Community Impact: Show Love for Your Community

Happy Valentine’s Day! Today is a day to celebrate romantic love, friendship and admiration. At Spark, our values are Community, Collaboration, and Courage, and we think Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to show love and admiration for your community! There are a lot of ways to do that, and our newly named Community Impact Department is here to help!

We have just changed our Community Engagement Department name to ‘Community Impact’ to demonstrate our true work in taking action in our communities. Our Community Impact Department is all about stepping up and participating in work for the good of our community. It is jam packed with programs and initiatives that promote positive change and allow everyone the opportunity to take action and make a difference.

On this Valentine’s holiday, we ask that you take one action step to show love for your community, whether that is with neighbors and friends, a child’s school, your church community, or anywhere that is important to you! There are so many ways to show your love and admiration for your community, but here are some examples from our Community Impact Department that might help Spark some ideas!:

Volunteer

There are thousands of nonprofits across Colorado who are always looking for a helping hand! Our Volunteer Opportunity platform connects hundreds of new and returning volunteers every day to meaningful action and needs around the state. Volunteer with a Spark program or one of our member nonprofits by signing up as a volunteer today!

Donate

Every donation has the potential to make a huge impact in so many different ways. Donations help insure a nonprofit’s ability to serve communities, and nonprofits are always in need of more undesignated funds so they can be used in the best ways for their programs. Consider showing your love this Valentine’s Day by making a contribution to Spark or a nonprofit that you are passionate about!

Start a Fundraiser

If you’re looking for easy ways to make the biggest impact and stretch your donation even further, consider starting a fundraiser on a nonprofit’s behalf! Whether you’re asking folks to give in honor of a birthday, a loved one, or just for a cause you care about, an online fundraiser is the perfect way. Here’s some info on two easy platforms to access that make it fun and simple to share your giving and encourage those in your network to give, too! Learn more about starting a fundraiser with Colorado Gives and Facebook.

Listen & Learn

As a key element in the Points of Light Civic Circle, Listening & Learning is a critical skill. They consider it a super power that supports everything else in the Civic Circle. Listening and learning will help you truly understand root causes of issues you care about, take in multiple view points, and learn what’s already being done before you take action. Our Community Impact department has many opportunities to Listen & Learn, as well as education and training opportunities to grow your volunteer knowledge and expertise to best support your communities. Here are a few:

• Our brand new co-generational service learning program, Listen Learn Act Academy will see a team of 11 5^th graders and adults 55+ research food insecurity and social isolation and take action in their community to address the issue.  Learn more about LLAA and how to get involved.
• Our Volunteer Engagement Training Program (VETP) gives volunteer managers tools and best practices to better support their volunteers, and thereby their own impact in the communities they aim to serve. Sign up now for our next session, starting in March!
• Our Introduction to Board Service training program prepares volunteers on the basics of board service and how they can expect to make an impact. Learn more and sign up for our next training in April!
• Thanks to the completing our Service Enterprise program, our newest graduate, Habitat for Humanity of Fort Collins, has been able to increase the number of completed homes from 2 per year to 8 homes per year. Becoming a Service Enterprise helps you use volunteers and their skills across all levels of the organization to successfully deliver its mission. Learn more about Service Enterprise certification for your nonprofit today!