Diversity and Nonprofits: How to Add a Little More Color to Your Volunteer Set

02 February 2012

February is Black History Month, when we remember the legacy of significant African American figures. Individuals like Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, and Jo Ann Robinson all fought against matters of injustice and racism in their own … Continue reading →

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Active Outreach: Cultivating Your Program’s Volunteer Base

02 February 2012

by Anne Schink Workshop participants often expect any presentation on volunteer management to start with recruitment. When I present workshops on the model of The Charismatic Organization, those participants begin to understand that, as Susan Ellis puts it, “Recruitment is … Continue reading →

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12 Prompts for Generous Living & Blogging

01 February 2012

Inspired by my post, 20 Ways to be a Generous Blogger, I shared 12 Prompts for Generous Living and Blogging in this month's Juicy Blogging e-News.

You don't need to be a blogger, to try the Generous Living prompts, so I thought I'd share them here too. If you'd like to receive the Juicy Blogging eNews in your in-box once a month, you can subscribe by clicking here.  Have fun doing good!
Wednesday, February 1
Live it: What are your generous living goals for the month? How do you want to give to yourself, your friends, your family, your local community, and the world at large?
Blog it: Share your reflections on your blog.

Thursday, February 2
Live it: Jot down ideas for gifts or cards for friends, family and colleagues who have February and March birthdays.
Blog it: Share a home made, or do-good gift idea on your blog.

Friday, February 3
Live it: Go for a walk and take a photo of something fun, funny, hopeful, or inspiring.
Blog it: Share the photo on your blog. If you can’t take a photo, find a photo on Flickr with an Attribution License. Be sure to credit and link back to the photographer, and let them know that you used their photograph.

Saturday and Sunday, February 4 and 5
Live it: Make a big batch of soup, or a large casserole. Freeze and share extra servings with someone who could use a break from cooking.
Blog it: Post photos of your dish, and the recipe on your blog. 

Monday, February 6
Live it: Buy or borrow a book about a person who inspires you, or a cause you’re passionate about.
Blog it: Share your 5 favorite do-good, or inspiring books on your blog.

Tuesday, February 7
Live it: Valentine’s Day is in a week. Make a list of people to send Valentines. Is there someone who will feel extra lonely on Valentine’s Day? Be sure to send them a card.
Blog it: Share a home made, or do-good Valentine’s Day idea on your blog. 

Wednesday, February 8
Live it: What are you really good at? Give it away to someone today.
Blog it: Write about your experience giving it away, or give something away on your blog.

Thursday, February 9
Live it: Post a quote that inspires you in a prominent place at work, or in your home.
Blog it: Share the quote on your blog. If you want, share a photo of where you posted it.

Friday, February 10
Live it: Find or make a video about something fun, funny, hopeful, or inspiring.
Blog it: Share the video on your blog.

Saturday and Sunday, February 11 and 12
Live it: Bake a batch of cookies, or cupcakes to share at a party, with your neighbors, or at work.
Blog it: Post photos of your treats, and the recipe on your blog.

Monday, February 13
Live it: Make a donation to your favorite nonprofit, or do-good project
Blog it: Shine a spotlight on the organization, or project on your blog. Share why it is close to your heart.

Tuesday, February 14
Live it: Write an email, or send a card to someone who inspires you.
Blog it: Post a "link love" list of bloggers who inspire you, and whose posts make your heart sing.

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Cook from The Vegan Table with VegCookbook Club in February

31 January 2012

As some of you know, this year I started a new blog, VegCookbookClub.com, where each month myself and readers cook through one vegetarian, or vegan cookbook.  We share tips, opinions and advice about recipes in the comments, on Twitter, on Instagram, and on our own blogs.

We just finished cooking from Appetite for Reduction. In February, we're going to cook from The Vegan Table. To join in the fun, all you have to do is pick up a copy of The Vegan Table, cook from it, and share your experience on VegCookbookClub.com, on Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #vegcookbookclub, or on your own blog.

Come on over and VegCook with us!
 

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Full disclosure: The links to Appetite for Reduction and The Vegan Table are linked to my Amazon Associates account.  If you make a purchase, after clicking on the link, I get a small percentage of the sale. 

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Happiness Will Save the World

30 January 2012

What makes you happy? How often do you spend time really thinking about the answer to this question? Roko Belic, a documentary filmmaker, spent six years searching for answers to that question – not just for himself, but for the … Continue reading →

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Assessing Youth Service Through the Lens of Teaching Citizenship

27 January 2012

by Laura Rog Everywhere I turn these days, assessing service-learning seems to be on everyone’s agenda. Whether it’s linking the methodology to common core standards or developing a way to measure the social and emotional growth of youth involved in … Continue reading →

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5 Ways to Help Your Board & Volunteers Get the Tax Deductions They Deserve

26 January 2012

Guest post by Tobi Johnson This article originally appeared on Tobi’s Nonprofit Management Blog. It’s that time of year, where we (in the US) wait eagerly for our wage, income, and tax statements to arrive and we scramble to find … Continue reading →

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Use Social Media to Get Volunteers and Donations in One Fell Swoop

25 January 2012

Guest post by Melissa Crossman If there’s one response guaranteed to make any volunteer manager cringe, it is “but no one ever asked me.” Though you know you’ve done all you could to engage potential volunteers while retaining those already … Continue reading →

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Martha Beck Interview: Finding Your Way in a Wild New World

25 January 2012

 Like many of you, I know Martha Beck from her O Magazine column (it's the first thing I read), and her many self-help books (e.g. Finding Your Own North Star, The Joy Diet). She always delivers good advice with a healthy dose of humor.

When I signed up for her mailing list in the fall of 2010, I received a PDF of the first chapter of her book-in-progress with the working title, The Team: How to Live an Abundant Life by Healing Yourself and the World. In the 24-page PDF, Martha describes "The Team" as people who are, "seekers with Big Dreams and a huge sense of mission about healing the earth and its people."

As I read, I found myself nodding yes, yes, yes.  I'm on the Team.  I bet you are too.

As soon as I saw that the book was coming out (it's now called Finding Your Way in a Wild New World: Reclaim Your True Nature to Create the Life You Want) I requested a review copy and an e-interview. I was *beyond* thrilled to receive both!

So, without further ado, enjoy this 8-question e-interview with Martha Beck about Finding Your Way in a Wild New World!

1. What metaphor would you use to describe the "Wild New World" we're living in now?

My favorite metaphor for this time in human history is a stormy sea, or possibly a very fat white-water rapid. Everything is changing very rapidly: industries are disappearing, methods of production and transferring wealth are being upended. And the change is accelerating so quickly that futurists now say they can’t imagine what will happen by 2050. Ray Kurzweil calls that year “the singularity,” because, like the physics of singularity in a black hole, change will become so rapid that it can’t be meaningfully measured. Whoo-ee!

2. You wrote about the importance of living within an infinity loop of play and rest. Why is that important?

We can’t stop the waves of change, so we’d better all learn to surf them. And surfing is fun—not easy fun that gets boring quickly, like tic-tac-to, but the kind of “deep play” that requires total attention in the present moment, and makes every moment feel incredibly full and rich. That’s the ONLY way to be successful in the world that is emerging now. And people who play in this way require plenty of rest. Without the rest period, neither the physical nor the mental energy to stay responsive and flexible can continue to develop. We should rest and play as if our happiness depended on it, because it does.

3. What tips do you have for people who have trouble resting and/or playing?

Stop thinking in words. That’s the first step to entering the zone of creative and rewarding “magic” in all traditional wisdom cultures. Without that nagging voice telling us we have to work and work and work (hello, Calvinist ethic), we’d play and rest as naturally as animals do. I recently tried to take a nap, and was absolutely tormented by the thought that I should get up and work, though I was extremely tired. I was just giving up on the nap idea when a very successful friend called and told me, “I just took a nap. To keep producing well, I have to listen to my body.” It’s truly bizarre how quickly the holomovement (that’s what some physicists call everything that exists) sends its messages to us. We should listen. But first, get some sleep!

4. How does having fun and doing good fit into our Wild New World?

It’s a time of increasingly drastic opposites, so if we’re not having fun and doing good, we’re absolutely wretched and creating misery. It is our duty to find a way of living joyfully. Somebody’s gotta do it.

5. You also wrote about how one way we can each find our purpose in this Wild New World is to look at how our greatest suffering connects with our greatest joy. What is your favorite example of someone who is healing themselves, and others, by connecting their greatest suffering with their greatest joy?

I’d say my entire squadron of coaches—so many magical and devoted people! But if you want me to select one individual, I’d probably do the trendy thing and pick Oprah. It just blows my mind that someone born into such an unfairly disadvantageous life set about creating such wild abundance for herself and others. All of us, at some level, can say that our life is our message. Her message is one of infinite possibility. Love it!

6. The foundation for your book seems to be dropping into "Wordlessness." Meditation and things like that are easy to do when our lives are going well, but can be easily pushed aside when we are stressed, or busy. What is the easiest way to drop into Worlessness in a hectic, public situation (e.g. waiting in line at the DMV)?

Actually, Wordlessness is no more important than the other three “technologies of magic,” Oneness, Imagination, and Forming. But Wordlessness is ALWAYS the first step to using the other three well, and it’s the one our culture has almost entirely lost. Just the idea that we have to meditate to drop into Wordlessness shows our cultural bias. Dropping into the nonverbal part of the brain happens whenever we’re very focused on a physical skill, from playing the piano to skiing, when we get lost in enjoying music, and often when we laugh. In fact, humor is one linguistic function that calls on the right hemisphere, so along with poetry and paradox, it’s a way to achieve Wordlessness by using words. The key is to get out of the narrow, merely verbal part of the brain and into the much bigger, broader, more sophisticated hardware that is the nonverbal brain.

7. Is there anything else you'd like to share with Have Fun, Do Good readers about Finding Your Way in a Wild New World, or about anything else?

Just that since I wrote the book, things keep getting wilder and more magical. In some strange way, I only expected to experience miracles while I was actually writing—when I finished this odd book, I thought, I’d go back to “normal” life. Turns out there really is a new normal! I keep meeting more and more people who feel themselves to be part of a transformation; wild animals keep treating me like a friend; information and circumstances keep aligning to help all of us create positive change. Buckminster Fuller wrote that “there are two kinds of resignation; one rooted in despair, the other in unconquerable hope.” The first half of my life, I felt the first way. Now I feel the second. Against all odds, there is abundant hope that the damage to nature—and humans—can heal.

8. How can folks connect with you and your work (online and offline)?

My website is staffed by incredible people who try to respond to email and make sure I get messages that need my personal response. Book groups and reading circles are forming to actually work through the processes I describe in the book. And I’m making a video workshop that will have downloadable video, so people can actually see and hear many of the things I describe in Finding Your Way. We’ll keep the public posted, via marthabeck.com, each time we think of a new way to connect. Let’s use those magical technologies AND the technologies of magic to keep creating a more cohesive, joyful, inspiring gathering of world-healers!

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Full disclosure: The links to Martha's books are linked to my Amazon Associates account. If you buy things on Amazon after clicking on the link, I get a small portion of the sale.




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Fighting Hunger Together: VolunteerMatch and Walmart Foundation Team Up to Kick Hunger to the Curb

24 January 2012

In today’s economic environment, the work nonprofits are doing to fight hunger is more important than ever. That’s why VolunteerMatch helps these organizations to find thousands of volunteers who share the sense of urgency, compassion and care that’s needed to … Continue reading →

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Tea, Cupcakes and Creative Bloggers in Your Town

24 January 2012

A couple weekends ago I facilitated a 3-hour Tea, Cupcakes and Creative Bloggers workshop at Teahouse Studio. It was so much fun, I want to teach it again soon.  I'm planning on offering it at Teahouse again in the fall, but am also looking for other venues for this spring and summer.

If you know of a place that might like to host a TCCB gathering/workshop in the Bay Area and beyond, let me know in the comments, or email me at britt AT brittbravo DOT com. Maybe I can combine visiting your town with a vacation!

Cupcakes by Batter and Dough

Here are some of the nice things that the ladies who came for tea, cupcakes and creative blogging said about the afternoon:

"Thanks so much for the wonderful workshop - it was a real delight."

"Britt is a superbalicious teacher." 

"Britt was an amazing teacher, and one of the greatest things about the class was all the incredible women that were there!"

"The class was great! . .  Looking forward to getting the blog up soon!"

"The range of topics and activities was great, the professional content with the informal approach made it easy for people to ask Qs, and the way you kept it all to time was terrific!"

"Thanks again for the class yesterday. It was really invigorating!"

You can see more photos and reflections from the workshop on the blog Not Merely Living and on Room of Her Own.

P.S. The Juicy Blogging E-Course starts Wednesday, Jan. 25th.  There are still a few spaces open if you'd like to join.  You have to provide your own tea and cupcakes, but its still fun!


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Secrets Revealed: The Best New Resource for Volunteer Recruitment

23 January 2012

Do you sometimes have trouble finding the volunteers you need for your organization? Don’t you wish there was a way you could pick the brains of dozens of other volunteer managers who have triumphed over similar issues? Announcing the newest … Continue reading →

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WEEKLY NEWS DIGEST (JANUARY 16-22, 2011)

23 January 2012

ADVOCACY & POLITICS “PAC Track: What and Where are the Super PACs Spending?” By Al Shaw and Kim Barker. ProPublica. January 18, 2012. Two federal court rulings in 2010 paved the way for the ascent of “super PACs,” political action committees that can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money on political races, as long [...]

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Your Free Winter 2012 Big Vision Worksheet (Jan/Feb)

23 January 2012

Happy Chinese New Year, Have Fun * Do Gooders!

To celebrate the New Year and new moon, here's a bee-you-tea-full Big Vision Worksheet (illustrated by the hubs) for you to record some of your goals for the year, season, and lunar month.

You can download the PDF for free from Dropbox by clicking here.

Instead of  listing numbers beneath each category (like we've done in the past), we left the space open so that you can write a little, a lot, a list, or a paragraph.

Enjoy!

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Adventures in Episodic Volunteering

20 January 2012

by Jerry Bishop My name is Jerry Bishop and I am modern day volunteer who uses the Internet and social media as the vehicle for my volunteerism. Some call what I do crowdsourcing while others refer to it as micro-volunteering. … Continue reading →

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VolunteerMatch’s Dream

20 January 2012

This article is part of the Nonprofit Blog Carnival. Among national holidays, Martin Luther King Jr. Day holds a special place in our hearts here at VolunteerMatch. As a man who dedicated himself, his time and his resources to his … Continue reading →

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We Want to Make You a Volunteer Management Celebrity

19 January 2012

As we were developing new topics for our 2012 webinar calendar, the Education & Training team here at VolunteerMatch had a sudden realization – there is a great resource right in front of us that we’re failing to take advantage … Continue reading →

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Best Social Media Resources Wrap-up for 2011

18 January 2012

by Daniel Martinage, CAE My post this month is short on words and long on links. Posted below are the 10 most popular social media posts from Nonprofit Tech 2.o, a blog created and is managed by Heather Mansfield (http://nonprofitorgs.wordpress.com/about/). … Continue reading →

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Online Volunteer Recruitment, SOPA and Copyright

18 January 2012

Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold… - WB Yeats As you may have heard, today some of the nation’s leading websites have gone dark or are … Continue reading →

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MLK Day of Service 2012: A Legacy of Impact

18 January 2012

Yesterday most of the country had the day off from work. Since MLK Day is a national day of service, we always hope that most people take the day “on” to volunteer in their communities. This year we couldn’t be … Continue reading →

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