From the desk of Greater Sum’s Executive Director, Anna Taylor
Each year, about 64 million Americans - one-fourth of the adult population - are invited to volunteer. For many, volunteerism is a source of great joy and satisfaction. In fact, the National Institutes of Health has found improved mental and physical health in folks who volunteer. April is National Volunteer Month, and nonprofit organizations across the US are celebrating their volunteers and asking more people to get involved with their causes. If you’ve found volunteering less joyful than you’d hoped, or even just an obligation, I’d like to have a word with you this month.
Years ago I went through training in Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Successful People, and something the facilitator said has stuck with me for all this time. “People will understand your NO if they understand your YES.” In other words, if someone understands WHY you’re telling them no, they will be less likely to feel resentful or to keep pressuring you to change your mind and say “yes.” Here’s how that relates to volunteering.
Sometimes you get invited to volunteer activities you’re not interested in or don’t have the bandwidth to participate in.
Your coworker really isn’t trying to torture you with early morning beach clean ups; they just haven’t realized that you don’t rise at the crack of dawn when you aren’t coming to work.
Your kid’s teacher keeps inviting you to field trips, and you’ve discovered you use all your vacation time on school holidays.
Saying YES to these activities drains your time and energy, and then you feel guilty for not enjoying volunteering like the people around you seem to do. You can’t win.
Here’s my trick for navigating these uncomfortable invitations to volunteer. Tell people what you want to do. Tell your coworker to call you when they do a happy hour version of that early morning event. Tell your kid’s teacher you’re all in for the Teacher Appreciation breakfast or the Fall Festival a few weekends away, but not for field trips during your work day. Tell them your YES.
And if you know you have more capacity to give but you haven’t yet figured out how you want to volunteer, here’s a recipe for finding out:
Ask yourself what you love doing. Write down three things you enjoy in your spare time and three talents you love tapping into at work.
Now ask yourself what change you’d like to see in the world. Better opportunities for young people? More accessible healthy food in neighborhoods? Clean beaches?
See if you can draw some dotted lines between what you love to do and what you’d like to accomplish. There’s your path to joyful volunteer opportunities!
You really can find nonprofit organizations that need your talents and energy, and you can find joy in helping them accomplish their missions. Take a step toward filling that joyful volunteer role, and you just might find yourself asking YOUR coworkers to get involved. (Just remember to be on the lookout for them to tell you their YES.)
