Guest Blogger: Kayla Mathews

Many people, especially those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, often don’t have access to professional development resources, the ones that spur careers and help you achieve personal goals. In fact, 36 million Americans lack even basic work skills, making it challenging to find meaningful employment.

Guest post by Olivia Ryan

Whether through a job interview, a business deal, or simply a first interaction, you may have noticed: the first impression always counts. When talking specifically about volunteer interviews, there’s one important trait that will always impress: your motivation.

Team-building is a great reason to volunteer. Employees who volunteer together have the opportunity to form closer bonds. At larger companies, a corporate volunteer event might be an employees’ first interaction with a co-worker from a different team or department.

But that’s only part of the equation.

For more than a decade, leading companies have been investing in making their community engagement programs more strategic. This is why so few have succeeded — until now.

In 2002, a ground-breaking article, The Competitive Advantage of Corporate Philanthropy, appeared in the Harvard Business Review. In it, Michael Porter and Mark Kramer challenged the prevailing argument at the time that philanthropy and business were inherently contradictory. Instead, they made the point, which has shaped a generation of business leaders, that companies can, and should, “…systematically apply their distinctive strengths to maximize the social and economic value created by their philanthropy.”

There are lots of fantastic reasons to volunteer. You can help a person or cause, make a difference in your community, build lifelong friendships, and more.

Did you know, however, that volunteer work can have a significant (and positive!) impact on your career and your future? Whether you’re trying to get into college, attempting to land your first post-college job, or looking to move up in the workplace, here are five reasons volunteering is great for career development.

Companies with engaged employees outperform those without by up to 202%. Surprising?

It’s simple: when your employees aren’t engaged, they aren’t productive, and employee retention drops. Employees may begin to explore outside opportunities if they sense that their current role with your company isn’t — and isn’t about to become — fulfilling.

Guest post by Nicole Boyer

Volunteering is more than spending one’s time actively participating in selfless acts or activities that benefit other people. It has a greater impact on society as a whole. Volunteers are of great help to the community as they immerse themselves in a pool of opportunities. These opportunities are one reason why we need to encourage more students to volunteer.

Guest post by Nicole Boyer

It isn’t always easy to attract volunteers to help with your cause. There are just so many different nonprofits out there nowadays competing for the same pool of people that it can be hard to find new volunteers.

For that reason, you’ve got to think outside-the-box: come up with ways that not everybody is leveraging. Not feeling that creative?

Here are few ideas to help you get started.

Guest post by Jason Miner

With National Volunteer Week approaching, and events in Boston and Texas reminding us of the importance of community, it’s become even clearer that volunteers really are the backbone of nonprofit organizations.

Volunteers help with fundraising, administrative tasks and operations, and they help spread the word about the mission of the organization. And although volunteers tend to perform such duties out of the care and concern they have for the goals set forth by the organization, there are a few key strategies that can be used to make these all-important volunteers feel recognized and appreciated: