Skilled Volunteers Help Empower Vietnam Nonprofits

Dear LIN Friends,

Thank you for your recent grant to the LIN Center for Community Development.  We recently posted our annual report for 2010, with details on all programs and activities.  Below is a brief overview of our support services to Skilled Volunteers in 2010:

• Organized a nationwide Volunteer Stories competition (100 narratives and over 230 photos received);
• Hosted 7 workshops/events for Volunteers and prospective volunteers;
• Matched 6 Skilled Volunteers with 5 NPO Partners;
• Recruited 48 Skilled Volunteers to offer technical support to our NPO Partners (as speakers for NPO capacity building events, facilitators and/or trainers);
• Recruited 46 Volunteers to support LIN's programs & operations;
• Supported the establishment of the HCMC Volunteer Network (HVN) - LIN was elected as coordinator for the network. 7 meetings were held in 2010 to identify ways to collaborate, to train volunteers and to identify meaningful volunteer opportunities;
• Collaborated with 12 not-for-profit volunteer host organizations to celebrate and promote volunteerism on International Volunteer Day - 400 participants attending; and
• Published 10 newsletters for Volunteers (increased subscriptions from 150 to 600)

The report also lays out our workplan for skilled volunteer services in 2011, including:

• ­Match at least 20 Skilled Volunteers with one or more NPO Partner;
• ­Identify and recruit 30 to 50 Skilled Volunteers to lead a capacity building event for NPO staff;
• Disseminate a collection of winning Volunteer Stories to raise awareness about the important work that is being done by Vietnam-based volunteers;
• ­Collaborate with the mass media and corporate sponsors to host a bigger, better version of our Volunteer Stories Competition in 2011;
• ­Support and strengthen the newly established HCMC Volunteer Network. Develop a referral network for individuals that are looking for volunteer positions in HCMC;
• ­Promote Skilled Volunteerism on the occasion of the 10^th Anniversary of International Volunteer Day (5 December 2011);
• Research: Corporate Volunteer Programs in HCMC (examples and outcomes of skilled volunteer programs at companies);
• Research: Online survey to assess the training needs of skilled volunteers in HCMC;
• Recruit volunteers to provide logistical support for LIN programs and events; and/or
• ­Publish a monthly newsletter to keep volunteers informed of opportunities and best practices.

Thanks again for your generous contribution to the LIN Center's Skilled Volunteer Matching program! We look forward to applying your contributions to our projects in 2011.

Sincerely,
Dana, on behalf of the LIN Team

P.S. For those of you that provided your email addresses, we've added your names to our email list service so that you can receive copies of our monthly newsletter, reporting on activities and outcomes of the LIN Center. Please note that if you wish to unsubscribe to our mailing list, you will be able to do so, at any point in time (and your email will be forever deleted from our newsletter mailing list).

Links:

• LIN website for Skilled Volunteers
• Results from LIN's Volunteer Stories Competition 2010

• LIN's 2010 Annual Report (PDF)