The SAP Social Sabbatical for global engagement program is SAP Corporate Social Responsibility’s (SAP CSR) flagship pro-bono consulting initiative, where SAP employees offer pro-bono consulting to impact businesses like non-profits, social enterprises, and startups around the world. In July, the program took place in its 59th location: Vilnius, Lithuania.
Indeed, Lithuania is fertile ground for social enterprises and impact businesses. At the end of 2024, Lithuania participated in the European Social Enterprise Monitor (ESEM) for the first time. The resulting report provided a comprehensive assessment of the current social enterprise environment in Lithuania and allowed for comparison with the 30 other European countries assessed. According to the ESEM report, there are about 200 social businesses in Lithuania currently, but the potential is 10 times that number.
“According to a study done by LISVA (Lithuanian social business association) in 2022, each euro invested into social enterprises yields a net benefit of €0.63, with positive effects,” Kristina Balčiauskaitė, local project manager for Pyxera Global, explained. “Approximately 60% of social enterprises in Lithuania operate outside major cities, being active in smaller towns and rural areas. This contributes directly to strengthening local economies, creates new jobs for underserved populations, and helps reduce regional disparities in economic development and access to services.”
SAP CSR initiatives rise to emerging global challenges by accelerating impact business, building future skills, and engaging and developing people
As part of SAP CSR’s mission of powering equitable access to economic opportunity, education and employment, and the circular economy, the pro bono portfolio works with social impact businesses that are pursuing innovative solutions to societal issues. The impact businesses gain access to private-sector professional expertise, the opportunity to address critical strategic challenges, advance their service provision, and facilitate transfer of skills and know-how to their staff.
For the SAP Social Sabbatical program, SAP employees are placed in highly diverse teams to apply their skills and professional expertise in a unique, short-term assignment, solving concrete strategic challenges for client organizations, developing leadership skills, and advancing SAP’s purpose to help the world run better and improve people’s lives. The program has been running since 2012, and in that time worked with 619 client organizations across 61 host countries impacting 7 million lives.
Lithuanian impact businesses
For one month, 11 SAP employees worked with four Lithuanian impact businesses to help address unique challenges.
Looptex
Looptex is a circular fashion solutions platform on a mission to drive sustainable solutions and inspire the world to rethink, re-love, and recycle textiles. The startup gathers used clothing and other textiles in Lithuania and prepares them for resale and upcycling to give them a second life, managing the entire process from collection to recycling. The re-loved pieces are available for sale through an online store and brick-and-mortar locations. The SAP Social Sabbatical team helped optimize Looptex’s business model and processes, enabling it to grow and drive sustainability and social impact.
“Participating in the SAP Social Sabbatical program was transformative for Looptex. We’re usually immersed in doing and building, but this program gave us the rare chance to pause, get outside expertise, map our processes, analyze stakeholders and flows, and strengthen our resilience,” Erikas Marcinkevičius, innovation project manager at Looptex, said. “For an organization like ours, bringing something new to the market as a circular fashion platform, it was a huge boost to structure ourselves better at this early stage of the startup.”
OSMOS
OSMOS is a non-profit think-and-do tank that aims to become the leading hub for mutually-beneficial international partnerships in the Baltic States. Its Digital Explorers program fosters ICT talent exchange and cooperation activities between the Baltics and like-minded countries. Founded in 2015 as an Africa-oriented non-profit, OSMOS is now looking to bring its exchange expertise to other continents and countries. Working with the SAP Social Sabbatical team, OSMOS was able to explore its options to scale its positive impact.
“Working together with [the SAP Social Sabbatical team], we found the time to sit down and sketch out our future service portfolio aimed at the private sector,” Žilvinas Švedkauskas, managing director at OSMOS, said. “As a non-profit, we are used to complex grant writing and implementing projects with competing objectives. The SAP Social Sabbatical pushed us to think in a stricter way and clarify what are the main private sector demands we ought to target transitioning to a social venture, diversifying our revenue streams, and continuing connecting IT companies and talents from emerging markets at a greater scale.”
Ukreate Hub
Ukreate Hub is a Vilnius-based initiative dedicated to displaced Ukrainians in Lithuania, equipping them with the knowledge, skills, networks, and tools they need to unlock their potential for the future of sovereign, democratic Ukraine. The community strengthens the concept that Ukrainians abroad are not passive recipients of aid, rather agents of change who are building communities, strengthening resilience, and shaping democratic futures even while displaced. After two years of functioning under and being funded by a larger NGO (Open Lithuania Foundation), Ukreate Hub is on a journey to become a fully independent, community-based NGO and scale its vital work for the Ukrainian community in Lithuania. The SAP Social Sabbatical team helped Ukreate Hub develop a road map to accomplish just that.
“The SAP Social Sabbatical gave us the time and support to deeply rethink our mission and strategic direction. Over the course of four weeks, the program became not only a period of transformation for Ukreate Hub, but also a powerful experience of personal growth. It allowed us to pause, reflect, find new sources of inspiration, and develop a clear plan for transforming Ukreate Hub into an independent organization—a step that will strengthen our capacity and long-term impact in Lithuania,” Oleksandra Cherednichenko, project manager at Ukreate Hub, said. “We also found wonderful friends and like-minded partners within the SAP team. It was inspiring to combine business tools and approaches with the mindset of the non-profit sector—a true synergy of two worlds that opened new perspectives for collaboration and learning. We believe this experience will help us better support and empower the Ukrainian community in Lithuania, creating more opportunities for their growth and integration.”
Women Go Tech
What began in 2017 as a mentorship program for women in Lithuania has grown into a non-profit organization on a mission to help women in the CEE region navigate towards careers in tech. Women Go Tech offers courses and mentorship opportunities to its community of 29,000 women—which only continues to grow. With the guidance provided by the pro-bono consultants as part of the SAP Social Sabbatical initiative, Women Go Tech audited all its internal processes to identify opportunities for simplification and automation.
“This program gave us a much needed outside perspective that helped us see how we could work better together, share knowledge more openly, and solve problems faster,” Liucija Pažarauskė, operations manager at Women Go Tech, said. “The experts confirmed things we already knew but also brought fresh, actionable recommendations with practical tools we can actually use. We realize it won’t be a quick fix—it will take 6 to 12 months to fully implement—but we’re starting with small wins and building from there.”
Cross-cultural exchange via skills-based volunteering
The SAP Social Sabbatical program not only has clear benefits for the impact businesses, but for the SAP employees involved as well. Long-term career impact, influence on personal life, growth of skills and knowledge, increased community engagement, and an improved sense of purpose are all reported consequences participants have shared.
According to the SAP Social Sabbatical 2024 Annual Report, 99% of participants agree that the program helped them learn valuable things about themselves personally, and 92% agree that the program prompted them to search for other ways to get engaged in local or international communities.
“Participating in the SAP Social Sabbatical program was a transformative experience that challenged me to step outside my comfort zone and realize the power of collaboration and unlocking people’s hidden potential,” reflected Anita Fava, part of the Lithuania team and a senior product learning specialist at SAP. “This journey taught me that real growth comes when we dare to embrace uncertainty and lift each other up. It’s not just about helping or giving back—it’s about active listening, learning, growing together, and discovering new perspectives that shape not only our careers but our lives. By setting aside our egos, we open doors to possibilities far greater than ourselves, creating a wave of impact that reaches beyond what we could have imagined. I am deeply inspired and grateful for the privilege of being alive and contributing to something truly meaningful.”
Gillian Hixson is an integrated communications specialist for SAP News.
Top photo courtesy of Gillian Hixson
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