1. July 5, 2015
I am pleased to provide this reference for Sarah Hayes with whom I have worked in a variety of
roles for the past twelve years.
While I’ve known Sarah for more than 15 years we had the first opportunity to work together as
board members for IAVE – The International Association for Volunteer Effort in 2004. At that
time IAVE was just learning how to work with companies and how to include them in our efforts
in the support of volunteering worldwide. Sarah was appointed as the first IAVE board member
to focus specifically on engaging corporations in our organization.
It soon was clear that both global companies and IAVE wanted to expand our relationship and it
was logical that we would look to Sarah for support in this effort. Sarah developed and expanded
the concept. She officially left the board and, as a consultant, helped IAVE create the Global
Corporate Volunteer Council (GCVC). This was the first ever global council with global
companies focused on volunteering. Sarah recruited six founding global companies in 2006.
Fast forward nine years to 2015 and we have a current council with 50 global companies. This
has taken a tremendous amount of work and commitment on Sarah’s part to build the
relationships and sell the idea of joining the council. In addition, Sarah worked with many of the
companies who contributed beyond their membership fees and she was able to raise additional
tens of thousands of dollars to support IAVE activities. These include research on volunteering,
world and regional conference sponsorships as well as other projects supporting advocacy,
network development and leadership for volunteer leaders around the world.
Please feel free to contact me at kdennis@iave.org or 202-271-2511 if you have specific
questions or wish more information about the work Sarah has done.
Kathleen Dennis
Executive Director
Secretariat | 805 15th
Street NW, Suite 100, Washington DC 20005 | ph 202.628.4360 |
www.iave.org