Volunteer Fair at Blackbaud Matches Employee Passion with Opportunities to Serve

So, we're a little late in celebrating National Volunteer Week (it actually took place at the end of April), but better late than never. 

For those of you who follow this blog, you already know that we were busy with Green Week and our first-ever Green Fair.  It was great (thanks for asking), and kudos to Greenbaud and Team Blackbaud for all they did to raise awareness about the environment and how we can do our part.

Today, we circled back to volunteerism, hosting our annual Volunteer Fair in the atrium of our headquarters on Daniel Island.  Representatives from more than 35 nonprofits joined us from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. to share information about their organizations and encourage Blackbaud employees to volunteer.  We had people here from a wide variety of nonprofits, including Habitat for Humanity, the Charleston Animal Society (from whom my husband just adopted a wonderful year-old cat named Thomas), the Children's Museum of the Lowcountry, Special Olympics of South Carolina, HALOS, Crisis Ministries, the Gibbes Museum of Art, Meeting Street Academy, East Cooper Community Outreach, Trident Literacy Association and so on. 

I look forward to the Volunteer Fair each year because it's an opportunity to see so many great organizations all in one place, to catch up with what they're doing and to help them meet Blackbaud employees with an interest in giving back.  You already know that we believe that service to others makes the world a better place.  This fair is about taking that value -- and the passion our employees have for specific kinds of organizations or causes -- and helping create a match, of sorts, for their interests.

It's our hope that the employees who expressed interested in volunteering will truly find a home, finding a place where their passions match the cause and they can make a difference.  Once they do that, we hope they'll apply for a Reward Your Passion grant ($500 donation made to an organization in honor of the employee's volunteer service).

A big thank you to Sally Ehrenfried, our community relations manager, for hosting the fair, and to all those who attended from within the community and Blackbaud.  Volunteerism rocks.  Those of you who do it know what I'm talking about.