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.