Business Volunteers Maryland

doing good. better.

VOLUNTEERING: Good for the community, good for your health

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In April 2020, Business Volunteers Maryland President and CEO Julie Kernan reflected on how the COVID-19 pandemic upended our lives- personally and professionally.

“I am optimistic the way we are living today is not our new “normal,” and whatever our new normal is, I believe we will be gentler with ourselves and our neighbor,” she wrote. “The silver lining to the COVID storm cloud is the development of a greater commitment to caring for others through volunteering and community engagement.”

Our team has been continuously inspired by the way our business and nonprofit partners have pivoted programs and volunteer opportunities to keep constituents safe. Volunteers tremendously help nonprofits, but also, volunteering makes a huge impact on those individuals that donate their time.

One study by United Healthcare found that 78% of American adults who volunteer said that it has made them feel less stressed, which left them with lower stress levels and better mood than adults who don’t volunteer. It is undeniable that coming together around a positive cause and giving back improves mood and decreases stress. Now, more than ever, our communities are yearning for opportunities to connect with individuals and community.

Important ways to get involved this holiday season: consider donating to Salvation Army’s Angel Tree program! The Salvation Army Angel Tree program helps provide Christmas gifts for hundreds of thousands of children around the country each year. You can donate gifts through their Amazon wish list.

Or if you’d rather volunteer your time in person, consider signing up to help sort through all their presents in their warehouse (LINK ).

For our business partners, Business Volunteers is thrilled to announce the dates of our annual Elf Week with the Salvation Army, December 7-11, 2020. We recruit hundreds of volunteers to be part of “Elf Week” and come together to be a part of it all. It is our most fun and festive event of the year!

2019 Elf Week at Salvation Army with partners, BGE.

2019 Elf Week at Salvation Army with partners, BGE.

BVM has been running this program for 16 years, and every year looks a little bit different. We are so excited that we have been able to figure out a way to still make an impact this year on so many lives in our community, while remaining safe in the pandemic.

Your business teams are missing interaction with each other. This is a perfect way to gather them AND give back to the community.

For more information about sponsorship opportunities and how to get involved in Elf Week, contact Melissa Hersh, [email protected].

Baltimore Business Journal recognizes community efforts

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You’ve heard of six degrees of separation, right? The 2020 Baltimore Business Journal Better Baltimore Awards is a Who’s Who of our friends and partners. While we were not directly recognized, we are so proud that nine of our business and nonprofit partners made the list for “making Baltimore better.”

Business Volunteers envisions a future in which all individuals and businesses in Baltimore are engaged and investing in building strong and thriving communities. By working with over 50 businesses to make their community engagement more strategic and impactful, we act as a connector to build the capacity and fill mission critical needs in over 150 unique Regional nonprofits each year.

SC&H Group, a long-term partner and “consumer” of Business Volunteers’ services, was recognized in the small/medium company category. The article mentions that last year, 192 SC&H employees volunteered at eight different organizations, resulting in 768 volunteer hours in one day. That day was facilitated and supported by Business Volunteers Maryland.

Ron Causey welcomes guests to the 2019 Business Volunteers Business Impact Summit. 

“SC&H has used Business Volunteers Maryland to direct its efforts and connect the company with nonprofits in need of its employees’ skills,” Ron Causey, SC&H CEO, and board chair for Business Volunteers Maryland noted. In addition to SC&H, Aerotek, BGE, M&T Bank, T. Rowe Price, and Venable were all recognized for their contributions to the community. Representatives from each of these organizations currently hold a position on our board of directors and many also have at least one representative in the 2020 GIVE Class (GIVE is a fellowship program for emerging community leaders, programmed and hosted by BVM).

BGE and Business Volunteers recently collaborated with Code in the Schools to deliver a virtual Team Volunteer Project for 100 high school and college interns. Participants assembled 2,500 Squishy Circuit kits that will be distributed to elementary school students by Baltimore City Recreation and Parks. Squishy Circuits are circuits made from play dough, modeling clay, LED lights, a battery, and connection wire encouraging skills helpful in STEM classes and professions.

The connections do not stop with the corporate award winners. Many of our nonprofit partners were also recognized for their contributions to the community, including the Maryland Food Bank, Moveable Feast, and Volunteering Untapped.  It is an honor to be affiliated to organizations making such an impact in the communities where we work and live.

Congratulations to all the organizations recognized in this year’s list. We are thrilled to be a partner with you and grateful for your efforts of doing good. better. in the community.

If your organization is looking to be more strategic with your community engagement initiatives, contact Business Volunteers today.

Virtual Volunteering: Flipping the Script

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On May 29th, I marked my one-year anniversary at Business Volunteers Maryland. I keep saying that this year has been the quickest, craziest, and funniest year to date…COVID-19 excluded.

Lauren, right, volunteering in New Orleans with SBP, a national nonprofit focused on disaster recovery.

As a new college graduate, I was excited to learn the ropes of the nonprofit sector and work with our business partners to provide engaging and impactful volunteer opportunities. Before joining Business Volunteers Maryland, I loved hands-on service projects. I spent time in Louisiana and Texas rebuilding homes after natural disaster and liked to spend Saturday mornings volunteering with Second Chance or The 6th Branch. This is something that I shared with many of our corporate volunteers as we revitalized schools and community centers or worked to create usable green spaces across the city.

And then the stay at home order happened. The idea of not being able to get our corporate volunteers out in the community was devastating.

After the initial shock of our new reality, the team at Business Volunteers began receiving unique requests to fill volunteer needs from local nonprofits. Three out of five charitable organizations report that the ability to deliver their mission is critically dependent upon volunteers. Knowing our role and capabilities as a connector agency, we created communityCONNECT– a forum for nonprofits to post their needs and for our corporate partners and individuals to find volunteer opportunities that fit their skills, comfort, and ability either on site, remotely, or virtually.

CommunityCONNECT filled an immediate need as people across the Region moved their lives online. As the direct needs surrounding food insecurity and personal hygiene began to fill, our focus shifted to the value of skilled volunteering.  Skilled volunteering (sometimes referred to as pro bono consulting) is when an individual, often with a specific professional expertise, helps a nonprofit solve an operational or business issue. This could include helping a nonprofit develop a comprehensive branding and marketing strategy, or assisting with financial modeling and budgeting, or helping to implement new technology solutions.

Our corporate partners are looking to engage their employees as they adapt to teleworking, and nonprofits need support as many are facing even more limited capacity than usual. While we do not know when we will be back completing the hands-on volunteer projects that we love, our partners are adapting to this virtual world and utilizing virtual, skilled volunteering to safely serve the community.

To adapt to the changing workforce into a primary telework community, Business Volunteers has adapted to the change and is offering our trainings and events virtually.

It might be too soon to talk about silver linings, but the team at Business Volunteers is inspired by the continued commitment to volunteerism in this virtual world and the increased interest in skilled volunteering.

 

From our CEO: “This is my beacon of hope.”

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When the team at Business Volunteers Maryland did our annual planning for Global Volunteer Month, it was early 2020 and we never could have imagined the April we ultimately faced. What started as planned postings shining the light on local volunteers (#LocalLights) who are continually doing good, better in our community, completely changed from volunteering as we know it. While it is still important to acknowledge our traditional volunteer heroes, we would be remiss if we did not amplify the current and obvious needs.

Local nonprofits, facing unprecedented headwinds as communities respond to COVID-19, reached out to Business Volunteers with unique requests to fill volunteer needs. According to the Urban Institute, three out of five charitable organizations reported that the ability to deliver their mission is critically dependent upon volunteers. We had to pivot to provide the support these organizations require in the current environment – a platform to document their volunteer needs, including on-site, remote, and virtual projects and access to a diverse volunteer source. Thus, the birth of communityCONNECT – a forum for nonprofits to post their needs and for our corporate partners and individuals to find volunteer opportunities that fit their skills, comfort, and availability.

In a matter of days, communityCONNECT moved from concept to implementation, reaching thousands of prospective community volunteers. We have heard from our corporate and nonprofit partners, as well as from the Points of Light Foundation (we are the Baltimore affiliate!) and their global affiliates, that this platform has provided the matching of needs to volunteers they desperately need. Business Volunteers is pleased to play a vital role in connecting resources to requests.

From a personal perspective, I continue to be impressed and amazed at how our community is stepping up. Friends and colleagues are creative in how they engage in the community – they are making masks, tutoring children online, and raising money to support those on the front line. Looking for some way to support our front line workers, my husband and I recently delivered dinner to a nurse friend and her colleagues at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Following is her thank you text after the meal:

Just wanted to say thank you again. You guys made our group very happy. There was enough for both shifts; the food was delicious (several people have been to Joe Benny’s and wholeheartedly endorsed it, others will definitely be checking them out when all of this is over) and felt special. Tensions have been building and we all sat down and ate like a family. It was incredibly heart warming and cathartic. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

What seemed like an easy gesture for us, changed the team dynamics, if only for just a little while, for a group of critical care workers who so desperately needed a break.

These unique, individual contributions amass to a significant outpouring of support and this is my beacon of hope. I am optimistic the way we are living today is not our new “normal,” and whatever our new normal is, I believe we will be more gentle with ourselves and our neighbors. The silver lining to the COVID storm cloud is the development of a greater commitment to caring for others through volunteering and community engagement.

Editor’s Note: Visit Business Volunteers on Facebook and Instagram to read about how our community embraced Global Volunteer Month during unprecedented times. We invite you to tag us in your remote volunteering and use the hashtags #locallight #doinggoodbetter