The Surprising Benefits of Volunteering

With busy lives and families to maintain, it can be hard to find the extra time to volunteer with an industry organization or Board.  However, the benefits of volunteering can be enormous to you, your business and your community. Volunteering helps everyone, but there are many more considerations to take note of when you look beneath the surface of giving back.

Here are six positive side effects of volunteering that you may not have thought about:

1.  You work with people in a non-selling environment.  When you work with people in a non-selling environment, you get to know one another and build a relationship that increases trust and forms a bond. That can easily translate to first call business when the time arises.  You have to have a good product and service behind you, but in the end, people buy from those they know and trust.

2.  It builds your network. When you volunteer on a board, it increases your network whether locally, nationally or internationally.  Knowing the right people in your city, country or around the world provides you with many new opportunities to do business with one another.  How great is it to be able to pick up the phone and make things happen no matter where you are because you share a common bond through an industry organization?

3.   Volunteering can help position you and your business as a leading expert in the industry.  When you start out with a committee and work your way up to an Executive Board position, you can gain steady traction as a leader.  Not only that, but the increased brand visibility doesn’t hurt either – there’s something to be said for name recognition when people know you and they can confidently refer someone to you and your company.  Additionally, you often enjoy exposure for your company whether it is in the press, a program, on signage, on the web or even presenting an award.

4.  Volunteering helps move your industry forward.  Volunteering with organizations and on Boards often includes education. What better way to lead than by educating the younger generation considering or entering your industry?  People look up to those that have experience and a reputation of leadership. Be a part of the future of your industry by helping to shape it. You can do that when volunteering with industry organizations. 

5.  You can learn new skills and gain valuable experience that can help further your career. Just because volunteer work is unpaid does not mean the skills you learn are basic. Many volunteering opportunities can provide extensive training. Volunteering can also help you further develop skills you already have. For example, if you are in a sales position, you can further develop and improve your public speaking, communication, and marketing skills!

6.  Perhaps most importantly, volunteering creates The Happiness Factor. Giving back and volunteering will make you feel good. Many studies have shown that the more people volunteer, the happier they are. Happy people are usually healthier.

In the end, volunteering connects you to others with common interests and allows you be a part of achieving something that will further you, your career and your company and best of all impact others lives in surprising ways.  There is simply no downside to it!

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