National Volunteer Week, 2021
It’s National Volunteer Week.
We want to celebrate a relatively unsung group of volunteers; the volunteer board directors who support our communities, companies, organisations and schools.
Across Australia there are hundreds of thousands of them* contributing millions of hours of their time, experience, knowledge and skills in the service of causes and stakeholders across our society, including – and perhaps most importantly – the ones without a voice.
We thank you.
We believe volunteering should be celebrated. But what’s in it for you?
Scientifically, volunteering makes you happy.
Yes, it is a lot of effort. Yes, it’s hard work. And in the boardroom, these things are often multiplied by a significant factor. But the benefits are equally significant, to yourself as well as the entity you help govern.
If you want to learn more about WHY you should volunteer your time in the boardroom, click here.
If you want to learn HOW to do it, or where to start, click here.
Boards need you. They need thinkers. They need traditional skills as well as contemporary or diverse skills in order to be increasingly effective and sustainable (i.e. fit for purpose) in these uncertain times.
Get involved. Do good, feel good. You won’t regret it.
Finally, if you aren’t sure if it’s for you or that you even belong in the boardroom, check out these case studies about people just like you.
*There is no single and reliable data source for this figure, so we quickly worked it out. There are close to 70,000 registered charities and 15,000 schools in Australia. Add in community, sports and social enterprises/groups and you are likely looking at over 100,000 governing boards that have legal responsibilities. Assuming each of them has at least 4-5 directors and accounting for multiple roles, you have perhaps half a million voluntary board directors in Australia. That’s about 1 in 20 of the working population. It’s worth celebrating all that goodwill and effort...even if many of them could be doing a better job.