Successful Blog

How to toot your own horn with humility

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By Diana Gomez

It’s okay to take pride in giving back to your community.

Research has suggested that volunteering and donating money to charitable causes not only increases emotional well-being, but physical health as well. And when hungry people get to eat or when a family in need gets a brand new home, why not spread the good word?

dropping a heart into donation can

In today’s online reality, it’s easy to share your rewarding volunteer experiences with your Facebook friends.

However, the lines of humility here are blurry. Does posting that you’ve donated $1,000 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation come off as sweet, or just bragging? Does anyone really want to see a photo of the three new rescued greyhounds you are fostering?

Here are four questions you should ask yourself in order to maintain your humility when sharing what you’ve been up to in the community.

1. Why am I sharing?

This is a pretty good way to initially approach any social media post. Simply ask yourself: “Why am I posting this, really?”

Here are some possible answers to this question:

  • “I want to share my experience.”
  • “I want to inspire people to do the same.”
  • “I want people to know I’m a good person.”
  • “I want people to think I’m accomplished.”

Now here’s a surprise: None of these are a bad reason to write up a post.

Whether you do it purposefully or not, social media paints a picture of you as a pared down “brand” of a person. So it’s important to realize your true motives when publicizing this simplified version of you.

If you realize that your true answer is, “I want people to think I’m a good person” and that makes you feel icky-don’t rush to post. Keep that “goodness” to yourself while you think about it a little longer. If you recognize that is your motive, and you feel okay about it-because chances are, if you donate $1,000 to cancer research, you probably are a good person-then it’s okay to share! Just keep reading.

2. What should I post?

Short text, photos, walls of text, and videos are all relevant methods for sharing your charity experiences.

Take the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, for example. Over $100 million was raised through this viral video campaign-with much debate over the ice bucket dumpers’ humility. Detractors thought it was over-the-top and self-serving; the supporters thought it was just clever and self-deprecating enough to work. I think you can tell here that I’m trying to get you to be introspective again. What did you think of it?

Feel free to be creative with your post. Something that’s engaging for your readers, like a photo, can seem less like bragging than a straight-to-the-point status update.

3. How will people feel?

The language that you use for a post or photo caption is key.

“Just finished my 100th hour volunteering at the soup kitchen. It feels so good to give back!”

“Met a Vietnam veteran who once sang backup vocals for Elvis tonight. #100hours #soupkitchen”

“Feeling so blessed and humbled to have met so many amazing people. Message me if you want to come with next week!” (Location tag: Baltimore Food Pantry)

Again, no wrong answers! Can you spot the differences between these posts?

As the first puts focus on your own feelings, it is honest and relatable. The second is removed from the charitable aspect of the experience while still publicizing that you participate. The third puts the focus on the people you are
helping while gently inviting others to do the same.

Think critically about how your Internet-using friends will feel upon reading your post. Are you attempting to guilt or inspire?

Finally, It is important to remember that the only true way to help disadvantaged people is to empower and dignify them. How would the recipients of your good deeds feel if they saw your post?

4. Where should I post?

After you give to a cause online, there is usually a button to “Share” a boiler-plate post on your Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. This is an easy way to maintain humility, as it’s coming from a third party. You can’t help it if someone else says something nice about you!

Otherwise, you can craft your own post. Besides social media, you could blast out a mass e-mail, a private message to just a few people, or as a blog post on your website.

5. When should I share?

The most basic rule of humble charity work is to keep the publicity to a minimum. Although you may be incredibly proud of each fundraising goal you reach, it’s good to keep these tips in mind before posting about it every single day.

Just because you do something altruistic doesn’t mean you have to keep it to yourself. Posting with care can inspire others to give back as well-and that’s the “share” that keeps on sharing.

Author’s Bio: Diana Gomez is the Marketing Coordinator at Lyoness America, where she is instrumental in the implementation of content marketing strategies for USA and Canada. Lyoness is an international shopping community and loyalty rewards program, where businesses and consumers benefit with free membership and money back with every purchase.

Small actions, taken consistently, can move mountains

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When Rosa Parks decided she wasn’t going to give up her bus seat, she may not have had in mind kicking off a movement that would change life in America.

Herman Melville, writing the sentence “Call me Ishmael,” probably didn’t sit down to write “the novel of the century.”

Mother Teresa simply decided to care for one person at a time. She had no thought of becoming beatified by the Catholic Church.

We all have to find our own first small action.

One organization that is truly living this credo is Milaap. It’s a crowdlending platform that has raised more than $1.5 million, with a 98.48% repayment rate. They are celebrating their fourth anniversary with a 24-hour online conversation about sustainable giving.

Members of the site choose a project/borrower to support, and how much they wish to lend, and Milaap gives 100% of your loan funds to the borrower.

You then receive updates on the project via email, and get repaid. The funds can be reinvested in another micro-loan if you wish.

The concept is so simple. With each small loan, lives are changed. With each changed life comes promise and possibility for everyone touched by that life.

Reading through the available campaigns to support, you see families who can use a $100 loan to buy chickens to expand their chicken coops, to help abused women start their own businesses, or bring potable water to underserved areas. Each of these project groups are taking a single small action to improve their lives. The ripple effects over time will be enormous.

Maybe today you’re reading this post with a mountain sitting in front of you.

Is it a physical disability?
A financial hardship?
Do you have an enormous challenge at work?
A burning idea for a new business?

Whatever the mountain is, you can find a first step. Even if you’re moving it with teaspoons, you can make progress right now in this moment.

Maybe you can be inspired by Milaap and gather supporters to help you carry teaspoons.

Molly’s lovely post from this past Monday reminded us that we can’t do it alone. That’s even more true when the mountain looms large.

If you’d like to learn more about Milaap and the work they’re doing, visit their site at Milaap.org.

If you’d like to get help and support from your fellow teaspoon carriers, let us know in the comments. Let’s take the first action together.

Milaap infographic
Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Why working for charity is not your average day job

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By Sophie Ponting

It’s not every job that offers you the satisfaction of knowing that the hard work you put in every day is making a real difference to those less fortunate than yourself, but that’s the feeling that comes with working for a charity. Whether it’s as a fundraiser, administrator, or even marketing for a charity, the opportunities for work in your particular area of expertise whilst sticking to your moral values are endless.

According to the UK Charity Commission there are 180,000 registered charities in England and Wales alone, and while many of the workers at these charities carry out their duties as volunteers, there are also quite a number of reasonably well paid charity jobs on offer at many of the larger organisations.

Here we’ll take a quick look at some of the pros of working for a charity

  • Improve the quality of life of those that need it most
  • Contribute something worthwhile to the community
  • Tremendous job satisfaction in seeing the results of your work
  • Work in a not for profit organisation setting you apart from more money oriented workplaces
  • Gain valuable experience as a graduate – pro bono internships are regularly on offer at many charities

Job diversity is also a key factor for many that choose to pursue charity jobs and here are a couple of the areas within your everyday charity with many job opportunities.

Fundraising

The role of fundraiser is one of the most important roles within any charity. They are quite often seen as the public face of the charity and their duties are quite extensive and can cover anything from organising traditional street collections to liaising with major businesses to encourage corporate donations.

Marketing

Marketing is where many businesses fail and charities are no different. Raising public awareness of a charity is key to its survival and a good marketing department is essential. With marketing being such a large component of a successful charity there are many roles available such as campaign managers, press officers, and brand managers, to name but a few.

If a change in career is something you are considering, then taking a step into the world of charity work could be the most rewarding career choice you will ever make. With vacancies that are numerous and varied, and a level of job satisfaction that is second to none, it’s easy to see why working for a charity is not like your average day job.

Author’s Bio: Sophie Ponting is a keen volunteer for a well known UK charity as a hobby and is interested in helping out others and fundraising events. Her original interest in this came due to her association with TPP Not For Profit – UK Charity Recruiters, where she is based in London.