CSU Monterey Bay VIPs launch MLK Service Pledge Drive

 The largest MLK celebration near CSU Monterey Bay is the City of Seaside’s annual March and Celebration Program organized each year by the Monterey Peninsula Chapter of the National Pan-Hellenic Council.  The dilemma posed to our cohort of CSUMB VIP Fellows was how to include a service event that would not compete with this venerable local tradition.

The solution was the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 40 Days of Service Challenge.  We realized that year after year, the program had included exhortations from various key note speakers for community members to “get involved” – but this goal was left undefined and no concrete list of volunteer opportunities were provided.

So VIP Leader Steven Goings collaborated with the program’s principle coordinator, Alice Jordan, to design a volunteer service pledge drive that would kick off the MLK Day of Service and extend it through February’s Black History Month.   Our goal was to get 1000 hours of service pledged to selected non-profit organizations featured in the program as MLK Challenge Organizations with a focus on health and education.  Other prominent MLK Challenge Orgs other than our VIP sites included the Food Bank of Monterey County, the Salvation Army, African American HIV/AIDS Wellness, Kiwanis Club and the United Way Monterey County Volunteer Center.

When the day arrived, all our VIP Fellows were given volunteer roles to facilitate the set-up, smooth running, and break down of the event.  From working in the kitchen, to stuffing pledge cards in the program, to monitoring parking and of course picture taking, our Fellows were a real presence at the event.  We marched with both the AmeriCorps Week and MLK Day of Service banners and of course our VIP partner sites were among those official MLK Challenge Organizations that tabled at the event.

At the end of the program, VIP leader Steven Goings announced that the number of pledged hours collected came to a grand total of 2385!  Through our collaboration with the United Way, we also made community members aware of services they could take advantage of such as the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program and dialing “2-1-1” for a wide variety of health and human services.

Non-profits, VIP Fellows, program organizers and program goers alike all expressed appreciation and enthusiasm for this welcome new service element to the annual festivities and in fact we have heard from many organizations who vow to duplicate our efforts at local schools and other arenas.

All-in-all our VIP Fellows managed to put service closer to the center of our community’s celebrations of the legacy of Dr. King, raise the profile of both AmeriCorps and our local partner sites, serve in support of the march and program, and initiate a pledge drive that took minimal coordination with maximal impact.  We couldn’t be prouder of CSU Monterey Bay’s AmeriCorps VIPs.

Trending: engage businesses in volunteering

CSR, or corporate social responsibility, is the buzzword of the times in the volunteer management world.  As consumers become more concerned, more community-minded, and more aware of how every dollar they spend makes a difference, more and more people are driven to support businesses that are doing good.

In turn, businesses are responding by doing good in a myraid of ways - including organizing teams of employees or fans to support a certain cause.  More and more, businesses are sending their built-in people power to support good that's already going on around them.  Their strategy?  Create an employee volunteering program. And this is where nonprofits can help these businesses make a difference.


Have you reached out to businesses to seek volunteers?  If not, you're missing out on an opportunity that could not only provide  your organization with more time, volunteers, and expertise, but an opportunity that businesses are looking for to boost their reputation and gain favor of the communities they work in.

Here are some ideas to help you get started in approaching businesses about forming an employee volunteering program:

• Make the case.  Do your homework and figure out why a business and its employees would be interested in partnering with your organization in the first place.  Does their business connect somehow to the service you do in the community?  Do their employees benefit from your organization's services?  Also consider: what can your organization offer in return for their partnership?  Highlighting the business logo on your website, featuring their volunteering efforts in your newsletter or social media are a couple of common ideas.  Check out this resource from HandsOn for more information on EVPs.  And be sure to take a look at these 10 reasons why doing good is good for business.  

• Have a plan. Take your research about the company's interests and get creative.  Come up with a couple of options for the business to consider that align with their goals.  A couple of potential plans might start with:
• The business invites all employees to an all-day service day with your organization twice a year or once a quarter.  The business takes on the responsibility of recruiting a minimum number of volunteers for each service day.  (This is a great way for businesses to promote a positive work culture and build relationships among staff members.)  In return, your organization will organize all logistics for the service days, provide opportunities during or around the service activity to allow employees to connect, and will list the business as a sponsor on the organization's website.
• The business allows employees to use up to 4 paid hours per month volunteering at your organization.  (This is a great system for businesses whose employees have a special interest in specific programs run by your organization.)  In return, your organization will recognize the business's employee volunteers at fundraising dinners and will feature an article in the organization's newsletter twice a year that highlights the business and its volunteer contributions.

• Find a contact.  To establish an EVP, upper management levels of a business will need to be involved.  You may start your conversations with employees in the Human Resources (or maybe even Marketing?) department, but to establish a program like this you'll need to know  the key players at the company who make the big decisions.

• Make the pitch. Create promotional materials, a presentation, handouts (like this one from HandsOn), or anything else you might use to make your pitch look polished.  This is key if you're trying to make the point that your opportunity will be good for the business's image.  You will need to establish that your organization is a great one that does great community work and carries a great image in the community.

Do you have any wisdom to share in generating corporate volunteers?  Tells us in the comments!

Learn more: attend a VolunteerMatch Webinar

What could be better than free learning?  Check out this opportunity from Volunteer Match: a free webinar on engaging millennials in volunteering, happening tomorrow:
 http://learn.volunteermatch.org/webinars/friends-benefits-how-nonprofits-should-engage-millennial-volunteers

Pledge to serve on MLK Day: Monday 1/21/13

Last week we featured a blog article to get you inspired to serve on MLK Day.  Have you made the commitment to serve yet?

 In the words of MLK,

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.

Take a step towards living and serve the community this Monday.  Join us and other citizens around the country, and make a pledge to make a difference.