Charity Leader’s Love Affair With Nonprofit Work Began in Childhood
May 13, 2004 | Read Time: 6 minutes
I started working in the nonprofit sector at the ripe old age of 9. It all started when my elementary school in East Meadow, Long Island, held a student assembly at which two representatives
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from the March of Dimes came to talk with us about birth defects and about their organization. They came to promote a walkathon and explained how it was going to raise money for this cause. At the conclusion of their speech, they asked the audience if there was a student who would be willing to be the school’s representative. I had never done any volunteer work before, but for some reason, I found my hand going up. So they called on me, took my name, and that was it. I was smitten for the rest of my life.
My job as the March of Dimes “ambassador” was to promote the walkathon at my school and get other kids involved. But I became so passionate about it that I ended up recruiting my friends to plan communitywide events throughout the year. It grew to a point where we used to have formal monthly meetings in my parents’ basement to discuss event ideas, decide who would run them, and figure out how to advertise them around town.
What really kept me involved, even more than the deep care I had for the cause, was the way that the March of Dimes staff treated me and how they made me feel about myself. I was a little kid in elementary school, and the staff members, who were probably in their mid-20s at the time, became like older siblings to me. They truly appreciated my dedication, and they treated me with utmost respect. Each time I did something to help, they would send me a personal thank-you note, not just a form letter. It was exactly the type of encouragement I needed, and it just kept me wanting to do more. Even on school holidays and vacations, I would take the bus to the March of Dimes office to do office work and help them out.
I volunteered with the March of Dimes for almost 10 more years and then, when I was 18, I was hired full-time as their coordinator of volunteers and special events, where I was put in charge of developing new events geared toward youth.
When I was 20, I decided it was finally time for me to move on. After having spent almost a decade at this organization, it was important for me to take all that I had learned and see if I could apply it elsewhere. My mother had multiple sclerosis, and so that was a cause that was close to my heart. I became the director of development with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, New York Chapter, and within three years was promoted to executive director of the Nassau County chapter of the same organization. I left that position to spend the next eight years as the director of development at the National Center for Disability Services, in Albertson, N.Y., and then took some time to be a stay-at-home mom. I came to Island Harvest as vice president in 2000, and was promoted to executive director two years later.
The experience in my childhood and teen years with the March of Dimes, and the relationships I built there, taught me the most important lessons about how to treat people, about work ethics, about nurturing your passion for a cause, and about how to effectively work with volunteers. These are lessons I’ve referred back to and tried to implement in all of my work since. That experience is truly what molded me.
At Island Harvest, where our job is to rescue food from commercial food donors and distribute it to agencies that feed hungry people, we have about 1,700 registered volunteers. And one of the positions that I created here about six months ago was a coordinator of volunteer services. Before, volunteers didn’t really have a person to connect with, a go-to person to turn to if they were having problems or had any questions. But because we do so much work with volunteers, and knowing how important it was for me at the March of Dimes to have mentors in my life, I felt like this is a position we should have here.
In both my job at Island Harvest and in my role as an adjunct professor at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University, where I’ve taught fund raising for nine years, I’m constantly saying to staff and students, “Always remember to think of yourself as if you were a volunteer. How would you want to be treated? How would you like to be recognized?” I often use my own volunteer experiences to illustrate lessons about how the little things can mean so much. It is so important to treat your volunteers with respect, no matter how young or how old, and to show your gratitude for their hard work.
Volunteers are not being paid, so it is up to us to keep them happy and fulfilled by what they are doing. Do not send a volunteer to go stuff envelopes by themselves in a room and never visit them. Instead, make sure there is a radio for them to listen to, go back regularly to see how they’re doing, offer them a drink of water. Do whatever it takes to make them feel comfortable. And always, always, say “thank you.”
One of the things that really takes me back to my roots is my involvement with the hunger-awareness program that we at Island Harvest have now implemented in about 80 Long Island schools. We talk to kids about hunger issues and invite them to collect coins and do other programs with their classmates to raise money. I remember how I felt sitting in an auditorium at the age of 9, listening to a similar type of presentation. So when I talk to the kids, I try to impart that same sense of excitement about making a difference that I felt when I was a child.
Not long ago I was walking in my town and a little girl on the street ran up to me with her finger pointed at me and said, “You’re the one who was in my school talking about hunger!” Kids are incredibly aware. It wasn’t just me she remembered, but why I was there and what I was talking about. It is why I think it is so important to take the time to talk to kids about the issues of the world. Children really do listen, and they really do care.
Recently, I read an article in which the author talked about how “forcing” youth to volunteer as a requirement at school is a negative thing, because then they won’t be doing it out of the goodness of their hearts. The argument was that they, therefore, aren’t “true” volunteers. I completely disagree. Personally, I think it is a wonderful opportunity for the nonprofit community. It is our challenge to make sure that their first volunteer experience is a positive one. What we do with them and for them now will either keep them coming back or will send them away for good.
