Every 1st Sunday Morning, Guy Dawson from the Cause Marketing Chamber of Commerce sits down with non-profit organizations in Las Vegas to discuss their businesses.
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This is a k u and v studios original program. You're listening to special programming sponsored by the cars marketing Chamber of Commerce. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents, the Nevada System of Higher Education.
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What's wrong with the world Maamar people live in live thank God. I think the whole world's addicted to the drama. Hello, everyone. And welcome to the business of giving podcast. My name is Guy Dawson and I am the founder and executive director of the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce. We are a 501 C six nonprofit organization that brings businesses and nonprofit organizations together to create synergistic relationships that benefit the community. With the business of giving podcast, we highlight that synergy the connections, wonderful connections that can be made between the for profit and nonprofit sectors. If you'd like to learn more about what we do at the cause marketing, Chamber of Commerce, cause marketing chamber.com. Great to be back in the saddle, bringing you a new edition of the business of giving. And the topic that I want to discuss with all of you today is something that we have been intimately involved in as a chamber of commerce throughout the times that we have been developing the chamber itself as well as these businesses with heart events that we started to give back in 2015. I'm going to talk about volunteerism today, being a volunteer has so many benefits on different levels. And I just want to explore for those of you out there who maybe have thoughts about being a volunteer being a part of a nonprofit organization or a cause and you want to share some of your time with the community helping out something that you believe in, I want to talk about why that's a really amazing opportunity for you again, on a lots of levels, and also discuss for those of you who are running organizations or causes how you can be more effective in working with volunteers. Because when you're
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specifically when you're running a nonprofit organization,
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the work that you are able to get from volunteers is so essential generally, when we're starting these nonprofit organizations, we don't have huge budgets, most of the time, you are starting out literally on a shoestring you've got this big, audacious thing that you want to bring to the world that's going to benefit it and your budget is limited. Having people who are willing to volunteer their services to share their time, their efforts with you to help you to pursue that mission is something that is unbelievably valuable from the perspective of you being that person that's running the nonprofit organization. And so, I want to start off with the perspective from the volunteer side why a person would like to be a volunteer in a nonprofit organization or, or to support a cause in that way.
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I have found that there are several reasons why people decide to to do volunteerism, one of the things that I learned as I have gotten deeper and deeper into this work is generally people who are volunteers have a background of volunteerism. I can't tell you how many discussions I've had with people who
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are volunteers with nonprofit organizations or who have been a part of things that we do at the cause marketing chamber who talk about how they have been volunteers throughout their lives. This is something that was instilled in them at a young age. I've talked to a lot of women who are candy stripers at hospitals.
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I know of a lot of people who have done things like being Junior Lifeguard programs. I know that was something that actually that I got my son involved in in a young age. I wanted to instill in him the importance of giving back to the community and I got him into junior lifeguards. It was a great experience for on a lot of levels for him throughout his young life. But well as I talked to people who are volunteer focused, generally they have a pretty extensive background in volunteerism. I had a couple of things that I was involved in a few years ago that showed me the origins of that at a very young age I was doing pageants I got an opportunity I've several friends who are involved in in pet
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pageants. And they asked me to come and be a judge at these, these pageants where young women will come and display their talents display their intellect, in their, the things that they know how to do as a part of these pageants it was just a great experience these women, young women, some of them as little as five years old were their girls all the way up to the age of 21
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are involved in these pageants and I had the opportunity to learn about the amount of volunteerism that's involved in these pageants. It was something that I knew nothing about. Probably the only pageants I had ever watched would be Miss America or Miss World, these larger pageants. But watching these young women, when we would do our interviews and listening to the amount of volunteerism that they had done it young ages, I mean, literally, we're talking about 56789 10 year olds, it was it was very impressive. There were young girls in there who had done more volunteer ism at that age than a lot of people had done on their whole lives. And so when you talk when I was mentioning before about the mindset of a volunteer, a lot of times it starts at a, at a young age like that I would these girls, they were working at Animal Rescue centers, they were providing bottled water for the homeless, they were it was it was heartwarming, actually, to listen to these young women describe the amount of volunteerism that they were already in at such a young age. So a lot of the volunteers, they come from that type of background. And then other volunteers are people who along the way have
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gotten this spirit of giving. And maybe they've developed the spirit of giving through different experiences that they've had, I one thing I've noticed is that a lot of times it'll be this traumatic experience.
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And that traumatic experience will drive a person to pursue volunteerism, in a, in a certain cause some experience that that they've had in their lives, that makes them want to be supportive of of a specific cause. So for instance, you'll have people who lose a loved one or have a have a loved one who has cancer, let's say. And so because of the experiences that they they have with that loved one, either losing a loved one or, or they're getting a greater understanding of the way that cancer affects a person's life, they will all of a sudden be inspired to want to go and be a part of that specific cause. And they'll start volunteering with cancer centers.
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Volunteerism, a lot of times, we'll definitely come out of an experience that a person has sometimes traumatic, usually traumatic, where they feel like they want to give back to their community by being a part of something and they go out and they volunteer.
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And so those are two of the biggest categories. And then of course, you have other people who just it's a casual thing, it's more of sometimes it's for social reasons, actually, it's another aspect of volunteerism that I've discovered is that people want sometimes the social interaction that goes with being a volunteer, so yes, they have a passion for a certain thing. And they really enjoy being in that environment of the nonprofit organization or have the cause and it gives them the inspiration to want to go out and be a volunteer. And I think that volunteers on so many levels, the person who decides that they want to go out and be one are some of the most underrated heroes in any society. Because when you're a nonprofit volunteer, you generally don't get a lot of recognition for what it is that you do. You just go out into the community and you provide this service. Not only are you benefiting the community with the service that you're providing, you're also not even getting paid for it. So you know, most of us we go to a job, we're getting paid for the job that we do. But that nonprofit really needs the help of volunteers in order for it to function and animal rescue center needs people to come in and work with the animals so that they'll be able to provide the service to the community that they want to provide. And so many other great causes out there. You need bodies, you need help, and most nonprofits are operating on a shoestring budget. So then these people working for the nonprofits are not being paid. I guess the pay that a person receives I know from my own experience, many many years of being in this volunteer sector along with being a
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the for profit sector because that's again, what the chamber is all about is that we merge the two. But when I'm on the nonprofit side, the type of profits that I know I have received through being a volunteer either being on a board, or actually participating in volunteer efforts, it's more of an internal, more of a spiritual type of pay that you get. The fulfillment of being a part of something that you know, is helping people can be very rewarding. And I know most volunteers that you meet out there, the reward that they're getting is that they get to, to contribute to people's lives, through their volunteer efforts.
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And there are so many great opportunities for volunteerism that are often overlooked. There's a great nonprofit organization that we do quite a bit of work with. Here, it's a United Way of Southern Nevada. And they have been huge supporters of the cause marketing chamber since the very beginnings, we've done many events with them. One of the things that I always appreciated and continue to appreciate about the United Way is that they are a resource similar to us that brings nonprofit organizations together. And they have a big component of what they do that is related to, specifically to the volunteer ism, where they are great trainers of volunteers, they, one of the things that they do very effectively, and we've actually tried to emulate this at the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce is they try to meet people where they are in terms of the volunteerism
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in that they people come to them want to do things related to volunteerism, and they like to steer people in the right direction, in terms of the types of causes that they might want to work with. Yes, you can work directly with the United Way and be a volunteer, there are people that do that, but they're a part of their mission also is finding other worthy nonprofit organizations in town that need volunteers and steering people in that direction. Because making sure that you're in alignment as a volunteer with a nonprofit that you truly believe in is extremely important. I know some of you are regular listeners. And you might remember the talk that I did a few weeks ago about alignment when it comes to the nonprofit and for profit sectors. And how important that is. So you as the volunteer, if you're out there looking to do good to contribute to your community, do some research on the nonprofit organization that that you're interested in, I highly recommend that is that you vet your nonprofits, you vet your causes,
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learn about the leadership, learn about the work that they've done. And make sure again, that you're in alignment with that, and,
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and then connect with them. So you sort of do your own interview, even though you're the volunteer, again, you're bringing a service to that cause or that nonprofit. But
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essentially, you're a partner, when you take on a volunteer role. And so I would recommend that you vet that nonprofit, right, or that cause really make sure that they their needs, of course, you're helping them to get some of their needs fulfilled with the work that you're doing coming in there. And being a volunteer. And I would recommend to all of you out there who might be interested in volunteerism is that yes, you're going to make sure that the needs of other people are met as a result of the work that you do. But also make sure that your needs are met, at whatever level that is. And it's again, it's not usually financial, right, because you're volunteering your services. So you're not going to financially be compensated. But please make sure that you feel fulfilled in the work that you're doing that you've liked the leadership that you believe in their mission, and you will enjoy your, your experiences of as a volunteer. I mean, it's, it's quite a community out there people who volunteer for different causes, and there's so many different ways that they you can do it. You can do one offs as a volunteer, which would be say an event with with us with the cross marketing Chamber of Commerce. We have a huge event that we host at least once a year. It's called businesses with heart. And that is our big Expo event. It's where we hand out all our awards for things that are being done in the nonprofit community. So there are lots of opportunities to do to be a volunteer at these events that we host and we have people who specifically come in and do volunteerism for that, that event. So it can be focused on a specific event or it can be ongoing volunteerism, which is what a lot of people really enjoy. Because when you do ongoing law
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volunteerism with a nonprofit, you really get to be a part of the culture of that.
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That cause or that nonprofit that you're not supporting. And so people, they enjoy those experiences, you meet some of the most amazing people through these volunteer experiences, you have to understand that when you're, when you're a part of a nonprofit oriented event or a nonprofit is you're going to be around those like minded people, people who think like you, there are people who want to give back to the community they want to contribute at our events. A lot of times I talk about the high quality oriented people that we tend to get at all of the events that we do. And in terms of high quality, I say that they are definitely the cream of the crop in terms of their give back. And that if you're a person that wants to hang out with really high quality people, yeah, get involved in the nonprofit world. There's so many different organizations out there that you can connect with. For those of you who are just tuning in, you are listening to the business of giving podcast at K u and v 91.5. FM, jazz and more. My name is Guy Dawson. I am the founder and executive director of the cross marketing Chamber of Commerce. Oh also want to share with you all about this cruise that we are going to be hosting as a chamber it is the first annual cars and business cruise October 19. Through the 26th 2024 we are going to take our first cruise as a chamber it will be through the Hawaiian Islands we're going to stop at seven islands during the course of our cruise, it's a great opportunity for you to network with giving professionals proceeds from the purchase of cabins for the event will benefit nonprofit organizations.
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One of the things that we are planning to do is some service work on the island of Maui. Maui is an island that was hit really hard with a lot of bad fires at the end of 2023. There are still a lot of misplaced people or displaced people over on now. And so we are going to go and do some service work. That's one of the layovers during the six day seven night cruise. And so we're really looking forward to that opportunity. We're going to network we're going to spend a lot of time together talking about these topics that I discuss regularly here on the business of giving podcast. If you'd be interested in learning more about that cruise cars, marketing chamber.com We'd love to have you as a guest really looking forward to this, this first annual cruise that we will be hosting again, October the 19th through the 26th 2024. So I've been talking about volunteerism, in my monologue today, from the perspective of the volunteers what I have covered another little sector that I want to talk about before I get into the way that nonprofit organizations and cause oriented organizations can utilize volunteerism is some of the great organizations out there that will build on your volunteerism. I'm a member of a specific organization called Lions. And lions is the largest service organization in the world. It's been around for a long time, and there are about 2 million lions all over the world who are doing all types of service. Lions in particular, does a lot of service work related to eyesight. So they vision do lots of vision screenings, go into lots of foreign countries and take glasses that they've collected to these foreign countries so they can improve people's eyesight. Plus, there's also a lot of different things that they do locally with nonprofit organizations. We do lots of things here in Las Vegas with the mission. And in my particular club, invites speakers from nonprofits to come to our meetings regularly so that they can share about the things that they're doing to contribute to the community. But if you want to learn how to be a better volunteer, I would recommend joining an organization like lions because you're being taught volunteerism, by people who've been doing it for a long time. The club that I'm in has been around since 1938. You have members, I think we have one member in our club who has been in that club since 1962. When you're around people like that they really are like black belts in volunteerism. So if you're someone that wanted to really dig deep and get involved in the volunteer sector, I would recommend visiting one of the Lions Clubs I don't know. Right off the top of my head I don't know how many different Lions Clubs there
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are in Southern Nevada. But there are a lot you can just go online and google Lions Clubs, and visit one my particular Lions Club meets every Tuesday at 12pm, we are called the host Lions Club. And again, we're the oldest Lions Club in Southern Nevada. But if you'd like to visit our club, cause marketing chamber.com, that level of volunteerism can really be really powerful. Of course, a lot of people out there do volunteerism through their churches. And so that's another source of definitely, definitely you can do a lot of great things from for your community by being a member of a specific church, all different types of causes that churches take on. Some of the other organizations here in town that are deeply involved in volunteerism are the Rotary Club. I'm not a member of Rotary, but I have a lot of friends who are I have been to rotary meetings before. Another great service organization that's been around for a long time. And you have co oness is another organization that does a lot of service in the community. So again, these are opportunities for you to get together with groups of people who are like minded all believe in service and and build up your service muscles, right your volunteerism muscles. And the last organization that I'll talk about I've talked about quite a bit on this show through the years is the Toastmasters International, the largest speaking and leadership organization in the world. I personally have been a member of Toastmasters since 2007. And in terms of the personal growth that you receive, being a member of Toastmasters, I highly recommend the speaking communication tracks how much you'll gain from that. But there are also lots of volunteerism opportunities in running that organization that help you to grow as a speaker and a leader. So the again, these are things that can help you to be more successful as a volunteer as being a part of, of these organizations, were actually our next businesses with heart event that we're going to host on September the 19th of 2024. It's going to be at the Santa Fe Hotel and Casino from 4pm to 8pm. I will be making lots more announcements about the upcoming businesses with heart event. But that event is going to be called celebration of service organization. So we're going to celebrate these organizations that are very helpful in building people's volunteerism muscles, as I had mentioned before, so stay tuned, we'd love to have you come to that event, you're going to really learn about the service organizations that build great volunteers participating in that particular event.
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So I want to get into the leadership a bit people who are running nonprofit organizations or our leaders of causes how to work with volunteers. Because that is a skill in itself that I've learned through the years that you have to develop in order to create a fulfilling experience for volunteers. When you're working with someone they're volunteering to help you, you have to understand that there's so many other things that that person could be doing in their lives, there's work, there's family, there's school, there's so many things that we all have, that we can be doing in our busy lives. And yet that person is taking the time to volunteer for your cause or your organization. And so the way that you relate to a volunteer, the, the the empathy, the empathy, I think that you have to have when you're working with someone who's doing this type of a give back. It has to be strong. And
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the expectations that you have a volunteers, it's a commitment for a person when they have decided that they're going to volunteer to do something, they have made a commitment to you that they are going to help. They're not going to be paid their fulfillment comes from actually doing the volunteerism.
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But in order for you to effectively work with volunteers, there has to be the understanding that there is that level of accountability that you're going to expect from them. And that can be a real challenge sometimes in the volunteer world, from my own experiences is sometimes when you're working with people who are volunteering, the level of accountability if not established before you start working with them. It can it can sway because there are again, so many other things that can come up in life and people have to take care of those things, which is completely understandable. But again,
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And in order for you to be able to work towards the mission that you're trying to accomplish with that cause or that nonprofit is you need to get a certain level of commitment from volunteers in order to make that happen. So when I'm, whenever I'm working with people who are volunteers, I spend a lot of time with the communication aspect, before the person even becomes a volunteer about what the expectations are.
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We've got to get this done this done this done or this done, do you have the time to be able to commit to this? Is this going to be a hinderance on the other things that you're doing in life so that those types of conversations that you have with volunteers to really understand how much time and effort they're going to be able to put into the things that you need their help with, can be so important, you'll get some volunteers out there who are so gung ho, that that's all they want to do. I mean, with some of these nonprofits, that I've seen, there was one in particular, it was an equine therapy oriented nonprofit that I worked with for many years called Spirit therapies. And I, what they did was horses, the nonprofit was all about using horses as a tool for therapy for people who suffered from PTSD or children who had mental illness is just a wonderful organization. But when you're running a ranch, you're having to manage horses. I mean, there's a lot that goes into that type of a nonprofit, which means you need lots of volunteers. But it just amazed me how committed some of the volunteers were, I mean, they literally five days a week, they would be at that ranch, making sure that the horses were fed tended to, there was a definitely a high level of commitment in the volunteers that they had, that were helping them out. So you're going to get varying degrees of commitment from people. But as the leader, and this is why I talk so much about leadership on this podcast is because as the leader, the greatest thing that you can do is figure out
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how to get the most out of the volunteers, again, where they feel fulfilled, and you are fulfilled with the work that you have to get done in your nonprofit organization. So work on the expectations and the communication, and really be very open to receiving volunteers take really good care of them. Let them know how important they are to you. And they will become extremely committed to your nonprofit or your cause. Well, I hope I was able to share some information that will help you if you want to become a volunteer or if you're running a nonprofit organization that utilizes volunteers. I think if you use some of these strategies that I talked about today, you will be more effective and you will feel fulfilled in the volunteerism that you are engaged in. I want to continue to encourage you all to listen to our podcasts. You can listen to us on Spotify, Apple podcast, Amazon and other streaming platforms. And we've really appreciated the reviews that we've been receiving of the business of giving podcasts you can leave reviews on the streaming sites and we greatly appreciate the feedback and just the opportunity to reach more people through these reviews because we live in a world of social proof and when people are sharing how much they're enjoying a podcast, it encourages others to listen in and that's what we're all about. We just want to get these messages about the cause marketing world out to as many people as we possibly can.
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And I always encourage you to visit our website again cause marketing chamber.com hope you are enjoying your best life and I always want to encourage you to get into business or not see you against
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the weight of the world on my shoulder as I'm getting older your people guess holder. Most of us only care about money.
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