Working as a fundraising volunteer can be professionally beneficial in many ways when you work from home. By offering your services you can gain confidence and visibility, drawing attention to your services and skills.
But you can also benefit personally in a number of ways by being a fundraising volunteer. Serving as a fundraising volunteer for your child’s school or group may be just the thing you were looking for to fulfill you.
Working From Home is Harder Than it Looks!
Working from home is a great thing; there are many benefits that come along with managing your own schedule and being readily available to your kids.
However, like with most things in life, there are downsides as well. Working from home can be tough; it means
• You might not interact with a lot of other people outside the home on a regular basis
• You risk not being visible and your business suffering
• You lack the support and camaraderie of friends and coworkers
• Your exposure to the outside world gets narrower and narrower unless you do something to expand it
• Your personal outlet for enjoyment and creativity can be stifled
• You are on your own when work and personal life conflict
All of these factors can seriously detract from your work and productivity if not addressed in some way. It all goes back to taking care of business by taking care of yourself first. You might be surprised to find out that volunteering for fundraising is a great way to do just that.
So How Will Being a Fundraising Volunteer Benefit Me?
If you really think about it you’ll see that volunteering to help with your child’s next fundraiser can easily solve many of the troubles that plague you as a work at home parent.
As a fundraising volunteer you can alleviate some of the loneliness and alienation while supporting a needy and worthwhile cause. Being a fundraising volunteer can help you as a work at home parent by
• Acting as a social outlet
• Getting you out of the house
• Meeting new people
• Increasing your support network (finding other WAHM’s and WAHD’s who can help you in a pinch)
• Increasing networking opportunities
• Providing an outlet for interest and creativity
• Exposing you to the larger world around you, refreshing your perspective
• Gaining a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment
• Relieving the guilt that comes when you feel you’ve neglected your kids’ interests
Sure, it takes time to serve as a fundraising volunteer, but to be the best at what you do, you need to make that time and see to your own needs. In other words, you need to take care of yourself.
As a fundraising volunteer, everyone stands to gain – yours and others’ children gain by getting what they need, your community gains, your work gains through outreach and networking and increased productivity, and most importantly you gain personally so that you have the inspiration and energy to support all the people and projects that rely on you!
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If you are working from home, how do you work towards achieving a balance in your social life? Please let us know in the comments below?