New Year's Resolution Idea (Hint, hint!)

Let's say you make a $10 donation to ABC Charity and that $10 is put into a general fund or used for programs. It goes to the people who need it. Then it gets used up.

Okay. You've made your donation. Now you're off to the rest of your life.

But wait just a minute. Instead of just writing a check, what if you decided to pitch in a few hours as a volunteer? Wouldn't it make your donation go just a little bit further?

Okay, you're volunteering! And guess what? You love it!

What if I told you that you could still do more?

What if you told everyone you knew that you had donated to this charity? You told them why you like ABC Charity? You tell them that you just made a donation, and you volunteered to pitch in a few extra hours a week this year.

How much do you want to bet that those people would be a) interested in donating b) interested in volunteering or c) might pass the word along to their friends?


YOUR BEING INVOLVED INSPIRES OTHERS TO BE INVOLVED.

See how big and fast it could grow? And it's so simple.

Wow, I forgot to mention what you will get out of all of this.

I'm not going to say that being involved with a charity is a sure-fire way to a happier life, however, volunteering and donating to charities makes you feel good. I can speak from my own experience... it has made an enormous difference in my life to be surrounded by people who are involved to help others. It was an unexpected, exciting discovery for me. And it made me blossom in other ways.

If you've ever felt unaccepted in your daily life, or need some help feeling good about yourself, there is no more perfect opportunity than to volunteer. You will be thanked until you are sick of hearing it. Your work will be appreciated. People will say, "I couldn't have done it without [insert your name here]."

Make this your New Year's resolution - choose a charity and make your mark on it.

The Nonprofit Challenge: Stretch YOUR Dollar

If you as a person were a nonprofit, here's what you could expect to deal with on a daily basis.

• Being paid when others feel like giving you money out of the goodness of their hearts
• Having the opportunity to apply for more income only when it's convenient for corporations, foundations, or sponsors
• Begging - sometimes on hands and knees - for cash
• Having to prove to people you're using their money to get results
• Working on a budget that is not guaranteed
• Running your coffee grounds through the coffee machine twice
• Using every last bit of toilet paper, toothpaste, and soap in order to avoid buying more
• Going grocery shopping only when you've used up the very last of everything in your refrigerator, including the ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, and that package of cheese that has black spots on it
• Eating every last leftover scrap in that Chinese takeout box
• Going on a day trip to a local state park for "a vacation"
• Asking everyone you meet to buy coffee, go get a spa treatment, or buy a ticket for an event so you can get 10% to keep yourself financially afloat

This is the reality for me (on a larger scale) as a nonprofit Executive Director. We do everything (and I do mean everything) on a shoestring budget, often buying only the necessities at the very last second. We reuse file folders three and four times, we keep all of our scrap paper (use both sides), we use an RFP process for almost all of our print jobs and we ask for revised proposals every year (ask our printers), and nothing, nothing, nothing, gets wasted. In fact, we even borrow the darn newspaper from our landlords from time to time. (Shhh.)

What does this mean for the people we serve? When it comes to our programs, we can't scrimp. We work hard to get sponsors and contributors for our programs so that we're able to maximize the impact their money has on our constituents. We have to put our best foot forward to ensure they know we care about them.  

So, my office has a hodgepodge of donated furniture, my interior decorating looks like it was done by a drunken chimp (no offense intended), and my desk, which is covered in paper, is half of a real computer desk that was salvaged from God knows where. I use a cereal bowl to hold my phone messages and all of my office supplies have vendor logos on them because they were either giveaways or samples. But if I've saved an extra dollar to pay an Elvis impersonator a significantly reduced rate to entertain brain injury survivors at our Snow Ball Banquet, it's worth it.

We are not in business to make ourselves look good. We are in business to help people. We use your money the best way we know how, and we work hard to maximize the money you entrust to us.