After a few days of not acknowledging its existence (we’ve had great news stories to post about!), I went through my RSS feed. Little did I know that a lot of people were discussing volunteering - so here’s a blog round-up of the best I’ve found.
Janis Foster of Grassroots Grantmakers discusses the connotation of the word “volunteer” and “citizen”.
Chronicle of Philanthropy posted aboug Janis’ post, and asked, “Does the nonprofit world need to do a better job of talking about volunteerism, and connect it more closely to citizenship and self-interest?” If you have thoughts, leave them (or us!) a comment.
Social Capital has some thoughts on the CNCS volunteer report (see our June 6 post about it here), and talks about the other factors that may mean Miami is the “worst” city for volunteering (ie, has the lowest volunteer rate).
Guest blogger Rich D’Amato of the Case Foundation (Case is a ServiceNation partner and sponsor) asks if Millennials will work with the public sector to change things (in this instance, the Volunteer Mileage Deduction - more on that later today!).
My snarky side says nah, probably not. Unless, of course, writing their Congressman could enter them to win dinner for two at any given TGI Friday. Maybe that’s the ticket. Forget government policy. It’s time for government-sponsored gift certificates and prize giveaways!
TGI Friday’s? Not for this Millennial. Chipotle on the other hand, well…
More seriously, though, every attempt I’ve ever made to write my representative (although I live in DC right now, I am still registered in Illinois) has been met with a form letter. One letter I wrote in 8th grade against a policy prompted a basic form letter that thanked me for the support of the policy (cue buzzer noise). I don’t view calling or writing my specific representative as efficacious, since it’s never met with any positive (or real response). It might be because I am of a different party; it might be because I live in a large district; it might be for a billion reasons. But am I willing to write to my rep? Yes. But they also need to start listening.
I certainly believe the public sector can be great, but we need to make it so.
Thoughts on any of this? Leave us a note.
