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…
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. And for those who want to live a long happy life, volunteers…
There is a debate in the nonprofit arena on how much effort there should be towards recruiting the next generation of donors – the Millennials. While Millennials may not individually donate large sums of money, their collective power can help raise thousands for nonprofits. Nonprofit groups should be aggressively working to involve people in their…
With the recent release of Giving USA’s philanthropy report, which indicates that companies gave over $18 billion to charities in 2012, companies and nonprofits can reflect on all of the good work done by corporate philanthropy. Instilling a culture of corporate philanthropy often takes time, however these three philanthropy initiatives show how companies have turned…
There is a debate in the nonprofit arena on how much effort there should be towards recruiting the next generation of donors – the Millennials. While Millennials may not individually donate large sums of money, their collective power can help raise thousands for nonprofits. Nonprofit groups should be aggressively working to involve people in…
Confession. I am a Type A personality and if you know me, that wouldn’t shock you. For those who “suffer” from this disease, it should come as no surprise that I decided to take on the challenge of creating a series of best practices for corporate philanthropy and answer questions that are industry standards about…
The New Generation of Service Baby boomers, millennials, corporate employees, executives and students are responding to the national call for a new generation of service: Skilled-Based Volunteering (SBV). SBV is when company employees and/or individuals offer nonprofits their personal talents or professional competences to help organizations meet their demands. From the COO offering free strategic…
Sample Plate Series #2: We’ve recently launched our Sample Plate Series and in our first article gave a brief example on how companies can align their corporate giving and/or employee volunteer programs with their corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy using Volunteer Paid Time Off or VPTO. Another example is through a “Dollars for Doers” program.…
A few years ago, I realized that my husband and I had everything we actually needed. So when the holidays came around, it was exhausting trying to think of things to buy that the other already didn’t have. Quite frankly, it seemed that we were buying for the sake of buying and really not epitomizing…