Thanks for joining us for the seventh installment of our Summer of Service! Each Monday in June and July, we're privileged to be featuring a fantastic guest blogger sharing his or her unique and personal perspective on service, volunteering and citizen philanthropy. Today, please welcome Chris Dumas, the founder of NonprofitWebinars.com, a free resource for nonprofit executives and a seasoned leader in online philanthropy. As part of our Summer of Service campaign, we’ve been curious about what makes people tick when it comes to volunteering. Chris brings us a personal view on what causes him to be active within his community and shares some of his favorite volunteering experiences. Thanks Chris!
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Why I Volunteer
by Chris Dumas
Why do I volunteer?
Community is very important to me. My neighbors, colleagues,
friends and family are the people I care most about, so anything I can
do to improve our community has a spot in my heart. I look at volunteering as an instrument in creating and building relationships
with the people that matter most to me.
The whole point of helping a nonprofit organization is to assist them in
furthering their mission and, personally, I love the ability to directly measure
the social impact created as a result of my involvement.
I have met some amazing friends
as a result of helping make the world a better place.
What about Family Time?
Juggling a family with little kids and a job helping nonprofits does not leave much time for volunteering.
As a result, I am very protective of my time and if I do choose to get
involved, I want to maximize return for the organization
that I am helping.
One of the more rewarding things I have experienced as a parent is
teaching my children about philanthropy and having the experience of
working on volunteer projects with them. Sharing with them the values
of helping people and being engaged in the community is a great way to
spend some quality family time.
Volunteering Tech Savvy
Some of my more memorable volunteer opportunities have been when the organization
enabled me to leverage my knowledge of nonprofit
technology. Sometimes being nerdy can help an organization be
more effective and I like that.
I currently volunteer in the following ways:
- General help and labor at my daughter’s school
At my daughter Gianna's school, they need volunteers for all of their events, committees and bake sales. The school has a very small class size and is very involved in the community themselves.
- Nonprofit Community Information Technology Start-up
A local group from Child or Parent Emergency came to me wanting to do a project involving technology. Inspired by the work and experience the founder had as a social worker, they wanted to create a better way for nonprofits and schools to communicate to the community in their language preference. I was very excited about building a multilingual project and I offered to set them up with some web development and help them get the project up and running.
- Nonprofit Industry Committee Member
It is important to me to help grow, support and enhance my industry by being involved with the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network. I currently serve on the social committee.
- Board Member for High School Sober Graduation Party
In my hometown of Napa, the whole community comes together to put on Grad Nite, an all-night sober graduation party for seniors. My role has been to drive ticket sales and attendance by handling the marketing towards students. I have loved being able to promote at schools and present in classrooms.
A Favorite Volunteer Experience
My hometown has a nasty habit of flooding every winter. Big storms come through and the entire downtown ends up under water. A lot of damage is incurred by the local businesses and homes ruined from the muddy flood water.
One rainy winter, when we knew flooding was imminent, my brother and I put on our rain gear and went down to the local sandbag operation to help fill sandbags. How this typically works is the city has truckloads of sand dumped in a parking lot with cases of white bags and a couple of shovels. Each person that needs sandbags is responsible for filling their own. I should also note that typically it is raining and cold while trying to fill them up. We decided to help out and started filling sand bags for our neighbors. After filling what seemed like thousands of sandbags and getting soaking wet, I felt really good about helping out our community. It is one of the fondest memories I have with my brother.
What’s Next?
I am eager to continue and to help people change the world. Have an idea? Drop me a line, Chris {at} FirstGiving {dot com}.
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Chris has worked with hundreds of organizations to help them manage their donors, donations and fundraising campaigns. In the past, Chris was co-founder of Donor Tools, an online donor management company. He currently helps nonprofits by building online donation products at FirstGiving. He is the founder of NonprofitWebinars.com, a free resource to nonprofit executives. You can follow him on Twitter @chrisdumas.
