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Grassroots volunteering draws younger people

By Penelope Trunk, Globe Correspondent, 5/29/05

The recent fund-raiser at the The Milky Way Lounge and Lanes in Jamaica Plain for What's Up magazine elicits talk of music and bowling but also of social activism.

Melissa Krodman, volunteer editor for What's Up says, "The more people turn to TVs and computers, the less people engage with one another, and the less there is to enjoy. For me, community is strength and happiness. One person can make a difference by influencing the people around her." For Krodman, who supports herself by managing cafes, that difference is her work at What's Up.

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We are entering the age of volunteerism. Generation X has shifted charity from the hierarchical, corporate-backed Red Cross and United Way, to a grassroots, episodic volunteerism of, say, tutoring neighborhood children. And Generation Y is donating more of its time to charitable causes than perhaps any generation in history: According to Leslie Lenkowsky, a professor at The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, 90 percent of college-bound high school students volunteer. Young people are determined to make a difference; they accept a mission that is close to the heart and take action when they can get their arms around the whole project. These attitudes affect choice of both charity and career, and increasingly the two overlap in ways that dignify the word "synergy."

Krodman graduated from Boston University with a communications degree and joined a casting agency in London. But she found the entertainment industry was no match for her values. She wanted to do something larger in media, but wasn't sure what. "Also," she says, "I was faxing and doing things where I wasn't learning very much." So she moved back to the United States to regroup.

Bruce Tulgan, founder of Rainmaker Thinking, an organization that studies the working lives of young people, sees Krodman's criteria as typical for recent entrants into the workforce. "Mission is especially important for both career and charity, but then they want to know what they'll be doing. They ask, 'What will I learn?' 'Who will I work with?'?"

Enter episodic volunteering: short-term, project-based, local, and hands-on, this is the type of charity that can improve your karma and your career. Aaron Hurst is president and founder of The Taproot Foundation, which provides ways for people to donate their skills on a project basis to nonprofits. He says, "In the first ten or fifteen years of a career people have limited money-giving ability but can give a relatively significant donation of time and skills. The average Taproot volunteer donates five to seven thousand dollars in work, and they could have never given that much in cash."

For some volunteers, time with a nonprofit can shine light on a true calling. Krodman explains that, "For a long time I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do. Volunteering at What's Up gave me a much more clear focus. What's Up introduced me to media that inspires activism. That's a part of the picture I didn't have." Even those who know their true calling can expand their skill set by volunteering. Hurst says, "Experiential learning is the best way to teach adults, especially when it comes to soft skills like leadership."

One of the most frustrating aspects of an entry-level job is the lack of responsibility. Krodman points out that volunteering is a good way to gain some fast: "At What's Up, I am my own boss and I get to do work that I would not get to do at a big corporation until years down the line."

And no matter where you are in your career, volunteering is a way to build a network. A typical Taproot branding project, for example, combines a project manager, brand strategist, graphic designer, and copywriter, each from a different company.

Krodman is using the contacts she made through What's Up to find her ideal job - one that provides solid mission and solid salary. What would she do if she landed that job and didn't have to work at cafes to pay rent? "Volunteer more," she says. "There's so much to be done."

Penelope Trunk can be reached at penelope@penelopetrunk.com

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