EUGENE, Ore. -
The two may have passed like ships in the night were it not for "GiveWith.Us," which is sort of match-making site for volunteers and nonprofit organizations that was piloted at SELCO here one year ago.
Alandra found GiveWith.Us after clicking from a link on SELCO's homepage. At GiveWith.Us, she can look through volunteer opportunities posted by nearly 50 local nonprofits.
SELCO likes hooking up members-and any other interested web surfers-with nonprofits in the community, according to Jan Burch, director of community involvement at the $731-million credit union.
A Logical Extension of Commitment
"Give With Us is an awesome resource for members," explained Burch. "Members become aware of volunteer opportunities available in their community as well as what SELCO has to offer. Our community isn't alone in having needs, but people don't even know that the need exists.
"SELCO is recognized by both members and non-members as a leader when it comes to giving back to the community," she continued. "Give With Us was a logical extension of this community commitment."
America First CU of Ogden, Utah, also beta-tested GiveWith.Us and will re-launch an updated version this month in time for the holiday season, said Rich Syme, senior vice president-electronic services and product development at the $4-billion credit union.
"We had a fairly high number of hits and good response from our members volunteering for different activities," he said. "It will help to get us more involved in the communities that we are in."
The credit unions have to make sure that postings are kept up-to-date-and that no volunteer falls through the cracks, Burch continued. "We're notified as soon as anyone volunteers or posts an opportunity, and then we act as an intermediary to make sure the volunteer immediately gets through to the organization," she said. "And we may run interference as a PR firm for any concerns that the volunteers have."
In one year, the site has seen more than 1,500 unique visitors, said Burch. SELCO is the only local organization that provides such a volunteer connection, she added.
Give With Us was conceived by the Filene Research Institute first as My Community Connection, a way to use the Net to help connect Americans with their communities.
Trabian, an Indianapolis, Ind.-based web development firm, took on the job of building a prototype site, which was then hosted by SELCO and America First and has since evolved into Give With Us.
Available To Any Credit Union
Give With Us is now available to any credit union, said Doug Williams, vice president-business development at Trabian. "We're always looking for ways to connect credit unions and their memberships and communities."
The web-based portal is different from your run-of-the-mill social-media site, Williams said.
"Give with Us is focused on credit unions," he explained. "It provides them with a social media product that the entire community can update. It can be used as a center piece for marketing strategies that focus on community or cater to Gen Y."
Members can use the site with confidence, added Williams. "Give With Us is a guard against fraud-members and the community can trust postings on a Give With Us site as opposed to anyone setting up a MySpace or Facebook site."
more
Read more about volunteerism and social networking at cujournal.com and search the following bolded terms in the archive:
* CU Challenges Community To 'Change Everything', for a story on Vancity's social networking and volunteerism site.
* MySpace.com: The Factious Frontier, for a story on credit unions reaching out through MySpace.com.
* PFCU Gets Behind Gardening Project, for a story on Philadelphia Federal's community gift of gardening.
For More Info On This Story:
* SELCO Community CU at www.selco.org
* SELCO Give With Us, http://selco.cugive.com/
* Filene i3, www.filene.org
* Trabian, www.trabian.com
