You can see the world as a volunteer on your own; just think carefully before you go (Photo credit: Fr Antunes, Creative Commons/Flickr)

With summer in full swing, many people are looking to use their vacation time to give back by volunteering abroad. Fortunately, there are a ton of organizations that can help you find a great volunteer opportunity overseas. But what if you want to volunteer abroad on your own? Perhaps none of the programs you see match your interest or availability. Or maybe you’re excited by the idea of exploring a new country on your own. Before you book a plane ticket, think about the following pros and cons to volunteering alone in another country:

Pros:

You have greater control over your time and money: When you set out to volunteer abroad on your own, you control your budget, what kind of work you do, how long you stay, and whatever criteria are important to you when selecting a volunteer opportunity.

You can integrate volunteering overseas with travel and study: Because you are in control of your schedule, it’s easier to fit your volunteer experience in with other events like studying abroad and travel.

You can immerse yourself in the community: While many volunteer-sending organizations do encourage you to get to know the community you are helping, when you are abroad on your own you are more likely to interact frequently with local citizens and organizations instead of with program staff who may be from your country.

[Already set on volunteering abroad? Check out this list of questions you should ask before you go.]

Cons:

You have to face challenges on your own: Sick? Lost? Problems with your visa? Not happy with the experience? Unfortunately, when you volunteer solo, you’ll have to deal with these issues — along with other risks — alone.

You have to do much more research: You can lower the risks you encounter by doing as much research as possible before you go. However, even this can be challenging: while volunteer-sending organizations build relationships with local NGOs and have websites where you can explore opportunities, if you’re going on your own, you’ll have to find a way to get in touch with local organizations who might not be easily accessible.

You might be a drain on local organizations: If you aren’t fluent in the language, you’ll likely need more support to complete tasks. And for organizations that don’t have many volunteers, there is no guarantee that someone will be able to fill your role once you’ve moved on, resulting in much of the work you started being left unfinished.

There are more pros and cons to volunteering abroad on your own and we encourage you to explore them. However, the best way to get a sense of whether or not you should go alone is by talking to other volunteers. What did they love? What did they struggle with? And what, if anything, would they do differently?

Have you volunteered abroad on your own? Tell us about your experience!

Girl Scout volunteers plant trees on Earth Day. (Photo: vastateparkstaff, Flickr/Creative Commons)

Last week was National Volunteer Week. If you got swept up in the spirit, we’ve got some great tools to get you started any week of the year:

• Want to volunteer, but not sure where or how? Our volunteering resources can help define what you’re looking for.
• Or dive right in and search through thousands of volunteer opportunities.
• If you’re looking to get away, be sure to take a look at our International Volunteering resources.
• And if you are or want to be a professional volunteer manager, don’t miss this.

Volunteering can take lots of forms, from helping out at a one-time event to serving on a nonprofit’s board of directors. Here’s a little snapshot of what you’ll find if you search Idealist for ways to get involved:

13,179: Current volunteer opportunities on Idealist.org

3,962: Opportunities outside the U.S.

11,163: People whose profiles say they’re looking for a volunteer opportunity.

Volunteer whenever you can:

184: Opportunities that take less than one hour, one time

3,560: Opportunities to help out during the weekend

8,362: Volunteer opportunities with a flexible schedule

817: Late night volunteer opportunities

Enjoy the perks:

4,891: Volunteer opportunities that provide training

3,158: Opportunities that provide housing

3,022: Opportunities that provide language and cultural support

Volunteer full time:

431: Americorps volunteer opportunities

Help people help out:

19: Volunteer Coordinator jobs

72: Volunteer Coordinator volunteer opportunities

Find something for everyone:

92: Opportunities that involving hiking

24: Opportunities that involve clowns

1: Opportunity that involves line dancing

129: Opportunities that involve singing

443: Opportunities that involve Facebook

Volunteering is a great way to expand your knowledge, help out your community, and apparently spend some time on Facebook in the name of the greater good. There’s something for every skill, interest, and schedule, so take a look at the needs in your community.

What’s the best volunteer experience you ever had? Looking for something specific we can help you find? Let us know in the comments!

An experiment: can our community’s collective brainpower help an idea become reality?

The intention

Once a week, actress Erica Gerard visits the homes of hospice patients in West Los Angeles. She sits with the patients and does whatever makes them feel comfortable: talk, listen to music, read a book, enjoy the silence, and more. As someone who only buys vintage furniture because of the stories each piece holds, Erica especially enjoys seeing the patients surrounded by all of their belongings.

Erica would love to record and perform their life stories. “People at the end of their lives are some of the most rich, complete and interesting treasures we have access to,” she says. “None of us have been there yet, but we’re going there, so tell us what it’s like.”

Though her deceased grandmother won't be in the audience, Erica knows she'd be proud: “I can hear her voice saying, 'You’re doing a mitzvah,' which is a good deed." (Photo: Alan Cleaver, Flickr/Creative Commons)

The obstacles

Erica hasn’t started. Here are the barriers she has identified:

1. Interviewing people in hospice care can be logistically challenging. Her first patient passed away, and her second was unconscious much of the time.
2. She doesn’t have an end vision of the show yet, and the options about artistic choice, direction, etc. can feel overwhelming.
3. She prefers collaborative projects to working alone, and so far doesn’t have anybody to bounce ideas off of and propel her forward.
4. There’s a whole world of medical confidentiality laws and issues she has yet to explore.

How you can help

Erica would to love see this project grow and succeed. Can you offer her any advice?

• Is this an idea that’s already been done somewhere in the world?
• What are some interviewing strategies to help draw out specific stories?
• What have you always wanted to ask somebody who is near the end of life?
• How should she approach this project so as to share stories without exploiting patients?
• How can she find allies and resources?
• What are some ways to stay focused when life’s distractions get in the way?

Leave a comment below or send her a message through Idealist and if the project progresses, we’ll keep you posted!
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Do you have an idea that’s just starting to brew? If you’d like us to consider posting it as part of this series, email celeste [at] idealist [dot] org.

Ami points out that "Kaboom! invites people to build playgrounds," in strong, active language. (Photo: Ft. Meade Public Affairs, Flickr/Creative Commons)

Today on Fast Company, our founder Ami Dar writes:

To help more people take the leap from good intentions to action, we need better words for what we do. “Service,” “volunteerism,” “civic engagement”—even “nonprofit” and “social entrepreneurship”—are all weak substitutes for the action-oriented verbs that people actually use to describe how they work together and help one another.

Click here to read the rest of the piece. Thanks to Fast Company and Catchafire for including Ami in the “Co.Exist: World Changing Ideas and Innovation” series.

If your New Year’s resolution was to make the everyday a little more awesome, check out today’s idea incubating model. Browse more Idea File posts here.

The idea

Every month, a group of 10 volunteer “micro-trustees” from a chapter of the Awesome Foundation each shell out $100 to fund an innovative idea in their city. While the criteria is vague and guidelines are generous to say the least, the overall goal is to fund new projects that make the world more fun and happy to live in. Who doesn’t want that?

Though this is just one street in Cary, NC, the folks from the foundation are dedicated to “forwarding the interest of Awesome in the universe, $1,000 at a time.” Photo by moonlightbulb (Flickr/Creative Commons).

So far, they’ve helped support everything from an Indiana Jones simulator in Washington, D.C. to a rooftop beekeeping venture in Melbourne to birdhouse-sized free libraries in Chicago. Anyone with a catchy idea and the gusto to see it through can apply.

Why we’re adding it to the Idea File

• Philanthropy for the people. This crowdsourced model makes philanthropy accessible to anyone, and enables you to sidestep the complex bureaucracy of foundations when seeking funding.
• Enticing and easy application process. Their lighthearted spin on submitting an idea is a welcome break from the usual dry, jargon-heavy grant applications.
• Local ideas, local (free!) money. Here’s your chance to revisit those seemingly crazy ideas jotted on a napkin in your drawer, and make an impact where you live.
• Community building. Being a micro-trustee gives you the opportunity to meet others, not to mention a direct connection to innovators in your area. Besides, imagine how good you’ll feel when you’re walking down the block and see your money put to good use?

How you can replicate it

Currently, there are 29 chapters from Berlin to NYC to Zurich. But they’d love to see more; email contact@awesomefoundation.org to get one going where you live.

If you don’t think being part of the Awesome Foundation is for you, try browsing their blog. You’ll find no shortage of inspiring ideas (like aMoment’s adorable art) to bring to your community.

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Like this idea? You might also want to check out the One Percent Foundation and the Sunday Soup Network, or read our post about a secret society that tests the boundaries of philanthropy.

Is your community's "happiness flag" showing signs of wear and tear? (Photo: Rachel Kramer, Flickr/Creative Commons)

How happy are we?

Most everyone would agree that being happy is a good thing—along with the coming of spring, a robust economy, and clean air to breathe. For most nations, there are detailed, current statistics about the weather, the state of the economy, and the atmosphere (not to mention many other things). Statistics about happiness are a little harder to come by.

The government of the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan has made it a priority to measure “Gross National Happiness” as a summary of national wellbeing. Since 2005 a national effort has been underway to assess not just economic activity in the nation (“Gross National Product” in economist-speak), but to attend to data from eight other “domains” that impact people’s lives, such as health, education, community vitality, and cultural resilience. The website GrossNationalHappiness.com provides the official explanation of the project and reports on the results of the calculation of Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness Index for 2010.

There is no such national index for the USA so far. In my hometown, Sustainable Seattle is using the concept to develop a happiness index for communities. The idea is to supplement its other initiatives and build a long-term future of health and well-being. The project has two components: a set of objective statistics that create a profile of a region’s progress toward meeting goals related to sustainability, and a personal happiness survey that anyone can take. At the end of the survey, each respondent’s answers are compared to the overall response from all survey-takers. Food for thought as a new year begins.

No such thing as personal happiness?

For his 2008 book The Geography of Bliss, reporter Eric Weiner visited nine varied countries, looking for the happiest place on earth. He found some very disappointing spots, including one place where people “derive more pleasure from their neighbor’s failure than their own success. I can’t imagine anything less happy.”

In contrast, when he talked with Bhutanese scholar Karma Ura, he heard “There is no such thing as personal happiness. Happiness is one hundred percent relational.” Weiner reflected: “At the time I didn’t take him literally. I thought he was exaggerating to make his point…But now I realize Karma meant exactly what he said. Our happiness is completely and utterly intertwined with other people: family and friends and neighbors and…people you hardly notice. Happiness is not a noun or verb. It’s a conjunction. Connective tissue.”

This general point is repeated over and over again in the literature. Arthur Brooks, President of the Heritage Foundation, concludes his book “Gross National Happiness” with a quick review of social scientists’ results demonstrating that all sorts of activities that benefit others—from the most direct sorts of help to family and friends to the abstractions of making donations to help people in far-away lands—are closely related to general feelings of happiness and well-being.

Five steps to happiness

In the UK, a study for the National Health Service called Five Ways to Well-Being concluded that these simple steps would improve people’s lives in measurable ways (and sharply reduce the risks of mental illness too!):

• Connect with the people around you
• Be active
• Take notice of what’s around you
• Keep learning
• Give

How will you do these things in the coming year?

Not to toot our own horn too loudly, it still bears saying that Idealist.org offers lots of opportunities for doing all five. Just a few minutes clicking through listings in your community, or in your area of interest, or for the sorts of things you want to do will turn up things to do and places to go.

With your personal profile from Sustainable Seattle’s survey in front of you, and some reflection about the Five Ways to Well-Being, Idealist’s listings are one way to make sure you have a happy Happy New Year.

Best wishes for 2012 from all of us!

From Flickr user AForestFrolic (Creative Commons)

No matter how you look at it, the next couple of weeks are sure to be full of a special seasonal energy. For some, that energy can verge on manic, which kind of takes the fun out of it.

For example, gift buying can get expensive. PNC Wealth Management calculates the 2011 cost of the gifts listed in the familiar “12 Days of Christmas” song at $24,263 – or over $100,000 if you decided to give a partridge in a pear tree twelve times, two turtle doves eleven times, and so forth ’til your true love’s tree would be surrounded by a jumble of 364 amazing gifts.

Here are twelve things you might do to brighten the season for yourself and others that don’t involve so many visits to the ATM.

Give time:

• Look close to home and find a holiday project where you can pitch in as a volunteer via the search tools at the top of Idealist.org. Just using the word “holiday” in the box marked “What?” and “Seattle” in the box marked “Where?” turned up 11 different and interesting things to do in my hometown.

• …And resolve to volunteer in 2012. Sure, a soup kitchen is an obvious choice at Thanksgiving and sorting toys is popular come Christmas. But can you commit to things after the holiday rush, fight the winter doldrums and get to know your community better? Set up Idealist Email Alerts to stay informed about volunteer opportunities.

Give attention:

• Reminisce with family, friends, or neighbors. Look at snapshots from holidays past, talk about the times when things went right (or wrong – hopefully with only comic consequence), and record stories of holidays past. Storycorps has DIY tips.

• Say ‘thanks’ to someone who works in community service. Look online for the name of the board chair or ED of an organization you admire and write a brief note of appreciation for what the organization contributes to the community.

• Surprise a neighbor with a homemade treat or hand-picked seasonal bouquet. Best of all, do it anonymously, so there’s a bit of happy mystery about how it happened.

• Experience your holiday in a new way. Attend a community group’s concert, dance performance, or play that you’ve never been to before. Even better: Take a kid or two along with you!

Give your voice:

• Read aloud from a favorite holiday story-book. For those who celebrate Christmas, Google Books has an 1849 edition of A Visit from St. Nicholas (or “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas”) with fabulous illustrations online for free.

• Sing! In the shower, with a group caroling in the neighborhood, in your place of worship…

If you can, give money.

• Give cash. Times are tough for many of us, but for those who can spare even a few dollars, see my 2010 post full of tips for year-end donations.

• Find a “Giving Tree” (or other community gift exchange for kids) and add your contribution to someone’s holiday cheer. The Marine Corps Reserve’s Toys for Tots is active in many communities.

• Look abroad to places that need our help even once they’re out of the spotlight. Japan is still recovering from the earthquake, tsunami, and related damage to nuclear power plants and tens of thousands of houses. Haiti still struggles with the effects of the terrible earthquake there two years ago. Google Disaster Relief offers links to reliable ways to help out in many parts of the world, as do familiar newspapers and magazines; try a quick online search.

And, since I doubt your shopping list will disappear entirely…

• Give experiences or contributions instead of objects. For theater-goers, a gift certificate for a pair of tickets. For mountain bikers, a membership in the local single-trackers club. Whatever your friends and family love to do, nudge them in that direction and you’ll get the vicarious pleasure of imagining them doing what they like best with your help. Alternatively, spread the warm glow by supporting a favorite organization in someone’s name.

Warm wishes from all of us at Idealist.org!

“There are support services for vets, but a lot of vets don’t want to be helped,” says Joanne Dennis, Director of Program Development at Team Rubicon, a nonprofit that unites the skills and experiences of military veterans in disaster response, and also helps aid the transition back to civilian life. “Vets don’t want your pity, they don’t want your sorrow. They want to help others.” A recent Civic Enterprises report revealed that 92% of veterans want to continue serving their communities after their military service.

Veterans dedicate their skills to disaster relief efforts. Could they also be a good fit for your organization? (Photo: Team Rubicon Flickr stream)

That desire to serve has drawn more than 500 veterans to apply to volunteer with Team Rubicon in disaster relief missions in places like Burma, Haiti, and Joplin, MO since it was founded in January 2010. But while Team Rubicon’s volunteer base is growing fast, it can’t help with job placement. “We have some firemen who volunteer with us on their days off, and a lot of college students. But a lot of the volunteers are in transition,” explains Joanne. “They’ve come home to an economic climate where they just can’t find jobs. And especially jobs that have meaning or purpose.”

In an uncertain economic climate, many nonprofit leaders and business owners are understandably unwilling to take risks – especially when hiring. When faced with a stack of resumes, why choose the person whose background you are uncertain of and whose experience on paper doesn’t directly translate to your organization’s needs?

That’s the reality most veterans are facing when applying for jobs today. They come home with countless “soft” skills, including management and supervision, team-building, and the ability to successfully lead diverse groups of people while staying calm under pressure. These skills often don’t translate to traditional workplaces where recruiters are looking for resumes with years of conventional experience. But they are often the trademarks of an irreplaceable colleague, especially in a mission-driven organization.

In August, President Obama challenged the private sector to hire 100,000 unemployed post-9/11 veterans or their spouses by 2013. This Veteran’s Day, we’re curious whether nonprofits and other agencies and organizations are heeding that call as well.

Have you hired folks with military experience? Are you a veteran currently looking for work? Please share your experiences in the comments below.

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This post was written by Bernadette Matthews, a volunteer with Team Rubicon, and Idealist bloggers Celeste Hamilton and Julia Smith. (Full disclosure: Celeste Hamilton and Joanne Dennis are in-laws.)

It’s that time of year! While many of us have been gathering treats for the goblins and ghouls who will appear at our doors tonight, fundraising and communications professionals at nonprofits across the country have been anxiously preparing their year-end fundraising appeals.

Why “anxiously”? Because the year-end appeal often makes the difference between a strong program next year and a struggle to achieve the mission. And because the sorry state and uncertain future of the economy is having an effect on public support for the work of nonprofits.

Freaky: the fact that every store is about to begin blaring holiday tunes. Not freaky: deciding which organizations to support with any year-end donations you make! (Photo: Micah Sittig, Flickr/Creative Commons)

Year-end giving is a tradition that brings satisfaction to many families year after year. But sometimes the number of requests can be overwhelming. If you receive envelopes or emails day after day, you might wonder, “Is this much fundraising really necessary?” or “How could this possibly be efficient?”

It is necessary. Donations are an important way for organizations to get the money they need for all the things that contribute to valuable programs – from the vegetables at the soup kitchen to research on the root causes of problems.

But it’s true that fundraising could be a lot more efficient. And often, attentive donors can help on that front. If you’re planning to donate this year, here are some tips to help make sure your year-end contributions do the most good.

• Have a plan. Decide in advance how much you can afford to give this year and what causes or groups you want to help.
  
• Take the initiative. If you already know the groups you want to support, make your gifts without waiting to be asked. You can send along a request that the groups you support not solicit you further; that’s a good idea at any time of year. But if you do get a year-end appeal anyway you can recycle it with a clear conscience…or pass it along to a friend who might share your interest.
• Be clear. If you get a year-end appeal from an organization that’s not in your plan, let them know and ask that they not send you fundraising appeals. When you do send a gift, suggest that the recipient limit any future appeals to you. Helping an organization avoid the costs of making a pointless request is a small but real contribution to their work.
• Consider volunteering. Many organizations offer special, expanded services at this time of year. Joining such a project adds a new dimension to the celebrations of the season.
• And this year, if you can, maybe stretch a little. Nonprofits in every community are helping people cope with the effects of the bad economy. If you’re doing ok, do a little bit more so they can do their jobs better.

Let us know if you have tips to add – either from the nonprofit fundraising perspective, or the individual donor point of view (maybe both!). And happy Halloween!

Image of monks volunteering in Kyegundo earthquake zone via SFTHQ (Flickr/Creative Commons)

Have you been thinking about volunteering abroad, but aren’t sure how to go about it? If you’re wondering where to go, how long you can afford to stay, and how you can be sure you’ll contribute to a meaningful and positive impact, here are two free events that might help:

• IVPA Global Volunteering Fair in Washington, DC (Tuesday, Oct. 25):  www.dcglobalvolunteerfair.eventbrite.com

• IVPA Global Volunteering Fair in New York City (Thursday, Oct. 27): www.nycglobalvolunteerfair.eventbrite.com

At these free events, you can chat with representatives from organizations that lead volunteer projects in communities around the globe. You can also attend free workshops—sponsored by Cross-Cultural Solutions—on the basics of international service and strategies for making volunteering abroad more affordable.

Our former colleague Erin Barnhart is coordinating these fairs along with the International Volunteer Programs Association (IVPA), so we’re sure they’ll be beautifully organized and full of valuable info. Click the Eventbrite links above for the full details and to RSVP. And let us know if you go check ‘em out!

And if you can’t make it to one of these events, check out our International Volunteering Resource Center.