“Volunteer,” “volunteerism,” and “volunteer service” are terms that are not easily understood by all groups of society.

I have been volunteering since I was 14, but my family struggles to understand what I do and why (and for that matter, what non-profit work is all about).

In addition to inspiring more people to volunteer in their communities and become leaders on community service projects, one of the things we hope to accomplish through our Get HandsOn Campaign is to help people of all cultures and ethnicities realize the value of volunteer service.

In my role, I am responsible for creating mutually beneficial partnerships with organizations that will help us meet our goals for inspiring and equipping more volunteers.

I come to you today to ask for your ideas about how to bring more people of diverse ages, cultures, socioeconomic status, etc., to volunteerism.

Do you know about organizations that engage diverse groups of people in service, or for whom service is a priority?

Perhaps they use a different term to describe the same thing. Are there other terms we should use to describe service that will resonate better with communities, or do we need to work harder to explain volunteerism and its benefits?

In addition to your own thoughts on this, if you know about organizations that might be interested in connecting with us, tell me about them!

Share your ideas with me here, or email me at .