bueno trabajo

For Cinco de Mayo yesterday, in honor of Mexico’s freedom, I personally liberated a Chimichanga into my belly at lunchtime. It was actually a volunteer opportunity. A portion of my meal went to Meals on Wheels.

Lots of restaurants or “beaneries” as my dad would call them donate a proceed of the day’s (or a few hours of the day) to organizations as fund raisers. It’s a pretty easy concept. The catch is getting people to go on that day, the groups hand out a flyer or coupon and it’s presented at the cash register. An organization can make several hundred dollars in just a few hours, sit and chat with people while they eat and make it a party all in one place.

I was just going in to the local mexican restaurant to hoist that little chimichunga up on my shoulders in victory and have it do a pairs ice skating flip and twirl  straight into a pile of guacamole and pico de gallo and right in to my mouth…I didn’t expect it to become a volunteer opportunity to fund raise for a non profit.

Eat food…raise money? I like that ….

Sharing Volunteers and Staff with others

I sent a call out today to staff and our volunteer pool. One of our non-profit organizations in town needs volunteers for events they are involved in next week and they need them fast! For events like these I always send out a notice to our volunteer pool and staff. If they get even 1 or 2 responses, it’s 1 or 2 more than they had before.

Putting events on VolunteerMatch.com, a list serve or your website is common practice, but sometimes we just don’t get the draw that we had hoped which is where direct contact through sharing is very successful.

I make it a practice to always let our volunteers know that I’ll send them an email when opportunities come available with us and with others. When sending an email u can use undisclosed addresses or blind carbon their addresses to ensure their privacy.

Remember that it’s ok to share volunteers and resources. Volunteers select the organization they like based off of their interests, but they don’t always have that single-minded interest. Lots of volunteers like to give to multiple agencies, have friends that they can refer, or resources of their own.

You are not sabotaging your organization by promoting other agencies. One day, your organization may be the one that needs help and sending out the S.O.S. can only strengthen the bonds of non-profit sharing and resources.