Ep 72: Make an Impact With More Than Your Dollars

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Welcome to the Thrive Forward podcast. Friends, I cannot believe that is December by the time you are listening to this episode of the podcast, we have made it through almost 12 months of 2021. This month and on this podcast, we are going to have a little bit of fun, we're going to steer some topics financially, we're going to steer some towards the heart, and round out the REIT. And round out the year in a space that makes us feel good, and Thrive Forward into 2022. So on today's podcast, I get these questions all the time, my friend on where should I volunteer my time, so many folks can't write big checks to make huge impacts in our communities, we realize that sometimes we need to utilize our skills and our talents, more so than even our wallets. And over the last 18 to 24 months, we have seen a vast variety of different places throughout the world throughout the United States and right here in our own backyards of the Twin Cities who really need help with volunteers. So I thought, No greater place for us to dig down, roll up our sleeves and have a great conversation. And how do we choose an organization that we are aligned with? What are important things that we should consider before we sign up as a volunteer? And what are the things that we will learn not just what we will give through our time, but how will we be impacted through our journey as a volunteer. So tune in my friends, let's go. Alright, friends, so I want to share with you a bit of a story as we get into this episode of the podcast on my journey with volunteering and how it has made such a great impact in my life. So during the holiday times, it is a special reflective time for me. You see, when I was younger, my parents split up when I was in fifth grade, my dad had a mental health crisis. And my mom knew that he needed some space to be able to serve himself and grow in himself. They ended up coming back together later in life. But when I was in fifth grade, and during that time of separation, there was a lot of financial turmoil in our house, I often reflect and know what it's like to not have very much. I also know what it's like to be completely blessed with those individuals who surround you. In those times. You see, I only was able to celebrate the holidays and have gifts under the tree. Because wonderful organizations sponsored my mom and I, we were the recipients of those holiday gifts giving sponsor, a family type of things. I knew no different. There were still presents under the tree. And my mom still made it magical, even though we didn't have much. She's pretty darn creative. And I'm so grateful for that. She also worked really, really, really hard to make everything happen for me in my life. Fast forward. When I was in high school, I immediately signed up as soon as one of those sponsor family elements came to the table as an opportunity to volunteer, I got to put on my Santa hat and I got to go to target with my peers and we got to shop for a family. And that warmed my heart so much. So having that experience and receiving those gifts turned my experience of wanting to be able to give to others into action. As I mentioned in the intro to this podcast, not everyone always has money to be able to give instead, sometimes it's our time that makes an even greater impact. As I grew into an adulthood and had my varying different levels of experiences throughout my professional life, whether it was team events, volunteering, shopping for families, or volunteering at Steve, I Feed My Starving Children. When I became a senior leader in my previous firm, I was approached to sit on a board of directors and that was a great honor to me, having come up so much in my life into different spaces in different roles.

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I now got to sit on a board and have some reflection time to really power forward a mission. And so it was very important to me that whatever organism I sat on really was important to what my beliefs are, what my values are, and what are important to me. I was approached to be partnered with a great organization, urban ventures, if you're listening to this podcast or follow me along on my professional journey, or a client of forethought, you know, urban Ventures has a special place in my heart. And they are very near and dear to me, I think it's been probably eight years that I've had the great honor of sitting on their board of directors and volunteering within their organization. You see, I don't see just sitting in a boardroom with a bunch of other executives, strategically planning and hearing what's going on in the organization, as my only space. It was last summer that my daughters and I joined in as volunteers sorting food in our large gymnasium, when our community was really hurting and needed access to healthy food and groceries. And this, my friends, is what I want you to understand any time you go into a volunteer position. It's not just what time you're giving, and what organizations are near and dear to your heart. But it's what are you going to learn? Being active in my old neighborhood, and being present with the families and the youth there have radically grounded me and changed me. Oftentimes, we go into these elements of signing up to volunteer as thinking we are going to be the helper. The reality is, these organizations that we volunteer with, if you are open to it can radically change your life and how you see the world. So my friends, as we dig into this podcast today, and we start to talk about not only where you are spending your money, saving your money, giving your money, all of those things that we normally talk about on the podcast, I want you to peel back away those money conversations, Yes, that's me telling you to peel back away some of those money conversations, and have an understanding of where you can make an impact, but also where that impact can be made on you beyond just your money. So let's talk about a few things that you should do. First, I think you should always, always, always do your homework on organizations that you are going to be aligned with whether as a volunteer or someone that you are going to be employed with, right? I want you to be very honest, and with yourself around.

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What does that experience look like? Where do you want to be? What do you want it to feel like? Who are the people that you want to be surrounded with? What is the mission that you want to be able to make an impact with? I think the next part that you need to think about as you go through those pieces, is what is that activity look like? So often I have heard through my life, this element when it comes to volunteers is really giving the time? And what capacity do you have my friend, we are all bustling at the seams with different responsibilities and juggling different hats. And as I just recently talked to my coach, she said which glass ball is going to fall? So my friends, you need to understand what that time commitment is what is your capacity, potentially, your capacity is not that much right now. So you need to be able to take on something that allows you some level of flexibility and ability to maybe sign up here and there, but not a long term. You know, commitment when it comes to your time. I especially think this is important when we're volunteering with organizations who that position we're volunteering for has an impact on someone's life, whether you are mentoring, or you know, meeting with individuals and sharing maybe your gifts and talents with them from a professional setting. We need to be able to show up for each other. And if we don't have the time commitment to be able to do that well then friend, you shouldn't sign up for something like that you need to be honest about your levels of flexibility. And I think that as we we are in different stages of our lives that time is going to look differently. As a working mom running a business and a flourishing and growing business. It is time consuming and hard to always be able to align with the things that I really wanted to. I'm a joiner. I want to say yes to everything. I want to be a part of everything. I don't ever want to experience fo

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But the reality is I only have a certain capacity. And so my answer is always, not right now, maybe one that fits. And I say that a lot, because I get approached by a lot of different things. But we need to be realistic not only about the mission that aligns with us, but the time that we are able to give, not only for ourselves, but for those individuals, we will have an impact on. Just gonna give an example, if you're a youth mentor, and you don't have the space to be able to meet with your mentee on a regular basis, you're not actually doing what you set out to be able to do. Consistency is really important, especially when we talk about other people and being able to serve them. Also, I want to be very cautious again, as we come into those spaces that we aren't there to rescue or save anyone. In fact, it's a mutual connection of how you can grow together, right, we don't show up in spaces that allow us to take up more room rather, to simmer down and figure out how we can learn from those individuals. As we give our time, instead of our dollars, I thought that it would be very practical for us to talk about a few different organizations or tools or resources that you can use. Because I often hear clients who come to me and they say, Shannon, I want to volunteer, maybe it's somebody who's reaching retirement or stepping away from the workforce for a bit and wanting to redevelop that life, maybe it's a business owner who wants to make a connection, or allow for a team building activity for their staff. To be able to do something really creates impact. I think that it's important that we realize what space we're in, and again, what time what elements of that organization really hit home for us. So there are a couple of different places I like to stop or direct people to if it's not a specific organization that through that exploration, maybe they're a client of mine, we've already talked about values and things that are important. And I think of a really great organization that they should be aligned with. There are and you can use these across the country. So you don't have to be here locally in the Twin Cities. But there is a website called volunteer match.org, you can literally go in and figure out you can post volunteer positions there too, if you are already with a nonprofit. But you can go in there and you can plug in like where you are, what you want to be able to do or what topic or element that is important to you, like maybe volunteering with an animal organization is important to you, or the hunger gap that we struggle with in this country, or financial education or women's empowerment or youth. You can search through all of these different things that are available to you, and decide it'll bring up all of these different organizations. One thing I think is important is that you don't just by blindly sign up for something, but you do your research. So it allows you to look into the website, understand what the mission is for the

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for the nonprofit. And then also what's available, right? What are available opportunities for volunteering, lots of nonprofits will have volunteer opportunities right on their website for you to be able to look at so that's a great spot to like funnel you in. Many nonprofits have individuals who wear multiple hats. So their volunteer coordinator might also be somebody that teaches in the classroom. And vice versa. There's just so many people who wear so many different hats. And I've had the great honor of working in nonprofit space before and it is hard fulfilling. And I can tell you, you are so needed to be able to push these missions forward. So many nonprofits, while they need dollars. They also need bodies and they need people who are going to come in and give their heart to those services. So one stop that you can start your journey on after you've kind of done those things, assess your time, assess the missions that are important to you. You can start at volunteer match.com or volunteer match.org and you can figure out where some of those places, interviewing them, letting them know like what is a good fit and being honest, back and forth what's important to you. I also think being able to look into the actual this is where I kind of do get a little bit more financial. What is the organization's structure look like for you? How solvent is it? If you listen to my episode on the podcast around giving, you know If I had recommended that you utilize Charity Navigator, Charity Navigator is a website where you can look up that 501 C three or nonprofit and see, what does that what are people's donations go towards. So that might give you some insight into what does that organization need help with. From a fundraising perspective and a volunteerism perspective, they're spending so much money on operations, maybe it's because they need more volunteers and less paid positions. Those are things that I think about when, when we're signing up for volunteering, I think that it's really important for us to explore so much deeper into an organization to make sure that it really aligns. Otherwise, it feels like a very surface level, sign up and do those things, rake the leaves and then be done. And I think that volunteering can be so much of a deeper experience for individuals, especially I've seen so many of my clients who are in that retirement stage of life, and how much they have just thoroughly enjoyed becoming part of something. I say that because when we go through life transitions, especially like retirement, we have a tendency to go from maybe we were working full time at an organization for 2030 years. And during those 2030 years, we were intertwined. Everything that we do revolved around that work in our home, and that was a part of our life. And now that paint place isn't there anymore. And so with rather than replacing it, how do we evolve into that new part? I shared a quick story with you, mainly because I know these clients are okay with me sharing the story. And I believe I've shared it on the podcast before maybe. But I had a client who came to me and he and his wife and he had just recently retired. And again, same situation worked at an organization for so long raised his kids provided for his family and his wife had a stellar career as well. Just really amazing people. And they sat down, I could tell something just wasn't wasn't right there. Right. Like, he needed something else. He was missing that belonging sense, and having a part of something greater than just him. And that's where volunteering came into our conversation. I asked what are the areas that are important to you? Where do you feel drawn? What are the things that make and provide you joy in your life? And his response was, Well, I love sports. And I said, Well, fantastic. There's so many different opportunities for you to become a coach for youth. And he's like, Well, I don't want to run a program, I just want to like be able to like, have some level of flexibility coming, you know, in no. Well, I

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have a very near and dear friend to me, who runs a football program, he is a successful high school football coach, and happens to be a football program not too far from the backyard of this client. And it was just this beautiful element of connection and being able to create that element of belonging for someone that clients fast forward, I think it might even be three or four years now three years now. And they're still volunteering. And in our last session together, he told me that he is going to start substitute teaching at that school, and making such a great impact in those high school students lives. It's just so much greater. And what he said to me when we had that conversation was if not just what I get to do by being a stable adult in their life and listening to them. He goes, they teach me so much about being a better person. And you could see that element of, you know, not being the rescuer, but being the learner too. And I think those stories are so important to remember as we sign up or join to do something. How does that impact affect you? How do you want to be a part of something greater than you? And so my friends, I think those are are elements that you take into consideration before you volunteer. We so greatly need each other. I'm going to say that again. We so greatly need each other. That's not a bad thing. That's not a suck the life out of you thing. It's how do we learn learn and grow from each other and becoming a part of a mission that is doing something greater than yourself might allow you to experience those things. And you know, if you are so blessed to be able to also financially help those organizations thrive, then that's better to. But the reality is Nonprofits and Charities and foundations and purpose organizations need more volunteers to show up to do the things to help move things forward in those elements. So I just want to kind of quickly recap our conversation. I know this is maybe a topic that doesn't have much to do with money. But as I tell you money touches every aspect of our lives. And so if we can step away for that moment, and think about how do we make an impact with more than just our dollars? When we start to volunteer, it's kind of looking at a couple of different things, right? What is that purpose and alignment that we want? What is the mission that we are looking to connect ourselves with? What realistically do we have in time and capacity to be able to offer? How are we willing to learn from others? And what is it that really just sets your soul on fire that you're looking for, and then stepping into some of those resources that I talked about utilizing volunteer match.org will link them in the show notes for you to be able to use, as well as the blog on our website. Another one is greater nonprofits.org. Again, you can kind of search and fill out things, they don't necessarily give you specific volunteer opportunities, but they'll help you maybe start even before you got to that volunteer match.org. And then again, checking in on that solvency of that organization, what do what does it look like? What is a deep dive into that utilizing Charity navigator.com. And as I said, I think the biggest thing that we need to think about in these stories is not only what we have the time to be able to give but what is it that we will learn in return, because we do need each other. And the impact goes both ways. It's not just one or the other. And as we continue to talk about items on our podcast that help us Thrive Forward both strategically, emotionally, mentally, physically relationally.

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We remember that sometimes in order for us to Thrive Forward, we need to be able to create a community that is larger and more supportive. So as you listen to this podcast, if you found it impactful, or you want to share with another friend, we would love that. As always, we want to be able to provide more knowledge and resources to a larger audience to help you thrive financially in your life. And again, as I say, Money touches every aspect of your life. And my dear friend, you are worthy of wealth.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai