amazon employees to share their expertise with nonprofits on their own terms.
“What’s emerging from our experimentation with Taproot is a model for skills-based volunteering that reflects a core belief—it should be simple to participate in, while still being mutually transformative: meaningful for the volunteer and genuinely valuable for the partner and our communities,” said Tara Lubbers, Head of Global Volunteering at Amazon.
The Impact: Results That Speak for Themselves
This spring, Amazon incorporated impact consulting into its Global Month of Volunteering, the company’s largest annual service campaign. More than 200 Amazon volunteers partnered with nearly 40 community organizations in a pilot program in Seattle, Bellevue, Arlington, Nashville, and Austin.
The results immediately illustrated just how impactful this model of skills-based volunteering can be.
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Amazon volunteers partnered with Northern Virginia Food Rescue—a nonprofit that leverages technology to reduce food waste and hunger across Northern Virginia—to review donor data and identify the most important issues affecting their fundraising and operations. The volunteer team built a simple, easy-to-follow workflow to leverage AI in generating engaging social media content to promote local food rescue efforts and recruit new donors. Now, the Northern Virginia Food Rescue team has a clear playbook to leverage AI in their fundraising efforts as they grow.
“Amazon’s volunteers introduced me to resources I wasn’t aware of and, more importantly, they were incredibly patient as I learned how to use them,” said Dr. Megan A. Franco, Executive Director at Northern Virginia Food Rescue. “They didn’t just complete a project; they built my confidence and gave our team practical tools that will help us tell our story, reach more supporters, and ultimately rescue more food for our community.”
At another organization, a volunteer team partnered with the nonprofit to reimagine their entire e-commerce setup—centralizing inventory, updating product listings, and mapping out a migration to a more affordable platform—making it easier to run their online shop and drive sales that directly support refugees.
Across projects, a common theme emerged: Volunteer teams consistently used AI to tackle the nonprofits’ challenges organically and delivered more than originally scoped. That instinct to default to AI—because it’s simply how Amazon employees work—is a distinct way that Amazon accelerates the impact of skills-based volunteering.
While many corporate programs focus on AI adoption as the subject of the project itself—teaching nonprofits how to use AI tools—Amazon takes a both/and approach. Through training partnerships, nonprofits gain direct AI education. Through impact consulting, they experience it in action: volunteers execute projects powered by AI, and nonprofits walk away not just with a deliverable, but with exposure to the tools, workflows, and methods that produced it. Together, these efforts build the capacity for nonprofits to operate independently long after the engagement ends.
Volunteers reported equally meaningful benefits. “Being able to apply my strengths and skillsets to work that wasn’t my typical work was very invigorating and validating for the career path I’m on,” said one participant.
“I felt even happier and prouder that I work for a company that organizes such events and even encourages its employees to participate,” said another volunteer.
It’s clear that this expanded approach to volunteering has the potential to transform how Amazon—and the corporate sector broadly—thinks about what it means to support communities. When skilled volunteers show up with genuine expertise and real commitment, they create a different kind of impact. They help build capacity that complements more traditional types of volunteering and create something special in the world of corporate social responsibility: an experience that’s enriching for both employees and their communities.
As one Amazon employee put it, “It’s amazing how much Amazon can achieve by contributing its expertise to organizations who are strapped for time and resources.”
Ready to reimagine corporate volunteering and unlock opportunities for impact, connection, and skill-building? Reach out to Taproot to learn how we can work together to build a new model of service.
