Philanthropy Front and Center-San Francisco

Your Techie Skills Can Help Nonprofits

Idealist.org is partnering with Mozilla (the organization behind Firefox browser) on their first annual Mozilla Service Week, which will match thousands of techie volunteers around the globe with nonprofits in need of IT help, web or graphic design, network configuration, social media & online marketing, database management and much more.

Mozilla Service Week is happening September 14-21 and nonprofit organizations have already posted volunteer opportunities and there are nearly 9,000 volunteer hours donated so far! 

To volunteer or to register a nonprofit organization that could use some tech help, visit: http://mozillaservice.org/

Everyone can help by spreading the word.

Listen! Aaron Hurst, Taproot Foundation Founder, Gives Advice for Making the Most of a Volunteer Workforce

For the latest installment of our Philanthropy Chat series, Janet Camarena, director of Foundation Center-San Francisco, interviewed Aaron Hurst, founder and CEO of the Taproot Foundation.  The mission of the Taproot Foundation is to strengthen nonprofits by engaging business professionals in service. Aaron discusses lessons the Taproot Foundation has learned over the last decade of managing volunteer teams, the current climate for corporate philanthropy and workplace volunteering, and how nonprofits can most effectively harness the volunteer talent that’s currently on the market.

In addition to finding the Foundation Center's Philanthropy Chat podcasts here, you can also subscribe to them at iTunes, or via our feed.

Voices from the Field: Making the Most of a Wave of Volunteers

Aaron Hurst, founder and CEO of the Taproot Foundation, writes about how a confluence of factors including inspiration from President Obama's Serve America Act to the ongoing recession have led to an abundant supply of volunteers for the nonprofit sector and the challenges the sector faces in making the best use of this new wave of volunteers.  His Op-Ed piece appears in the current issue of the Chronicle of Philanthropy and outlines the lessons the Taproot Foundation has learned about managing volunteer teams effectively in its eight years of providing pro bono service grants to more than 1,000 nonprofit organizations in seven cities around the country.  Read more.

Tell us what you think.  Do you have more volunteers than you can handle?  Or are you having a hard time matching your organizational needs to the types of things your volunteers are interested in doing?

From the Answer Desk: How can I find foundations that offer volunteer match programs?

Some corporate foundations award funding to nonprofits with which employees of their sponsoring companies have volunteered.  These are often called “Dollars for Doers” programs but are also referred to as “Volunteer Match” or “Volunteer Matching” programs.

In Foundation Directory Online, we use the Type of Support field term “Employee volunteer services” to indicate that the employees of the grantmaker's sponsoring company provide volunteer services. In making grants, many companies and company-sponsored foundations favor organizations with which their employees volunteer. Using the index phrase “Employee volunteer services” in your search will highlight corporate grantmakers that likely also have Volunteer Match programs.

You can also use the keyword search field to find foundations that have these types of programs.  Using the phrases “dollars for doers”, or “volunteer match*” (where the asterisk acts as a wildcard to find “match” or “matching”) are also effective in locating these programs, and can be used to supplement the results of your “Employee volunteer services” search.

For information on other types of matching gifts programs, we suggest you read our FAQs on the subject, including What are employee matching gifts?  The Council on Foundations’ What types of support do corporations provide to non profit organizations? is helpful as well.

Have a question?  Ask us!

(This post is from Robert Bruno, Reference Librarian, Foundation Center-New York.)

Some corporate foundations award funding to nonprofits with which employees of their sponsoring companies have volunteered.  These are often called “Dollars for Doers” programs but are also referred to as “Volunteer Match” or “Volunteer Matching” programs.

In Foundation Directory Online, we use the Type of Support field term “Employee volunteer services” to indicate that the employees of the grantmaker's sponsoring company provide volunteer services. In making grants, many companies and company-sponsored foundations favor organizations with which their employees volunteer. Using the index phrase “Employee volunteer services” in your search will highlight corporate grantmakers that likely also have Volunteer Match programs.

You can also use the keyword search field to find foundations that have these types of programs.  Using the phrases “dollars for doers”, or “volunteer match*” (where the asterisk acts as a wildcard to find “match” or “matching”) are also effective in locating these programs, and can be used to supplement the results of your “Employee volunteer services” search.

For information on other types of matching gifts programs, we suggest you read our FAQs on the subject, including What are employee matching gifts?  The Council on Foundations’ What types of support do corporations provide to non profit organizations? is helpful as well.

Have a question?  Ask us!

(This post is from Robert Bruno, Reference Librarian, Foundation Center-New York.)

National Volunteer Week, April 19-25

Established in 1974 by former President Richard Nixon, National Volunteer Week has grown in scope each year drawing the support and endorsement of all subsequent U.S. presidents, governors, mayors and other elected officials. This year's theme is "Celebrating People in Action."

Two significant national celebrations fall during National Volunteer Week: Earth Day and Global Youth Service Day. Earth Day, commemorated April 22, is an opportunity to celebrate the positive impact volunteers can make on the environment. Global Youth Service Day, commemorated the weekend of April 24-26, is an annual international event that highlights and celebrates the ongoing contributions of youth to their communities through volunteer service and service learning.

The Points of Light Institute has posted a resource guide with project ideas, suggestions of ways to recognize volunteers, press release templates and more.

The Volunteer Center, serving San Francisco and San Mateo Counties, celebrates through a Call for Nominations for the 2009 Volunteer Awards. Submit your vote for your favorite nonprofit to win the 2009 Volunteer Choice Award.

For general information about volunteers and volunteer management, search the Catalog of Nonprofit Literature, the Center's bibliographic database, for the subjects "Voluntarism” or Voluntarism-administration".

Some recommended books in our collection:

• Herman, Melanie L., Peggy M. Jackson, and Barbara B. Oliver.  No Surprises: Harmonizing Risk and Reward in Volunteer Management. Washington, DC: Nonprofit Risk Management Center, 2006. 
• McBee, Shar. To Lead Is to Serve: How to Attract Volunteers and Keep Them. South Fallsburg, NY: Shar McBee, 2002

Share your plans to honor your volunteers this week—or at any time.