You can make a difference
Grand Harbor’s Pilot Project aims to give a hand up to IRC residents in need now
A new and unique recruiting formula has been developed to recruit volunteers for the nonprofit organizations. It was needed to help those on the waiting lists receive the help they need now and to help these organizations’ staffs become more productive. Even before COVID traditional methods of recruiting volunteers was inadequate. The website is the tool this project is using to help potential volunteers discover the opportunities they might enjoy easily without sharing personal information first is ghvolunteers.com. The pilot project’s public awareness efforts began on October 1, 2022.
Despite being one of the wealthiest counties in the US, IRC and Vero Beach have a very large population of individuals in need, people and families living below the poverty line. There are well over 100 nonprofit agencies and service organizations addressing the problems of food insecurity, homelessness, medical challenges, needed skills training and guidance, addiction, eldercare, etc.
Although local charities have space and equipment to help many more people, they are not able to offer enough services to meet these needs because of a lack of volunteers!
At the same time the Treasure Coast is the home to literally thousands of experienced and often skilled retirees who have time and the ability to help provide needed services, and close that volunteer gap. However many of these people are reluctant to share their personal information upfront with nonprofit organizations before they understand the variety of volunteering opportunities available in Indian River County (IRC) and know more about the organizations offering these opportunities.
The January 2022 edition of the Vero Beach Magazine listed 143 nonprofit organizations in IRC providing needed services and included the information these folks wanted before taking action. This type of information is now included on the ghvolunteers website.
The pilot project was developed after Liz Crowther and Kathy Tonkel, the leaders of Grand Harbor Community Outreach Program agreed to support a pilot volunteer recruitment project aimed at recruiting more volunteers for the 29 organizations in IRC that the Grand Harbor Community Outreach Program awarded over $400,000 in grants to each year. Grand Harbor’s administration, organization and many members soon agreed to help create awareness of the new website. Additional volunteering opportunities were added.
The goal was expanded to create a database of worthy causes that could benefit from many other local communities’ members experience, wisdom, and generosity. If this pilot program is successful the hope is to help other local communities develop similar volunteer programs for the nonprofit organizations their members currently support.
This new and unique formula for recruiting volunteers differs in 5 ways from traditional methods of nonprofit organizations volunteer recruiting:
i.) Individual communities, instead of outside organizations, will be actively involved in recruiting their members to volunteer. Many of these members are already financially supporting their preferred nonprofit organizations.
ii.) They are using the internet as the major recruitment tool.
iii.) They are making it possible for potential volunteers to discover information about the variety of volunteer opportunities they might enjoy easily and anonymously.
iv.) Their goal is to have potential volunteers arrange to tour the nonprofits facility before filling out forms or disclosing personal information.
v.) They never seek donations.
The initial response since the pilot project went public is encouraging. As awareness increases in the next 2 months, this project should become even more successful. The results of this project will be evaluated and shared publicly in December. In January, the website will be reevaluated and a decision will be made on how to proceed.
Below is the document Grand Harbor’s management team developed. It is being emailed to GH members and homeowners. It is also used as a paper flyer. You have the power to help Indian River County residents in need receive the hand up they need now and to become productive members of our community in the future by volunteering now.
