So you’d love to “do more” as this week’s person you should meet Robby Marvin encourages young professionals all over the Corridor to do. But where to start, with so many nonprofit organizations in our community? Well, it just so happens that volunteering is the hip thing to do these days in America, and organizations all over the Corridor have caught on. The volunteer resources below will help you get a start on finding a volunteer opportunity or nonprofit organization that’s a perfect match for your time, interest and talents. Point, click and “do more.”
— KATIE
This site — a user-friendly product of the United Way — allows individuals to access a large variety of volunteer opportunities through the area. Perhaps the most comprehensive local volunteer site, it allows you to search volunteer listings through United Way of East Central Iowa, United Way of Johnson County, as well as volunteer listings all over the state using VolunteerIowa.org
According to the 10,000 Hours Show if you volunteer, you rock. And they mean it. Volunteering 10 hours per year with local non-profit organizations through the 10,000 Hours Show earns you a free t-shirt and a ticket to a rock concert (past show headliners included Girl Talk, Cake, Guster and Ben Folds). Plus, the more hours you volunteer, the more VIP (that’s Volunteer Incentive Program) perks you receive, like rock star pick up and drop off at the concert. Working closely with the University of Iowa, this year-round effort engages students and other young adults in making a difference in their community right now. Perhaps what’s even cooler is that since the idea of 10K (as they call it) was conceived by UI students in 2002, it has grown to today become a national organization with high school and college students all across the country doing good for a good concert.
NetworkforGood.org and VolunteerMatch.org
While these two sites are both nationwide initiatives to boost volunteerism, they also allow visitors to search opportunities near where they live, work and play. Networkforgood.org
even allows registered users (like all of the sites mentioned here, it’s free) to keep a personal online journal of volunteer hours and experiences. A unique component of VolunteerMatch.org focuses on specific disaster relief efforts all over the country. Currently the site lists more that 30 disaster-related volunteer opportunities across the state of Iowa. With all that our area has gone through in the last year and a half, those are listings are not only locally relevant but a lot more poignant.
