The Prime Minister of India Narender Modi has made an appeal to the nation SWACH BHARATH. The largest volunteering effort ever attempted in a country, as large, as diverse and as determined as India is  and the following essays are for enabling that to happen

Ways to Vounteering

By Karl E. Burgher | June 1, 2014

Volunteering

This is a guest post by Bookboon author Karl E. Burgher

We volunteer to serve, we volunteer to have purpose, but we seldom study how to do this well. Volunteering helps us to help ourselves and others.

Service is at our core, as part of our humanity. Without volunteers and volunteering, where would we be today? Surely a lot worse off. Whether we spend time helping children read, or working to balance resources for the Apalachicola Bay, in Florida, USA, volunteers make a difference in other people’s lives and bring satisfaction to their own.

To volunteer we must manage and “donate” our time. Time is our most precious commodity in our add-on, hyped up, over-connected lifestyles. Attend a gathering and you will surely hear, “I am so busy. I have so little time.” In the movie In Time (2011), those who share time are literally giving away their lives. Watch this movie if you have not, think a bit, and start to make better choices about the use of your time.

Whether you are a seasoned volunteer or someone considering volunteering for the first time, a volunteer manager or a volunteer team member, someone who spends a few hours a week or forty hours a week helping others, Volunteering has something for you.

Volunteering…

1. Encourages you to find your volunteering purpose. We all can have many volunteer drivers and purposes. Some are simple and some are complex. This book helps you sort this out, and thus, leads to a better experience, more fun, and better service for others.

2. Teaches you how to find your place within an organization, and shows you the way to make meaningful and sustainable contributions.

3. Improves your management and cooperation skills. Management is hard. Managing volunteers is harder. Cooperation equals politics. Pick up a few tips and action items to ensure you recruit and retain great volunteer labor.

4. Helps you to organize and close projects. Learn how to write, follow, change, and close work plans. Volunteering teaches that prioritization and execution are primary, as opposed to thinking and planning.

5. Shows you how to build great teams. The book teaches that winning is to be learned by teams and that teams need special guidance. You learn how to be on a team, be a coach and leader, whether you are the manager or not. Everyone can lead; everyone can manage all the time.

6. Explains the fleeting aspects of motivation. Keeping folks fired up to do work for free is not an easy task. Motivation is a must to keep organizations healthy. Learn what motivates in the short run and the long run to attain sustainability. Both are needed.

7. Provides organizational “How-Tos.” Organization and prioritization are key. Volunteering teaches that getting organized is a choice. So choose—download the book—learn—prioritize and execute.

8. Discusses the “Money.” We cannot provide any service or good or much of anything without the money. Volunteering speaks to asking for money (philanthropy), earning money (for goods and services), and applying for money (grants). We have to have the currency even with our volunteer (free) labor.

9. Addresses “Encore” volunteering and teach a new 50+ encore volunteer how to make a great transition to service. Included is a transition “work plan.” Now that we live so much longer and get displaced so much faster we must study the question of what to do next, what to do with our lives. Volunteering provides you a primer for this process.

10. Inspires Celebration. Folks need acknowledgement, teams need to enjoy their wins, organizations need to be proud of what they do, and to humbly learn how to show off to the world and others. Learn how to celebrate the micro-deliverable and the once-in-a lifetime win. Celebration is closure. And we must close so that we may begin again.

The quote from Marcus Quintilian (yes, you Matrix fans, nothing is new) “Everything that has a beginning has an end” needs to be changed to “Everything that has a beginning must have an end.” We must know when we are done so we know it is time to celebrate. And, so we know it is time to go back to work and do it again.

Michael E. Collette Ed.D. | Professor of Management | Anderson University |

Past President of the Madison County United Way

Ways Volunteering Helps Volunteers

By Karl E. Burgher | June 16, 2014

Volunteering

This is a guest post by Karl E. Burgher.

Typically when we think of volunteering we think of doing for others. This altruism usually dominates the discussion: giving back, serving, making a contribution outside of ourselves. We tell volunteers, “That is nice” and “Way to go” as we give back to those in need.

What we might not know and what we all need to know is that volunteering provides the volunteer with many benefits that help us to help ourselves. This happens in many direct, and sometimes not so direct, ways. Volunteering discusses the following 8 ways volunteering can help you help yourself.

Volunteering…

1. Helps you understand yourself and others. Volunteering provides you with opportunities to discover what really motivates you and how to work with different personalities. And, often it exposes you to new cultures and other ways of thinking.

2. Provides for learning. It can enhance careers, giving experience to those who may not be able to get it elsewhere. Volunteering allows you to hone talents and new skills, develop organizational abilities, and acquire management experience.  It also grants you insight into how to create great teams, seek external funding, and celebrate accomplishments.

3. Staves off loneliness. It provides a place for the recently retired to find a new group of friends and acquaintances (see chapter 8, “Encore Volunteering”). Volunteering provides us with a purpose and a release for our innate need to help others. Additionally, encore volunteers bring much-needed experience and wisdom to organizations.

4. Reduces anxiety. We live in an “age of anxiety.” We often think—excessively. We worry about the future, fret over the past, and miss the present. Volunteering, being altruistic, helps us help ourselves and others in the present. If we choose our volunteering activities carefully, if we examine ourselves pointedly, perhaps we can provide ourselves with some deserved relief.

5. Improves physical health. Being in groups, being accepted by others, and having purpose helps us think more clearly and even saves us money on doctor’s visits and medications. Service to others has medicinal value—purpose and acceptance are just plain good for one’s health.

6. Gives us a means to produce what we want rather than what we have to.  Given that so many of us do not get to choose how we put food on the table or shelter over our heads, a good cause can give us relief. The paid economy can be vicious. The unpaid economy can provide us with many positive choices and experiences, and a world of opportunity. We can feel empowered as we determine how we will volunteer and give of ourselves and our time.

7. Fosters interaction among generations. Volunteer organizations are made up of millennials, baby boomers, and everyone in between. Although expectations, goals, interests, and habits vary widely across these generations, working together for a common cause brings them together and develops mutual appreciation and understanding.

8. Sharpens our knowledge of organizations and business.  Large and small, volunteer organizations have all of the same challenges that profit-oriented and government organizations have. As volunteers, we often get to see things in our volunteer organizations that would not be shared with us in the paid work world.

In short, volunteering is good for everyone, not just those who are served. Volunteering helps the individual and as individuals are helped in one area it translates into all areas that person engages with. It’s all connected. So do yourself a favor, learn, grow, and improve your health—get out and volunteer!

Key Action Steps to Help You Enjoy Volunteering

By Karl E. Burgher | July 14, 2014

Volunteering

This is a guest article by Karl E. Burgher.

Volunteering can be a whole lot like work sometimes, but who says it can’t be enjoyable most of the time? In fact, volunteering is a wonderful way of making valuable contributions to society while also contributing to your own enjoyment and well-being. As we mention in an earlier blog (“8 Ways Volunteering Helps Volunteers”) and discuss in our book Volunteering, we believe that volunteering is as much about the volunteer as it is about those being helped by the volunteer individual or group. So, how do we make sure we enjoy ourselves the majority of the time? 

We do that by keeping these 5 actions in mind:

Decide to have fun!

Make a brief plan.

Follow your plan, change your plan.

Learn everything you can all the time!

Celebrate the big and small.

This may seem a bit Pollyanna-like, but in practice, each of these needs to be up front and present in our minds, all the time. Let us take a closer look at each of these steps.

First, choose to have fun and enjoy yourself. Find an organization that is a good fit for you. If what you do does not bring you joy, why do it? Volunteering can sometimes be hard work, but it can also be very enjoyable. You meet new people, learn new skills, and, best of all, help others! If you consciously decide to have a positive attitude, your volunteering experience will be much more rewarding. The choice is up to you!

Second, make a plan. This could be as simple as a few notes scrawled on scratch paper or a full-blown essay. Keep it as clear as possible. You should be able to concisely describe your plan to others and convey why your project/role is important. Request feedback from other people and incorporate this information into your notes. Having a plan will help keep you on track and allow you to assess your accomplishments. Seeing that you are making progress is always a good source of encouragement.

Third, implement your plan. It sounds obvious, but often it is not. Even if your details are not fully defined or if you are unsure where some aspects of your project are headed, implement the plan anyway—begin. Do not worry if things do not work out exactly as you had imagined they would. You may need to modify your objectives, your timeline, or other features of your plan. It is normal, and necessary, to adjust along the way. This will keep you moving forward toward success. New work, a new job, a new volunteering experience—these can be just like learning how to hit a ball. So how do you learn to hit that ball? You take a swing. It is just that simple. First, know and believe that you are going to hit it well, and if you miss, know that missing is learning, not failure. We find so often that folks just do not begin, for fear of missing. Remember that missing a bit is just okay at the start of anything new.

Fourth, learn all you can about the organization you have chosen to be a part of, and never stop learning. Become the historian, perhaps. Talk to others within the organization, read press articles about it, consult its website and annual reports, Google it. Find out what people do within the organization and what they like about it. Talk with the groups that your organization serves. The wider educational net you cast for yourself, the more you will know and the better equipped you will be to volunteer and to answer questions people ask you about the organization. Your knowledge and interest may also lead to leadership opportunities for you.

And fifth, celebrate! Celebrate small and large accomplishments. Celebrate your own goals achieved as well as those of your fellow volunteers. But more importantly, celebrate each other—your passions, your diversity, your cultures, and your humanity. Celebration is a crucial component of a full and positive volunteer experience. Celebration will keep you moving forward toward a successful finish. It will give you the motivation to overcome the next hurdles and to push past the next goal. In short, celebration will contribute to sustaining your organization so that it can thrive for years to come.

Remember, the work you do is important and your organizations need you! If you are happy where you are volunteering, you will be more likely to stay, which means that you will be able to help more people. Do your part to maintain a positive environment for yourself and others. 

Steps for Creating Great Volunteer Teams

By Karl E. Burgher | July 31, 2014

Volunteering

This is a guest article by Karl E. Burgher.

Great organizations have great teams. They may still struggle with challenges, but they face them together and work to find effective solutions. Every individual on your volunteer team is important. Each task someone completes contributes to your team’s overall success and your ability to provide service to others. If you do not have much experience working with teams, do not worry. As we discuss in our free ebook, Volunteering, each team member can be a manager and a leader. You can learn the skills you need to build a strong team that will lead you to the finish line. In a previous post, “Top 10 Ways to Become a Better Volunteer,” we focused on you as an individual. In this post, we take you to the team.

Make the choice to build a great volunteer team. 

Here are 12 steps to do it:

1.   Have a work plan. All team members need to know what they are supposed to do, as well as what everyone else is supposed to be doing. The team’s purpose should be clear. You must take responsibility for your team and protect it. Over-organize the start and celebrate the finish.

2.   Communicate effectively. This could involve phone calls, email, meetings, and documentation. You need to develop meeting skills and always over-prepare for team meetings. Encourage your teammates to communicate effectively and thoroughly with one another. The last time we checked, human beings cannot yet read minds.

3.   Establish clear team objectives and expectations and make sure your teammates know them. Write them down and make sure everyone has access to them. Divide large objectives into smaller, more manageable ones. Define the outcome well.

4.   Learn how to motivate yourself and others, but do not rely exclusively on motivation to complete your team’s tasks. Having a healthy organization and a strong team beats working alone.

5.   Make decisions and set priorities. Get input and feedback from your teammates.

6.   Assess your team’s skill set. Know your teammates and know yourself and then delegate appropriate tasks to those teammates best able to complete them. You should also acknowledge that these are volunteers, and that some of them will be seeking more guidance in their tasks than others. Pay attention to one another, volunteers. Pay attention to the needs of all, managers.

7.   Create a vision of success. Believe in your team and its objectives. Eliminate barriers. Feel the end point and see the win.

8.   Lead by example. Be positive, clear, and consistent. Coach your teammates.

9.   Move forward with constructive criticism, not backwards with insult and envy.

10.   Care about your team. Learn about your teammates—chat with them on a regular basis. Praise them. Listen and empathize. Deal with bad apples—turn them into cider ASAP! Resolve conflicts quickly, as they arise. Address any anxieties.

11.   Facilitate others’ successes. Praise them in public, and criticize (when necessary) in private. Share the credit of your successes and you will exceed your own objectives.

12.   Have fun together! Share meals, create a fantasy football league, do a ropes course. These are great ways of getting to know your teammates and build stronger relationships with them.

In short, spend some time planning and organizing up front, and assessing throughout your organization’s projects. Make sure that you communicate effectively with your fellow volunteers and maintain a positive environment. Think about the team. Lead by example and don’t forget to celebrate together!

Why Do We Want to Create These Great Teams?

We believe that creating a good team is primary and the actual volunteer work is secondary. Educating yourself and others about teamwork will result in multiple rewards, such as:

Higher success rates with your tasks,

Less stressful tasks,

More personal enjoyment from working with your team,

Greater retention,

A stronger sense of accomplishment, and

More funding opportunities for your organization.