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The Volunteer Center Serving San Francisco And San Mateo Counties

In addition to helping prospective volunteers find opportunities with local nonprofit organizations, The Volunteer Center assists nonprofits with consulting and training to ensure that volunteers have meaningful experiences that are mutually beneficial to the volunteer and nonprofit.

Description:
The Volunteer Center has served a critical role in fostering volunteerism in communities in San Francisco and the Peninsula for 62 years and is a nationally recognized leader in volunteerism, moving the field forward through innovation and collaboration. In addition to acting as a clearinghouse to help prospective volunteers find opportunities with local nonprofit organizations, The Volunteer Center assists nonprofits with consulting and training to ensure that volunteers have meaningful experiences that are mutually beneficial to the volunteer and nonprofit and contribute to increasing the capacity for volunteer engagement. We also work with local government, schools and businesses to help them harness the power, creativity and enthusiasm of the members of their organizations to contribute to the community.

History:
Over 60 years, The Volunteer Center has sought to create a seamless network connecting volunteers and nonprofit agencies needing volunteer help. What sets us apart from other like organizations is the breadth and depth of knowledge we share through training and consulting on volunteer recruitment and management. We are not only a platform to advertise volunteer opportunities or a portal for web inquiries, but also a coach in the effective use of volunteers. Ensuring quality volunteer experiences for both nonprofits and volunteers is a necessary component to maintaining and building the nonprofit sector’s capacity to deliver vital services.

The Volunteer Center’s Key Role in Nonprofit & Public Sector Success Today
It’s important for nonprofits to successfully compete for resources within their communities and utilize those resources effectively. As competition for funding has intensified because of the scarcity of those funds, The Volunteer Center has remained a leader in promoting strategies to maximize service delivery — and impact — by enabling nonprofits to tap volunteers (and the new resources they bring) from multiple segments of the community, including corporate employees, students, families and others. The Volunteer Center is also leading the way in demonstrating organizational sustainability, through earned income opportunities, regionalizing service delivery, and reorganization of programs internally to achieve full integration and efficiencies.

Highlights & Accomplishments
For over a decade, The Volunteer Center has offered fee-based services to reduce reliance on public funding and private donations, which can be volatile. In 2002, during a tightened economic climate, we looked within the network of Bay Area Volunteer Centers to identify inefficiencies in operating similar operations independently in five counties. Two years later, in a bold move to eliminate administrative costs and duplication of program activities, the Volunteer Center of San Francisco built capacity to provide services regionally as The Volunteer Center Serving San Francisco and San Mateo Counties. Regionalizing volunteer center services makes fiscal sense in eliminating duplication and by broadening funding sources for sustainability.

Attaining regional capacity required a profound shift in every aspect of operations to focus on consistency in service delivery (as funding allowed). In all areas, success is measured by actual results. In 2004, The Volunteer Center Serving San Francisco and San Mateo Counties launched online access to opportunities, nonprofits and volunteer center resources for the first time in San Mateo County. Support to nonprofits on the Peninsula has followed a model more closely tied to informal networking, to take advantage of the culture of these local communities. Key strategic alliances (with Thrive: The Alliance of Nonprofits, the City of Redwood City, the Peninsula Community Foundation, among others) allow The Volunteer Center to have a physical presence for county-based office hours, trainings, and events. And significant outreach to the Peninsula’s corporate community occurred with the help of existing Bay Area Corporate Volunteer Council Members such as Oracle Corporation, resulting in new memberships and community engagement from local companies. A deliberate approach helped to transform the Center into a regional entity within existing budgets, providing a roadmap for future consolidation in the Bay Area or elsewhere.

In FY06, The Volunteer Center restructured internally along its two primary lines of business: 1) Volunteer Services and 2) Consulting & Training, a change from its previous structure which staffed multiple programs in “silos.” This move eliminated costly overhead by reducing the number of managers vs. line-staff, consolidated expertise within the agency, and allows for maximum flexibility and linkage in growing segments of our consulting practice—such as corporate employee programs and nonprofit niche segments.

The Volunteer Center has been a key agent in building collaborations and partnerships within and across the business, nonprofit and government sectors through the lens of volunteer program building and board matching. We convene organizations that provide similar services to share information, prevent duplication of service and to explore new and innovative partnering opportunities. The newly launched Nonprofit Volunteer Leaders Council provides a dynamic venue for nonprofit leaders to network, share resources and address the needs of their organizations through building and elevating their volunteer programs.

Due to interest from the community in nonprofit board service, The Volunteer Center has concentrated on growing the Board Match Plus program. Through the Board Match Plus program we deliver our signature event, The Board Match, training for candidates, online self-matching and referral and Community Board Grants for hands-on matching of business leaders. The Volunteer Center anticipates that interest in this arena will continue to increase, and we are prepared to grow with the trend in partnership with local businesses.

Moving forward as conveners and thought leaders in volunteerism, The Volunteer Center is at the forefront of planning and hosting the National Conference on Volunteerism and Service. The Conference provides a high profile opportunity for The Volunteer Center to highlight our signature programs, councils and partnerships. Senior staff of the Center will be represented at various levels of planning and presenting at the Conference in June 2009.

Contact people:

Mick Mize, Administrative Assistant, (phone), (email) Damien Chacona, Program Manager, (phone), (email)

Main office number: (415) 982-8999
Office fax number: (415) 982-0890

Address:

1675 California St San Francisco, CA 94117 (See a map)

Web Site: http://www.thevolunteercenter.net

Last updated on June 8, 2010