During Pro Bono Week (Oct 25-29) and all year long, we celebrate volunteers who choose to support nonprofits through their professional skills and knowledge. Pro bono volunteering is a highly desired experience for volunteers and nonprofits alike as it allows individuals and groups to use their developed skills and give back to the community while providing missing skill sets and additional capacity for the nonprofit. In celebration of the crucial work pro bono volunteers accomplish, here are a few examples of CVC-TC member projects.
Andersen Windows and Doors partnered with HandsOn Twin Cities to provide their employees an opportunity to contribute skills to support a BIPOC-owned small business, Minnesota Interpreters and Translators (MINT) through a 12-week pro bono project. MINT received over 200 hours of consultation (valued at $39,000) to improve their project management leadership and team building, the importance of a learning mindset and provided a recruitment tool. In turn, the Andersen team of five employees gained community connections and insights into how different business models operate, the chance to apply their skills in a new context, and a space to build relationships with other Andersen colleagues.
Second Harvest Heartland partnered with an individual, Sam, to build out a volunteer engagement section on its internal SharePoint sight. Sam met with the team do discuss design and content, and then set to work building out the sections that provide resources like policies, supervisor toolkits and a new volunteer request form. The site is also a great place to catch up on volunteer news, volunteer statistics and their impact. A goal of the project was also to have Sam train the staff in managing the site, ensuring the project was sustainable and adding a valuable skillset to the team.
Cathy Gates, formerly of Entegris, used her patent agent services to help a dream come true for an individual with a developmental disability who is supported by Hammer Residences. Sherman is an idea guy and inventor. He wanted to take one of his ideas and see it through from a patent to production. After many months of work with Cathy, Sherman’s idea was submitted for a US patent application. Simultaneously, with the help of two other pro bono peers in the UK, Sherman’s idea was submitted for a German Utility Model. He received the German award this past Spring and is now working on getting his idea into production. We are looking for a licensing agent to help him do that – hopefully pro bono!
If you are looking for ways to engage with nonprofits on pro bono projects, please visit the volunteer page on their websites or visit HandsOn Twin Cities pro bono and skills-based opportunities page.