Will You Help Reimagine Service?
Subscribe to the Blog RSS FeedWe at BTC and ServiceNation believe that volunteering is far more than just a good thing to do – we believe that volunteers have the power to change the world. That's why ServiceNation is excited to be part of a new initiative, Reimagining Service, that aims to help volunteers across the nation do just that.
Reimagining Service is unfolding under the direction of Points Of Light Institute CEO (and ServiceNation convener) Michelle Nunn, as well as Gap, Inc.’s Bobbi Silten and Deloitte’s Evan Hochberg. Some of the other service superstars involved include Jean Case of the Case Foundation, Karen Baker, the Secretary for Services and Volunteering for the State of California and our own Bill McClements, acting President of Be the Change, Inc. And wth their leadership, a tremendous task force has come together to reimagine service, including organizations from the public and private sector as well as nonprofits.
This is really great, because it will allow the best ideas from every sector to be implemented across all sectors, making volunteering easier, more efficient and more effective.
Here’s what the Reimagining Service website puts forth as the goal:
We seek to lead an open dialogue and exchange that elevates the practice of volunteerism in our country. To jump start this effort, we have called together national leaders as a Task Force to inform the Reimagining Service effort and have organized the work into action groups focused on the five key areas. We recognize that these five areas are not comprehensive, but we believe they are the highest leverage areas to focus our work. We have generated preliminary ideas that will continue to be refined and detailed with specific activities by the action groups.
To get the national conversation started Reimagining Service published a report about the call to service in our country and the need for nonprofits to work hard to revolutionize their strategies to help translate America's powerful spirit of volunteerism into maximum impact in communities. Here are some of the report’s key findings:
- Service should be used as a method of addressing the critical needs of our communities and to do that, we need to mobilize volunteers who have the skills that nonprofits need.
World-class organizations define clear roles and recruit top talent with the passion and skill sets required to achieve their mission. Too often we are focused solely on what a volunteer wants to do and we fail to mobilize skilled and passionate volunteers to address the critical needs of nonprofits, communities and individuals they serve…While there are many skilled and experienced volunteer managers in the community, we need to build on this resource base. Much can be learned from the field of human resources management to ensure that we are matching the talents and interests of volunteers with the needs of nonprofits to drive real results.
- Volunteers work for free, but managing them costs time and money – but it’s still a necessary investment.
Organizations are eager to take advantage of the expertise and time of volunteers, but they often lack the management bandwidth and systems to appropriately manage this rich resource.
- We need more government roles for service leaders, as well as service positions in the corporate and nonprofit worlds.
The President and First Lady’s passion and example will prove invaluable, but many more leaders are needed. We must develop a cadre of leaders at the highest levels of government, corporate and nonprofit organizations who can bring a deep set of skills and thoughtfulness to enable the mobilization of volunteers to address real problems…These public service leaders must be matched with leadership for service in our communities…We also encourage a dialogue with community leaders in hard-to-reach communities to bring attention not only to increasing the level of service, but the impact of service by leveraging existing and new resources.
- Volunteers are still one of our country’s greatest resources and it should be easy for everyone, of any age or ability, to volunteer where they can do the most good.
Creating accessible tools and technologies for recruiting, placing, training, tracking and evaluating the performance of volunteers that are based on established guidelines and principles can help ensure that we are not re-creating the wheel and that every potential volunteer knows exactly what to expect from the process.
But to make this the most powerful campaign possible Reimagining Service needs your feedback and ideas, as well as your help to take this initiative from imagining to implementation. So Reimagining Service is calling on you to join up, get involved, and help spread the word, as well as offer your wisdom and experience.
We know you have ideas on how service organizations and nonprofits can better take advantage of their resources and how to make our country friendlier to service. Share them at ReimaginingService.org, and check out the report here. This is a chance to remake your world for a new century. Sound good?
