Technology is a great ally of volunteering to bridge social gaps, starting with the digital divide itself, and to open vital opportunities for people of all ages. Although Telefónica’s corporate volunteering has had digital components for many years, 2026 marks a new milestone because it becomes 100% technological volunteering, with three ingredients: it values employees’ talent, boosts Fundación Telefónica’s programs, and serves the digital challenges of social entities.
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Telefónica’s technological volunteering, managed by Fundación Telefónica, aims to be innovative and discover new challenges, but it already has many lines of action based on its own programs: from digital training for seniors, teaching them to better use the apps on their phones, to using AI or understanding quantum computing, including career guidance in digital jobs or mentoring for pre-university or doctoral youth, advising developers on ethical and inclusive technology design, to training and reflection with teenagers about their relationship with technology, and fostering critical thinking in them.
As a socially and culturally committed company, at Telefónica we take on the undeniable challenge of becoming the best access route for citizens to digital technologies”
Isabel Salazar,
General Director of Fundación Telefónica
“Our volunteers are full of empathy and technological knowledge at the service of social entities, they are our great allies. As a socially and culturally committed company, at Telefónica we take on the undeniable challenge of becoming the best access route for citizens to digital technologies, and we want them to think with us and propose solutions to bridge digital divides and thus offer all the opportunities of technology to their beneficiaries,” explains Isabel Salazar, General Director of Fundación Telefónica.
Telefónica International Volunteer Day
The launch of technological volunteering was celebrated on Friday, May 22 simultaneously in the four main markets where Telefónica is present.
“Although volunteering takes place all year round,” adds Salazar, “Telefónica International Volunteer Day is a great celebration in which all employees and executives of the company are invited, we invite almost 100 social entities and their beneficiaries, and we can all learn about the wide variety of activities in which one can participate, publicly recognize the commitment of volunteers, and think about how to improve the program in the service of those who may need us most, always through technology.”
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Besides activities that occur throughout the territories where Telefónica employees are present, the Telefónica District, the company’s headquarters in Madrid, hosted this year social entities with their latest technological developments with social impact: the robot that replaces and helps from the classroom children with cancer hospitalized from Fundación Óscar Contigo; the technological tools from Bebyte (3D printing, 3D holograms, robot dog and humanoid robot) to improve education in vulnerable groups; the Vivelibre health virtual assistant from ATAM; employability simulators for people at risk of exclusion from Cruz Roja; 3D printed prosthetic models for amputees from Ayúdame 3D; or digital education equipment for areas without connectivity from the ProFuturo project, promoted by Fundación Telefónica together with Fundación “la Caixa”.
Many of these technologies and projects serve as inspiration to Telefónica’s volunteer employees who each year propose volunteering activities aligned with their social concerns, from their neighborhood, town, or city, from childhood to seniors, whom they can assist through their technological talent and professional experience.
Additionally, all programs developed by Fundación Telefónica are open to volunteer talent: the Reconectados program aimed at seniors, the Campus 42 and OrientaHub, for training and guidance in digital employment, the Scholarship program, the Conciencia Digital project that introduces critical thinking related to technology for minors, or safe gaming, the educational innovation program with ProFuturo technology, up to the exhibitions at Espacio Fundación Telefónica, which help understand the latest technologies.
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