why the book?

Giving From Your Heart, A Guide To Volunteering was written to fill a need, a huge societal need. In it we target the millions of potential volunteers who simply require a little nudge to move them from tentativeness to action.

Independent Sector’s recent summary of volunteer activity reports that while 30% of adults volunteer, 70% would volunteer if asked. A PEW Foundation study found that 42% of people who would like to volunteer in their community do not, because they don’t know where to go or who to ask. For many potential volunteers the answers can be found on the pages in this book.

In these last two years, magazine articles, TV appearances and White House initiatives have focused on individual acts of giving through volunteering as well as the nonprofit organizations they benefit. We cannot help but be inspired by these stories and view those who volunteer as somehow different from us. They are not. What is different is that they have acted on their impulse to engage civically while we have not. Giving From Your Heart gives readers the inspiration and information to move from thought to action.

Why this book and why now? We, as authors are also our audience. Like almost 80 million Baby Boomers, we were looking at the next chapter in our lives and had a lot of questions - the same ones that are on your mind if you have given any thought to volunteering. Why not find the answers to our questions and to those of millions just like us and save them the trouble of having to repeat the entire process? And that is what we have done.

Giving From Your Heart, A Guide To Volunteering is the book we could have used at the beginning of our journey toward volunteer involvement. Stories of ordinary people performing extraordinary acts of giving will inspire readers to consider the recommendations inside. Finding the right volunteer opportunity need not be overwhelming. This book provides the tools to make it possible. Readers are guided through the process from thinking about volunteering to finding the right volunteer opportunity to making the connection.

TOP