This post is by Tracy Hoover, Points of Light’s president.
Tracy Hoover
Giving back and helping others is not only a gift but an opportunity for personal growth and, let’s face it, a chance to feel good. As we head into the holiday season, why not personalize your approach and use your passions to inspire and help others?
You can give from the heart by:
Donating your skills and talents. The recession is in its fifth year and nonprofits are hurting. You can offer more than just a check or a few hours – you can give your expertise.
It’s called skills-based volunteering and it’s hot right now: 92 percent of nonprofits say they need more of it. So, think about what you’re good at – marketing, accounting, cooking, fixing computers, gardening, whatever – and offer it up to a nonprofit that can use it. You can help out in a computer lab or showcase your social media chops for an organization that can use it to raise awareness for their good works. You can help pull off events, prepare for an audit or recruit other volunteers.
And while you’re feeling good about helping others, you’re also polishing your skills — 91 percent of Fortune 500 human resources managers said providing pro bono knowledge and expertise can be an effective way to cultivate critical business and leadership skills.
If you’re a business owner, engaging your employees in skills-based volunteering can help build ties to your community, team spirit and job satisfaction. Find out more and join the pro bono movement at abillionpluschange.org.
Making service personal. Many nonprofits are born from difficult personal experiences — the death of a child, disease or personal tragedy, poverty. It seems we’re wired to help others avoid the tough things we’ve had to go through.
Take Risa Vetri Ferman, for example. Throughout her 19-year tenure with the Montgomery County (Pa.) District Attorney’s Office, Risa witnessed the horrific physical and emotional scars caused by child abuse. As District Attorney, she used her unique role in the community to create innovative solutions to protect children at risk. Determined to create change, Risa co-founded two local nonprofits that provide support for victims of child abuse: the Montgomery Child Advocacy Project, which provides pro bono legal services for abused kids and Mission Kids, a child advocacy center that facilitates the multidisciplinary team response to child abuse.
Supporting the work of others: One great way to bring your passion forward is to use all your personal power – your time, special skills, your social networks and personal influence to support and celebrate the good work that others are doing.
For eight years now, Points of Light has been honored to team up with L’Oréal Paris to celebrate 10 inspiring women making a difference in their communities. The personal stories of the 2013 Women of Worth are poignant and show that despite extreme adversity, women are committed to pursuing their passion and finding the beauty in giving back. These women are redefining volunteerism and as we talk about supporting others, it’s important to note that nearly 90 percent of the thousands of nominations this year were submitted by others.
You can support their work, and it will only take a minute. From Nov. 4 – 20, go to WomenofWorth.com or L’Oréal Paris’s Facebook and Twitter pages and vote for the finalist whose story means the most to you. L’Oréal Paris will give the Woman of Worth with the most votes an additional $25,000 for her cause.
It’s a simple way to give thanks for the work of others and kick off your own holiday giving season.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, A Day On, Not a Day Off
Today we honor the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the causes for which he gave his life.
This year, the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday falls on the same weekend as the Presidential Inauguration. That gives us, as a nation, a great opportunity to celebrate both the legacy of Dr. King and our democracy.
Dr. King was deeply committed to justice and to volunteer service.
As Dr. King famously said:
Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.
Points of Light is sending a simple message: Now’s the time to move beyond the divisiveness and come together to volunteer. No matter what our differences, we can join hands and tackle tough problems together.
We are issuing a call to do what we, as Americans, do best – lend a hand, help our neighbors, and build stronger communities.
Find out more about the projects today on our Facebook, or follow the official national day of service on Twitter at hashtag 2013MLKDay.
January Board Member of the Month: Sherri Anne Green
Points of Light and BoardSource are proud to announce
Sherri Anne Green
as the January 2013 Board Member of the Month.
Sherri is the Director of Business Development at
in Arlington, VA. She was nominated for her work with the DC Ad Club in Washington, D.C. by Carol Montoya, President of Potomac Management Resources, the DC Ad Club’s association management company. Carol was eager to share her thoughts about Sherri, “Sherri has served on our board for six years and was recently elected to a third year as president, a testament to how much we value her leadership.”
During a recent interview Sherri shared that she serves in the DC Ad Club because she believes in the local advertising community: “The DC region is often overlooked for the variety of industries we have, and advertising is one of those. We have a really vibrant and creative advertising community that’s made up of agencies, media, PR, technology specialists, photographers, and every other professional that touches the advertising industry. I’m really inspired to show off the contributions that we make as a key part of every business’s needs, and that’s their marketing and advertising.”
Serving on a nonprofit board is hard and dedicated work, but most board members find it overwhelmingly fulfilling. We asked Sherri to share with us the advice she would give to those looking to serve on a board. She replied, “You’ve got to find an organization that you really believe in, and beyond that, you have to start volunteering. It is extremely important for nonprofit boards to have people who are willing to get the work done, and who have time to contribute to get the work done. Having a proven track record of enthusiasm and willingness to help, as well as leadership on a committee or with an event or program, shows how you can contribute in a more senior/larger leadership role with the organization.”
Points of Light and BoardSource created the Board Member of the Month award to honor outstanding individuals for their commitment to advancing the public good through exceptional nonprofit board leadership. We are so glad that Sherri was able to find an organization that she believes in.
As the January 2013 Board Member of the Month, Sherri Anne Green receives complimentary registration to the
national conferences and a year of BoardSource membership. She also becomes a candidate for the Board Member of the Year Award, which will be announced in December 2013.
Click here to nominate an outstanding individual for the
Recognizing Employee Volunteers – Another Way to Show You Care
Today’s guest post is written by Cristina Andoni, ATLAS Corps Fellowfrom Republic of Moldova, serving at Points of Light as Corporate Institute coordinator. If you’re interested in contacting her for more information, please e-mail [email protected]
Coming from a country where employee recognition is often given in the form of end-of-year bonuses, occasional tchotchkes and certificates at corporate parties, recognition programs in American corporations are strategic and complex.
Each year $46B is spent on employee recognition (Bersin&Associates, 2012) which includes employee volunteer recognition: grants (dollar for doers, matching gifts), traditional employee recognition (certificates, employee awards, success stories shared in media) and non-traditional recognition (ex: lunch with the upper management).
Recognizing employee volunteers goes beyond good judgment and cost-benefit analysis. Empirical evidence proves that recognizing employee volunteers is good for business. Recognized employees are more motivated, engaged and ultimately – more productive. After all, great recognition programs drive 31 percent lower employee turnover (Bersin&Associates, 2012) and engaged organizations have 3.9 times the earnings per share growth rate compared to organizations with lower engagement in their same industry (Gallup, 2011).
At Points of Light, based on Corporate Engagement Award of Excellence applicants, we have seen that while recognition programs vary in complexity depending on the corporate culture, strategic goals and mission, they all share the objective to motivate and maximize the impact of employee volunteers. To do so, some companies award their employee volunteers for hours they volunteer, while others provide philanthropic awards given to charities where employees volunteer.
Here are a few tips to consider when recognizing employee volunteers:
If you do not have a recognition program, consider starting one. Integrate formal and non-formal recognition practices into your program. Most effective recognition practices include volunteer grants, competitive awards (especially team awards) and story-telling.
While recognition is not a major motivator for most employees to volunteer, many employees want to be recognized (LBG Associates’ study on volunteerism, 2009).
Recognize volunteer employees for concrete actions and results. Align the employee recognition program goals to the corporate mission and business goals. Show your employee volunteers that their engagement contributes to the business in the long-run. Some Employee Volunteer Programs even integrate their volunteer recognition into company reward programs or performance review processes (Points of Light Trends of Excellence Series, 2012).
While recognition often works from the top down, i.e. management recognizing the volunteering efforts of its subordinates, employees want to be recognized as well as by their peers. For example, communicate about the great work your employees do in communities and involve their colleagues by asking them to vote for the most compelling project or volunteering activity.
Position recognition as a HR tool. Many companies are already actively using employee volunteer engagement to build employee skills, teams and even integrate employee volunteerism into the company annual performance review process.
While you want to clearly state the criteria for employee recognition (if there is such) and make recognition available for all employees, try to recognize your employees impromptu. A note of spontaneity will make your employees feel special.
Finally, analyze current employee volunteer behavior and preferences and draw conclusions. Place the employee at the center of all our actions, and build future program components based on what really works in your organization instead of on what might be “trendy” on the market at the moment.
Human capital employees are a company’s greatest asset. Recognizing volunteers is just another way to show your employees you value and support their community engagement and tell them that you care.
Want to have your company recognized for their great employee engagement? Click here to learn more about and apply for the Corporate Engagement Award of Excellence. Deadline for applications is March 13, 2013, 11:59 p.m. EST
Points of Light will announce the 2013 Corporate Engagement Award of Excellence honorees at the Conference on Volunteering and Service in Washington D.C. on June 19 – 22, 2013.
are proud to announce December’s Board Member of the Month honoree George Brymer, who helped to establish the Mobile Meals Foundation and has been an instrumental board member for the
in Toledo, Ohio, for a dozen years.
Brymer’s leadership philosophy on board service involves drawing out the talents of each and every board member. He believes that this not only attracts good board members, but helps to retain them.
Serving as the board president, Brymer used his experience and expertise as a former banker to assist the Audit & Finance Committee. In addition he has used his marketing expertise to help rebrand the agency.
“I think that my legacy will be that I always challenged the status quo, that I always challenged other board members to take a second look at long-standing assumptions,” Brymer said. “It’s very easy for boards to fall into group think. It’s therefore critical that someone says, ‘Okay, but we haven’t thought of this, or what if we did it this way?’ I don’t always have the most popular idea, but it is always a second idea for people to think about.
“A lot of times, after a meeting, other board members will come up to me and say, ‘You said exactly what I was thinking, but I didn’t want to say it or I felt uncomfortable saying it.’ So, sometimes you just have to be a devil’s advocate. And that would be my advice to aspiring board members.”
As the December 2012 Board Member of the Month, Brymer receives complimentary registration to the
national conferences and a year of BoardSource membership. He also becomes a candidate for the Board Member of the Year Award, which will be announced in December 2013.
To nominate an outstanding individual, click
Today’s blog is reposted from encore.org on Dec. 5.
If you’re looking for inspiration, here are five stories that reveal the power of social innovation – and the capacity of individuals in their encore careers.
I’m proud to introduce this year’s $100,000 Purpose Prize winners. Each of them identified a significant, seemingly intractable social problem. Guided by experience, drawing on creativity and anchored in pragmatism, they set out to find solutions. In their 60s, they are changing the world, and with it perceptions of what is possible for millions of others flooding into the second half of life.
Bhagwati (B.P.) Agrawal, 68, brings safe drinking water to six villages in India, home to 10,000 people. He’s doing it by collecting rain.
Susan Burton, 61, a former drug addict, was in and out of jail for 20 years. Now she helps formerly incarcerated women in Los Angeles stay out of jail.
Judy Cockerton, 61, winner of this year’s Purpose Prize for Intergenerational Innovation, sponsored by AARP, creates innovative ways people can help foster kids in Massachusetts – including serving as “honorary grandparents.”
Thomas Cox, 68, a pro bono lawyer in Maine who exposed massive fraud among mortgage lenders, teaches other lawyers how to protect homeowners from unfair lending practices.
Lorraine Decker, 64, is taking her know-how as a financial planner to help low-income families in Houston earn more and to prepare teens for the financial rigors of adulthood.
Read their stories, and learn also about the 35 new Purpose Prize fellows – finalists for The Prize – at www.encore.org/prize. Watch short videos of the winners here.
Nominations for the 2013 Purpose Prize will open in January. I hope this year’s winners and fellows will inspire you to nominate someone you know who is helping change lives.
November Board Member of the Month: Mr. Ethelbert Miller
Today’s guest post is written by KaCey Venning who serves as the manager, Cause Programs of Points of Light. She is excited about encouraging people to become more active in their communities.
in Washington, D.C. He has served on the IPS board for 18 years, 10 as chairman. His contribution to the organization runs deep, even offering his own 60
th
birthday party as a fundraising opportunity.
“I believe each board member has something to offer and it is my responsibility to ensure IPS continues to grow and remains a vital part of the community,” Ethelbert said. “As we approach our 50
th
anniversary as an organization, I am excited to acknowledge those who helped us achieve so much and celebrate the young leaders who will help us move forward.”
For those wishing to serve on nonprofit boards, Ethelbert said: “Be ready to make a commitment. Understand time management and, most importantly, do not accept a position if you are unsure of your commitment. Ask yourself, ‘When I step down, what did I do?’ And be willing to lead the organization if necessary.”
Ethelbert said he accepts the award on behalf of those who blazed a trail before him and those he serves alongside today.
As the November 2012 Board Member of the Month, Ethelbert receives complimentary registration to the BoardSource and Points of Light national conferences and a year of BoardSource membership. He also becomes a candidate for the Board Member of the Year Award, which will be announced in December 2013.
To nominate an outstanding board member for this prestigious award, click
Today’s guest post is written by KaCey Venning who serves as the manager, Cause Programs of Points of Light. She is excited about encouraging people to become more active in their communities.
Serving on the board of directors for any organization is a scary thing. When I joined my first board, I had the assumption that it would be easy work. There wasn’t much to it… you write a check, attend a few meetings and make a decision or two. I could not have been more wrong.
Making a commitment to provide fiscal, legal and organizational oversight and governance is critical work. It is the type of service that requires training and ongoing education to ensure that all active members of a board are up to date on changing laws and policies. Active members also must be willing to make the hard decisions that ensure the success of the organization even in the face of opposition. Although I was still very much overwhelmed by what I had agreed to, I was even more determined to gain the skills necessary to be an effective and viable member of the board.
I learned of a program sponsored by the United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta. Its
allowed me to learn what a board is, what they do, what they are responsible for and that there are various types of boards. Serving on a fundraising board is very different from a board that provides governance and oversight. And even more different are individuals who serve on advisory boards. Then you have organizations that have boards that are a hybrid of a few. These are important factors to consider when being recruited to serve on a board of directors. I highly value my experience during the
. It allowed me to be very clear about how to proceed in my board service.
My education was furthered even more this past September when I attended the
Leadership Forum in Chicago. To sit and hear from experts and professionals who have dedicated their professional careers to developing and educating board of directors was an enlightening experience. I sat amongst some of the highest performing board of directors in the nonprofit sector and was able to walk away with a wealth of knowledge. When my next opportunity arises to sit on a board, I know now to also interview them to ensure that they are a high performer and functioning as an effective board that is getting things done.
Between my personal and professional experience with boards, I was thrilled when the opportunity was presented to work with BoardSource. Points of Light and BoardSource know the importance of boards in ensuring that the missions of organizations are realized to their fullest potential. For so many smaller and community-based organizations, the work of their board is sometimes unnoticed on a national scale. That is why I am so excited about the launch of the Board Member of the Month award presented by Points of Light and BoardSource. It is a chance for organizations to applaud and appreciate the work of their board members. I can think of so many deserving board members and I am sure you can as well. Now is your chance to nominate them to become a Board Member of the Month.
Celebrate Daily Points of Light
So many people across the U.S and the world are doing good in their communities. It’s really amazing how creative, courageous, and compassionate humans can be. Read some recent inspiring stories:
People continue to amaze and inspire us every day. What are your friends and family and people in your community doing out of their goodwill? Share the good with us. Nominate them for the
News Flash: Points of Light Partners with NCoC, Bloomberg News to Launch Civic 100
Points of Light has partnered with the National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC) to launch The Civic 100, a national initiative to survey, rank and recognize corporations on how they engage the communities they serve and institutionalize these practices as part of their corporate culture. Bloomberg News, one of corporate America’s most respected sources of business and financial information, will serve as The Civic 100’s media partner in this endeavor.
“The business sector plays a critical role in promoting civic engagement. The Civic 100 will not only acknowledge corporate leadership in service, but encourage companies to find new ways to build and strengthen their communities,” said Neil Bush, Points of Light’s board chairman. “The Civic 100 will showcase innovation, honor those serving as stewards of their community and create an incentive to create change.”
The Civic 100 isn’t the first effort to track corporate social responsibility, but it is the first initiative to implement a scientific approach to measuring and evaluating corporate civic engagement.
A recent CSR Perception Survey conducted by Penn Schoen & Berland found that 40 percent of respondents were willing to take a pay cut to work at a socially responsible company, and 72 percent would sacrifice spending or salary to support corporate social responsibility initiatives. The same survey found that 75 percent of consumers say corporate responsibility is important to them, and they are more likely to purchase products or services from a company after reading its responsibility agenda.
“As a company committed to global sustainability, Bloomberg is proud to partner with NCoC and Points of Light to produce The Civic 100 survey,” said Curtis Ravenel, Global Head of Bloomberg L.P.’s Sustainability Group. “Corporations are increasingly adopting business practices that reflect their commitment to community engagement, yet there has been little formal recognition of these efforts.”
The Civic 100 survey is available to S&P 500 companies at www.Civic100.org now through July 31. Responses will be used to generate an overall composite score, resulting in a rank ordered 1-to-100 list to be published in Bloomberg Businessweek in mid-November.
To learn more about The Civic 100 survey as well as the importance of civic engagement in corporate America, please visit www.Civic100.org.
