[The Power of Volunteering] There’s such power in any individual giving of their time in service to others. It’s so inspiring. It’s really what is the underpinning of our community.

[Volunteering is Inspiring]

Being able to have a strong community, making sure that people are proud of the place in which they live, that they take care of one another, it all has to do with building those connections and what better way to do that than to start volunteering. Once we step outside things that we’re doing to help ourselves and think about anything we can do to help others, that’s volunteering. Volunteers look like me.

[Helping Others]

They look like you. They look like the people that you pass on the street. I’m a marketing professional.

I’m a pediatrician. I am a non-profit professional. I am the founder of a technology consulting company.

I volunteer with Girls on the Run as a running buddy. I volunteer with the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. I am a scientist and an environmentalist.

I am an openly gay elected official. I volunteer at my synagogue. I am a daughter of immigrant parents.

I volunteer for Sunday Streets. I’m a member of the board of directors of Shanti. I’m a partner with Deloitte.

I volunteer for the American Red Cross here in San Francisco. There’s no one right way to volunteer. There are as many different ways to volunteer as there are people willing to volunteer.

[Volunteers are People Who Care]

But I think what unites the description I would say of a volunteer is someone who cares, someone who wants to be involved, someone who wants to give something back. I care about people, and I care about the environment. I care about eradicating poverty.

I care about equality. I care deeply about the people who are on the fringe of our society. I care about education.

I care about animals, especially puppies. I’m passionate about kids. I care that people have a home and have food.

Sometimes it’s easy to get just into the daily grind, and by volunteering, it helps me break out of that. And while I might get frustrated because of all the world’s problems, I can go and do something about it. I can go volunteer.

[Volunteering is Taking Action]

I think the best thing about volunteering is making a difference in me. It brings the best out in people, and you make some really lifetime friendships doing this. Really learning more about what I can push myself to do.

It’s an excellent way to spend your time in retirement. The sheer joy of building something with someone and seeing the results of that. You will meet people you would never have met otherwise.

You’ll see a different side of life. There’s things I’ve learned that I’ve applied to my home life, my business life. We have an obligation to build trust in the community that affords us so much.

[Employees are Energized]

The advantages of having a workplace volunteer program is that employees are energized when they come back to the office. It’s a great way to connect with my employees outside of the office. It’s very important that businesses support the communities that they do business in and that those communities are healthy and they thrive.

[Volunteering Changes Lives]

And volunteering is one of the best ways to do that. And you can know at the end of the day you did something. And you did something to change a life.

You did something to change a community. Volunteering isn’t always easy, but it’s always worth it. The most challenging thing about volunteering is there’s so many needs but only one of you.

You see non-profits, and you see community organizers with really limited resources, and that’s that’s hard to see. Sometimes you feel like you can’t go far enough. You know the need is always stretching way out in front of you.

I think folks don’t realize how impactful a little bit of their time can be. I think the biggest thing that, that stops people from volunteering is fear that they just don’t have enough time. My feeling is if you look at the rest of your life and how busy you are, you could say that about lots of things you do.

But if you make this a priority in your life, you’ll find time for it, and the actually the other things in your life will become much better too. I’ve tried to find a way to connect my, my different worlds, my personal life, my business life, my volunteer activities all together. I think once you – you’re there, you don’t think about it in terms of time.

Oh I’m going to be here for two more hours. You think of it in terms of what you’re doing. Look at your calendar and be honest with yourself.

[Be Honest to Yourself and the Non-profit]

Be honest with the organization. Tell them what you can do and, and tell them what you can’t do. There are organizations that can work with any number of scheduling challenges.

We just have to be open to being flexible to working our schedule around the need. The hardest thing about volunteering can be finding the right fit. People should understand or get a better feel for what they like doing in life and then finding a volunteer opportunity that would satisfy that.

Take something you’re interested in or think you may be interested and try it, and try it, not just once, but try it a couple times. What problems do you see in your community? What do you see that you want to solve? Because I can guarantee you there’s someone working on that, and they could use your help. There are a million different ways you can make a difference.

Pick any one of those and go for it. The first step is always just asking what it is you can do to help. Even a couple of hours on the weekend or during the weekday, maybe your lunch time, all of that matters.

The opportunities are there. All we need to do is to look for them. It’s a click away.

For those of you who are wondering how to volunteer, what to get involved with, you only need one website. www.thevolunteercenter.net. They can get you involved in all kinds of things across the Bay Area where you can make a difference. For people who haven’t volunteered yet, they just haven’t made the right connection.

The Volunteer Center is here to help you make that connection. Let the Volunteer Center connect you to a cause you love. I’m a volunteer.

I am a volunteer. I’m a volunteer. I’m a volunteer.