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!

One of the common feelings we all have is our dissatisfaction towards the state of the society and how things work. We always felt the need and we were always vocal about the same! But somehow we the people don’t deliver in Volunteering.

As a team most aligned with Volunteering, I feel highlighting certain key reasons for this can help our Non-Profits. None the less we have also provided our recommendations on solving these issues.

Who has the TIME?

We are always so busy in running around and multi tasking that we don’t have the time to think about our own life. In such a scenario, volunteering always takes a back seat. “I do not have time do my own work. How will I volunteer?” Time most certainly is an issue. Can we allocate tasks which can be done during down-times like traveling, weekends etc? Let’s keep this first in our list.

Family responsibilities. Personal Life

People work several hours a week on their jobs. Stretched work life has an immediate impact on our personal lives. Whenever people do get free time they prefer being with their family instead of going out to volunteer. Can we provide them the much needed ‘family break’ along with volunteering? Can community be made as an extended family rather than just a part of society that needs fixing? That’s something to ponder upon.

Okay let’s accept it. WE ARE JUST LAZY!

That is indeed the most common and yet the most denied reason (Look even I mentioned it as the third point). Nobody wants to accept it, however that does not mean it is not true. Procrastination just screws most of our aspirations. While you always planned to volunteer what would your lazy brains say when it’s time to execute? -”Instead of volunteering why not take a day off and sleep or go out?” Such people need to be allocated group tasks. Peers drive one another quite well, don’t they?

Come on, how does it all matter? (The Purpose)

When we look around at our country there are a number of things that we do want to change. However when we look around we often question whether all this effort will really make a difference? The whole the world would still  be the same, right? This is discouraging. Basis our experience at ProjectHeena I would suggest it’s our responsibility to convey the impact & make people connected. Every drop contributes to an ocean, just that we need to hold all drops together till the time the results are out.

Do not know – where/what/when/how to volunteer

We work for two things – Money or Passion. No prizes to guess why people volunteer. Passion multiplies when the right things fall in place. If people don’t know the where, why and how to volunteer, things just fall apart. This stands to be the worse reason to not volunteer.

Fortunately, thanks to being hyper connected, things are getting solved now. Several site (like the one you are on right now) will help you solve this query nicely. If you are a non-profit having a clear process made, helps align volunteers well.

So where do we stand now. Let’s reiterate how these problems can be solved.

1. Time is not really a problem! We watch movies, have enough personal time and for some ‘doing nothing’ is also a phase of their life. Make Volunteering interesting and Fun. People make time for fun and interesting things.
2. People walk an extra mile for passion. Align what they can provide with what you want. We are Lazy not because we don’t want to work, we are lazy at times because the work provided is just not interesting.
3. Assign group tasks. Involve not just the volunteer but the whole team. The task need not be one more in her bucket after the family and job. All the 3 can really co-exist!
4. Communicate the impact of work and what difference it can make in the life of another person. Even if you can do only a little, do it, but do contribute something should be the motto.
5. Rome was not built in a day. Great things take great time and effort. Make things count and always show the big picture. Experience shows that people perform at a length when they have the big picture in mind. So do communicate that on regular basis.
6. Yes many a times the right match is not made. We agree, BUT that doesn’t stop an achiever. Remember I said it’s a hyper connected world? Just go online and declare what you can contribute, ask what you want. That’s the first step towards a Happy Volunteering experience. You can even declare by Joining Here

Once you are determined that you have to support a cause then there are a thousand ways of doing it. Most of the well known NGOs have websites for example- Goonj, Cry, Smile, Helpage India etc.  We ourselves register all the good NGOs we get in touch with. Check them here

I hope I was able to provide you enough solutions to inspire and drive great volunteering support. You have any doubts? We are just a comment or email away.

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

However we didn’t bother you with another mail or SMS notifying you about how awesome the New Year is. And we did right by doing that.

We are so connected

There are so many ways you can reach me. You can hit ProjectHeena team on Facebook, Tweet directly to us, send an SMS, meet at any Startup event, WhatsApp any of us on our phone etc etc. While this seems to be a world of hyper connections, we often realize it’s a hyper-disturbed world too.

Rewind life a few years back and you realize that you had to actually meet someone to greet someone. At least till last decade call them personally and waste/utilize your 2 minutes giving them your greetings. Today things are all automated. Hit a message on WhatsApp and it will send to all your contacts or write it on your wall or twitter stream hoping that it will reach to the ones who care. Will it reach all? Absolutely not! But you are relieved from the burden of wishing all of your contacts.

There are more contacts but less engagement

We are now utilizing the same 2 minutes but reaching more people to greet. At the face value it’s a huge ROI but in reality those 2 minutes are utter waste. Anything more than 2 lines in SMS for new year simply gets cleaned off without reading. These messages as we all know are not even personalized.

I received 90 New Year messages and unfortunately attempted checking a few. For most of them

• The latest message was Happy New year
• The previous one was – Merry Christmas
• further back – Happy Diwali
• and back – Happy Dashera …..

The list goes on. The person wishing me these greeting only contacts me on an occasions like these. We never talk, never interact, and never collaborate. All we are doing is spamming. Is this of any use?

More connected = More disturbed

On the flip side we are hyper productive to being disturbed. Every single beep on the phone means we run and reach out to check who has messaged us. As if some dear one has had an accident and your act of checking the message will save their life.

Emails can be left unread but not sms? Till the time you don’t check them you just feel so much disconnected. There are hardly any important messages that you receive but you won’t realize this till the time you face a situation where you have forgot your mobile back home.

Is this what we really want to achieve

We as social animals understood connection. The power of collaboration and the awesomeness of working in a team. However the technology that made it all simple; is making it so simple that it can easily be a dumb decision.

If you want to collaborate.
Do so by engaging the person.
Don’t message, Call.
Don’t Call, Meet.
Don’t just meet, Care.

That’s how relationships were made. Technology can’t change the DNA of our being.

This year think about connecting to more people not in quantity but in quality. Connect and impact deeply. You don’t need the whole world to make yourself a huge success; just a few crazy ones are enough to become early adopters. Meet them, greet them and nurture them.

And by the way …. Happy new year …. to all…