Month: July 2016

How To Get Happy (Volunteering)

Lucy Williams

As you’ve probably heard, our motto is happy volunteering. And that’s not just because we’re positive people (have you seen these hundred watt smiles?). We want to make volunteering as easy as possible for our volunteer coordinators and volunteers alike. That’s why we created our Happy Volunteering page, where vivacious volunteers can find nearby volunteer opportunities in their state.

Happy VolunteeringReady to have your events listed on our happy site? We’ve made that pretty easy, too. To get started, go to Account in your navigation bar, and select Organization Info. Hit the link to upload your logo, which will appear above your organization’s name on the Happy Volunteering page.

Now that you have your selfie in order, shoot us an email with a list of your live events, and their locations. We’ll assign them from our end to make sure they show up under the right state. When a volunteer clicks on your organization on the Happy Volunteering page, it will take them directly to your public landing page. You can list your events on your public landing page by going to Event Detail (under Events -> Your Events).

It’s as sweet and simple as that! Got questions, or want your events listed? Shoot Lucy an email at lucy@volunteerlocal.com, and get happy!

 

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One Love, One Calgary Reggae Festival

Lucy Williams

Regardless of how much you know about reggae music, you definitely know about Bob Marley. And I think we can all agree that he knew what he was talking about when he said, “One love, one heart, let’s get together and feel alright.” Which is exactly what the Calgary Reggae Festival is all about.

Calgary Reggae FestivalThe Calgary Reggae Festival was created in October 2003, when six Calgarians came together with the same vision – to increase the awareness of reggae music in Western Canada, and to provide an avenue where those tunes could be heard. The Calgarians came from all different backgrounds, such as DJ’s, broadcasters, promoters, musicians and event planners. They’ve been working ever since to educate the general public about the unifying power of reggae music.

That power is no joke. Since its creation, reggae music has influenced a range of people, cultures and Calgary Reggae Festivallifestyles. The Calgary Reggae Festival gives this community the opportunity to connect, learn about and enjoy live music while providing artists the chance to share and spread the love. And love they do spread – this year the organization is donating several admission tickets to newcomer families, in hopes of allowing individuals who may not otherwise have the ability or means to attend the festival.

Another way this festival helps spread cheer? By using VolunteerLocal, instead of those pesky spreadsheets. When you’re recruiting over 150 volunteers, manually entering application forms into Excel is a pretty loveless job. “VolunteerLocal has saved us time and has helped us to focus on engaging volunteers in more meaningful ways,” says Liz Kehler, Volunteer Engagement Coordinator of the Calgary Reggae Festival. “I love the Export function, the ability to communicate to all or just specific groups, the dashboard for a quick overview of stats – there’s too many to list, it really covers all our needs!”

“VolunteerLocal organized everything for me beautifully, which is really what you want as a volunteer coordinator,” says Kehler.

Ready to join the community? Register to work at the beer garden, sell raffle tickets, get silly in the kids zone and more and become a one love volunteer today.

 

Photos courtesy of Calgary Reggae Festival

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VolunteerLocal’s Dashing New Dashboard!

Lucy Williams

There’s a saying that goes, “Your home(screen) is where your heart is.” Or something like that.

We are thrilled to announce that VolunteerLocal has a dashing new dashboard! You can now customize your homepage to your organization’s desire.

To get started, go to your dashboard and select the link to customize it. By choosing an event, you can pick what data points you would like to publish. Want a countdown for your big event? Need to see the number of filled shifts? Interested in watching your number of registered unique volunteers grow? Simply drag and drop each component into your event, and voila!

 

VolunteerLocal Dashboard

 

Keep your content customized and relevant. Got questions? Shoot Lucy an email at lucy@volunteerlocal.com. Happy dashboarding!

 

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Marking those Milestones, Baby

Lucy Williams

There are many milestones in life – your first steps, your first kiss, your first time seeing Justin Bieber in concert (or so we’ve been told). But none can quite compare to the moment when you hit that million mile marker.

VolunteerLocal has officially had 1.2 MILLION unique volunteers use our platform. Whether they were registering to hand out water at a marathon, check wristbands at a music festival, or assist a local nonprofit, over one million individual people signed up to donate their time to important causes while using our system. That is a serious amount of helping hands!

We here at VolunteerLocal absolutely love being able to aid other organizations as they reach their own milestones, which wouldn’t be possible without the endless support of generous volunteers. Our motto is happy volunteers, because happy volunteers make the world a happier place.

So here’s to all the organizations who have supported us, and the volunteers who have supported them. Cheers to the next 1.2 million!

 

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