Cincinnati Cares — already the most popular way for people in Greater Cincinnati to discover their way to help — is rapidly expanding the ways it is working to improve the health of our region’s volunteer ecosystem.
In partnership with the United Way of Greater Cincinnati, Cincinnati Cares has rebuilt and relaunched BoardBank.
BoardBank is a nearly two-year-old initiative undertaken to ease the recruiting and matching process for leaders in our community looking to volunteer as board members and nonprofit boards seeking new board members.
The next enhancement to Cincinnati Cares will deliver on another significant matching need for volunteers and nonprofits — a way to partner volunteers with specific skills to nonprofits in need of specialized guidance for a short period of time.
This kind of volunteering — commonly known as skills-based volunteering — exists now only in certain sectors, such as the legal field through Pro Bono Partnership of Ohio.
Cincinnati Cares will focus on all other industries where talented workers can offer technical skills to nonprofit leaders who may not have easy access to leaders with such skill sets on their boards or committees.
Cincinnati Cares is the brainchild of Craig Young, who started a 501(c)(3) organization called Inspiring Service in April 2017.
The Cincinnati Cares platform was launched in late 2017, and now counts more than 500 local nonprofits in its database showcasing nearly 2,000 opportunities and nearly 200 annual events where large numbers of volunteers are needed.
Young
After a successful business career of starting and running software firms he eventually sold, Craig Young turned his attention to raising his kids and donating some of his family’s fortune. Along the way he became deeply involved in philanthropy and volunteerism, and his kids challenged him to marry his interests in technology and philanthropy.
Doug Bolton started working with Young in mid-2018 and recently became CEO and president of Cincinnati Cares.
The work with Cincinnati Cares builds on Doug’s 33-year media, publishing and commercial real estate career, including 13 years as publisher of the Dayton Business Journal and Cincinnati Business Courier.
Inspiring Service is working with a number of communities outside Greater Cincinnati on building a platform similar to Cincinnati Cares. Meanwhile, Cincinnati Cares is emerging as the only organization in Greater Cincinnati to be 100 percent focused on the volunteer.
In many cities across the country, such a volunteer-centric organization already exists. While the platform is available and free to the general volunteer community and nonprofits, the largest opportunity to impact declining volunteerism rates is by getting more Cincinnatians in our community’s workplaces to volunteer.
Along with support from community foundations and other interested individuals, Cincinnati Cares will work with businesses to help them recruit, retain and build healthy workforces by engaging their employees around our community’s needs.
Volunteerism has declined nationally and locally because the old ways of connecting volunteers to needs aren’t working.
Cincinnati Cares makes it easy for volunteers of any age and desire to connect to both the greatest and all community needs. A new platform like Cincinnati Cares will help future generations reverse the declines in national and local volunteer rates, and help re-establish volunteerism as a core human responsibility for generations to come.
For more information on Cincinnati Cares or BoardBank, click here.
Cincinnati Cares
