Something to Give is the vision of Andy McRea stemming from the belief that increased community involvement is a powerful solution to many social problems we face in the USA. The mission is to create a social network of people giving their time as a volunteer or an opportunity, experience, or reward. A common reason why people do not volunteer is because of the "what's in it for me" mentality. Something to give allows volunteers to earn credits by volunteering hours for certain organizations and they can win rewards posted by other people!
This is extremely new and it is not even launched yet. They hope to be up and running in 6-9months. It will start in SeattleThe website up right now is just a mock of what the real one will be. They are looking for volunteers, financial donors for start up, and contributors of rewards and experiences.
Labels: Charity
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Although it is sad to me that people need to be "rewarded" for helping others, I do think this is a great idea that may motivate those "what's in it for me" people to give back. It combines all the factors of a successful collaboration campaign. It fosters a sense of community, while providing incentives for people to participate. I am interested to see the fate of this initiative! Great find :)
One thing that I found notable on the website was if you go under the Rewards and Dreams section, the Dreams are much too expensive and fancy for them to actually be possible. Why would someone donate a dream vacation or a trip to Oprah's show as a reward for volunteering?? Wouldn't a better solution be to just donate the money?
Although I know the creator of the site had good intentions in mind, something just didn't seem right about this to me. Volunteering is volunteering. Period. No rewards should be necessary.
However, I do think the site will serve a good function of matching volunteers to organizations and helping volunteers find meaningful work.
I don't think this business will be very successful as the reward of material items is not what motivates people to volunteer. If someone is provoked to volunteer with the promise of a reward, and they don't receive the award, the probability of them volunteering in the future will be greatly diminished. What would seem to be a more plausible and effective application, would be a website that could link volunteers with organizations seeking help. This site could provide information on what each organization does and what they ask of volunteers. This could act to pair volunteers with non-profits, and I think would be very useful for people interested in volunteering, but without knowledge of where to start.