Suggestions

Not many community organizations have the space and staff required to handle large groups of volunteers. In some cases, the desire to accommodate groups of volunteers leads community organizations to put their regular activities on hold or ask their regular volunteers not to come. Sometimes it takes an effort to find a model that responds to both a company's interest in group volunteering and the actual needs of community organizations.

 

The Volunteer Bureau of Montreal encourages you to:

build a long-term relationship with a community organization

If your corporation or association decides to implement a yearly day of volunteering, you could consider coming back to the same organization each year. That way the organization can plan ahead in order to make the best use of your efforts!

sponsor an organization

Why not take a community group under your wing? You could give them access to facilities (printing, meeting rooms, office equipment) or make some of your professional skills available.

insure a regular presence of volunteers year-round

Because of their size, many small organizations can't always make good use of groups of volunteers. However, you could assist a small organization by sending them two or three different volunteers every week!

encourage volunteerism among employees

• Display our weekly press releases in the company kitchen, cafeteria, or other places where employees congregate;
• Include a section about volunteerism in your company newsletter or web site;
• Set up a display of leaflets of local community organizations;
• Plan a workshop to acquaint your employees with the advantages of volunteer work;
• Make specific material or facilities available to organizations your employees volunteer for (for example: printing services, meeting rooms, computers, etc);
• Install a matching time policy (for example, an employer can give an hour of paid time off to an employee who's doing a two-hour Meals-on-Wheels delivery route).
• Etc...