Benefits of Volunteering

 

Volunteering can be mutually beneficial

So, are there benefits of volunteering? Let us share the story of one of our volunteers. Our volunteer, let’s call him Barry, has a granddaughter who was diagnosed with Rett syndrome at eighteen months. At that time, Barry was only able to assist the Rett Syndrome Association of Australia (RSAA) by making an annual donation. As it happened, a few years later, Barry retired and then a few years after that, his daughter, the mother of his Rett syndrome granddaughter, suggested that he might be able to make himself useful by offering himself as a volunteer with the RSAA. Barry had many years of experience in operations management and had managed teams in Human Resources, Customer Relations, IT, Web Administration and Finance. His daughter was sure that volunteering would be of mutual benefit to Barry and the RSAA.

 

Start volunteering with a toe in the water

Barry started by putting a toe in the water and agreed to help the overstretched President, also a volunteer, and agreed to be the project manager for the RSAA’s website review project. So, why is this a benefit of volunteering? Well, for Barry, this gave him the opportunity to roll up his sleeves and try some of the hands-on work that his teams, in the past, would not let him get involved in. For the RSAA, it relieved the overstretched President and led to the successful completion of the website review while Barry enjoyed the experience of learning new hands-on skills. Barry is now working on other projects for the RSAA and readily acknowledges that the rewards from volunteering are very satisfying and give him the opportunity to help a charity that is very close to his heart.

 

Does this sound like you?

Are you recently retired? The RSAA needs lots of volunteers to do the sort of work that a small charity can’t afford to pay for. You might have experience in newsletter production, fundraising, seminar management, website design and administration, accounting, budgeting, report writing, government liaison, lobbying, data management, desktop research, marketing and a host of other skills that you could usefully assist the RSAA with by just volunteering a few hours a month or a week or maybe just a discrete project over a time period that suits you and matches your skills with the RSAA’s skill deficit.

 

Interested in volunteering for the RSAA?

If you are interested, please contact the Rett Syndrome Association of Australia Inc. using the contact form on the Contact Us page on our website or make direct contact with the President of the RSAA whose contact details are on our About Us page.

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