One of a series of articles on DavidsonNews.net focusing on nonprofits, needs, and people who are helping.

By MICHELE MILLER HOUCK
DavidsonNews.net

How would you like to “bank” volunteer hours while you are young so that you can benefit when you are older? That was only one of the 350 ideas volunteers sorted through last week to come up with the best of the best for further action. Citizens submitted the concepts through an “idea search” that was part of Charlotte Mission Possible, a project by a consortium of Charlotte-area news organizations.

Nurses and pastors, media and non-profit professionals, seamstresses and lawyers came together in small groups to sort through ideas during a meeting last Tuesday. I represented DavidsonNews.net.

It didn’t feel like the usual suspects in the room.

Of about 60 participants, some were representatives of the Mission Possible partner media outlets;  some had submitted ideas; others may end up implementing the ideas down the road. We had in common that we were willing to show up in a room and work with three or four others to make recommendations about what seemed likely to help non-profits in our region. It was an engaged, knowledgeable crowd and a deliberate process.

Participants received a packet of information and an assignment – mine was to read and think about ideas submitted in the Education and Online categories. The next step was to show up on Tuesday night and to talk about it.

After a short introduction, our group got right to it. The task at hand was to submit three ideas to the larger group for discussion. After about 20 minutes, we had our 50 or so ideas narrowed to 6. After a vote, we picked three and “threw them up on the wall” for discussion – the other groups followed suit. From Education and Online, the ideas were as follows:

• Volunteer manager training – creating a city wide talent bank of trained volunteer managers.
• Matching non-profits with needs and voluneers – online Talent Bank like what you would imagine a match.com or careerbuilder.com might do for a volunteer setting. (This was a theme that was repeated in many of the ideas that we explored.)
• Your mission if you choose to accept it – an “amazing race” for volunteer projects – SWAT team approach.

The next 30-45 minutes were spent introducing and discussing ideas in the larger group. Many ideas had supporters and detractors. The discussion was lively; everyone spoke at one time or another – sometimes all at once.

Moderators Steve Gunn and Cindy Montgomery of the Charlotte Observer kept the group rolling and on task. Then it was time to vote, which we did by dividing our 10 stickers among the ideas posted on the wall. In the end five ideas emerged as the best: most interesting, feasible or high impact. They included:

• An easier way to give to charities through banking mechanisms, including rounding each transaction up to the next dollar for charity and dontating the interest you get on your checking account.
• Matching non-profits with needs or volunteers in an online environment.
• A community talent bank where you can bank hours while you are young to be “withdrawn” in old age – similar to a program in China.
• A panel of “Angel” investors to hear ideas and fund new and emerging non-profits.
• Consolidation of back office functions for small and medium sized non-profits.

As with anything else, the devil is in the details. Many of these ideas will be written and talked about over the next few months by the media partners that make up the Mission Possible team. We’ll be exploring existing programs that already do some of these things, and thinking about the who, what and how of moving some ideas forward.

We’ll keep you up to date on the progress and hope that you’ll come back to us with new or refined ideas as we move ahead. If you know of or work for a non-profit poised to implement an idea, we’d like to hear about that too.

Michele Miller Houck is a 1987 Davidson College graduate and nonprofit communications consultant. She is a regular contributor to DavidsonNews.net. Email her at mmhouck@earthlink.net