Empowering the Next generation Giver
By Joel Weingarten, Doing4Others
Montgomery Alabama 1957, Martin Luther King Jr gave a speech in which he challenged those in attendance to ask themselves “What are you doing for others?”
Fast-forward 60 years; I think this generation's youth is rising to MLK Jr’s challenge. Despite popular sediment, this generation is not a generation of apathy, but instead of action and impact (just look at recent events). So much so that 84% of young people consider it their duty to make the world a better place; and an overwhelming number, over 90%, of them want to make this impact by volunteering!
The fact is, it’s not the world’s youth that is failing society but a society that is failing today’s youth! Just look at what Barack Obama choose to talk about in his foundation’s inaugural speech. He recognized the energy and desire of this generation to take action and make an impact but then challenged society to build the tools and provide the resources necessary to help this generation make the biggest impact possible.
What was clear to Obama was the same thing that is clear to us at doing4others- that philanthropy needs to evolve to help this generation of giver.
At doing4others we made it our mission to take up President Obama's challenge to build a new kind of nonprofit- an innovative 501(c)(3) that would provide this generation the tools and resources necessary to amplify their impact.
We brought together technologists, with marketing, and education experts who asked how could we help youth make an even bigger impact.
And together our team built a FREE social impact platform that anyone can jump on in minutes and start to make their biggest impact possible
The first thing we did was combined fundraising with volunteerism to empower each of students, young people and Millenials to raise money for every hour they volunteer. This means activists no longer have to choose between volunteering in their local community and fundraising to make an impact- they are now combined. No more bake sales, no more selling candy bars, etc. - just impact by having service hours sponsored.
The second thing we did is created an infrastructure where each of volunteer has their own digital visual history of their volunteerism.
What’s really unique about doing4others is we take advantage of social media and allow everyone to upload pictures of their volunteerism and build a volunteering journey that can be shared on their college or job applications.
Lastly, we wanted to help change the perception of this generation. So we asked how we can help students showcase the good they are doing in your community? doing4others provides the infrastructure to share socially, resulting in meaningful content that schools, nonprofits, or volunteers can use it to gain recognition and awareness for the social good user are doing.
We know how underfunded non-profits and schools are. Imagine the impact we can make together if every hour of volunteerism raised $1 or $5 or $10. Now multiply that number by the millions of young people who are committed to doing service.
Joel is one of the speakers at FRDNY's panel "How Millennials Really Think and Work". Sign up for FRDNY here.