Top Non-Profit Careers

April 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment

You may have always pictured yourself as someone who wanted to help others, not just in a volunteer capacity but as your life’s work. For you, working in any of the top non-profit careers may be the answer.

You may have found your love for a certain charity or cause by doing volunteer work. You want to continue to give of your time, especially now that you’re out of high school, but you know it’s important to get a college education. You can do both if you earn a degree online.

Attending an online college means you have more flexibility in planning your course and class schedules. You can go to class in the morning and do your volunteer work in the afternoon. Or, if you’re at your best in the morning, you can volunteer in the morning and earn a degree online in the afternoon and at night.

You have almost as many options of how to earn a degree online as you do the types of degrees you can earn. You can find the one that will provide the education which will allow you to pursue your goal of working in one of the top non-profit careers.  Because you can choose when to attend college, you can devote your spare time to your education.

When you explain to those at the organization at which you volunteer that you are going to earn a degree online, you may be surprised at the encouragement you receive. You may find that they are more than willing to work around your class or course schedule.

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Avoiding Jail With Community Service

March 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

For misdemeanor offenses, those who commit crimes are sometimes sentenced to community service instead of going to jail. Jails are overcrowded as it is and most agree there is no sense in filling the walls with those who commit minor offenses. Still, people who are found guilty of crimes must be punished. Often time these punishments will include some combination of probation, fines, or community service. A judge must examine the case and decide how likely the offender is to be habitual, and hat the best punishment is to suit the crime. Some examples of the punishments include:

1.) Hours of unpaid work- The amount of community service a person is sentenced to has a lot to do with how much trouble they have been in in the past. For example, a judge is likely to be far more lenient on a first time offender then someone they have repeatedly told to clean up their act.

2.) Training- If a judge sees an opportunity for an offender to obtain job skills in addition to helping the community, that is most likely the path his sentencing will take. On the site job training could be as simple as learning to fix cars and at the same time, repairing cars of people in the community who can really use the help.

3.) Cleaning up: Whether it is the city park or the neighboring area of the local high school, it is likely there is litter to be picked up. A popular form of community service by criminals is to help remove trash from the area in order to preserve the integrity of the neighborhood.

Obey the judges sentence and be sure to learn from the experience.

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Benefits of Volunteering in Your Community

March 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Most people want to be involved in volunteering but need a push to get going. The majority of us do mandatory volunteering at one time or another but as we enter adulthood, anything that isn’t paying a competitive wage tends to end up on the back burner. There are many benefits to volunteering people never even consider. While the focus tends to be on the job you will do and who will benefit, it doesn’t hurt to look at the ways it will help you as well. For instance, you can get your focus off of yourself.

Most of us lead busy lives and are so focused on our own issues that we don’t take time to consider those who are in a worse position than we are. Indeed. volunteering allows you to gain perspective into people who don’t have a place to live or who have substance addictions that negatively affect their lives. The perspective one gains by volunteering cannot be learned in  a book or classroom, but the face to face interactions will serve as a far more valuable learning tool.

Volunteering also allows you to develop leadership skills on your own time. Potential employers want to know that you have been tested and the right volunteering allows you to do just that. Take a challenging assignment and see it through regardless of what you have to do to achieve the goal. You will come out on the other side a wiser person.

Regardless of your reason for volunteering, there’s no denying the multi-faceted benefits. Personal growth and resume boosting are just two reasons to get out and volunteer.

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Have More Family Time As Volunteers

March 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

There are many benefits to volunteering but perhaps none better than a chance to unite the family. Parents today are busy with careers, personal life and each other. It is easy to let a distance grow between the parents and children. This does not need to be the case however. Volunteering as a family teaches valuable life lessons and the best part is you are learning them together. Here are a few reasons to volunteer as a family.

1.) Sense of community- Feeling disconnected from your community is normal but not necessary. There are many projects that would just love to have an entire family involved and working together such as building homes for disadvanged people in the community.

2.) Sense of humility- Given the ease of life with technologies of today, it’s easy to see how kids lose perspective. Volunteering in the community for now pay and helping people who are not as well off as themselves have children to learn that some people really struggle and that they should be thankful for what they have,

3.) You get to spent time together- Spending any time together as a family is great. However, spending time together in front of the television isn’t nearly as productive as spending time helping out in the community. The time spent together problem solving and helping will be a foundation to grow as a family unit.

There really is only positives to getting out in your community and volunteering. You will not regret the opportunity to grow together while also helping others.

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Where There Is A Need There Is A way

December 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The strength in any community is its people. A strong community is often driven by volunteer efforts. Supporting local volunteers is an integral part of any community. That all sounds nice, but how do we implement a successful volunteer project? How do we take what is little more than good intentions and turn them into useful projects that benefit members of a community that are in need?

Volunteerism must start with the desire to help or to aid. The need can be anything from homeless women to illiterate adults, but recognizing the need is often the spark that determines the form a volunteer effort will take. Once a need has been recognized, one must next determine how to best meet that need. Is it better to set up shelters for the homeless as a temporary measure or are volunteer efforts better suited at helped homeless people become productive members of that society? Meeting the need will help to determine who can best help meet that need?

Finding volunteers is often the most difficult part of any volunteer effort. By first determining how to meet a particular need, you may find it easier to locate specific community volunteers to help meet that need. “Advertising” your need for volunteers may sound crass and expensive, but remember that advertising can be viewed as a volunteer effort as well, so ask local businesses, churches and newspapers to donate advertising to your cause.

Volunteer efforts are one of the most effective ways to develop a strong sense of community. Helping those less fortunate, filling a need or cultivating our youth are honorable efforts and should be applauded. The most amazing thing is that most volunteers don’t want to applause or the press, they simply want to help.

If you are interested in developing a volunteer project for your community start by finding what is needed, how to best fill that need will soon follow.

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Daytime Volunteers

December 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Rumor has it that nonprofit organizations are struggling to find volunteers that able to help during traditional business hours. It may seem as if it is more difficult to find volunteers for daytime activities because more women are going into the workforce and less are staying at home, but nonprofit organizations are finding volunteer recruitments by thinking outside of the box.

Many people in the workforce do not keep regular business hours, so find volunteers during business hours is becoming easier. With the work from home craze in full swing, it is easy to find volunteers who have the flexibility to volunteer at all hours of the day. People who work from home can change their schedule as they please to volunteer for nonprofit organizations. The organizations that need more daytime volunteers just need to look for individuals who work at home in the right place to hang a recruitment flyer. Coffee shops and Internet cafes are a good place to start because most people who work at home will get out of the house at least once a week to work.

Although there are still millions of people who work regular jobs that does not mean they keep regular business hours. Many people work during the weekend and in the evening. Many businesses like gas stations, hospitals, and fast food establishments are open 24-hours a day, which mean some of their employees are available during the daytime hours to pitch in a helping hand. Individuals that work during the evening hours have their mornings and afternoons available.

Some businesses require their employees to work some weekends, which offers their employees a day off during the traditional business week. Many service-type businesses that are open for operation seven days a week are the same way, they give days off during the week, which gives their employees a chance to volunteer during daytime hours.

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Engaging Teens in Community Service Programs

December 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Engaging Teens in Community Service Programs
1. Teens can learn many life lessons through volunteerism. Volunteering through community service is a way to learn about helping others. Volunteering to help someone in need is a worthwhile endeavor. It feels good to be a part of something positive that instills pride. This concept can be moved to action starting early in a child’s life.
Family Affair
2. Teens are likely to become engaged in volunteerism if they see parents actively involved in giving back to the community. Children that are encouraged to participate in volunteerism as part of a family affair often continue on their own as into adult hood. Teens are responsible for some really empowering service projects that help those that are homeless, fighting illness, and who are just lonely and in need of human companionship. Taking time to get involved teaches the important lesson of importance of having empathy towards others.
3. Giving Service from the Heart
Often teens think that the only reason to give is to get something in return. Teaching them that volunteering and lending a hand is balanced living will help them to become empathetic and responsible members of society.

4. Volunteerism is Addictive
Volunteerism a feel good deal. There are so many options that finding a way to be of service is not hard. Hospitals need volunteers to read to children and deliver reading material to all patients. Community centers and libraries need volunteers to tutor younger students. Older teens who excel in sports can return to the field where they pitched or punted and volunteer to help the team.
Volunteering Across Generations
Seniors can always use a hand. A teen offering to shovel snow or rake leaves for a neighbor, is generally, always welcome. Sometimes these summer winter relationships become something special where both parties learn valuable gifts. Your teen will likely gain additional self confidence from beginning to see the world through

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Volunteerism for School Credit

December 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Volunteerism for School Credit

1. Most school districts require that students complete, “x” amount of hours performing community service before graduating. This enriching project can take the form of helping seniors, reading to younger children, or volunteering at a hospital. Community Service is simply giving back to the community.

2. Volunteering Builds Leadership Skills

Teens that are active in their community develop a sense of leadership and involvement and learn firsthand the benefit of volunteering. If you can identify a role model who leads by example you will gain even more insight on giving back. A mentor or role model is a person we look up to that does the human and compassionate thing because it is the right thing to do.

3. Volunteering is part of the school experience

Rewarding in itself, community involvement helps you see the benefits of volunteerism and community involvement firsthand. You will see where you fit into the big picture and that you make a difference. That isn’t a clich. You bring your unique gifts to the table.

4. Volunteering Boosts Self-Esteem

Getting an uninvolved and disinterested young person involved in community programs will help boost self esteem and get you on track with something positive. Tapping into your interest is one of the best ways of getting involved in community.
5. Last Minute Credit Efforts
Teens should have a firm project idea by the middle of their junior year, and look to start over that summer. If your teen has procrastinated and June is around the corner a project has to happen right away. One way to quickly get credit is to talk with neighbors and agree to perform a task for a certain period of time that will help lighten their load. Taking out trash, shoveling snow and running store errands under contract are creative ways to fulfill community service Check with your counselor to clear projects.

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Changing the World, One Young Person at a Time

December 9, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Volunteers fit new windows at The Sumac Centre...
Image via Wikipedia

Volunteering is a call for many people. Some individuals want to be close to those they are helping by distributing goods or serving food at a homeless shelter, but others want to work by marketing the charity or raising funds to help those in need. Volunteers will help where they feel that their talents will offer the most good for others. Young people more so than older volunteers will fight to be where they can help the most people.
Many adult volunteers do not believe that the younger volunteers have what it takes to make a difference, but young volunteers are using their voice to make important changes. Whether they are on the front lines or behind the activities, young individuals are making changes in policies and finding more ways to get the funding an organization needs to help others.
Young volunteers have a desire to help others and they have a fresh outlook on the process. Many older volunteers are cynical because they do not always see a change in the hard work that they put into helping others. Young volunteers have the determination to do what older volunteers do not have and they demand change. They use their volunteer efforts to learn and fight for something larger than they are as individuals.
Parents who have children that are driven to change the world can nurture their child’s ambition by volunteering by their side. Older adults who volunteer closely with the youth of American are feeling inspired like they were when they were younger. Adults are influenced by the innocence of younger volunteers and learning to listen when they had lost that skill from being hardened. Young volunteers should not be pushed aside; others should nourish them in the organization because they are the next generation in nonprofit organizations.

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Free Concert for Service Volunteers

December 7, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Free Concert for Service Volunteers

1. An added perk for volunteers of music events is attending a show for free. The price tag to attend a concert for a star act can be close to a hundred dollars a ticket. By volunteering you offer service through volunteerism and get a night out for free.

2. Offering Your Services

Contact the organization hosting the venue and speak with someone in marketing. Tell them that you are interested in volunteering at musical events and that you have loads of black in your wardrobe.

3. Additional Advantages of Volunteering

Volunteering to serve as an usher or greeter is also a great way to spruce up your resume. Employers look for people who are civic minded. Volunteer credit carries weight and can make a difference in a tight race between two job candidates. Keep a record each time you volunteer along with the contact information for the person you reported to.

4. Dazzle with Your Punctuality and People Skills
A few tips for keeping the door open in the event you want to do this more than once. Be on time and show up prepared. A helpful volunteer is punctual, polite and dressed the part. These three tips are likely to get you an offer to come back.
Remember to send a short letter of thanks it keeps your name fresh to the person making the callbacks.

5. Enjoy the music Come dressed professionally in the specified uniform and color. Go light on the fragrance or skip it all together. People with allergies run the risk of a flare up whenever they venture out. Be kind. Make sure and smile and have fun with it.

6. Spread the Word
If you have a good experience with volunteering any where let people know. Volunteers make a difference.

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