I love giving back whether its helping bring music education to under-funded communities, mentoring teen girls in a journalism program, or helping with art education programming at an arts center back at home. Sometimes I’ll be really busy with school and overwhelmed with the amount of work given, but then I’ll go to a nonprofit event or come back from a mentoring session with my mentees and I’ll just feel really good about it all after.
Giving back is such a rewarding experience and makes you feel like you’re actually making a difference. If you want to get some cool fundraising ideas for your project or nonprofit (or perhaps you just care about a cause and want to do something awesome to take a stand) the website Dosomething.org is a really big help! Their goal is to empower young people to take action offline. They inspire our generation to do good things for their community by offering tips, project ideas, guides for action, and forum discussions for young people yearning to make a difference. So if you have a project in mind that you’ve never really been able to flesh out, you can get a lot of cool ideas by surfing through the website.
I know I sometimes feel limited in what I can do to reach out to people that need help. For most of us, we do what we can. If that means joining a club on campus that raises money for a certain organization, we’ll do that if we feel passionate about the cause. Sometimes, though, we feel even more compelled to create change directly. Some of my friends in the past went abroad to developing countries and felt that it was necessary to do something about the problem so they started their own projects, programs, and even nonprofits when they came back to the States. When I came back from my three-week trip to South Africa I knew I had to do something. It was back in high school but I still organized a “stuff” drive and then sent the “stuff” to the Zukuni Village we had visited in Zambia. The children in the village looked so hungry and sad. I knew that I had to do something. And I think that’s where it all starts.
Although creating your own project or nonprofit is such an exciting opportunity, there’s a lot of preparation, training, and learning involved. The DoSomething.org Boot Camp brings together a diverse group of young community leaders, activists and social entrepreneurs for a day of networking and training dedicated to giving each attendee the tools to grow and sustain their community action ideas, projects and organizations. The DoSomething Boot Camp is a full day of combat training for an army of change. Don’t worry, we’re not talking about the actual military here!
Watch the live videostream of the San Francisco Dosomething.org Boot Camp right here at Her Campus!
Don’t have time to watch the whole videostream but want to view a particular session? Here’s the streaming schedule (which will be taking place from 9am to 4:30pm PST so east coast girls pay attention to the time difference!)
9:00-9:30: Introduction by Aria Finger, COO, DoSomething.org
9:40-10:35: Ideas into Action: How to Start Your Own Community Action Project
10:45-11:40: Event Planning and Fundraising
11:50-12:50: Meet & Greet: Interviews with Attendees
12:50-1:20: Do Something Youth Panel
1:30-2:25: Using Social Media for Good: How to use technology to get the word out about your cause
2:35-3:30: Do Something U Showcase
3:40-4:30: Speed Pitch Intro & Speed Pitching
For more information and upcoming Boot Camp dates (the next one is on May 21, 2011 in New York City – so be sure to register!) visit: http://www.dosomething.org/training/bootcamp