Points of Light Institute is organized to innovate, incubate and activate new ideas that help people act upon their power to make a difference. Read and respond to our reflections on 21st century volunteerism here. Subscribe
The Points of Light Blog
Disney Program Update: One Month In
As we close out the first month of the Give A Day. Get A Disney Day. program, we’re overwhelmed by the outpouring of support: new organizations wanting to participate in the program, thousands of new projects in the pipeline, millions of volunteers searching and signing up for projects and wonderful stories from our affiliate network, partner organizations and volunteers. We’ve seen tremendous growth across the nation and created an amazing one million volunteer projects.
The innovative and transformative nature of this program gives people who have never volunteered before the chance to engage. It’s providing one million access points for first-time volunteers to mobilize within their local communities. For instance, a teenager who helped at a soup kitchen blogged, “Four and a half hours, and I feel as if I've made an impact, small as it may be. We're teenagers, and we may get caught up in our own personal-circle bubbles, but there's a big planet out there, and we really are the ones who can change it. So if you have a spare half day, get out to the Caring Kitchen. Or any soup kitchen in your area - you'll have fun, your sore wrists will be a prized battle wound, and best of all, you'll never forget the feeling of making a difference, one person at a time.” Read her entire blog post.
Give a Day. Get A Disney Day. is an amazing program and continues to be a huge success. There is still a wealth of opportunities for both volunteers and organizations to get involved in the program. Stay tuned for more stories of impact, and we look forward to hearing yours too.
Join our team!
Points of Light Institute and our business units – HandsOn Network, MissionFish and Civic Incubator – as well as AmeriCorps Alums (which is currently incubating) - has several opportunities for individuals to work or volunteer with us.
We are looking for change agents who want to join us in our mission to inspire, equip and mobilize people to take action that changes the world! A number of skills-based volunteers spend time in our offices helping us fulfill this mission.
To discover a volunteer or employment opportunity that matches your skills and passions, visit http://www.pointsoflight.org/join-the-team or http://www.americorpsalums.org/?jobs
Nominate Now: Daily Point of Light Awards
The Daily Point of Light Award is a competitive award given out Monday to Friday throughout the year to honor one exceptional volunteer or volunteer effort from
across the entire nation each weekday. The award is a unique, individual way to recognize your loyal volunteers on a national level.
Volunteer recognition is an extremely effective retention and recruitment tool. All of us want to feel valued and appreciated, and it’s been proven that recognition is the best and most productive means of doing so. Research conducted by Points of Light Institute and HandsOn Network reveals that recognition not only motivates volunteers, but also promotes public awareness in local communities.
We encourage you to recognize your outstanding volunteers with honors such as the Daily Point of Light Award. National Volunteer Week, April 18-24, is an ideal time to thank your volunteers for this special award. Nominate now to have the awards in time for the celebratory week. The nomination form can be filled out quickly here: www.pointsoflight.org/recognition/dpolform
If you have questions about the award, please contact Melanie Stevenson: MStevenson@PointsofLight.org
Volunteer recognition is an extremely effective retention and recruitment tool. All of us want to feel valued and appreciated, and it’s been proven that recognition is the best and most productive means of doing so. Research conducted by Points of Light Institute and HandsOn Network reveals that recognition not only motivates volunteers, but also promotes public awareness in local communities.
We encourage you to recognize your outstanding volunteers with honors such as the Daily Point of Light Award. National Volunteer Week, April 18-24, is an ideal time to thank your volunteers for this special award. Nominate now to have the awards in time for the celebratory week. The nomination form can be filled out quickly here: www.pointsoflight.org/recognition/dpolform
If you have questions about the award, please contact Melanie Stevenson: MStevenson@PointsofLight.org
Points of Light celebrates 20 years
Points of Light Institute commemorated the 20th anniversary year of the Points of Light movement in 2009, and it was a year filled with historical moments for the organization and
for the service sector as a whole.
The sold-out National Conference on Volunteering and Service, Points of Light Presidential Forum on Service and launch of the Get HandsOn campaign were unforgettable highlights of the year, but all business units enjoyed high moments in 2009. The Civic Incubator oversaw the merger of Children for Children with HandsOn Network’s existing youth programs to create Youth HandsOn Network; HandsOn Network welcomed new affiliates and celebrated a menu of successful signature service events; and MissionFish helped foster millions of dollars in donations to charitable organizations.
We have created a brief video to recap the highlights of this banner year. Enjoy, and thank you for your continued support of Points of Light Institute as embark upon the next 20 years.
The sold-out National Conference on Volunteering and Service, Points of Light Presidential Forum on Service and launch of the Get HandsOn campaign were unforgettable highlights of the year, but all business units enjoyed high moments in 2009. The Civic Incubator oversaw the merger of Children for Children with HandsOn Network’s existing youth programs to create Youth HandsOn Network; HandsOn Network welcomed new affiliates and celebrated a menu of successful signature service events; and MissionFish helped foster millions of dollars in donations to charitable organizations.
We have created a brief video to recap the highlights of this banner year. Enjoy, and thank you for your continued support of Points of Light Institute as embark upon the next 20 years.
What You Can Do Now to Aid Haiti
As the Haiti recovery efforts intensify, HandsOn Network continues to structure its efforts for maximum impact, realizing that recovery and restoration will be an
extremely long-term effort, with different skills needed at different times along the way. For the time being, money, not feet on the ground or material goods,
is still what is needed most. That said, there ARE a number of emerging volunteer opportunities needing support.
What We Are Doing:
MissionFish on eBay has raised more than $1,000,000 and counting towards Haiti relief efforts from its fundraising Web page at www.ebay.com/haitiearthquake. We urge you to donate.
Volunteers for future efforts, as the long-term recovery progresses, may sign up and register their skills at our HandsOn Haiti relief page, www.handsonnetwork.org/haiti. We urge you to sign up. Three years after Hurricane Katrina, volunteers are still helping people rebuild their lives in Mississippi and Louisiana. The Haiti recovery will surely take much longer. Now is the time to convert your strong immediate need to help into long-term commitment.
What YOU Can Do Now:
1. Volunteer Your Time and Expertise
Volunteers with computer skills can donate technical expertise or time to Haiti relief by supporting the efforts of Crisis Commons, The Extraordinaries or a local initiative:
2. Recruit Your Friends to Give their Time and Resources
Share volunteer opportunities through your social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
"HandsOn Network plans to support the massive rebuilding and restoration phase - much as we did in the aftermath of Katrina, mobilizing and facilitating the efforts of volunteers where their skills are most needed and potentially supporting the resettlement of Haitians who may relocate into U.S. communities," Said Michelle Nunn, Ceo of Points of Light Institute and Co-Founder of HandsOn Network. "Clearly the situation is very fluid, so our strategy will continue to evolve. "
The State Department continues to say that currently the best way for individuals to help the people of Haiti is to donate money. In fact, well-meaning volunteers who show up uninvited in Haiti can jeopardize relief efforts by requiring resources themselves. Material goods sent lack warehouse storage or a means of distribution.
As an organization, in the weeks and months ahead, we will be actively working to identify the most effective ways for ourselves and our partners to make a long-term commitment to the Haiti recovery.
If you wish to donate, besides MissionFish at www.ebay.com/haitiearthquake, here are a few of the organizations specializing in on-the-ground disaster relief; all are accepting online donations towards the Haiti recovery:
Mercy Corps, www.mercycorps.org
CARE, www.care.org
World Vision, www.worldvision.org
Doctors Without Borders, www.doctorswithoutborders.org
Partners in Health, www.pih.org
What We Are Doing:
MissionFish on eBay has raised more than $1,000,000 and counting towards Haiti relief efforts from its fundraising Web page at www.ebay.com/haitiearthquake. We urge you to donate.
Volunteers for future efforts, as the long-term recovery progresses, may sign up and register their skills at our HandsOn Haiti relief page, www.handsonnetwork.org/haiti. We urge you to sign up. Three years after Hurricane Katrina, volunteers are still helping people rebuild their lives in Mississippi and Louisiana. The Haiti recovery will surely take much longer. Now is the time to convert your strong immediate need to help into long-term commitment.
What YOU Can Do Now:
1. Volunteer Your Time and Expertise
Volunteers with computer skills can donate technical expertise or time to Haiti relief by supporting the efforts of Crisis Commons, The Extraordinaries or a local initiative:
- The Crisis Commons facilitates partnerships and maintains a network of technology volunteers to respond to specific needs in times of crisis. People work on
projects based on their skills and interests, creating technological tools and resources for responders to use in disaster relief efforts around the world.
Visit www.crisiscommons.org to find opportunities, many of them related to the Haiti disaster, to donate your tech skills and time.
- The Extraordinaries have pioneered the concept of "micro volunteering" , which allows people to complete micro-tasks for organizations or efforts passionate
about, using a mobile phone or web browser. Each Micro-task takes just a few minutes to complete. They have created a Haiti support page to harness the
power of the crowd to help locate and identify missing persons.
Two of their current micro-volunteering opportunities are:
- The Image Tagger - Sort through news photos coming out of
Haiti and categorize (tag) them with keywords such as "adult, child" -- the kind of classification easy for people to do and extremely difficult for computers to do.
- The Matcher - Match the faces of missing people to faces in photos coming from Haiti. The goal is to help desperate families find their loved ones.
- The Image Tagger - Sort through news photos coming out of
Haiti and categorize (tag) them with keywords such as "adult, child" -- the kind of classification easy for people to do and extremely difficult for computers to do.
2. Recruit Your Friends to Give their Time and Resources
Share volunteer opportunities through your social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
"HandsOn Network plans to support the massive rebuilding and restoration phase - much as we did in the aftermath of Katrina, mobilizing and facilitating the efforts of volunteers where their skills are most needed and potentially supporting the resettlement of Haitians who may relocate into U.S. communities," Said Michelle Nunn, Ceo of Points of Light Institute and Co-Founder of HandsOn Network. "Clearly the situation is very fluid, so our strategy will continue to evolve. "
The State Department continues to say that currently the best way for individuals to help the people of Haiti is to donate money. In fact, well-meaning volunteers who show up uninvited in Haiti can jeopardize relief efforts by requiring resources themselves. Material goods sent lack warehouse storage or a means of distribution.
As an organization, in the weeks and months ahead, we will be actively working to identify the most effective ways for ourselves and our partners to make a long-term commitment to the Haiti recovery.
If you wish to donate, besides MissionFish at www.ebay.com/haitiearthquake, here are a few of the organizations specializing in on-the-ground disaster relief; all are accepting online donations towards the Haiti recovery:
Mercy Corps, www.mercycorps.org
CARE, www.care.org
World Vision, www.worldvision.org
Doctors Without Borders, www.doctorswithoutborders.org
Partners in Health, www.pih.org
- February 2010 (3)
- January 2010 (13)
- December 2009 (4)
- November 2009 (5)
- October 2009 (7)
- September 2009 (5)
- August 2009 (5)
- July 2009 (4)
- June 2009 (3)
