Stay up to date: Read weekly volunteer news from Points of Light

For VIP Fellows and others working with volunteers, staying on top of trends and news in the worlds of volunteering and philanthropy can give one's organization the edge to recruit the best volunteers and keep them coming back.

Thanks to Points of Light, it's easy to stay on top of current volunteering news.  Every Friday they put out a volunteer news roundup - check it out or sign up for their RSS feed to stay up to date!

US Volunteers Continue to Produce Results

by Cody Cibart, VIP Statewide Leader 

Good deeds aren’t just limited to the holiday season. According to Volunteering and Civic Life in America, a report issued by the Corporation for National and Community Service, 64.3 million Americans (more than one in four adults) volunteered through a formal organization last year. That’s an increase of 1.5 million people from the year before. 

California volunteers alone contributed 977.9 million hours of service, valued at $20.9 billion. 

The report goes on to highlight the support and contributions of AmeriCorps and Senior Corps programs that serve communities throughout the U.S. “Every day, AmeriCorps and Senior Corps members help more than three million disadvantaged youth by serving as teachers, tutors, mentors, and counselors,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

With the national volunteer rate reaching a five-year high, civic engagement is as prominent as ever. As residents become more involved within their neighborhoods it creates a ripple effect that inspires others to do the same. 

CalSERVES VIP is proud that our dedicated AmeriCorps members continue to bridge local organizations with volunteer support. Thank you to our program participants for your hard work and continued contributions! 

Explore more information about volunteering in America here.

Celebrate Volunteers 55+ and the difference they make: May 7-11 is Senior Corps Week:

This week is the second annual Senior Corps Week, celebrating the service and community contributions of volunteers ages 55 and over.  These Baby Boomer volunteers make up a large and vital part of the service movement in our country.  Did you know that there are over 300,000 senior citizens serving through Senior Corps programs like RSVP, Foster Grandparents, and Senior Companions? 

See the Huffington Posts's story about Senior Corps Week and post pictures of senior citizens volunteering.  Or, get news from the Senior Corps on Facebook.

And, did you know that President Obama declared May Older Americans Month in this proclamation from last week?  This month is a great time to appreciate the older and wiser citizens around us, especially if they serve around you.

How will you be appreciating older Americans this week and month?

"Like" the CalSERVES Facebook page and $1 will be donated to promote child literacy!

CalSERVES is participating in the Sonoma County Human Race on Saturday, May 5.  As a part of our efforts to support child literacy through this event, we're donating $1 to fund our summer programs for children for every new "like" on our Facebook page.

"Like" us today, and help us support summer literacy for our students!

Want to help even more?  Donate to CalSERVES and help children preserve precious academic ground over the summer.

Thanks for the support!

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!

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.