Leaving the Nest: Reflections of a VolunteerMatch Intern

by Cristopher Bautista posted on May 18, 2012

This post also appears on Volunteering is CSR.

Editor’s Note: As our amazing interns transition out of their roles at VolunteerMatch, they’re reflecting on what brought them to work with us, what they’ve accomplished, and where they’re headed. We hope you’ll be as inspired as we have been by these “ultimate volunteers!”

I’m Cris Bautista and I’m the Communications and Social Media Intern at VolunteerMatch. You’ve probably read my blog posts here about the importance of diversity and introverted volunteers.

Now my reign as intern is coming to an end, and I’ve been given the opportunity to write a bit about myself.

My Background

As a sophomore at Stanford, I began transitioning from female to male. As if figuring out my own identity wasn’t complicated enough, my school often didn’t meet my needs — professors called me the wrong name, housing was awkward, and it took two years to change my ID.

I started asking for things, and before I knew it I became an activist. I spoke with several student groups and administrators and even wrote a column senior year in order to help raise awareness and change school policies. Now Stanford is much more transgender-inclusive, and I’m glad I left that mark on my alma mater.

After graduation I soon realized that despite my school’s inadequacies, they were tiny obstacles compared to the rampant inequality that existed in the real world. I live in a society that assumes people like me don’t exist. Unemployment for transgender folks is twice the rate of the general population (four times the general population for people of color) and 44% of transgender people are underemployed.

When I logged onto Facebook or Twitter over my first cup of coffee each morning, I was bombarded with horrible things – transgender teens committing suicide, another transgender person murdered, the increase of hate crimes towards transgender women of color. I lived in a world where people like me were hurt and killed on a regular basis, and when we do survive, we are punished for it.

That was a world that I wasn’t okay with, and a world I was going to change.

I discovered nonprofits like the National Center for Transgender Equality and the Transgender Law Center – organizations whose missions matched mine. I realized the nonprofit world was my world.

I spent several months unsuccessfully applying to jobs. Then browsing through Idealist one day, I found an internship opportunity with VolunteerMatch. I applied, and to my surprise, I got it.

What I’ve Learned at VolunteerMatch

When I arrived to VolunteerMatch, I had the energy, but I didn’t know what I had to offer. Thanks to the people here, I have not only learned specific skills in social media and communications, but I’ve discovered more about myself, how I work and what I care about.

Every cause is connected.

When I took on this internship position at VolunteerMatch, I had the initial plan of learning what I needed to learn and then find an LGBT nonprofit to work for. But as I interacted with nonprofits and volunteers I came to care for other causes, as well. LGBT issues are still important to me, but I’ve become more aware of the intersections between different social needs.

LGBT issues don’t exist in a vacuum — they are entwined with immigration issues, challenges facing people with disabilities, women’s rights, reproductive rights, children’s rights, poverty as well as others. Through VolunteerMatch, I’ve realized that there are many causes that I am invested in, and I hope to work on these issues during my career.

Social media can catalyze social change.

Before VolunteerMatch, I always thought that Facebook was where all productivity goes to die. It had never occurred to me that there possibly was a connection between my borderline obsession with Facebook and nonprofits.

During my internship I discovered how technology is used to promote, support and connect with both nonprofits and volunteers. I was able to apply my experience with Facebook to other websites, from Twitter, to Pinterest, and even Google Adwords.

Each social media platform has a different set of tools and caters to different audiences — in particular, social media is necessary in order to connect with younger people, such as college students. I wrote about social media, like using blogs for volunteer recruitment and retention, and utilizing Facebook Pages for your organization (complete with a video tutorial featuring my awesome voice). I even tweeted at a conference once and made some great professional connections. Keeping an open mind and adapting to new social media is essential to maximizing nonprofit impact.

Marginalized communities, even when geographically spread out, can come together online and synchronize their voices and their cause. Nonprofits, by using social media, can reach more people than ever at little to no cost. The potential for social change through social media is so mind-numbingly exciting, and I get to be part of that.

Working for social justice is a marathon, not a sprint.

I can easily get excited about a project and work on it for hours on end. But more than once I’ve burned out from exhaustion.

While at VolunteerMatch I’ve learned about the nitty gritty practical stuff when working for a nonprofit. Yes, the drive and passion are necessary, but working for a nonprofit isn’t a sprint. It’s a marathon. When I come into the office, I have a set number of tasks I intend to complete for the day. I make sure I get those tasks done — no more, no less.

Many nonprofits are stretched thin, with employees working long hours in the office and even continuing to work when they get home. I know that I’ll feel the pressure to do that as well. But I also know that taking care of myself and achieving a healthy balance in life is important, so when I’m at the office, I feel energized enough to maximize my productivity.

I’ve discovered the importance of working at a steady, sustainable pace, which I know will help me when it comes to fighting for causes in the long run.

So What’s Next?

I’m glad I can add VolunteerMatch to my story. The people I’ve worked with have challenged me and pushed me to do my best, and for that I’m grateful. Now I can finally go out and help organizations achieve their mission.

After building up a couple years of experience working for nonprofits, I plan to get a masters in nonprofit management and support the marginalized of the LGBT community through empowerment programs, similar to the Transgender Economic Empowerment Initiative at the San Francisco LGBT Center. Eventually, I want to become a director for an LGBT community center somewhere in the United States.

Watch out, nonprofit world. This won’t be the last you hear from me.

If you want to contact me for job opportunities or just want to know me a little better, my email is cristopher.s.bautista@gmail.com. You can also follow me at @CristopherMarc and connect with me on LinkedIn.

Is Your Organization Benefiting from Corporate Volunteer Grants?

by Shari Ilsen posted on May 16, 2012

Posted in Fundraising

Guest post by Adam Weinger, Double the Donation

What do Verizon, CarMax, and State Farm all have in common? They all offer volunteer grant programs.

Volunteer grant programs, also known as “Dollars for Doers” programs, are charitable giving programs set up by corporations in which the company provides a monetary donation to eligible nonprofits as a way to recognize employees who volunteer. They enable corporations to give back to their communities and support organizations that employees are already passionate about.

Although volunteer grants are a relatively new form of corporate giving, they’re already widely offered among Fortune 500 companies and are catching on at smaller firms. For instance:

The Verizon Volunteers Program provides $750 grants for 50 volunteer hours.
State Farm’s Good Neighbor Grant Program recognizes employees with a $500 grant for 40 volunteer hours.
CarMax’s Matching Hours Program awards $10 for every hour volunteered.

In fact, hundreds of companies offer volunteer grant programs with donations generally ranging from $10-$15 per hour volunteered.

How Do Volunteer Grant Programs Work?

Volunteer grant programs provide an easy way to raise money from volunteers without asking them to take out their checkbooks. They’re already actively giving their time to organizations like yours, and are glad to take a few minutes to request grants from their employers – grants that could equal hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars for your nonprofit.

Volunteer grant programs consist of five steps:

Individuals volunteer.
Nonprofits notify eligible volunteers – Program descriptions are often buried inside employee benefit books. Volunteers can’t submit grant requests if they aren’t aware of their company’s program, so be sure to ask them about it and help them find the answer.
Volunteers submit grant requests – Either electronically or using a paper form.
Nonprofits validate grant requests – Verifying that an individual is a volunteer and that the organization is an accredited school or 501(c)(3) organization.
Corporations cut checks.

Taking Advantage of Volunteer Grant Programs

Increasing volunteer grants can be boiled down to two steps: Raising awareness, and making it easy for donors.

Raising Awareness

Most individuals have never even heard of employee volunteer grant programs. Here are some ways you can explain and advertise volunteer grants:

Social media
Email signatures
Newsletter articles
Website links

Making It Easy

You can always ask volunteers to check with HR, but investing time yourself to research employers will yield a higher percentage of eligible volunteers who actually follow through and submit a grant request. Don’t let volunteers get hung up looking for information.

Provide them with as much of the following as possible:

Up-to-date company policies
Minimum volunteer hours required
Printed forms or links to the online submission process
Your nonprofit’s contact information (Tax ID, address, fundraising contact)

Alternatively, you can sign up with a service such as Double The Donation. We specialize in increasing fundraising from matching gifts and volunteer grants. You can create a custom branded mini-site so your volunteers can immediately assess their eligibility and gain access to detailed corporate giving information about their employer.

Volunteers want to help! If you raise awareness and make it easy for them, you’ll see an increase in volunteer grants.

Adam Weinger is the founder of Double The Donation, a company focused on helping nonprofits increase the amount of money they raise from corporate matching gift and volunteer grant programs.

An Inspirational Journey: Gaining Experience in CSR

by Carley Klekas posted on May 15, 2012

Posted in VolunteerMatch news

This post also appears on Volunteering is CSR.

Why I Love VolunteerMatch

First of all, I would like to say that VolunteerMatch is awesome and the people that work here are an inspiration. Before I get into the details of where I came from, what I accomplished while I was here as the Marketing & Insights Intern, and what adventure I want to embark on next, I must share some details about my fellow colleagues. I learned so much from each one of them.

From the organization’s President to the amazing communications team and everyone in between, each of them played an important role in the joy and learning journey I experienced while I was here. Each person at VolunteerMatch is unique and has inspired me in some sort of way.

From my first day within the VolunteerMatch walls I was blown away by their kindness, generosity and how much they genuinely liked being around each other. Most of my experience in the working world wasn’t quite like this. The people that work for VolunteerMatch are authentic, highly intelligent and interesting people. How much better does it get than to work every day to connect good people with good causes and to be constantly reminded of it? I couldn’t think of the people at VolunteerMatch more highly and I truly enjoyed every single day I spent working here. And honestly, I don’t want it to end.

My History and Experience in CSR

Before VolunteerMatch I was working for another agency doing corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability work in San Francisco, which was where I got my first official exposure to CSR. Before that I served as a Business Manager for a natural body products company headquartered in San Francisco, where I became an ardent promoter of safe and clean cosmetics.

And prior to that during my time at University of California, Santa Barbara I led grassroots efforts and coordinated campaigns and media coverage for the Forest Awareness and Clean Energy Solutions Campaigns with the California Public Interest Research Group. Initially I got led into CSR because of my passion for environmental awareness and my desire to make a positive impact on social causes.

At my last agency I began working intensely to help them cultivate themselves as an organization at the forefront of sustainable marketing communications. When my time there was up, I found VolunteerMatch.

As a long-time committed volunteer for many social and environmental causes and having had a working knowledge of CSR, I was intrigued to think about why volunteering isn’t something CSR professionals talk about more. I knew immediately that it is an influential piece of the CSR puzzle and I knew I wanted to help convince people of that, which is exactly what the communications team at VolunteerMatch is already doing.

Why VolunteerMatch?

From the moment I came to interview at VolunteerMatch and started talking to Casey Brennan, the Marketing and Insights Manager, I knew it was meant to be. We understood each other’s lingo, and we instantly connected. I knew the opportunity was great given her vast knowledge of CSR. Casey is a great leader and manager, she is intelligent and engaging and I truly enjoyed working with her every day. I learned something from her, even from our very first conversation.

So when I found out the next day that I got the internship from Robert Rosenthal, another extremely insightful individual, I was ecstatic. Having looked for Sustainability and CSR related positions quite intensely for the last 3 months, I was jumping for joy.

There is something about a career in Sustainability that just makes me want to run with it and never look back. I think it’s due to my undeniable passion for environmental causes and my desire to be at the forefront of emerging media, thought leadership and technologies that are better for our planet and for society. Yes, the field is in its infancy, but somehow that draws me in even more because the work is so vital in today’s world and I want to be one of the enthusiastic individuals to help see it grow.

Engaging Projects

VolunteerMatch Insights

One of the biggest and most exciting projects that I worked on while I was here was titled “VolunteerMatch Insights: CSR Data, Trends & Resources.” I took this project from a concept with the brainstorming collaboration of Casey, to a finished product containing an 83 page slide deck, a 27 page InDesign presentation and a 2 page Excel document containing citations. The resource will be used as a toolkit for staff to streamline the abundance of research studies available in the field.

The work I did on this project was in depth and extensive and I enjoyed every minute of it. I began by researching and reading every study that I could find related to CSR, volunteering and employee engagement. I weeded through what was most relevant and then pulled statistics, graphs and stories that helped to depict a total of 18 themes I created demonstrating why volunteering is a necessary part of CSR and employee engagement.

After the project was completed I also created a 1 pager that will be used at the 2012 VolunteerMatch Client Summit this week, pulling in a few of the most influential statistics from the project. Overall this work made me extremely well versed in issues of employee engagement, corporate volunteer programs and CSR industry trends. And most importantly for my fellow colleagues at VolunteerMatch, it demonstrated why their job is so awesome and so important.

Blogging and Additional Projects

While I was at VolunteerMatch I also wrote several articles for the “Volunteering is CSR” Blog. Before I came to VolunteerMatch, although I was already a Twitter user, I had never written a blog post. With the insightful help of Shari Ilsen, the Online Communications Manager, I quickly learned that the most important things about writing a blog post are knowing your audience, being concise and using hyperlinks. I also wrote webinar recaps of the Best Practice Network Webinars.

Additionally, I got to know the ins and outs of 3BL Media as a resource and uploaded numerous pieces of content from the communications team’s blog posts and my other fellow intern Cristopher Bautista.

After attending the 2012 VolunteerMatch Client Summit on May 17-18, the last project I will work on here will be to create a survey to be taken by VolunteerMatch corporate clients about their employee volunteer programs. Through that survey we will learn the details for effectiveness at each program and the best practices that are being utilized by each one.

Do I Have to Go?

Like I said before, I wish I didn’t have to leave VolunteerMatch. The people here are inspiring, and although they are intimately completing the details of their job everyday, I truly feel that each one of them wants to make the world a better place and that’s why they are here. And that to me is what it’s all about.

So where will I go next? Well, I still want to work in CSR and sustainability, just like I did when I got here. I envision my next adventure to be a lot like my work at VolunteerMatch, but with a greater emphasis on environmental sustainability because it’s my true passion.

I am looking into the following opportunities:

An environmental NGO or nonprofit
A company whose mission is environmentally driven or who offers environmental or sustainable products
A company not initially centered around sustainability but who has environmental or socially conscious initiatives

If you’re reading this post and you know of an opportunity for someone who is extremely passionate about sustainability and is willing to go the extra mile every time, or you just want to chat, please contact me at (805) 452-7585, carleyklekas@gmail.com, my Linkedin profile or follow me on Twitter @theearthygal.

Why the National Conference on Volunteering and Service is More Relevant than Ever

by Shari Ilsen posted on May 14, 2012

Posted in Conferences & events NCVS

Last year it was in New Orleans, and it was a great time. From swag bags to days of service to inspirational local connections, the National Conference on Volunteering and Service (NCVS) put on a good show in 2011. We’re expecting this year’s event in Chicago June 18-20 to be even better.

What

Presented by Points of Light, NCVS is annually the world’s largest gathering of volunteer and service leaders from the nonprofit, corporate and government sectors. Anyone who is “ready to pave the way for a fresh approach to civic engagement” is invited, and as you can imagine this includes everyone from Americorps and Senior Corps members to Kevin Bacon.

The speaker list for the conference is impressive, and seeing these accomplished people talk in person about their work would be reason enough to go. Some highlights include former First Lady Barbara Bush, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Craig Newmark, founder of both craigslist and craigconnects.

There are simply too many sessions to pull any out here, but the NCVS site allows us to browse sessions by track, point of interest, date and more without registering first.

Why

So why do we think it’s especially important to go to the National Conference on Volunteering and Service this year? There are several critical issues impacting the nonprofit and volunteering sectors that could potentially come to a head in 2012, and being educated and connected about how we can play a part in the outcome could make all the difference. For example:

2012 is an election year, and not surprisingly, the economy is a key campaign issue. With each candidate feeling the pressure to cut spending, the budgets of national service agencies like the Corporation for National and Community Service will be in more danger. Additionally, funding for nonprofit programs at the federal, state and local levels will be revisited and reworked.
Edelman just released its latest goodpurpose study, which reveals a dramatic increase in consumers’ expectations of companies to be active in social causes. This is leading to more companies investing more money and more employee time in community engagement, including volunteering.
With over 75,000 active volunteer opportunities listed on the VolunteerMatch site, we’re seeing our highest number of listings in more than 5 years. Add to that the fact that we recently surpassed 6,000,000 volunteer referrals, and it’s clear that volunteers are becoming more and more key to nonprofit operations, and there are plenty of people out there willing to step up and help out when asked.

Can you think of other reasons why this year, especially, is important for volunteering and service? Leave your comments below and check out the National Conference on Volunteering and Service.

Building a Community Online AND Off

by Shari Ilsen posted on May 9, 2012

Posted in Web 2.0/social media

Guest post by Harrison Kratz, Tweet Drive

Members of the Tweet Drive 2011 community

It’s no secret that social good is one of the biggest trends and buzzwords in the world of social media. People are flocking to get involved with trending causes, but while many are spreading at unprecedented levels, some of these causes are missing the mark.

This is due in large part to over emphasis on social media engagement rather than real world action. The fundamentals of a social good cause and community are important regardless of the medium they use.

Ultimately, social good is all about rallying others to create social change for the better and influence our surrounding social environments – online and off.

Causes are about the people more than anything else. So, how can online social good and offline causes alike get people involved and turn their volunteers into champions in this new age of activism and communication? By sticking to the fundamentals of course…

These are three things that are present in every successful cause and community of volunteers:

1. Inspiration

Every successful cause starts with the ability to inspire others. We may have new media to get our message across, but with inspiration comes real-world action.

When building your cause or volunteer community, you have to ask yourself if your message will inspire not only your friends, but also those you have never met. Volunteers donate their time and you have to understand that commitment does not happen lightly or easily. How will you get those involved to not ask why they are doing this, but how can your goals be met?

To take action, your volunteers need to believe in the cause and feel the impact that they are making, otherwise your message will become the tree in the forest that nobody heard fall.

2. Leadership

Any great cause or campaign needs a clear leader. Inspiration is extremely important in recruiting volunteers and getting people involved, but strong leadership is essential to growing and building upon momentum. Strong leaders are there to provide direction, answer the tough questions, and carry the message to those involved.

When strong leadership is absent, a cause’s impact or message is likely to get lost after initial support. Take for example the first Kony 2012 video that went completely viral several months ago. Their follow up video only garnered 2% of the interaction they saw on the first video. That may have had something to do with controversial statistics about the campaign and vulgar behavior by the founder that was captured on TMZ.

Those developments showed how important strong leadership and trust is from top to bottom. To get volunteers active and involved, influence must complement inspiration.

3. Communication

The final step to building a volunteer community is efficient communication. As previously mentioned when talking about leadership, being able to convey your message effectively is immensely important.

Ultimately, effective communication should empower your volunteers and champions to utilize social media and spread the cause’s mission with their networks. By establishing clear and concise communication, you can turn your volunteers into brand champions with the tools they need to spread your message.

Additionally, effective communication will allow your volunteers to lead and organize their own communities and evolve your cause and mission. In the end, your focus should be to enable your volunteers to be the change that they want to see.

Whether it’s through social media or door to door visits, these fundamentals will help you build an army that is passionate around your cause. As my friend and social media expert Jay Baer says, “It’s not enough to have social, you have to be social.”

Harrison Kratz is the community manager for MBA@UNC, one of the nation’s leading online MBA programs from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Harrison also sticks to his entrepreneurial roots as the founder of the global social good campaign, Tweet Drive.