Pro Bono Volunteers - Doing Good in Michigan

The Chronicle of Philanthropy posted an article earlier this week about one nonprofit that got the privilege to work with a team of business professional pro bono volunteers.

The nonprofit, Kids' Food Basket, saw a need for higher efficiency, but rather than getting dismayed by their finances or flustered by their ever-increasing problem, they turned to a business to seek highly-skilled volunteers that could help them solve their problems.

What a wonderful idea!  The organization got its biggest problems solved, and the volunteers got to use their most honed skills to serve a great cause - what

Don't get stuck in the idea that you can only find volunteers to do simple, straight-forward tasks or projects.  The potential for volunteers to help an organization is endless - including restructuring and reorganizing the entire organization to serve even better!

What's a Serendipitous Volunteer?

Volunteer management is no cookie-cutter task.

Different volunteers respond to different management styles.  But how do you know what management style will allow each volunteer to thrive at your organization?

Good thing there is a volunteer manager professionals who constantly study exactly this issue.  This aritcle by Nancy MacDuff explains a Multi-Paradigm Model of volunteers: who Social-Change, Traditional, Serendipitous, and Entrepreneurial volunteers are, how those different types of volunteers like to serve, and what management styles they prefer.

Do you work with volunteers who fit into MacDuff's categories?  Have you discovered any best practices in managing these different  types of volunteers?  Let us know in the comments!

Groupon... for Nonprofits

Are you one of the hundreds of thousands out there who subscribe to one of the many different "daily deal" websites?  Well, this new website is an interesting spin on daily deal sites - with a philanthropic focus.

While deal sites like Groupon, Living Social, and Google Deals feature a new sale product from a new company every day, Philanthroper.com features a new nonprofit every day.  Instead of purchasing a product, subscribers to their website can choose to donate $1 if the featured nonprofit of the day moves them to do so.

It's great to see the nonprofit world staying on top of trends like this.  Wouldn't it be interesting to do the same for volunteering, rather than just donations?  What if every day there was a new volunteer opportunity in the area on a subscription website, and members could sign up to volunteer their time when a position that interested them popped up?

Perhaps that's just where volunteerism is heading.

Want to check out a little more about sites like Philanthroper?  Check out the Idealist Blog about it.

VIP Impact: Gleaning Hope

VIP Fellow Ronald Ortizo has spent this year serving at Inland Valley Hope Partners.  He has played an instrumental role in developing Gleaning Hope, a project that utilizes volunteers to harvest produce donated by community members to supply Inland Valley Hope Partners food banks.

Check out pictures and stories from some of Gleaning Hope's big volunteer projects from the year on the Gleaning Hope blog.

Congrats on a successful year, Ronald!

How to Write a Great Recommendation for a Volunteer

Have you been asked to write a letter of recommendation for a volunteer?  Service is a great résumé builder, and most volunteers know it.  It is common for VIP AmeriCorps members or staff at our nonprofit partner sites to be asked to write recommendations for volunteers as they seek out jobs or spots in schools.

Here are some tips for writing great recommendation letters:

• Make it professional.  Address it as a business letter and write in complete sentences and paragraphs (unless you’d like to include a few bullet points among your paragraphs).  Check here for some advice on writing a business letter. 

• Explain who you are, confirm the volunteer's position, and state the amount of time they’ve been volunteering with your organization within the first paragraph of your letter.

• Include the volunteer’s strengths, skills, and talents.

•  Be truthful.  Lying won’t help you, won’t help the organization you’re writing to, and it won’t ultimately help your volunteer if you’ve made them seem to be a different individual then they actually are.  Lying will reflect poorly on you and your organization.  Boast of facts and traits you know the person to possess, just don’t over-embellish.

• Be concise.  Try for no longer than one printed page.  Interviewers are often short on time and will not take the time to read through a lengthy letter.

• Be specific.  Use specific examples of the individual's successes or how they live out the character traits that you list.  If you want an even better idea of what the volunteer's achievements have been outside of your organization that back up the character traits you address in the letter, ask them for a copy of their résumé to look over.

• If the letter is for a specific position, make it reflect that position.   Ask for the position description from the volunteer.  In your letter, explain how the characteristics you know the volunteer possesses will fit well into that specific position.  

• If the volunteer is asking for a general letter, include many of their skills.   This will help the volunteer as they may use the letter for a wide array of positions.

• If you don’t know the person or their work well, it’s okay to politely decline.  Recommend instead that they ask someone who they work more closely with – someone who could give them a reference that is more special.

9/11 Day of Service Webinar Series from HandsOn

Are you considering holding a service event for the 9/11 National Day of Service?  The HandsOn Network is offering a webinar series to support just that.  They'll have one webinar at 2 pm Eastern (that's 11 am our time) each day for the week next week, July 18 - 22.

Will your service with VIP end before 9/11?  That's alright!  You could take notes from any of the webinars that interest you and work with a staff at your organization to start planning a service project for this new Day of Service.  It's a great way to build the infrastructure for your organization to carry out service projects for this day in the future!

CalPoly VIP Fellows Recognized for AmeriCorps Week

Cal Poly VIP Fellows with the SLO County Board of Supervisors

Story by VIP Fellow Ryan Santillan

May featured National AmeriCorps Week, and Cal Poly participated in one promotional, two recognition, and two community service events.  As the coordinator of this week, I found the entire week to be rewarding in multiple ways.  Aside from the positive impact we continued to make in the community, the most rewarding part of this week was the proclaimed appreciation we received as an entire Corps, along with California Conservation Corps, by the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors. 

Tuesday morning of that week, our entire Corps attended the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors meeting where we were presented with a colorful, signed Proclamation by the Board recognizing not only our service to the community, but also the fact that May 15-21 is officially AmeriCorps Week for San Luis Obispo County.  Broadcasted on local television and radio stations, and receiving a standing ovation from the Board themselves and community members who attended, this was a great honor that I was proud to be a part of!

This year, especially for me, has been a trying year in the sense that my fellow Corps members and I put so much effort, passion, and dedication into our service that we sometimes don’t get recognized for it. While the occasional “great job!” and “thank you” comments are always appreciated, words can only offer so much.  This is why the other Lead VIPs and myself try to host actual recognition/appreciation events for our Corps members, because actions further prove one’s said appreciation of another.  So to be actually presented a tangible award, recognized in the media, and given an amazing standing ovation by the powerful men in charge of our county, it rid any amount of stress or negative emotion that we have ever experienced up until that moment.  It was at that meeting where I believe we were never more proud to be AmeriCorps members serving in San Luis Obispo County.     

Connecting Volunteers and Paid Staff

Good morning!

Connecting volunteers with paid staff is often a difficult task, but it is an important part of creating a sustainable volunteer program at any organization.  Check out this short blog from HandsOn about connecting volunteers and staff to get a few ideas of how to make it happen.

"It's our moral obligation"

Happy Friday!  As we head into Independence Day weekend, let's reflect on our great country and the spirit of service that makes us who we are.  In AmeriCorps, we've dedicated our year to get things done for America, and let's celebrate the great things we and our volunteers are doing for our neighbors and our communities.

Here is a great encouragement and challenge that reflects the dedication to service we all feel.  It comes from Karen, a featured volunteer with Twin Lakes Church and United Way through the Volunteer Center of Santa Cruz:

"I'm always looking for opportunities in the community, it's a fantastic way to reach out areas you might not know as well. There are so many avenues for volunteering, whether it's an opportunity to work directly with someone or to work behind the scenes. United Way provides a tremendous chance to plug into the community with your skill set. We all have a moral obligation to help people who are in need. We've all had tough times in our lives and appreciate the people who have worked to alleviate those troubles. Now we have a chance to turn around and help someone else. " 

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We'd also like to give a big THANK YOU to the few VIP Fellows whose term of service with AmeriCorps ended yesterday.  Thank you for your passion, your time, and skills in building great volunteer programs this year.  Best of luck in all that you do, and we hope you spend Monday celebrating this great place and the great things you've done for it this year.