Current skills-based volunteer opportunities with the VCCV

Today Skills-Based Volunteering (SBV) is the new way of doing volunteering. In a few 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.

• Nonprofit organizations and corporations, VCCV can help you!

• Volunteers – individuals or employee – you can help the VCCV supporting its myriad of nonprofit organizations.

From a baby boomer delivering free logistic consulting services to a food bank organization to a millennial teaching how to use multimedia for a better awareness of a fundraising event or to an architect helping redesign libraries in schools, skills-based volunteering is a strategic type of volunteerism that exponentially expands the impact of nonprofits 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 VCCV Partner in Volunteerism can ‘adopt’ a nonprofit entity to help it on a long run.

SBV is an innovative approach that is rapidly gaining recognition as a powerful driver of both social impact and business value. Skills-based volunteerism utilizes the skills, experience, talents and education of volunteers and matches them with the needs of nonprofits. By leveraging all types of knowledge and expertise, SBV helps build and sustain nonprofits’ capacity to achieve their missions successfully. Individual skilled volunteers may offer their particular expertise to a nonprofit agency, while corporate SBV involves employee volunteers working on projects for a nonprofit organization through a developed structured program.

The Volunteer Center of Cedar Valley offers skills-based opportunities for volunteers. Here are a few:
Calling all Artists – North Star Community Service

Financial Mentor/Tutor - The Job Foundation
Oral Historian - Cedar Falls Historical Society
Planetarium Assistant - Grout Museum District
Out Reach Coordinator Intern - Girl Scouts of Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois
Disaster Action Team Member- American Red Cross
Volunteer Office Assistant - Care Initiatives Hospice
Mending and Sewing Volunteer - Country View
Join a Blue Zones Project Committee - Cedar Valley Blue Zones Project
Advocates needed for Abused and Neglected Children - CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate Program
Office Administration Volunteer - Family & Children's Council of Black Hawk CountyBoard Members Needed - Cedar Bend Humane Society
Special Events Internship - Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northeast
Volunteer Attorneys Trained in Advance to Respond to Disasters - Iowa Legal Aid
Become an Extension Council Member - ISU Extension and OutreachTrain to Be A Domestic Violence Victim Advocate - Waypoint Services, Cedar Valley
Patient Advocate - Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare
Dan Gable Museum Seeking Volunteers - National Wrestling Hall of Fame Dan Gable MuseumRespite Providers for Area Foster Families - Iowa foster and Adoptive Parents Association
Hospitality Specialist - Cedar Falls Tourism and Visitors Bureau
Grass Roots Organizer - People’s Community Health Clinic

These are just a sampling of the volunteer needs of the 150 member agencies that are the Volunteer Center of Cedar Valley. Contact the Volunteer Center of Cedar Valley for more information about skills-based volunteering at (319) 272-2087, email, or visit www.vccv.org