Non-profit The Volunteer Family

We are requesting funding to enhance our website. In addition to ideas, tips, and information, our website features a free, web-based, searchable volunteer matching software application that allows individuals and organizations to access and promote family volunteer opportunities. We have worked with Volunteer Solutions to create a custom database, exclusively uploading family opportunities from Volunteer Centers nationwide. The Volunteer Family’s database lists over 39,000 opportunities in 39 states. We are looking to expand this even further.

Although Heather Jack recently founded The Volunteer Family, it had been on her mind for quite some time. She traces her appreciation for family volunteering to childhood, when she frequently volunteered with her mother and brother. She found that volunteering provided her with a sense of contentment and belonging, and continued to volunteer throughout college and during her first job at the corporate office of Bright Horizons Children’s Centers in Cambridge. She left this job in 1997 to help her husband start a law firm while attending Babson College in the evenings for her MBA in entrepreneurship. Despite these accomplishments, she felt a sense of emptiness in her life without volunteerism.

After becoming a mother in 2002, Heather hoped to teach her daughter to care for others while they contributed to an important cause together. She tried to find opportunities near her home West of Boston where they could volunteer together, but was surprised to find that no agencies would accommodate them. This was particularly frustrating because many of these agencies were struggling to find enough volunteer assistance for their needs. Heather was motivated by this experience, and incorporated a new organization, called The Volunteer Family (TVF). The Volunteer Family now helps nonprofits access this untapped resource in the community and makes it possible for families to easily locate opportunities where they may serve the community together.

The growth of TVF in only a few years has been impressive. In addition to the success of our events, the number of volunteers is growing and we have expanded the number of non-profits who now solicit family volunteers. TVF’s innovative programs are increasingly recognized by community leaders, both locally and nationwide. Locally, TVF has been featured in media outlets, including The Boston Globe, the MetroWest Daily News, Parents and Kids, Bay State Parent Magazine, Women’s Business Journal and Channel 4 news. It has also been highlighted in national magazines such as Young Heroes and Family Circle Magazine. We are currently listed in the Massachusetts Catalogue of Philanthropy. We were also named the Daily Points of Light award winner for January 4, 2006. The Volunteer Family has consistently been recognized for being a unique model – we are the only nonprofit in the US dedicated to finding opportunities for families in their own neighborhoods.

We have a wonderful website which is the premier resource on the web for families interested in volunteering. Although potential volunteers can read our new website and conclude that family volunteering would be great for them and their kids, they still will not know exactly who to help without a complete list of local nonprofit agencies and volunteer opportunities. Therefore, we are proposing a new, innovative, collaborative effort called The Partnership Program. The Partnership Program will involve collaborating with Volunteer Solutions and VolunteerMatch to compile and upload all of the family volunteer opportunities in the country for families onto our website. This will be completed in one year. Once we complete this, families across the nation, will be able to easily locate an agency in need of volunteer assistance right in their own neighborhood.

Name of Organization:The Volunteer Family
Number of Paid Staff:0
Number of Volunteers:2
Total Organizational Expenses:$19,057
% of Organizational Overhead Expenses:35%

A Google search on family volunteering will confirm that The Volunteer Family is the only national organization exclusively dedicated to helping families find specific opportunities to volunteer in their own communities. Although we are the only organization to have taken on this challenge, we have not acted alone.

We began by working with people and organizations that focus primarily on research. This includes Jenny Friedman, the author of The Busy Family’s Guide to Volunteering. We contacted her and she has become a mentor, even writing two of the articles on our website and developing countless wonderful suggestions. The Points of Light Foundation is also a terrific source of information, including an extensive network of local volunteer centers.

For our website, we collaborated with larger agencies, including the United Way and VolunteerMatch. The United Way granted us permission to sort through their databases to find nonprofits that provide the most appropriate opportunities for families. Consequently, we have the ability to include opportunities from every neighborhood in the US on our website. We are investigating the technological feasibility of a similar collaboration with VolunteerMatch.

Our events are partially modeled after one of the Hands On Miami success stories. Hands On Miami mobilized several parents who arranged a successful clean up of South Beach as a family volunteer event, providing the inspiration for our Volunteer Leader program.

The Volunteer Family has compiled the best ideas, resources, and practices from leaders in our field. We now have the knowledge, awareness, and potential to put these together to lead a new family volunteering movement in our country.

Many people and their families are interested in volunteering but do not know where to start. I first became involved with The Volunteer Family when I was looking for ways to strengthen the bond in my own family which consists of me, my husband, and my teenage cousin to whom I am legal guardian. Raising my 15 year old cousin is challenging, especially since we are only 11 years apart in age. Volunteering together really helps us bond as a family while learning many life lessons at the same time.

- Jessica Cassady Davis, Volunteer

The Volunteer Family makes it so easy for us to recruit volunteers. We just let them know when we need help, and they send some terrific families over who are willing to provide their time and assistance. It is a fabulous organization and I would highly recommend them to nonprofit organizations searching for additional help.

-Barbara Clarke, Director of Cradles to Crayons

Career Assistance
Education
Family Harmony

Involve Your Community: You know that volunteering makes this world a better place. You know that there are an infinite number of needs to be filled. And you and your family may know firsthand that helping to do your part to fill these needs can be an extremely rewarding and enriching experience.

If your family has participated in an extremely successful and fun family volunteering event, why not invite others to also take part in the future? You would be surprised how many other families would be interested in helping out – if they are just asked and given the opportunity to contribute.

This is where you come in. Start with your friends. Share your experience with them. Invite them to come with you. Contributing with your friends often alleviates some of the anxiety families may feel if they haven’t volunteered before. Multiple families working together can make lunches for a homeless shelter, advertise and collect clothing for a donation drive, work on spring cleaning and clean-up projects, and throw great parties for elderly residents living in a care facility.

Think about your schools. Is there a newsletter where you could share your experience? Could you add one of the local events to a listing? Could you arrange an event that would involve the school?

What about your church or temple? Many have community service activities set up already, and they would love your help recruiting additional families.

Are you a member of any clubs? Do you know families who are involved in your neighborhood association? How about any community leaders who might be able to help spread the word?

The options are endless. By involving others in your volunteer experience, you will not only be helping to strengthen other families, but you will also be helping create long-lasting results by strengthening your entire community for the future of your own children.

Name:Heather Jack
Title:President
Address:101 Arch Street, 19th Floor Boston, MA 02109 United States
Telephone:508-561-9064
Email:hjack@thevolunteerfamily.org
Website:www.thevolunteerfamily.org

Career Moves	Because they contain: Career Assistance Education
OneFamily Fund Bar/Bat Mitzvah Program	Because they contain: Education Family Harmony
Transforming Underserved Teens through Business	Because they contain: Career Assistance Education
Chesterbrook Learning Center	Because they contain: Education Family Harmony


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Jchoice.Org

The Partnership Program