The Ripple Effect

Belinda spent this past tax season in Las Vegas preparing tax returns for low-income individuals as a volunteer.

Tax season is over, but the legacy of one volunteer’s commitment to service will linger. Belinda spent the last few months volunteering for VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance), helping low-income individuals in Las Vegas prepare their tax returns. She has a wonderful story to tell which illustrates the ripple effect of volunteering.

Belinda said:

Today was a good day in many ways. Although we are at the end of tax season and the demand for our services far outweighs our capacity, I am in good spirits. Today I was able to help a client through a really tough time by doing her return and taking the time to educate her about all the different credits she would qualify for. This client has major car repair needs looming that she could not afford to fix and every day prayed her car would not break down. She was barely making ends meet and needed extra cash to get the work done. Based on the knowledge she gained from a thorough review of her taxes we realized her refund from the year before was much less than she was entitled to receive. We prepared a 1040X that gave her even more money than she could have ever dreamed. By the end of preparing both years’ tax return, the client was in tears and extremely thankful; she kept saying thanks over and over and over again. I don’t know if we will ever see her again, but she is a fan of VITA for life!

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Priceless!

Fred Barrie prepares his talk to a Nevada Volunteers Lunch n' Learn about his new volunteer tracking software.

National Volunteer Week is a time to celebrate volunteers, and Nevada Volunteers has a gem of a volunteer to celebrate. Fred Barrie is a highly talented professional who is the best example ever of what a skilled volunteer can add to an organization. Skilled volunteers are a valuable asset, bringing know-how and experience to an organization to supplement the expertise of staff. Sometimes a skilled volunteer goes way beyond that capacity, propelling the organization into completely new realms of possibility. That is what Fred has done for Nevada Volunteers, and why we want to give him a colossal National Volunteer Week thanks!

Fred is a computer programmer who loves to explore new dimensions in software programming. He’s been working with computers for over 20 years and can’t get enough of them, it seems. When he heard our Volunteer Development Coordinator, Janet Wright, talk about the need for a good volunteer tracking software, Fred said, “I can do that.” (more…)

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The Myth of the Free Volunteer

Volunteer coordinators discuss their goals and challenges with Nevada Volunteers staff at a recent meeting in Reno, Nevada.

National Volunteer Week, April 10-16, is a time to celebrate those who volunteer. Volunteers are the backbone of any community, providing services that would otherwise go unmet. Although the time a volunteer gives is free, have you stopped to consider the time and energy needed to recruit, organize, direct, and of course, thank them? Nevada Volunteers knows that volunteer coordinators, whether they are paid staff or volunteers themselves, are a vital part of strengthening volunteering in Nevada, and why we focus a good deal of effort in reaching out to them through our website resources and trainings.

Being a volunteer coordinator is a big job. At a recent meeting at the Nevada Volunteers office in Reno, I listened in on a discussion of the challenges two volunteer coordinators face. One of the coordinators, Heather, has been working to set up a volunteer program from scratch, and perhaps the biggest challenge she faces is to educate others about the enormity of the task. “I know how time intensive it is to manage volunteers,” she said, and though her new volunteer program will increase the capacity of her agency to fulfill its mission, those volunteers will need a lot of training and supervision to be effective. (more…)

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Good For You!

Do you volunteer? Good for you! You are one of the four in ten Americans who volunteered this past year.

But do you know that you are doing yourself a big favor?

Volunteering is just plain good for your health, your sense of well-being, even your job, according to a survey of more than 4,500 Americans by Volunteer Match and United-Healthcare.

How?

Consider this volunteer’s story. Mac has been volunteering in Reno with VITA, the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program. In early February, he had a thrilling success story to report. Mac said:

I had a client this week that was about to lose her place to live at the end of this month. She has a son. I prepared her return and she got a refund of over $4,000.00. When I told her that her refund would be e-filed and in the bank by the 25th, she broke down and cried. She said I saved her and her son from being homeless.

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Volunteering for VITA!

April 15th has always been just a normal calendar day for me. My family hires a CPA to take care of our taxes every year, so they have never been much more than a passing thought in my daily life. But as I have grown up and taken on more “adult” responsibilities, I have looked at my own taxes and realized that they are incredibly difficult! It is confusing language, difficult math, and lines leading to more lines. It’s nearly impossible to make heads or tails out of any of it. But as I have branched away from relying on my family and done more of my own taxes each year, I have come to learn how to file basic taxes. I have had the chance to learn because I am surrounded by people who know how to help me, but I also know that I am lucky in that and not everyone has those same people around them. I found myself wondering how others learn how to correctly file their own taxes. (more…)

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Governor Sandoval Makes Service a Cornerstone of His Administration

Nevada Volunteers was thrilled to have Governor Brian Sandoval hammering down shingles with our AmeriCorps members at a Habitat for Humanity Las Vegas project early on MLK Day. By afternoon, he was up north, mingling with young people at a presentation on cyber-bullying hosted by the Children’s Cabinet AmeriCorps program at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Truckee Meadows.
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MLK Day 2011: A Day On, Not A Day Off

“Service above self will be the cornerstone of my administration as Governor,” Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval proclaimed. He joined approximately 70 AmeriCorps members bright and early in Las Vegas, Nevada on Martin Luther King Jr. Day morning to celebrate the Day of Service.

Partnering with Habitat for Humanity Las Vegas, Nevada Volunteers’ AmeriCorps members gathered together to build three special homes in honor of the 25th anniversary of the holiday recognizing one of America’s great heroes, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. More than 40 years after his death, Dr. King’s example continues to guide Nevadans in addressing the state’s most critical issues.

The event in southern Nevada brought together AmeriCorps State members from Great Basin Institute’s Nevada Conservation Corps, Luz Community Development Coalition, and the United Way of Southern Nevada, along with AmeriCorps VISTA members serving southern Nevada nonprofit agencies. The Governor jumped in to lend a hand with the AmeriCorps members, at one point even aiding them on the roof by nailing on shingles. (more…)

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Last Chance to Give!

Nevada Volunteers knows you care about continuing Nevada’s service and volunteer efforts. That’s why we are reminding you that this is your final chance to make a tax-deductible donation for 2010. Remember, all gifts to Nevada Volunteers are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law.

Thanks to your generous contributions, Nevada Volunteers has raised $1,300 for the Nevada AmeriCorps programs this holiday season and has had the ability to share our AmeriCorps members inspirational stories with you. But we need your help if we want our communities to continually receive the chance to grow and prosper. We hope you’ll join us as we work to continue Nevada AmeriCorps programs, helping Nevadans to enrich their lives through service and our communities to benefit from their incredible efforts.

Please don’t miss this opportunity to give back to our communities through admirable programs. For more information about Nevada’s AmeriCorps programs, visit blue.nevadavolunteers.org. (more…)

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Thank you for the “E” in AMERICORPS!

A huge thank you goes out to the Parasol Tahoe Community Foundation for their generous donation of $100! This gave us the “E” in AMERICORPS! For every $100 in donations, we are able to add one more letter. To date, the “Amass for AmeriCorps” program has raised $1,300 for Nevada’s AmeriCorps programs!

Words cannot express how grateful we are to each of you for your contributions.

Our next fundraising goal is “R.” “R” is for receive – without our Nevada AmeriCorps programs, our Nevada communities would not receive help in core areas such as education, human needs, environment or public safety.

The end of the year is quickly approaching. The last day to give to the “Amass for AmeriCorps” is December 31st at 11:59pm. We know that we can spell AMERICORPS one more time and $10 from 10 friends will get us closer to that goal. Plus your end-of-the-year donation will earn you a tax deduction! (more…)

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