Volunteering Could be the Secret to Happiness: How You Can Get Involved, Go Riverwalk Magazine, June 2014

What if there was a study dedicated to unearthing the secrets to a happy life?  Researchers analyzed data from 40 published papers and found evidence that volunteering, in fact, boosts happiness.  Volunteers had lower levels of depression, increased life satisfaction and enhanced well-being.  More importantly, volunteers had a 20 percent lower risk of death than…

Nipro Diagnostics Manufactures a Sweet Community-Relations Plan, PR News Top Case Studies, November 2013

Nipro Diagnostics Manufactures a Sweet (“but sugar free”) Community Relations Plan By: Kelly Alvarez Vitale  In 2012 corporate philanthropy, also referred to as community relations, accounted for six percent (or $18.97 billion) of the total giving in the U.S.  While corporate giants account for millions in community relations efforts, the vast majority of the U.S.…

Manufacturing a ‘Sweet’ Community Relations Plan Case Study, PR News, May 5, 2014

   Nipro Diagnostics Manufactures a Sweet (“but sugar free”) Community Relations Plan By: Kelly Alvarez Vitale  In 2012 corporate philanthropy, also referred to as community relations, accounted for six percent (or $18.97 billion) of the total giving in the U.S.  While corporate giants account for millions in community relations efforts, the vast majority of the…

Volunteerism in South Florida

I recently wrote a blog on how volunteering can be the secret to happiness.  In that blog, I shared that altogether, 64.5 million Americans volunteered nearly 7.9 billion hours last year and of those, a third volunteered for more than a hundred hours each year (which requires just two hours each week).  The estimated value of…

Have You Heard of Volunteer LinkedIn?

Altogether, 64.5 million Americans volunteered nearly 7.9 billion hours last year.  However, in my home state of Florida, we rank 48th among the 50 states & Washington, D.C. in the amount of residents who volunteer; only 21% of Florida’s population gives their time in comparison to 44% of Utah’s population.  States that lag behind us…