If you have a strong passion for helping others and giving back to your community you may want to explore starting your own volunteer organization. In the beginning the organization likely won’t need its own building or office, but as time goes forward and new recruits join you may need to find some land for sale.

If starting your own volunteer organization sounds interesting, but you have no idea how to get started here are a few tips:

• How much do you know?

If you are planning to run an organization you need to have knowledge on the subject. People who decide to join the cause may have questions and look to you for leadership.  Unfortunately, if you don’t have any answers you will lose credibility.

• Game plan

Running an organization takes planning. As a leader of an organization you are in charge of others who are freely giving their time. Have a plan or schedule set for the volunteers, so they can plan ahead and decide when they’re available. If you just randomly call people on the day of an event you may discover people are not available.

• Write out goals

It is important to have a clear mission and goals. Putting those in writing can be a good way to keep you accountable. You can use social media by creating a Facebook page and a Twitter account and add the mission statement there. Let people know what you and the organization are about, and what they will be doing if they choose to join.

• Leaders

All of the most successful organizations have people chosen for leadership positions to balance out the responsibility, share ideas and delegate tasks to groups of employees. The same should take place in your volunteer organization. It’s a great idea to have a mix of older individuals and younger people to be able to see things from different viewpoints.

Passion is definitely needed to start a volunteer organization, but it takes more than that to have an impact. You have to plan things out and build a team. If you are able to bring on volunteers who are passionate about the cause; combine that with structure and planning, and your organization will make a difference.

High school and college students who are looking to get some volunteering in to boost their resumes and give back often overlook working with the elderly. There are too many senior citizens who go for weeks and months without any visits or interaction with people. Fortunately, companies make things like life alert systems for seniors to assist them if something happens. Nevertheless, it’s good for seniors to interact with a young people who are interested in volunteering. These volunteers could benefit from the interaction, too.

Assisting the elderly is often overlooked because people think it will be all work and no fun. There are many older people who are still very active and like to get out and enjoy life. There are many activities you could do while volunteering to enjoy yourself and help out the elderly.

Shopaholics

Do you like to shop? There are a lot of elderly people who enjoy shopping, too. Many of them like picking up things for their grandchildren who could be around your age. You could help them pick something out. Some nursing homes take groups of residents out shopping and they could always use help in assisting them. You could request a trip to the mall with them if you get enough people who would be interested in going. It may feel like just another trip to the mall for you but for an elderly person getting out and going to different stores and being active could be a big thing.

Holidays

Nobody wants to be alone during the holidays and many senior living facilities are filled with elderly people who have out-of-state family members who are unable to visit with them. If you are into baking you could make some cookies or pies and bring them in to share with them. You may be able to bring the ingredients in and bake with the elderly people there. I’m sure you will come across some who used to cook for their families for years and they will be excited to tell stories and give out their recipes. Having dinner served to them every night is helpful and takes a load off them, but having a chance to get back in the kitchen and bake some cookies would be a big hit for some of them.

Workout

Your New Year’s resolution may be to work out more regularly and lose weight. Sticking to that could be difficult if you don’t have someone working with you and keeping you motivated on the days you don’t really feel like working out. Being active is big for the elderly but a large number of senior citizens are not getting the physical activity they need. You could volunteer to lead a workout program that would be a major benefit to them and you also. Going for walks around the facility or a park would be great to get them up and active – and you too.

Volunteering to assist the elderly is a great way to help but you can have fun too and learn some interesting things from them in the process.