Start a project committee. Designate a committee leader, such as an employee volunteer program manager, who will recruit representatives from other departments. A diverse committee can recruit volunteers from all parts of the organization. Engage your company’s management to further help champion the project and provide visible support.
Choose a project. Decide what activities are appropriate for your location and your employee volunteers. Consider corporate community involvement goals, employee interests and skills, community needs, and existing volunteer opportunities. Consider projects that encourage and provide opportunities for family volunteering. For more ideas, contact your local HandsOn Action Center or your local Corporate Volunteer Council, a coalition of businesses that are developing or have active employee volunteer programs, is also an excellent resource.
Contact a partner organization. Contact the prospective recipient organization to make sure they can use your services. Agree upon the objective, time, and location of the project, what supplies are needed, how many volunteers are needed, the project evaluation, and any other critical project management activities.
Communicate the project. Start posting fliers and posters throughout your office to recruit employee volunteers. Distribute a memo from top-level management encouraging employees to participate. Include messages in company newsletters, e-mail messages, and meetings. Also have executive secretaries, union leaders, and office managers recruit volunteers within their department.
Recruit volunteers. Hold meetings to explain the project. Sign-up volunteers for specic tasks. Send periodic pre-event updates to volunteers with event details, names of volunteers who have signed up, celebration party details, etc. Build excitement by showing the planned activities or distributing creative reminders. Approach employees one-on-one and do not forget to engage senior management as volunteers as well. A personal ask to volunteer goes a long way!
Finalize checklist. Verify that needed supplies are available. Go over the details with the partner organization. Organize leadership participation and support. Provide volunteers with clear instructions about event details. Distribute company logo volunteer T-shirts or buttons for employees to wear during the project.
Plan for media coverage. Partner with your internal communications department to contact the media and distribute press releases detailing your projects and the results of your effort to the community. Plan to arrange for a photographer—either an employee or professional photographer—to document the event. Be sure to get action shots and be able to identify people in the pictures.
Post-project steps. Plan a celebratory event immediately following the project. Recognize volunteers with certificates of appreciation or small tokens. Highlight volunteers in your annual report, internal newsletter, or at a special luncheon. Solicit volunteer feedback and evaluate the project. Post photos and results of project.
Today’s post about a Make A Difference Day project comes from , Director of Community Involvement – 
I’ve rolled up my sleeves alongside my colleagues on Make A Difference Day since 2003 and have seen the connections and have felt the celebration that happens when neighbors help neighbors. Some of our projects have been small, some of them have been transformative. All of them have brought us closer as a team, and given us the sense of accomplishment that comes when a group of people lend a hand together and get things done. Our projects have involved sweat, concentration, laughter and purpose.
Another wonderful aspect of our participation in Make A Difference Day is that our company covers the cost of all supplies needed to accomplish projects….it wouldn’t be right if the nonprofit groups were impacted financially, now would it? So we reimburse for items like paint and rollers, bushes and flowers, lumber or whatever was needed to make the project happen.
We all have talents, skills and time to give. I believe we have the opportunity to make a difference by volunteering and getting involved whether in groups, as families or as individuals. Let’s keep the momentum going to make a difference, to serve, and to be hands on!
by Michelle Nunn, CEO, 
While he was in college as a student at the University of Illinois, he created a student-run mobile health clinic that provides free medical screening services to the under-served and uninsured residents of Champaign County.
For example, earlier this year, 
Another partner, 
A final example, In this challenging economy, where the national unemployment rate still hovers around 10 percent, 
In the after math of Hurricane Katrina, Hands On sent a young AmeriCorps Alum, Kelly Bentz, to aid in the cleanup in New Orleans, intending for her to only stay for a few weeks.
