Last year, a friend gave me a mug that says, “Stop me before I volunteer again.” It’s too late though—I’m hooked. Since I was a child, community service has been a passion. I’ve collected toys, planned programs for a media organization, taken care of children with HIV, made sandwiches for homeless people, donated old coats and blankets to shelters, taken homeless children to the movies. You name it, I’ve either done it or organized others to do it.
So it isn’t really surprising that I got my office involved in volunteering. While working for a weekly newspaper in Atlanta in the mid-1990s, I was searching for a new experience with children. I found the local Ronald McDonald House, an organization that houses families of patients being treated at children’s hospitals. I began spending a few hours one evening a week there. Each night, area churches, groups of friends, companies and other caring souls donated dinners to the residents. We in-house volunteers would serve and often eat with the residents. The dinner volunteers enjoyed bringing the meals and knowing their food brought comfort. While speaking about it with a friend at work, I decided my officemates would enjoy the opportunity to help too.
Organizing coworkers can be like herding cats. Everyone is going in different directions. People figure they spend enough time with each other during the day and just want to get home, for goodness’ sakes. But volunteering with your coworkers can boost office morale and make you all feel better about working together.
Here’s what I did: I arranged with my boss to get a minute to speak about the Ronald McDonald House during a regular monthly office meeting. I passed around a sign-up sheet and encouraged coworkers to get their significant others and friends to help too. Lo and behold, they were enthusiastic. Soon my company was on the house calendar the last Wednesday of every month. I assigned people different tasks (“Fran, you brought dessert last time so this time you get the main course.”), and each person was responsible for dropping off his or her dish. Often, we stayed and ate with residents, which was encouraged.
How can you rally your own troops behind an ongoing volunteer opportunity? Here are some tips from United Way:
• Be selective. You and your coworkers have limited time, so choose something meaningful to the majority, and perhaps complimentary to your company or industry.
• Consider the participants’ skills. You don’t want to do something that too few people know how to do or are interested in doing.
• Don’t over-commit. For us, once a month worked. If that is too often, try once a quarter.
• Learn something new. I never became a great cook. But as I saw how grateful residents were, I started trying a bit more—and sometimes succeeded.
• Bring your family. It’s true, we spend enough time with our coworkers during the day. So how about making volunteering a social event and introduce your work buddies to your outside life?Several months after we started bringing dinners to the Ronald McDonald House, I left the company. But by this point, the project was practically running itself. A coworker took over, and I was proud that employees continued to donate dinners for months to come.
Today, I work from home. I don’t have an office to organize anymore. But I look forward to the day I gather my growing family together around another worthy cause. Perhaps I’ll be sipping from that mug my friend so thoughtfully gave me.
