All of us at some point wonder to ourselves, “How can I be of any help with so many problems and so much bad news floating around?” I believe that the answer is simple: You give. To help out in the world today all you have to do is give. No, I don’t mean just money either. Money is helpful don’t get me wrong if it’s aimed at the right place can make a huge difference in a community or country. If you have the ability to give money please do, but do your research and figure out the best and most high impact ways to give your money. I’m a true believer in microlending as a way to help a community by helping a person or a group of people fund a business. Microlending is a pretty new thing to most people and its just recently been made easy enough for anyone to be able to participate in the funding of small businesses in 3rd world countries. My favorite micro lending project is Kiva, but I’ve also participated in micro loans through Prosper which is aimed more towards domestic loans. You can get started on Kiva with as little as $25 and help someone as far away as Melaya, Bali, Indonesia.There is nothing wrong with not being able to afford to give money away, but if that’s the case give something else. You can do many things in your local community or abroad in other countries with little or no money at all. Go down to your local soup kitchen and serve the truly hungry for an evening. In Texas where I live and I’m sure other states there are projects like The Texas Ramp Project that builds access ramps for home-bound people of Texas. Habitat for Humanity is a great example of an organization that can put your time, knowledge, skills and money to use in any combination you can give. They build houses in an effort to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness. Baby Cuddling programs are another way to help our future by giving your time to hold an orphaned or abandoned baby at a hospital or orphanage you instill in it love and the ability to give it back. Our elderly are a great source of love and knowledge and shouldn’t be forgotten by anyone, but unfortunately they have and you could cheer one up by volunteering at a local Adopt-a-Grandparent organization. You’ll have gained a new friend for life.In this day and age there is absolutely no end to ways and tools to put your time, money, knowledge and passion to work for others and help change our world for the better. One of the most useful tools to find ways to help is the internet. It is a great way to find ways to help locally as well as globally an increasing trend throughout the world is “virtual volunteering” where a person can donate their skills, knowledge and time to help non-profit organizations with many different projects. VolunteerMatch.org is a great way to find opportunities to volunteer both in person and virtually. Your passion to help others can be put to use and nourished in many ways.
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March 10th, 2008 at 7:12 am
You can visit my Kiva portfolio at http://www.kiva.org/lender/EcoInsomniac
March 10th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Firstly, thank you for referencing some of the many ways that one can do make a difference. The Internet allows one to contribute from the comfort of their home-based computer. What can one do to help a charity via the Internet?
Many Tasks Can Be Undertaken As an Online Volunteer to Help a Non-profit Organization
Since 1998, our charitable organization, Macdonald Youth Services, has been at the forefront involving online volunteers from around the world to assist us in fulfilling our organizational mission. What do these highly-skilled online volunteers do? They perform a range of diverse tasks, such as professional voice overs (eg, for podcasts, PSAs), video editing/production, copywriting, Flash design, software development (Perl and PHP), database development and graphic design (eg, annual reports, posters, brochures) to name a few tasks.
To learn further information about our leading-edge program, we invite you to visit any of the following:
MYS Online Media Centre
Our online Media Centre includes extensive information about our online volunteer program, such as TV interviews, a list of news sources that have profiled our program, samples of highly-skilled online volunteers’ contributions and a list of international software vendors that have donated their fine software:
http://www.mys.ca/media
“About Online Volunteering” Blog
An additional source of information is our resource for sharing our successes with other non-profits and charities entitled “About Online Volunteering: Information Non-Profits Can Use (which includes an associated podcast). As a way of promoting our organization and concurrently recognize our online volunteers, we have a South Dakota-based (USA) Online Volunteer Audio Producer interviewing our online volunteers which we post as podcacts.
http://www.mys.ca/aov
Hopefuly this additional information will inspire others to consider some of the many ways that the Internet allows an individual to help a non-profit organization all from the comfort and convenience of their home-based computer.
Thank you for your interest in the work of the non-profit sector.
Randy Tyler, Volunteer Co-ordinator/Webmaster
Macdonald Youth Services
http://www.mys.ca/volunter
Winnipeg, Canada
Ph: 1-204-949-4292
E: http://www.mys.ca/cgi-bin/randy_email.cgi
March 10th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
Randy,
Thank you for leaving such a great comment I visited your site and have to say I’m very impressed with the things your organization does. Congradulations on your success and Thank you for helping others and providing a way for others to do the same.
Jason