imagine if everyone you knew was a
better version of themselves
what would Branford be like if everyone
was happier more understanding more
caring everyone was more interested and
active in helping each other how great
would that be and what if that expanded
to the rest of the country or even the
rest of the world I believe it’s
possible and I contend the way to get
there is through volunteering I want to
share with you a strategy that we can
start today that will help expose the
full power of volunteering and help get
us to that better world
but first let’s define volunteering the
dictionary defines volunteering as doing
work without being forced or paid and
given that definition I do a lot of
volunteering between boards and
committees and hands on work I’m doing
some kind of volunteering at least once
a week I’ve been in a position to see
the possibilities and the challenges
that come with volunteering the
possibilities really inspire me most of
my volunteer work involves working with
children and to see what they can
accomplish when they’re given the
opportunities and the help they need is
amazing on the flip side the challenge
has really frustrated me almost every
organization I talked to has problems
either recruiting volunteers keeping
volunteers or both so I decided I would
do something different I was gonna start
volley to create better tools for
volunteering but when I looked beyond
the problems I realized what I had to do
was evolve for that solution
I had to design a new ecosystem for
volunteering to make it simpler more
meaningful and more fun the idea being
that if I can make volunteering more
attractive the more people will do it
and if more people do it then that can
help change the world
I see volunteers help at the community
organize
nations that help people in need to
provide opportunities in education and
sports and the arts they generally try
to make a stronger community and many of
these organizations rely very heavily on
their volunteers now in Canada what I
doing too badly staffs Canada does a
survey on volunteering that was last
published in 2013
at that time 44% of Canadians
volunteered well that’s pretty good
until you look at the historical numbers
that’s actually three percent lower than
2010 and the lowest it’s been in ten
years
but that’s a percentage that can be
misleading the population of Canada is
always growing so what’s really
important is the number of volunteers so
we look at the total number of
volunteers and that’s also gone down but
it’s not really the number of people
it’s the time they put in how much time
are they volunteering so we looked at
total number of hours of volunteers
that’s also at its lowest level in 10
years and the average number of hours
per volunteer has actually been
declining for a decade further the way
people volunteer has changed
traditionally people would choose one or
two organizations that they’re
passionate about and volunteer for 3 or
5 or 10 years that makes it really easy
for the volunteer managers to plan
activities and events knowing they have
a dedicated pool of trained volunteers
today more people are volunteering at
several organizations and a third of
volunteers only volunteer less than five
times per year not only is that more
difficult for the volunteer manager to
plan activities but it also makes it
more difficult for the volunteer to find
something they’re passionate about if
they only get out there two or three
times a year so now we have a situation
where we have fewer volunteers
volunteering for fewer hours and less
frequently than they used to
well that sucks I mean that’s the
opposite of what we want to do if we
want to build a stronger community let
alone change the world so what can we do
to change that if we want to reverse
that trend we have to look at why people
volunteer in the first place
93% of volunteers volunteer because they
want to make a contribution to the
community that’s exactly what I’m saying
we want to do build a stronger community
and the other 7% they just want the free
t-shirt some people volunteer because
they’re personally affected by an
organization say they’ve got a family
member with special needs or they know
someone who’s living with the disease
it could be someone coaching their son
or daughter’s hockey team or helping out
of their child’s school every parent can
identify with that and that’s actually
how I became more active in volunteering
when my kids started school I joined the
board I joined some committees and
because I’m a tech guy they asked me to
help develop their IT curriculum they
asked me to mentor their LEGO League
team and I helped develop tools and
their intranet for the staff which
brings us to the next reason people
volunteer people want to use their
skills outside of work they want to
develop new skills they want to explore
their strengths and challenge themselves
they’re working on their personal and
professional development outside of work
while also giving back and a lot of
people volunteer because their friends
and their family volunteer or to meet
new people right they’re going out with
friends family meeting new people and
having fun it’s part of the social
aspect of volunteering
I myself have several close friends that
I wouldn’t have met if not for
volunteering so remember that definition
of volunteering doing work without being
forced or paid it says nothing in there
about no rewards if you’re volunteering
for an organization that supports you
and your family you’re actually helping
them help you and in some cases those
opportunities wouldn’t even exist if you
didn’t volunteer one of my kids started
playing soccer my wife and a friend of
ours were the coaches not because of any
great knowledge of soccer but because no
one else would do it and if we didn’t
have a coach there couldn’t have been a
team
it’s not only our children were affected
but the entire team would have been done
now granted we’re coaching
four-year-olds in soccer which is more
like herding cats than coaching soccer
and our friend is a Montessori teacher
so she has some experience with herding
cats
okay and when you’re using your skills
they’re becoming more confident in your
skills you were expanding your knowledge
and if you want to learn something new a
volunteer organization is a very good
place to start because they’re very
welcoming and accepting they want your
help so they will help you help them
when I started on the board I didn’t
know what I can add as a tech guy and
specifically as a software developer
there isn’t a lot of software being
written in these meetings actually there
is no software being written in these
meetings but I can apply my analytical
and problem-solving skills in a new
context outside of my usual domain I can
also learn more about financials and
budgets I learned more about strategic
planning and risk management I now use
that all the time as I run cosmic
communications and as I build volley
even my son is 11 years old right now
four years ago he decided he wanted to
start helping build the set in the stage
for the school play
it gives him an opportunity to use buy
tools because I don’t have any
construction projects at home plus it’s
an opportunity for us to spend some time
together and that’s the next part the
social aspect of volunteering you’re
going out and working on your
relationships you’re working on your
real life social network but not only
that you’re actually improving your
physical and mental well-being studies
have shown that socializing can help
relieve loneliness ward off depression
strengthen your immune system it can
help you live longer reduce the risk of
dementia and those Ivor’s in one study
in the u.s. found that people who
volunteered 100 hours of more were
healthier overall versus people that did
no volunteering and when you go out with
new people you’re meeting new people you
can become more understanding and caring
because when you go out together to
volunteer
you’ve all got the same purpose you want
to help people and nothing else matters
not religion not politics but gender by
gender identity not ethnicity and not
sexual orientation anything that can be
used to divide us it doesn’t matter
because we’re all there to help people
and as you work together you get to know
them and that’s the first step to
getting to understand and accept them
and if you can understand accept them
that makes you more understanding and
accepting of others as well and that 93
percent that want to make a contribution
to the community but by the way will
happily accept that t-shirt they’re not
only making contribution to the
community but they’re trying to bring
out a better version of themselves by
helping others even just trying to help
others is itself a noble activity and
when you go out and you do it you feel a
sense of accomplishment you can feel
proud of the work you’ve done and you
should that helps boost your self-esteem
you’re bringing out a better version of
yourself
or more accurately you’re bringing out
the best part of yourself better version
implies that you’re changing but you’re
not you already have it in you you’re
just bringing out that best part of
yourself I’ll call that your best self
so those are some very personal and
life-changing awards that aren’t
mentioned in that definition of
volunteering
doing work without being forced or paid
so let’s change it for our purposes
let’s say that volunteering is
volunteering is working to build a
stronger community while having fun
staying healthy and bringing out your
best self while not being forced to be
paid that’s a much more attractive
definition that also shows that the full
power of volunteering isn’t just in
helping others isn’t just in building a
stronger community but it actually helps
you bring out your best self
that helps make you a better person so
redefining a word isn’t enough it’s not
enough to convince someone to volunteer
let alone change the world so what’s the
big innovative strategy that we can do
to help expose the full power of
volunteering and change the world
talk about volunteering
simple right except it isn’t
for some reason were brought up with
this notion that you don’t talk about
volunteering it’s just not something you
do it’s pervasive enough that I’ve heard
it from other people you don’t talk
about volunteering no one needs to know
about it so I went looking for that rule
I took board manuals I checked policies
and procedures I looked online I
couldn’t find any evidence and then it
occurred to me that there’s a simple
reason for that it’s a stupid rule I
mean generally you’re volunteering for
something that you’re passionate about
so why not add it to the conversation
add it to your introduction add it to
the questions when you’re talking to new
people what’s your major where do you
work
are you married they have any kids do
you have any pets and before you get to
their medical history
why not ask do you do any volunteering
and if they get to you first and say
what do you do have volunteering to your
introduction oh I run a small phone
company and I volunteer at Lansdowne
Children’s Center easy make volunteering
a part of your identity
make volunteering not just something you
do but a part of who you are
talk about volunteering until it becomes
a habit when it becomes a habit then you
normalize being your best self and when
you normalize being your best self then
you’re always your best self
it’s like talking about volunteering
inspires you yourself to be your best
self and if you’re always your best self
then it becomes infectious and you can
inspire other people to be their best
selves even just a little bit and from
the next person a little bit more and
the next person a little bit more until
it’s like we’re all inspiring each other
to be our best selves so when you talk
to someone who already volunteers ask
them about their volunteer experience
share your stories help them tap into
their best self and when you talk to
someone who doesn’t volunteer they may
be inspired to start in fact or the
people who are the people who don’t
volunteer a quarter of them oops
a quarter of them just don’t know what
to do and half of them haven’t
volunteered because no one asks them so
let’s help are you interested in
volunteering you are great you know
we’ve got some events coming up at
Lansdowne that we could use some help
with if that’s not your thing what are
you interested in you’re not sure oh
I’ve got some friends that can help as
well my friend Trevor he works with the
homeless Terry volunteers with the soup
kitchen Kenneth Kiwanis Kristen and Reed
Murray with rotary Avery with the United
Way Tania with the SPCA Priscilla and
Chris with the five-o first and Dave
over there he’s promoting kindness in
the city I know this because we all talk
about volunteering and so if everybody
talked about volunteering and we put
these opportunities out there and we get
these people who just don’t know what to
do or haven’t been asked now we can move
the popular volunteer rate up from forty
four percent to 70 percent and now we’ve
got a majority of the population working
to build a
stronger community working on becoming
happier more understanding more caring
becoming their best selves and we’re
going to tell these new people to talk
about volunteering and they’re going to
maintain their best selves State and
they’re going to inspire other people to
do the same and so on and so on until we
reach critical mass of community
happiness community understanding
community caring community strength and
if we can do that here our neighbors
will see that and they’ll be inspired
and then their neighbors will be
inspired and we’re going to start this
chain reaction of community after
community normalizing being their best
self and if everyone normalizes being
their best self and they’re always their
best self then we can reach that better
world but back to today our theme is one
drop thousands of ripples I’m gonna ask
each of you to add your drop talk about
volunteering next time you meet someone
add it to their introduc how did to your
introduction if you’re talking with
friends and family discuss each other’s
experiences swap stories tell the
stories of the people you’ve met tell
the stories of the people you’ve helped
keep tapping into that passion show what
it felt like to volunteer keep bringing
out your best self and then let’s see
how much better things can get thank you
[Applause]
you
better version of themselves
what would Branford be like if everyone
was happier more understanding more
caring everyone was more interested and
active in helping each other how great
would that be and what if that expanded
to the rest of the country or even the
rest of the world I believe it’s
possible and I contend the way to get
there is through volunteering I want to
share with you a strategy that we can
start today that will help expose the
full power of volunteering and help get
us to that better world
but first let’s define volunteering the
dictionary defines volunteering as doing
work without being forced or paid and
given that definition I do a lot of
volunteering between boards and
committees and hands on work I’m doing
some kind of volunteering at least once
a week I’ve been in a position to see
the possibilities and the challenges
that come with volunteering the
possibilities really inspire me most of
my volunteer work involves working with
children and to see what they can
accomplish when they’re given the
opportunities and the help they need is
amazing on the flip side the challenge
has really frustrated me almost every
organization I talked to has problems
either recruiting volunteers keeping
volunteers or both so I decided I would
do something different I was gonna start
volley to create better tools for
volunteering but when I looked beyond
the problems I realized what I had to do
was evolve for that solution
I had to design a new ecosystem for
volunteering to make it simpler more
meaningful and more fun the idea being
that if I can make volunteering more
attractive the more people will do it
and if more people do it then that can
help change the world
I see volunteers help at the community
organize
nations that help people in need to
provide opportunities in education and
sports and the arts they generally try
to make a stronger community and many of
these organizations rely very heavily on
their volunteers now in Canada what I
doing too badly staffs Canada does a
survey on volunteering that was last
published in 2013
at that time 44% of Canadians
volunteered well that’s pretty good
until you look at the historical numbers
that’s actually three percent lower than
2010 and the lowest it’s been in ten
years
but that’s a percentage that can be
misleading the population of Canada is
always growing so what’s really
important is the number of volunteers so
we look at the total number of
volunteers and that’s also gone down but
it’s not really the number of people
it’s the time they put in how much time
are they volunteering so we looked at
total number of hours of volunteers
that’s also at its lowest level in 10
years and the average number of hours
per volunteer has actually been
declining for a decade further the way
people volunteer has changed
traditionally people would choose one or
two organizations that they’re
passionate about and volunteer for 3 or
5 or 10 years that makes it really easy
for the volunteer managers to plan
activities and events knowing they have
a dedicated pool of trained volunteers
today more people are volunteering at
several organizations and a third of
volunteers only volunteer less than five
times per year not only is that more
difficult for the volunteer manager to
plan activities but it also makes it
more difficult for the volunteer to find
something they’re passionate about if
they only get out there two or three
times a year so now we have a situation
where we have fewer volunteers
volunteering for fewer hours and less
frequently than they used to
well that sucks I mean that’s the
opposite of what we want to do if we
want to build a stronger community let
alone change the world so what can we do
to change that if we want to reverse
that trend we have to look at why people
volunteer in the first place
93% of volunteers volunteer because they
want to make a contribution to the
community that’s exactly what I’m saying
we want to do build a stronger community
and the other 7% they just want the free
t-shirt some people volunteer because
they’re personally affected by an
organization say they’ve got a family
member with special needs or they know
someone who’s living with the disease
it could be someone coaching their son
or daughter’s hockey team or helping out
of their child’s school every parent can
identify with that and that’s actually
how I became more active in volunteering
when my kids started school I joined the
board I joined some committees and
because I’m a tech guy they asked me to
help develop their IT curriculum they
asked me to mentor their LEGO League
team and I helped develop tools and
their intranet for the staff which
brings us to the next reason people
volunteer people want to use their
skills outside of work they want to
develop new skills they want to explore
their strengths and challenge themselves
they’re working on their personal and
professional development outside of work
while also giving back and a lot of
people volunteer because their friends
and their family volunteer or to meet
new people right they’re going out with
friends family meeting new people and
having fun it’s part of the social
aspect of volunteering
I myself have several close friends that
I wouldn’t have met if not for
volunteering so remember that definition
of volunteering doing work without being
forced or paid it says nothing in there
about no rewards if you’re volunteering
for an organization that supports you
and your family you’re actually helping
them help you and in some cases those
opportunities wouldn’t even exist if you
didn’t volunteer one of my kids started
playing soccer my wife and a friend of
ours were the coaches not because of any
great knowledge of soccer but because no
one else would do it and if we didn’t
have a coach there couldn’t have been a
team
it’s not only our children were affected
but the entire team would have been done
now granted we’re coaching
four-year-olds in soccer which is more
like herding cats than coaching soccer
and our friend is a Montessori teacher
so she has some experience with herding
cats
okay and when you’re using your skills
they’re becoming more confident in your
skills you were expanding your knowledge
and if you want to learn something new a
volunteer organization is a very good
place to start because they’re very
welcoming and accepting they want your
help so they will help you help them
when I started on the board I didn’t
know what I can add as a tech guy and
specifically as a software developer
there isn’t a lot of software being
written in these meetings actually there
is no software being written in these
meetings but I can apply my analytical
and problem-solving skills in a new
context outside of my usual domain I can
also learn more about financials and
budgets I learned more about strategic
planning and risk management I now use
that all the time as I run cosmic
communications and as I build volley
even my son is 11 years old right now
four years ago he decided he wanted to
start helping build the set in the stage
for the school play
it gives him an opportunity to use buy
tools because I don’t have any
construction projects at home plus it’s
an opportunity for us to spend some time
together and that’s the next part the
social aspect of volunteering you’re
going out and working on your
relationships you’re working on your
real life social network but not only
that you’re actually improving your
physical and mental well-being studies
have shown that socializing can help
relieve loneliness ward off depression
strengthen your immune system it can
help you live longer reduce the risk of
dementia and those Ivor’s in one study
in the u.s. found that people who
volunteered 100 hours of more were
healthier overall versus people that did
no volunteering and when you go out with
new people you’re meeting new people you
can become more understanding and caring
because when you go out together to
volunteer
you’ve all got the same purpose you want
to help people and nothing else matters
not religion not politics but gender by
gender identity not ethnicity and not
sexual orientation anything that can be
used to divide us it doesn’t matter
because we’re all there to help people
and as you work together you get to know
them and that’s the first step to
getting to understand and accept them
and if you can understand accept them
that makes you more understanding and
accepting of others as well and that 93
percent that want to make a contribution
to the community but by the way will
happily accept that t-shirt they’re not
only making contribution to the
community but they’re trying to bring
out a better version of themselves by
helping others even just trying to help
others is itself a noble activity and
when you go out and you do it you feel a
sense of accomplishment you can feel
proud of the work you’ve done and you
should that helps boost your self-esteem
you’re bringing out a better version of
yourself
or more accurately you’re bringing out
the best part of yourself better version
implies that you’re changing but you’re
not you already have it in you you’re
just bringing out that best part of
yourself I’ll call that your best self
so those are some very personal and
life-changing awards that aren’t
mentioned in that definition of
volunteering
doing work without being forced or paid
so let’s change it for our purposes
let’s say that volunteering is
volunteering is working to build a
stronger community while having fun
staying healthy and bringing out your
best self while not being forced to be
paid that’s a much more attractive
definition that also shows that the full
power of volunteering isn’t just in
helping others isn’t just in building a
stronger community but it actually helps
you bring out your best self
that helps make you a better person so
redefining a word isn’t enough it’s not
enough to convince someone to volunteer
let alone change the world so what’s the
big innovative strategy that we can do
to help expose the full power of
volunteering and change the world
talk about volunteering
simple right except it isn’t
for some reason were brought up with
this notion that you don’t talk about
volunteering it’s just not something you
do it’s pervasive enough that I’ve heard
it from other people you don’t talk
about volunteering no one needs to know
about it so I went looking for that rule
I took board manuals I checked policies
and procedures I looked online I
couldn’t find any evidence and then it
occurred to me that there’s a simple
reason for that it’s a stupid rule I
mean generally you’re volunteering for
something that you’re passionate about
so why not add it to the conversation
add it to your introduction add it to
the questions when you’re talking to new
people what’s your major where do you
work
are you married they have any kids do
you have any pets and before you get to
their medical history
why not ask do you do any volunteering
and if they get to you first and say
what do you do have volunteering to your
introduction oh I run a small phone
company and I volunteer at Lansdowne
Children’s Center easy make volunteering
a part of your identity
make volunteering not just something you
do but a part of who you are
talk about volunteering until it becomes
a habit when it becomes a habit then you
normalize being your best self and when
you normalize being your best self then
you’re always your best self
it’s like talking about volunteering
inspires you yourself to be your best
self and if you’re always your best self
then it becomes infectious and you can
inspire other people to be their best
selves even just a little bit and from
the next person a little bit more and
the next person a little bit more until
it’s like we’re all inspiring each other
to be our best selves so when you talk
to someone who already volunteers ask
them about their volunteer experience
share your stories help them tap into
their best self and when you talk to
someone who doesn’t volunteer they may
be inspired to start in fact or the
people who are the people who don’t
volunteer a quarter of them oops
a quarter of them just don’t know what
to do and half of them haven’t
volunteered because no one asks them so
let’s help are you interested in
volunteering you are great you know
we’ve got some events coming up at
Lansdowne that we could use some help
with if that’s not your thing what are
you interested in you’re not sure oh
I’ve got some friends that can help as
well my friend Trevor he works with the
homeless Terry volunteers with the soup
kitchen Kenneth Kiwanis Kristen and Reed
Murray with rotary Avery with the United
Way Tania with the SPCA Priscilla and
Chris with the five-o first and Dave
over there he’s promoting kindness in
the city I know this because we all talk
about volunteering and so if everybody
talked about volunteering and we put
these opportunities out there and we get
these people who just don’t know what to
do or haven’t been asked now we can move
the popular volunteer rate up from forty
four percent to 70 percent and now we’ve
got a majority of the population working
to build a
stronger community working on becoming
happier more understanding more caring
becoming their best selves and we’re
going to tell these new people to talk
about volunteering and they’re going to
maintain their best selves State and
they’re going to inspire other people to
do the same and so on and so on until we
reach critical mass of community
happiness community understanding
community caring community strength and
if we can do that here our neighbors
will see that and they’ll be inspired
and then their neighbors will be
inspired and we’re going to start this
chain reaction of community after
community normalizing being their best
self and if everyone normalizes being
their best self and they’re always their
best self then we can reach that better
world but back to today our theme is one
drop thousands of ripples I’m gonna ask
each of you to add your drop talk about
volunteering next time you meet someone
add it to their introduc how did to your
introduction if you’re talking with
friends and family discuss each other’s
experiences swap stories tell the
stories of the people you’ve met tell
the stories of the people you’ve helped
keep tapping into that passion show what
it felt like to volunteer keep bringing
out your best self and then let’s see
how much better things can get thank you
[Applause]
you
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