There are more than 170,000 registered charities in Canada, providing a variety of services in small towns, large cities and everywhere in between. Without volunteers, charities and non-profits wouldn’t be able to provide their much-needed services.
On Episode 32 of REAL TIME, Chris Jarvis, co-founder of Realized Worth, a consulting firm that specializes in designing corporate volunteering strategies, speaks to the differences between ‘transactional’ and ‘transformative’ volunteering. He explains how each of us can approach volunteering from a place of empathy, purpose, people, and partnerships – and how we can personally benefit as a result. Jarvis tells us both forms of volunteering have their place, but by reframing our perception of the events taking place, we can create an even more meaningful experience for all involved.
“When a company organizes an opportunity for me to go with people that are in my group to a space where I’m going to meet people who are not, this is where the magic happens, because, all of a sudden, if we can create the right kind of experience through framing a transformative experience, I begin to ask new questions that challenge assumptions about who I am in the world, what I believe to be true about the world, and how I act in the world. I’m opening myself up to an entirely new way of thinking about things.” Says Jarvis.
In 2021, more than 41% of Canadians (13 million people) volunteered a combined 1.7 billion hours at charities or non-profits. Jarvis tells us how all humans are “hardwired to help” but if we look below the surface, we can better understand their unique motivations, and why we as humans direct our help in different ways.
At Realized Worth, Jarvis and the team design volunteering strategies to help businesses drive engagement, retention, inclusivity, and build stronger relationships with their communities. He explains how these strategies are rooted in human nature, and how we can use those principles to guide our volunteerism efforts.
This year, in association with REALTORS Care® Week, the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), partnered with Realized Worth to provide specialized training and support to CREA’s Board of Directors and Environmental, Social, and Governance Committee members, at a volunteer event in Toronto, Ontario. This training aims to give participants the opportunity to learn strategies they can take with them into future volunteering initiatives.
“There’s nothing wrong with transactional volunteering, I think we already talked about that, but if you take it to the next level and you offer a brief and a debrief, you provide some intentional framing to the experience. People walk away with a completely different set of questions and insights that they may not get– not will not, but may not get through a transactional approach,” says Jarvis
Listen to Episode 32 of REAL TIME anywhere you get your podcasts or at CREA.ca/podcast.
