Flow and Skill Based Volunteering

This past year I heard about a psychological concept that is a determinant of happiness called "flow".  Flow is a mental state where a person in an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity.  The more moments of flow in your life the greater your happiness.

When do you experience flow in your life?  In my prior professional life,  I didn't use the word flow, but I knew that I felt the most rewarded when I worked with a group of people toward a common goal, each bringing our professional best.  In my volunteer work, I've noticed something similar, when I can apply my professional skills to help a non-profit, I feel that same sense of flow.

The trouble is, it's easy to find opportunities for event planning, other fundraising, long term board commitments, one day beach clean-ups, etc., but it's trickier to match an array of various professional skills with non-profit needs to make an impact and experience your own sense of flow.

So how do you find a volunteer opportunity that will enhance your own happiness while doing good?

1.  My first suggestion is to just start thinking about the concept and what you would like to offer?  What professional background or skills do you have?  Some suggestions include expertise in:

•  Design
• Strategic Planning
• Finance/Acoounting
• Marketing
• IT
• Architecture
• Project Planning
• Development
• Business Planning
• Governance

2.  Think of causes you care about?  Get to know organizations that support these causes and look for ways to help them using your skills?  Don't wait for a silver plated invitation to engage them in a conversation.

3.  When asked to make a volunteer commitment ask yourself if this will be a rewarding commitment for you or just another thing on your "to do" list?

4.  Check out the following resources.  These websites can help you tap into the right volunteering opportunity for you, but there's a lot of room for growth.

• Volunteer Match
• Partner in Education - while many of the requests center around traditional educational help, there are also requests for speaking about your field of expertise, job shadowing, and helping with mock job interviews.
• Sparked - This site lets your micro volunteer online.  You submit you area of knowledge and they hook you up with online opportunities to help a non-profit.  They will also email you suggests that they think are a good fit for you as they come in.
• Volunteer Guide - This sites lets you state the amount of time you want to give and helps you find a match for your time and interests.

Two amazing organizations not yet serving the Santa Barbara area are Taproot and Catchfire both offering high level skill based volunteering opportunities.  I'd love to see the skill based volunteering market expand in Santa Barbara.