In a pile of so many Happy New Year messages I hope this one meets your eye. And in case if you are about to move on in a few seconds than let me immediately say a BIG THANK YOU to you. The complete Team at ProjectHeena strives to work hard to make a difference and add value to the world. We strongly believe that great things happen when you do good to others. Having said that it would have been difficult to achieve whatever we have without your support.

To briefly state here are the numbers from 2013

• 46 Registered Non-profits
• 1178 Awesome Volunteers
• 3370 Hours of Volunteering
• 54 Volunteering Tasks successfully closed
• 1500 Social Media Friends
• Crazy Number of discussions

I am a person who keeps expecting more, more and more. So before you will read these numbers, my expectations are already raised. But at the same time I know how ‘short of time’ we all are and when I see people volunteering for more than 3000+ hours that deserves a #Salute No doubt a bulk of this happened with the help and support from Bhumi whose volunteers were not just accredited but certified on the platform.

We are growing

We are packing some real punch for the new year. Operationally more and more NGOs are joining us, Thanks to our Community Manager Kanupriya. We are also launching ProjectHeena SOCH which will help us connect with the Student Community to drive things ahead.

On the tech front Jigar and Nikhil have been great pillars. We have made small tweaks on the website, the last time you checked out. You can login with Facebook and LinkedIn, map exact location so that volunteering notifications are more precise, a profile completion indicator, an Achievements tab to highlight your Karma and a private dashboard for social campaigns that we plan to do. Next we are planning to get some exciting features rolled too. We always wanted to start the Donations module but as you know, it will be something which redefines how people donate online. I keep this secret to next year!

We are also rolling premium corporate features and would love to know what you feel about Corporate Social Responsibility!

Stay with us!

I hope you are following us on Facebook and Twitter and at times do read the awesome articles on our blog that Kanu and I break our heads on. There are several stories that as a Social Entrepreneur I have to share but I guess we will keep this message crisp for today.

We took the leap of faith and started ProjectHeena because we thought there would be many who would join us to do good. We have made a small community and would love to scale it from here. Have great fun this new years eve and out of many resolutions that you have, do consider Giving Back a part of you too in the list.

Do Good
Be Awesome

From a recent Volunteering activity we did in Mumbai

Here’s to a great 2014!  Cheers!

We have always been taught that gratitude has great powers. We understand that we need to Thank volunteers who work for us and with us. However the problem is that we seldom exercise this power. All the weird reasons we give boil down to two simple areas – Timing and Vision.

We ideally should thank people for the work done. However once the task is completed how many of us really follow-up? Unfortunately we simply move on. The other side of the coin is vision. If you want your volunteers to keep performing, your employees to keep excelling, you ought to appreciate the effort they put in. Don’t you?

Non profits and NGOs have a big onus when it comes to solving social problems. It is essential that you connect to all sectors of the system and engage them.

Why Thanking your Volunteers is good for your organization

Thanking someone is not just restricted to good etiquettes. It’s much beyond that. Let us highlight quickly why thanking / crediting your volunteers will work in your favour

1. The Karma cycle – Volunteers by virtue of their work help you selflessly. Many go beyond their current skills and commitments to add value to the lives of beneficiaries. We know they aren’t paid employees, so shouldn’t they be accredited enough to complete the loop. Shouldn’t we acknowledge their work and show that we care?
2. Increases Productivity – It’s a well-known fact that even money will push you to perform only to a certain limit. It’s the adventure, passion and outcome that drive the achievers. Thanking volunteers for what they do and making them realizing the impact is very important. This makes them aware of the difference made and also motivates them to perform better. In short, ‘Get More Results’ for your organization!
3. Feeling of togetherness – Accreditation and acknowledgement when done in a public forum helps connect people to your cause and organization; much beyond their regular interests. Constant communications with stakeholders help them to connect with your organization and its beneficiaries as extended families. It builds upon the culture.
4. Increase in Onus – With impact and accreditation comes the onus of performance. With collective efforts a team achieves much more than what each member could have done individually. Higher responsibility can only be assumed by a person if he or she understands the impact made by his small deeds. Increased onus sharing will result in volunteers reaching new heights too.

Convinced! Now tell me How to do this

I am glad you asked this question! Its very important that you accredit and acknowledge in a formal, public and yet personal manner. Thanking should not feel like a formal activity done just for the sake of it. A few things to ensure are that

1. Accredit your volunteers in the best way possible.
2. Always appreciate in public, criticize only one on one in a constructive manner.
3. Acknowledge with a personal touch.

If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough -

Meister Eckhart

At times highlighting your volunteer’s achievements publicly not just motivates them but also creates a great repute for your brand. Some of the immediate ways to accredit are

1. Thanking the volunteers on social channels (Your fan pages, tweets etc)
2. Mentioning achievements in public & meets of the organization
3. Certificates and letters to the achievers
4. Media mentions when the event is covered
5. Writing blog articles and other mentions on your website
6. At times gamifying the complete process
7. Having a process in place for accreditation

The Secret of getting this done

We understand all of the above might sound like a ‘one-more-cumbersome-yet-important-task’ in your to-do list. That’s why we created ProjectHeena. Via ProjectHeena you won’t just accredit your volunteers but also achieve all the benefits we talked about earlier. You reach out to more people, volunteers and donors. You build a better brand and log all activities in a very convenient way. The idea is to keep everyone charged up while driving more volunteers your way. You can directly register your non-profit/foundation OR contact us to know more.

We have created this app just for the social sector to discover, connect and engage talent at multiple levels and we are confident we will keep delivering more. And while we just gave you some tips to engage with your volunteers further; I would conclude by Thanking you for reading this and Thanks to those who would agree, comment or share this post too. Gratitude works!

Image credits: katietegtmeyer