Rozhovor s Pamelou Hawley o dobrovolnictví

Pamela Hawley je zakladatelka a výkonná ředitelka UniversalGiving

 

 

UniversalGiving is a website that helps people give and volunteer with the top-performing, vetted organizations all over the world. We're committed to quality, so our projects are vetted through UniversalGiving's proprietary Quality Model.™ It's also important to us that 100% of each donation goes directly to the cause.

 

Visitors to our site can choose an opportunity by country, such as Kenya or Peru, or by issue, such as women, health, poverty or children. They can find a way to volunteer that fits their time and interests, helping to build a health clinic or to serve food to the hungry.

 

During 2010, we made more than 800 referrals, connecting volunteers to NGOs. Our volunteer referrals have increased 66% in the past year.

 

 

 

We work closely with the NGOs on our site, ensuring their profiles and volunteer opportunities are up to date and effective for attracting the right volunteers to their organization. We also work with the visitors to our site – If someone can’t find the kind of opportunity they’re looking for, they can contact us and we’ll find a new volunteer opportunity according to their interests.

 

One way we’ve been expanding our opportunities lately has been to add more domestic volunteering in the United States, which has been in response to client requests. Yet we're also in 125 countries and rapidly expanding to 200 in the next two years. Through UniversalGiving’s site, you can volunteer with communities in Rwanda or clean up a beach as part of International Surfing Day.

 

 

 

One woman really struck my heart. She was laid off from a big corporate job and felt very lost. However, she took it as a time to reevaluate her life, and the meaning in her life. She ended up not looking for another corporate job, and signing up for a volunteer opportunity in Ghana for a year. What devotion!

 

It changed her life, her perspective... and she changed jobs. She's now working in service to our communities, and what seemed like a bad situation has turned to positive. The volunteer opportunity allowed her to see if her desire to serve was indeed her passion. So sometimes volunteering can change the entire course of our lives.

 

We're seeing this especially take place with our younger generation, and they are going in teams. They are seeing and helping the world at a much younger age. They're not waiting to serve, which means volunteering is really an embedded part of their lives.

 

 

 

I’m reminded of my very first international volunteer trip. A group of us traveled to Managua, Nicaragua to build a school. We jumped right into the project with the villagers and finished most, but not all, of the school. Our hammers broke, and there was no “hardware store” around the corner. You’d need to drive two hours. And no one in the community had a car.

 

Our first instincts as Americans were to brainstorm every possible way to complete the school. Some spent time fretting we hadn’t finished what we came here to do. Finally, I sat down to talk with the villagers and play with their children. After some silence, one Nicaraguense said to me, “You Americans just want to ‘do’. We want to create relationships.”

 
I let these words sink in. It was the beginning of truly listening. We learned about their life. We helped cook hundreds of tortillas over hot grills for lunchtime. We spoke with people who had no jobs, hardly any hope, while a stream of sewage flowed right outside the cotton cloth that separated their bedroom from the outside world. Instead of staying near the school, we walked throughout the community, meeting a local sculptor, attending a religious service, speaking with the people whose children we would be helping.

 

It is wonderful to complete a volunteer project, and make an impact. But establishing a relationship with the local people is by far the most important aspect of the volunteer trip. No matter what culture or background you come from, we are all a team working together to face the challenges in our world, together.

 

 

 

For NGOs, we encourage them to remember that volunteers have skills, ideas, energy that can be put to work as an essential part of your team. You can discern where you have gaps in management, specific skillsets needed, or support functions. Areas include fundraising, sending donor letters, website updates, newsletter writing, counseling, tutoring, building homes, customer relationship management, database updating, executive support… the list goes on! It's important to post volunteer positions in line with your needs and goals. General volunteer opportunities can set up a misalignment in expectations, and can be difficult to manage.

 

It's important, too, to know that volunteers require management, just as any person does. People need specific guidelines, and also should be guided to accomplish the specific tasks at hand. At the same time, ensure you are serving not only your organization’s needs, but also the desire for growth within the individual volunteer. What is it that they hope to achieve? It's important that you are both growing from this situation: Meet your goals and their goals.

 

For volunteers, if I was going to put it briefly I’d say: “Find a cause you care about, and a leader you believe in.” Those are two great targets that can help ensure success with your volunteer experience.

 

I would really also try to understand yourself and find out first what your greatest passions are. What is the issue you care about, such as education, poverty, the environment? What do you enjoy doing: writing, working with people, detailed work/operations? And what is the region you are most interested in, such as New Orleans, El Salvador, Africa or the neighbor across the street?

 

It's also important to consider the size of the organization. Would you like to work in a larger organization that may have more resources, but less flexibility? Or a smaller, entrepreneurial organization that has less support, but multiple opportunities to get involved?

 

We hope you’ll feel inspired to volunteer, and UniversalGiving would love to help you find the right opportunity for you! You could teach children in Mexico or empower women in India. Check out UniversalGiving's Volunteer Splashpage for some quick, recommended opportunities, or use our search feature to input the country and cause you’re interested in and find a matching opportunity.

 

Volunteering is a special, life-changing experience for everyone involved. Be prepared that the person who may be changed the most… is you. It’s a joyful, humbling, often rigorous experience which will encourage you to view yourself, your neighbors and your world quite differently.