Posts Tagged ‘New Year’s resolutions’

9 Ways to Make Volunteering a Part of Your New Year

Thursday, January 3rd, 2013

It’s a brand new year and many of us have made resolutions to make our lives better in one way or another. We hope your resolutions include working to make your community better, too!

But where do you start? How do you make your community a better place? We have some tips to get started, and we’d love to hear about what you’re doing!

Find a cause you care about.

This is the best first step, because if you’re not connected to the work that you’ll be doing, it’s not going to be any fun. What do you care about most in your community? Does your local school system need a little help? Are there a lot of stray animals in your neighborhood? Do you love the way your library smells and want everyone to be as excited about books as you are?

Once you’ve found something in your community you’d like to make better, then…

Find a way to help.

One of the easiest ways to find a way to get involved in a cause that you care about it is to volunteer with an organization that’s already supporting that cause.  You can find thousands of volunteer opportunities with HandsOn Network affiliates across the country.

Do a little research.

Spend a bit of time on the websites of the organizations that host the projects you’re interested in. Find out how they support the causes you’re interested in and learn about the work they do in your community. If you find a nonprofit you’d like to support and a way to support them that sounds fun, you can…

Sign up for a project!

Each of our affiliates has a way to sign up for projects on their site. They’re not all the same, but it’s really easy!

Remember it’s OK to ask questions.

It’s alright to ask questions about the project before you show up. Project listings should have a person to contact if you have any questions about what the project is about and how you need to prepare. A lot of questions are answered in the project descriptions, but if your question isn’t it’s alright to get in touch with the event organizer so you’re ready for the day when you show up!

Show up ready to have fun.

You’re volunteering because there’s a cause you care about, right? That doesn’t mean you can’t have a good time! The best way to make sure you’ll have fun at your first volunteer experience is to go in with an open mind.

You might be asked to do something different than what you signed up for, or you might be asked to something you don’t know how to do. Keep an open mind and try it out, you might learn a thing or two, or find something you never thought you’d love to do! Volunteering can be serious business, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun.

Take time to reflect on your experience.

A lot of volunteer projects have some time set aside at the end of the project to think critically about the work that you just did. Reflecting on how working in a community garden can have an impact on the health of the local watershed or how it can influence kids to eat better is an important part of the volunteer experience. It doesn’t just give you a definite stopping point for a project, but it helps volunteers to better understand how their work has multiple effects in their community.

Keep making a difference!

Did you have a great time volunteering? Did you make new friends? Did you learn something new? Awesome! Why not let us know?

Tell us about it on or ! Did you not quite fit with the project or organization? That’s alright! There are a lot more organizations out there that need your help that could be a better fit for you.

Was your first volunteer experience great? Did you decide to find a different way to volunteer? Let us know in the comments!

Pass it along.

Did you have a great time volunteering? Why not bring a friend along with you next time? Not only will it make sure you know someone at the project, but you’ll be involving your friend in something you care about and making your community better! Plus there’s a great opportunity to take cheesy pictures to share on Facebook!

 

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Posted in Volunteerism | 2 Comments »

My Resolution for 2011: Party Like A Rock Star At Work

Friday, January 21st, 2011

By Meridith Rentz, COO, Points of Light Institute

My New Year’s resolution for 2011 is quite simple:  Each and every day I come to work at Points of Light Institute, I want to party like a rock star.

What a minute….say what?

Let me be more specific.  My goal for 2011 is to learn how to do my job with the same passion, unadulterated joy, focus, excellence and innovation that will.i.am from the Black Eyed Peas demonstrates when he is doing his job – creating and performing extraordinary music.

Seriously?

Yep – I wanna’ be more like will.i.am in 2011. I wanna’ party like a rock star each day at work. 

You see, I recently had an unexpected opportunity to see will.i.am in action (3 rows back from his mixing board in fact).

I got to see will.i.am spinning and mixing and creating an extraordinary tapestry of songs for a relatively small crowd of several hundred people.  He was absolutely captivating to watch.

While he was certainly “performing” for the crowd, I believe the joy he demonstrated was 100% genuine and his work was deeply personally satisfying as he danced and sang and hovered over his mixing board on the stage for several hours.

Some might say that what he was doing as his “job” is not comparable to the average guy’s or gal’s regular office job.  I would respectfully and completely disagree.  There were a lot of reasons that will.i.am could have viewed this particular gig as “just another day at the office,” but he didn’t – he was having the time of his life up there doing what he loves to do – creating amazing, captivating music.

His delight in his work was contagious and as a result, the crowd had a blast.

So there you have it.  I wanna’ be more like will.i.am in 2011. I wanna’ party like a rock star each day at work.  I want to be innovative and have fun and I want the people I work with to have a blast – all while making a difference in the world and doing our jobs.

We in the nonprofit world can tend to take ourselves a bit too seriously….come on, you know it’s true.

We can get a bit too stressed and down-right depressed by the enormity of the social challenges we are called to take on each day.  We worry about having an impact and raising money and driving social innovation…..all very important things, don’t get me wrong.  But, as we wonder why our best people get burnt out or why we can’t attract the top talent to our extraordinary, mission-driven organizations or why we’re all just so darned tired much of the time, maybe,we need to try a new approach.

Let’s loosen up.

Let’s dance a little more.

Let’s be a little goofier.

Let’s sing loud, even if it’s not always on key.

Let’s laugh at ourselves and how gosh darn earnest we can be.

What’s the worst thing that can happen?

If I can get even a smidge more similar to will.i.am in doing my job, the upside is huge for me and for the people with whom I work and for our organizational mission.  I can have more fun doing something that I already love, and maybe a few other people will even want to join the party.

Wish me luck and rock on friends.

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Posted in Inspire, Just for Fun | 6 Comments »

New Year’s Resolutions

Wednesday, January 5th, 2011

Ever year thousands of people make little promises to themselves about how the new year will be different than the last one.

We promise ourselves that we’ll eat a little bit better, or that we’ll be a be a little bit kinder, or that we’ll write more often to our friends that are far away.

Sometimes we’re able to keep these little promises to ourselves and sometimes we’re not able to.

We’ve heard a lot of people talking about their resolution to volunteer more in the coming year.  We love hearing that people want to serve in their community, but we’ve got an idea that might sound a little crazy.

Volunteer once.

Whether you’ve made a resolution to volunteer somewhere for the first time or to increase the amount of time you volunteer, promise yourself that you’ll volunteer just once.

There’s a catch, though.  We want you to do something while you’re volunteering.

We want you to have fun.  We want you to learn something new.  We want you to ask a friend to come with you when you volunteer.

We’re pretty sure that if you have fun, learn something new, and volunteer with a friend (or make a new friend when you volunteer!) that you’ll want to do it again.

If you need a little help getting motivated to volunteer, we want to help.  We want to be your volunteering Tony Robbins.

When you’re looking for a volunteer opportunity, come to us.

When you need a shot of inspiration, come to us.

When you want to share your story of service, come to us.

When you need tools to change your community, come to us.

Let’s make your New Year’s resolution a reality together.  We’d love to hear yours; tell us in the comments!

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Posted in Volunteering, Volunteerism | 1 Comment »