Volunteers look for greater impact
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Why do people volunteer?
"People want to help and people want to change the world," Ami Dar, executive director of the Idealist.org website, said on Midmorning today. He was part of an enlightening chat with host Kate Smith on the state of volunteering.
You can listen to the whole thing here:
A highlight was the discussion of the changing demands volunteers themselves are making. Not satisfied to stuff envelopes and offer to do anything, more and more volunteers are coming to organizations with a mission.
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They want to know what impact they can make, perhaps by using skills they've gotten on the job elsewhere, said Mary Quirk, volunteer resources leadership project manager for the Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration.
Minnesota is among the nation's leaders when it comes to residents offering their time and labor to non-profits and public organizations. The face of that effort is changing, Quirk said -- more men than before, more immigrants, for example.
Verna Toenyan joined the conversation for a bit. She's the aging coordinator for Todd County, where Ground Level conducted a reporting project on aging earlier this year. The latest focus for volunteering there is computer training for seniors.
And Heather Cox, director of volunteers for the Science Museum of Minnesota, called in, too, backing up the notion that volunteers' interests are shifting. Because volunteers have shown up with ideas, the science museum has created a program that funds projects organized by volunteers, Cox said. Nine have hit the museum floor so far.