Volunteering management is the need of the Hour! – By Maanoj Shah, Social Entrepreneur & Founder, GiftCHANGE.org

Mr. Maanoj Shah, Social Entrepreneur & Founder, GiftCHANGE.org -Photo By GPN

Authored By Maanoj Shah, Social Entrepreneur & Founder, GiftCHANGE.org “Volunteering management is the need of the Hour!”

NATIONAL, MUMBAI, 8th JULY, 2020 (GPN): From distributing free food packets to the needy, arranging transport to get migrants back to their homes, taking care of strays during the lockdown or helping the senior citizens or disabled people left alone during the lockdown, volunteers and good Samaritans have stepped forward to act in the face of the crisis and make a difference, in whatever little way they could. These included members of social or religious groups, CSR arms of MNC’s and registered NGO’s, as well as a lot of individuals, with little or no exposure to volunteering activity earlier. And this has been a welcome change in the often self-absorbed and detached population of Indian metros.

While most volunteers in India today are an un-organised, self-motivated lot, the rise of social entrepreneurship and organised change makers are paving the way for a more robust not-for-profit ecosystem. The rise of ‘Knowledge’ as a currency is another significant trend that is shaping the future of volunteerism in India. So far, it was common notion that one can donate either money or time (labour) for a charitable cause. That is now changing, as an increasing number of experts across the fields of technology, medicine, arts, humanities, and social welfare, are stepping forward to lend their specific professional expertise for a cause of their choice. However, we are yet to find a structured approach to be able to fully leverage the power of these individual volunteers to shape, build, and strengthen our nation! 

In order to handle this, it is important to create an approach that is different from a ‘productivity’ and ‘profit’ focussed approach of HR management for corporate. The volunteerism management structure needs to work towards cultivating empathy, motivating action, driving ownership, and generating pride for the desired change, among volunteers. This essentially can be achieved through a step by step manner, as follows: 

  • Create Motivation to act
    • Engage through a compelling Social Initiative
    • Share the impact and the ultimate vision
    • Highlight ground realities supported by facts and figures so as to quantify the goals
    • Share details of existing and required external support, in the form of Crowd funding, sourcing of Volunteers through Social Media, WhatsApp groups etc. 
    • Creating partnership with Social Workers and other NGOs

  • Map skillsets 
    • Figure out their personal and professional background and interests 
    • Assess the willingness, enthusiasm and self-motivation of the Volunteer
    • Identify target areas/ teams which best suit the volunteers skillset, temperament and nature 
    • Allow them to choose from a set of roles that will be best suited to their skillsets 
    • Once selected, guide him through the way forward

  • Smooth On-boarding 
    • Check their availability in terms of time, for both physical and virtual presence. 
    • Guide them through the rules and regulations of basic on-ground work, including local intelligence needed for their role
    • Provide support staff, and material like Doctors, Audio and Video material, Posters, etc..

  • Feedback on impact 
    • Get a feedback of their experience in the first few days and understand challenges, if any
    • Re-engage with them to share the over-all view the goal of their activity
    • Assure them of support and additional resources, if needed

  • Create ownership
    • Engage on Whatsapp and social media groups to share success stories, case studies, media coverage reports, and impact numbers etc., to create a sense of pride in association with the cause
    • Encourage them to enrol more friends into the initiative so they have added reason to continue
    • Encourage them to become ambassadors of change, and promote this initiative among social media, and friends and family

  • Recognition
    • Motivation and recognition through internal groups as well as public domain announcements
    • Periodic announcement of impact numbers and acknowledgement for the change
    • Thank You and Feedback Team meetings 

As much as we all look forward to government aids and supportive policy changes, it is the decision to proactively take action, and make a difference at the grass root level, that actually builds a community, a society and a nation at large. From offering technical know-how, medical expertise, writing and designing services, to initiating music concerts and art exhibitions across the globe to raise money, the new age volunteer holds massive potential to make a difference. And it thus calls for effective volunteer management practices to leverage this potential and create a more prosperous and equal society! And that is exactly what can help India, as a democracy, to not only survive and tide over the current health crisis and economic slowdown, but also help in building a strong and united economy, in the coming years. ENDS

Mr. Maanoj Shah, Social Entrepreneur & Founder, GiftCHANGE.org -Photo By GPN

Mr. Maanoj Shah, Social Entrepreneur & Founder, GiftCHANGE.org -Photo By GPN

AUTHOR PROFILE:

Mr. Maanoj Shah

Social Entrepreneur l Founder, GiftCHANGE.org

Maanoj Shah is a Social Entrepreneur whose passion, vision and his meticulous approach has led him to
play an important role in Khana Chahiye, a citizens’ initiative to feed the hungry during COVID. Maanoj is part
of their core team and leads their Volunteers Resourcing & Management. He and his team successfully provided
30 lakhs meals to mainly, hungry migrant social workers in Mumbai during the lock down period.

They were able to accomplish this herculean task with the help of volunteers and various initiatives like
the Ration Chahiye initiative where they combined forces with the state Govt or the Ghar Bhejo initiative
where they partnered with Bollywood actor, Sonu Sood to facilitate sending stranded migrant workers home and also provided food to them in various Shramik Trains and bus terminals.

Khana Chahiye started with 6 members and the numbers gradually increased to over 150 volunteers within 2 months. Mr. Maanoj was instrumental in attracting volunteers across all walks of life through the website and all other social media platforms. Being a citizen led initiative; the funds were also crowd sourced from individuals as well as corporates like Wipro, Paytm, Parle G, Essar. They were successfully able to raise approximately INR 1.5 crores from crowd funding platform and has raised over 7.5 crores meals equivalent from corporate sponsorships, which proved pivotal in feeding the hungry and needy.

Till date Khaana chahiye has crossed 37 lacs meals in last 80 days Mr Maanoj has also co-created another social initiative CoronaChampion.org which is a Mental Health initiative, led by volunteers and citizens which aims to remove stigma and fear associated with the COVID 19. Instead, it promotes hope, inspiration and positivity amongst people through inspirational
stories of Corona recovered cases and Front line warriors (Doctors, Nurses). Its main aim is to help people cope with stress of COVID and reduce the fears and misconceptions. The stories are in the form of blogs, audios and videos.

Additionally he is also starting another Social Venture www.GiftCHANGE.org, a CAUSE driven social platform that will help connect NGOs with CSR, Donors, Volunteers and Influencers to come together to scale their impact.

Professional Life:
Mr. Maanoj Shah who describes himself as a ‘Giver’ and has won many hearts through his social initiatives. He is a finance expert, who has helped build strong enterprises in diverse sectors like Hospitality, Technology, Healthcare, HR & Consulting in various CXO capacities over the last 20 years. His
dynamic leadership and keen eye on strategy and scaling-up, have helped him incubate businesses and
successfully exit various ventures.

Personal Life:

A Chartered Accountant and a Certified Informations Systems Auditor (CISA), USA, Maanoj was born in a business family where numbers, enterprising and risk taking was a natural inheritance as was the sense of charity.
Since childhood he has been involved in a lot of social charitable activities. At the age of 18, he along with his friends ‘Founded Creative Youth Club’ to help showcase the talent of the local youth in his colony and by age 25 he became youngest Rotary Club member and managed multiple portfolios like
Club Treasurer, Secretary, Director of International Service. He became the President of Rotary Club at the age of 31, thus becoming the youngest President in his District. Currently he is the Chairman -Strategic Planning Committee of the Rotary Club of Borivalli (Mumbai).

Awards and Accolades:

– Founding Member & CEO of Evolve Fitness, a chain of fitness clubs later on it was acquired by Gold’s Gym International in 2010.
– Co-founder & COO @plugHR, a fastest growing HR startup which grew to 400+ clients in 13 cities in 8 years.
– Youngest President of Rotary Club 2003-04 at the age of 31 years and won many accolades from Rotary District.
– Recognition for District Rotaract Chair. in 2006-07 for Rotaract District 3141.
– Founder of Mira Road Chartered Accountant Study Circle and a Committee Member of Western
India Regional Council of Chartered Accountants of India between 1997 to 2001.
– Mentor and Speaker at various institutions like S P Jain, TIE Network, NEN, NASSCOM, SANKALP, ASCENT, Franchise India.
– Jury at ET Campus Stars 2.0 in 2019.

Recreation:

In his spare time Maanoj likes to run marathons and enjoys trekking. Additionally, he is passionate about
lawn tennis and makes sure his day ends with atleast few sessions of tennis. Ends

 

About the Author

Sachin Murdeshwar
Sachin Murdeshwar is a Sr.Journalist and Columnist in several Mainline Newspapers and Portals.He is an ardent traveller and likes to explore destinations to the core.

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