Also See: Key Considerations for Businesses in Starting a Skills-Based Volunteer Program

Nonprofit organizations are highly driven in realizing their social missions, but often they do not have the capacity to address their strategic, operational and financial challenges. Skills-based volunteerism matches business skills and experience with nonprofit needs, in order to increase their impact on the community. Following are 10 tips to help you volunteer your skills to a nonprofit in need.

1. Take an inventory of your current and past job functions and make a list of the broad areas in which you have professional experience.  For example, do you work in marketing, public relations, law, human resources, accounting, finance, technology, strategic planning?
   
   
2. Assess your business and organization skills that cut across all functional or subject areas and make a list of your capabilities.  For example, are you a good writer?  Do you negotiate well?  Are you a strong project manager?
   
   
3. Make a short list of the nonprofit organizations for which you would like to volunteer your time and talent, and think about what their business needs might be.  Remember that they have employees, vendors and potentially customers – just like a for-profit organization.
   
   
4. Using the skills and capabilities from Steps 1 and 2, jot down how you could apply your specific abilities to the business needs of the nonprofits on your list.  For example, if you work with computers, perhaps you could help an organization that needs a database developed.  If you work in finance, you might help with a cash flow analysis.  If you work in graphic design, you could design an event invitation.  If you work in human resources, you could draft an employee manual.  If you are skilled in negotiation, you could help finalize a contract.  The opportunities are endless!
   
   
5. Contact the volunteer manager or other appropriate person at the nonprofit to express your interest in contributing business skills and to initiate a conversation about their specific business and organizational needs.  Be aware that not all nonprofits are accustomed to using volunteers in this way so it might take a little time and creativity to find the right opportunity.  Work together to map your skills more specifically to the organization’s business needs.
   
   
6. Now that you have more details about the nonprofit’s business needs, go back to the page you started in Step 4 and identify a specific project that you have both the talent and time to complete. 
   
   
7. Outline the plan, even if it’s just a brief note, and send it to the nonprofit.  This step should include when you plan to begin, when you expect to finish and what you hope to accomplish.  If any out-of-pocket funds will be required for expenses, include a note about the costs and identify whose responsibility it will be to cover them.
   
   
8. Set aside the time in your schedule to complete your project.  If it will be completed over the course of several days or weeks, it can be helpful to schedule time for it on your calendar just as you would for other business appointments.
   
   
9. At the conclusion of your project, report your accomplishments to the nonprofit.  If you can, make sure to let the organization know what the “fair market value” of your support is so that it can be taken into proper account and so that you get the credit you deserve. 
   
   
10. Take a moment to bask in your feeling of accomplishment, but before you get too comfortable, go back to Step 7 and select another project.  Your favorite nonprofit needs you and your business skills!