Every year, millions of people live in places that don't officially exist on a map. That means first responders, aid workers, and local governments can't reach them fast enough when disaster strikes. HOT closes that gap with open, crowdsourced mapping. Corporate volunteering is one of the most direct ways your company can help close it too.

When your teams map, they're not doing a one-off feel-good activity. They're producing data that humanitarian organizations use in real emergencies, the same kind of mapping that helped responders plan food delivery flights within 9 hours during the 2026 Venezuela earthquake response.

The benefits of corporate volunteering with HOT

The benefits of corporate volunteering go well beyond a single activity. Done right, corporate volunteering benefits your ESG reporting, your employee engagement scores, and your team culture all at once. Here's what that looks like in practice:

• Real impact, not a simulation. Every map your employees contribute becomes part of the open data used by humanitarian and development organizations on the ground, not a mock exercise.
• Built for your corporate sustainability, ESG, and CSR goals. Corporate volunteering with HOT connects employee engagement directly to your sustainability commitments, with impact metrics you can report on.
• Flexible enough to fit your calendar. From a single lunch-hour mapathon to a fully designed annual program, HOT formats scale to your team's size and schedule.
• Culture-building, not just box-checking. Teams that map together build purpose and motivation alongside their impact. It's a chance to give employees a shared mission, not just a volunteer day.
  

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Introducing Our Mapathons

A mapathon is a fun, facilitated event, virtual, hybrid, or in person—led by the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT), where people come together to improve and update maps of communities around the world.

No previous mapping experience is needed. In just 60–90 minutes, participants connect with colleagues, learn something new, have fun, and turn their time into meaningful action.

By mapping underserved and under-mapped communities, participants help make them visible on open maps and contribute valuable geographic data that supports humanitarian projects.

It’s more than a team activity: it’s a simple way to engage employees while creating real-world impact.

Corporate volunteering opportunities with HOT

Mapathons and Mapping parties are transversal activities that can fit several of your goals.

Here are the corporate volunteering opportunities your team can plug into, whether you're testing the waters with one session or building a year-round program:

• Micro-volunteering.
  Accessible, bite-sized mapping tasks that let employees contribute in minutes, easy to embed in onboarding, team offsites, or key dates on the calendar.
• ERG-led activations.
  Employee Resource Groups can lead mapping sessions tied to causes their members care about, from climate resilience to public health, projects connected to special dates linked to our programs (International Women's Day, Earth Day & Earth month, South Asian Heritage Month, World Inclusion Day, Black History Month, Human Rights Day, Accessibility Awareness Day, International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, World Afro Day)
• Employee-giving integrations.
  Connect HOT to your existing employee-giving or volunteering platform so mapping counts toward the programs you already run.
• One-off sessions to annual programs.
  Start with a single event or build a recurring program. Either way, every activity comes with impact metrics so you can track results and show your teams (and stakeholders) what they achieved.

Want to know more? Complete this form and we'll get back to you.

Corporate volunteering examples: teams already mapping with HOT

Where the impact lands

• Satellite Imagery for Social Good in Kenya and Nigeria
• Climate Resilience & Sustainability
• Disaster Response
• Public Health

Want to know more? Book a meeting with us

FAQ

Do employees need mapping experience?
No. Sessions are designed for first-time volunteers, with guidance provided throughout.

Can we run this virtually?
Yes. Mapathons and micro-volunteering are available virtually, in-person, or hybrid.

How do we measure impact?
Every activity includes impact metrics: buildings mapped, area covered, and how the data was used, so you can report results internally and externally.

How long does it take to set up a session?
The timeline depends on format and scale; the corporate volunteering team will confirm on first contact.

Is HOT a corporate volunteering platform?
Not in the generic sense. Rather than a self-serve platform for browsing causes, HOT is a humanitarian mapping organization that designs and runs the session for you, and can also integrate with the corporate volunteering platforms you already use for tracking hours.

What is a Mapathon?
A mapathon is an event, virtual, hybrid, or in person, where people come together to improve and update maps of communities around the world.
How Does a Mapathon Work?

Organizers pick an under-mapped area, give a short training, then participants trace it together using HOT tools while validators check the new edits. The finished data is published as free, open map data anyone can use.

Why Mapathons are important?
About 1 in 5 people live somewhere poorly mapped, which slows disaster response, health campaigns, and aid delivery. A mapathon closes that gap while giving participants a fast, low-skill way to create lasting real-world impact.

What are the best practices for a corporate volunteering program?
The programs that work best treat corporate volunteering program best practices as an ongoing habit, not a one-time event: pair sessions with a clear cause (a specific region or crisis), track impact metrics every time, let ERGs help lead activations so participation feels owned rather than assigned, and build toward a recurring cadence instead of a single annual event.

How does this fit into our corporate sustainability strategy?
Mapping sessions produce data used directly in climate resilience and disaster response work, so they give your corporate sustainability strategy a concrete, reportable activity rather than a general pledge. Impact metrics from each session can feed straight into your ESG or sustainability reporting.

Want to know more?
Complete this form and we'll get back to you.

Beyond volunteering: tech partnership

Some partners go further, contributing the expertise and technology behind HOT's mapping tools:

• Grants and sponsorships for HOT's tech product suite, mapping projects, and new tool development
• Pro-bono tech expertise to help build custom mapping tools, improve data processing, and enhance the volunteer experience
• Hackathons and innovation challenges that apply your team's technical skills to real humanitarian mapping problems

Interested in tech partnership instead? See our Tech & Corporate Partners page