Skills-Based Volunteering

The resources of nonprofits across the nation are being stretched like never before, with the country seeing both a significant increase in needs and a considerable decrease in the financial resources available to meet those needs. To maintain current levels of service, and increase their capacity to meet the growing challenges, nonprofits must access a variety of skills and expertise that may not be available within the organizations themselves. At the same time, the corporate sector is beginning to recognize that it can create a greater impact on critical social issues by offering its own best resource – its professional expertise.

At the intersection of the challenges to be met and the expert human resources to meet those challenges is skills-based volunteering (SBV). This pioneering approach takes advantage of individuals’ skills and experience to help service organizations build and sustain their capacity to bring real solutions to our most pressing social problems.

Skills-based volunteering means leveraging the specialized skills and talents of individuals to strengthen the infrastructure of nonprofits, helping them build and sustain their capacity to successfully achieve their missions.

Examples include:

• Strategic and Business Planning Human Resources and Organizational Development
• Marketing and Communications Finance and Accounting
• Information Technology Logistics
• Product Development Fundraising and Development
• Project and Program Management Multi-media Strategy
• Pro bono services are an important type of SBV that provides a nonprofit with skills and expertise critical to maintaining a productive organization.

What SBV Means for Companies?

Good corporate citizenship is increasingly recognized as a key component of successful businesses, and skills-based volunteering is an effective way to improve a company’s reputation as a socially responsible organization.

What SBV Means for Nonprofits?

Skilled volunteers can help nonprofits do more with less by working on a wide variety of projects at no cost, including: creating marketing materials, developing new programs, training staff and raising money. 

Volunteer Connections

Skills-based volunteering opens the door to those seeking to use their personal and professional skills and talents to serve others. For those who volunteer through their employer’s SBV program, volunteering also provides a refreshing, creative change from daily work that enhances the overall work experience.

Thanks to the Corporation for National and Community Service for this information.

Skills-based Volunteering - Baby boomers

Baby Boomers—the generation of 77 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964—represent a potential boost to the volunteer world, not only because of the sheer size of the generation but also because of its members’ high levels of education, wealth, and skills. Based on U.S. Census data, the number of volunteers age 65 and older will increase 50 percent over the next 13 years, from fewer than 9 million in 2007 to more than 13 million in 2020. What’s more, that number will continue to rise for many years to come, as the youngest Baby Boomers will not reach age 65 until 2029. Harnessing Baby Boomers’ skills and accommodating their expectations will be critical to solving a wide range of social problems in the years ahead.

Today Skills-Based Volunteering (SBV) is the new way of doing volunteering. In 5 years from now SBV and Pro Bono volunteering services will be so natural that the expression will not need to be defined anymore. Using personal talents or professional competences will be a usual way for volunteers  to help nonprofit organizations in their internal organization – Pro Bono business oriented consulting services for free- or in the delivery of their services while developing new talents or leadership skills.

·     Non-profit organizations and corporations, the Volunteer Center of Cedar Valley can help you!

·     Volunteers, individuals or employees, you can help the Volunteer Center of Cedar Valley supporting its myriad of nonprofit organizations…

From a baby boomer delivering free logistic consulting services to a Food Bank organization to the millennial teaching how to use multi media for a better awareness of a fund raising event or to an architect helping re designing  library in schools, skills-based volunteering is a strategic type of volunteerism that exponentially expands the impact of nonprofit by incorporating a whole range of skills that strengthen the operations and services of nonprofit organizations.

Connecting the volunteer with the right skills to the right project at the right time will allow getting a greater impact and building stronger relationships between volunteers and the nonprofit sector. Therefore it means increasing the volunteer interest to do on-going projects for the already known organization. And why not to imagine that a Corporation can ‘adopt’ a nonprofit entity to help it In the long run, is proposing today to their local businesses.

For more information on Skills-Based Volunteering call Lauren Finke at the Volunteer Center of Cedar Valley at 319-272-2087, email at information@vccv.org, or visit www.vccv.org.

Thanks to the 2014 Points of Light Institute for this information.

Random Acts of Kindness

Random Acts of Kindness Week, Feb 9-15, is an annual seven day celebration of kindness. On the surface, it’s a week dedicated to performing simple acts of kindness. But really? It’s an opportunity to make kindness the norm instead of the exception.

Practicing kindness is more than just a nice thing to do; it’s also beneficial to overall well-being. Kindness is scientifically proven to boost health, happiness and societal goodwill. Kindness, like physical and academic skills, appears to be something that is not fixed, but rather can be enhanced with training and practice.

Potential Random Acts of Kindness:

1. Clean Up Graffiti
2. Donate Used Books to a Library
3. Give Care-packs to the Homeless
4. Give the Elderly the Gift of Music
5. Help a Child Learn
6. Help Someone for Free
7. Help Someone Whose Car is Broken Down
8. Help Someone with Snow Removal
9. Hold the Door Open for Someone
10. Let Someone Go in Line in Front of You
11. Cook a Meal for Someone
12. Make Blankets for the Homeless
13. Mentor an At-risk Child or Teen
14. Pay the Tab for the Person Behind You
15. Read to a Child
16. Read to the Elderly
17. Return a Shopping Cart
18. Thank Your Police or Fire Department
19. Write a Letter to Someone Who Made a Difference in Your Life
20. Study with a Classmate
21. Visit an Animal Shelter
22. Pick Up Trash
23. Pick Up your Toys
24. Use Less Plastic
25. Adopt a Soldier
26. Be a Designated Driver
27. Be a Friend Who Listens
28. Be Kind To Someone You Dislike
29. Bring Someone a Souvenir
30. Send Flowers
31. Call or Visit Someone Who is Sick
32. Clean Up After Yourself
33. Coach a Youth Sports Team
34. Collect Canned Food for a Food Bank
35. Cook a Healthy Meal
36. Donate Blood
37. Donate Used Clothing
38. Say Something Nice To Someone
39. Make Someone Laugh
40. Forgive Someone

For more information on Random Acts of Kindness call Lauren Finke at the Volunteer Center of Cedar Valley at 319-272-2087, email at information@vccv.org, or visit www.vccv.org.

Volunteering Your Professional Skills

Whether you are a competent cook, a brilliant book-keeper, a fun-loving fundraiser or a diligent director you have skills your community needs.

Skilled/Pro bono volunteering

Most volunteering requires some kind of skill. Even sorting donated clothing requires some reading and critical thinking skills. Bagging rice requires scooping and pouring skills.

According to the Corporation for National and Community Service, Skilled or pro bono volunteering refers to companies and individuals volunteering their professional skills to assist nonprofit organizations in creating or improving their business practices.

Professionals engage the community with diverse and unique skills

While most volunteering requires skill, it's important to highlight opportunities for professionals to lend their specialized skills to the community through volunteering.

Also, "skills" are not only practicing law, medicine, business, technology, and construction. The spectrum of skills includes interpersonal skills like employing empathy and patience, public speaking, mediating conflicts; and creative skills like crafting and theater.

So while one volunteer might have significant accounting experience, another may be adept at taking large complex problems and breaking them down into concrete, tangible steps.

Both volunteers have invaluable skills to contribute.

Examples of skilled volunteering

·        A hospice volunteer took the many thank-you cards received from grateful families of former patients and compiled them into a creative and heartfelt scrapbook. The scrapbook now resides in the hospice's waiting room where families of current patients — as well as staff and volunteers — can find comfort, and experience connection, with others who understand what they are going through.

·        A new volunteer for an organization that builds affordable housing came in wanting to help with construction and, in the course of his interview, the volunteer resource manager learned that he had experience garnered from a 25+ year career in urban planning. While the volunteer wasn't interested in volunteering around the planning aspects of affordable housing (now in his retirement, he was seeking new projects to try), he was up for providing advice from time to time. In the end, both parties were happy: the organization had access to his expertise on an ad hoc advisory basis and he spent most of his volunteer time on doing hands-on construction on a worksite.

Assessing your skills

As you prepare to look for your ideal volunteer opportunity, take a few minutes to assess your skills.

·        What are you good at?

·        What comes easy for you?

·        What aspects of your professional life might be assets to an organization or community effort?

·        What personal or interpersonal talents do you have?
To help you with this exercise, consider going through the following (although by no means complete!) list of potential skills and abilities:

Accounting	Advocacy/Lobbying	Beautician/ Cosmetology	Blogging
Carpentry	Clerical	Coaching/Sports	Communications
Community Organizing	Computer Hardware	Cooking/Nutrition	Copywriting/Web Text
Crafting	Creative Writing	Dance	Data Analysis/ Statistics
Database Design/Mgmt	Docent/Leading Tours	Editing	Electrical
Engineering	Event Planning	Financial Planning	Foreign Languages
Fundraising	Grant Writing	Graphic Design	Health/Medical Experience
Illustration	IT Experience	Journalism	Leadership/Mgmt
Legal/Law Experience	Legislation/Policy	Library Science	Marketing/Public Relations
Masonry	Mediation/Conflict Resolution	Mentoring/Tutoring	Musical Arts
Outdoor Activities	Photography	Podcasting	Problem Solving
Plumbing	Public Speaking	Research	Sales/Retail Experience
Sign Language	Social Media/ Networking	Software Development	Strategic Planning
Teaching	Telephone Skills	Theater Arts	Translation
Videography	Visual Arts (Drawing, painting, etc.)	Volunteer Management	Web Development

Once you've got a good working list of your own skills and abilities, think about how you might want to contribute them.

·        Are there certain things you're good at but just not interested in doing as a volunteer? For example, you might spend your days developing and managing websites but would rather do something entirely different as a volunteer.

·        Conversely, are there certain skills you'd love to develop and are seeking a volunteer position that will help you do just that?

For more information on skills volunteering call Lauren Finke at the Volunteer Center of Cedar Valley at 319-272-2087 or visit www.vccv.org.