November 2, 2006
Living the Giving: CFD coordinator organizes volunteer activities
Editor’s Note: During the Combined Fund Drive campaign, University Week is featuring UW faculty and staff who actively volunteer.
Name: Phillip Buff
UW Job: Front desk, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences.
Volunteer Activity: With the permission of our administrator, I used my position as CFD coordinator to contact some of the nonprofit groups (represented by the CFD) to organize volunteer opportunities for our staff and students, and nicknamed this aspect of our charitable efforts “Living the Giving.”
Why these activities? In talking with people about the CFD, several times I heard people mention that they’d like to get involved in a more personal way; but they didn’t seem to know what kind of group they wanted to support, or how to take the first steps toward getting involved. Perhaps people become overwhelmed when they think about all the different groups out there that need volunteers? I know that it can be hard to choose one group, or to get started; I thought that if our people were presented with a few options it might make it easier for them to become involved.
Also, I thought, going with others they know — from the department, or family members — might make the experience more comfortable for them.
Satisfaction in volunteering: We’ve had some modest success so far; I was very excited when one of our students told me that he and his roommate both decided to join a youth mentoring program. Success! It turns out that it’s quite a process to set up volunteer opportunities, but when people started telling me how much they appreciated my doing this, it really felt worthwhile. We will have more events like this in the future.
