Giving guide connects volunteers with agencies

Shopping for a way to give back to the community has never been easier.

The 2007 Holiday Giving Guide has oodles of ideas for volunteers looking for ways to pitch in and help someone in need.

The catalog, available in both a hard-copy format and online at www.givingdupage.org, offers suggestions for ways to help out 65 DuPage agencies and organizations.

Seniors at the DuPage Convalescent Center need help getting to bingo games and playing their game cards. Baby food lining the shelves of the Loaves and Fishes Community Pantry needs to be bagged and readied for pick up. The Salvation Army could use some help handing out gifts to needy children.

And St. Patrick's Residence needs cookie bakers to help prepare for the Naperville facility's annual Cookie Walk fundraising benefit.

These and dozens of other volunteer opportunities are profiled in the guide.

In its fifth year, the annual guide is published by Giving DuPage, a public and private initiative that helps organizations and volunteer-minded people find each other, said Kathy Blair, Giving DuPage's manager.

The number of organizations listed in the guide is growing, she said.

"Last year we had 50. This year we have 65," she said. "We are getting new agencies into the guide all the time."

Blair said about 5,000 hard copies of the guide were printed this year.

"They go to libraries, chambers, the Girl Scouts, the Boy Scouts, the county," she said. "Three hundred churches got the guide."

Printed hard copies are available on request, she said, by calling (630) 407-6458 or sending an e-mail to givingdupage@dupageco.org.

The entire guide also can be downloaded from the Web site, she said.

"It's an interactive Web site," she said. "They can register right online."

When potential volunteers do, the agency involved is notified immediately via e-mail.

Blair said a team of volunteers involved with the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce's Community Leadership Program helped fine-tune the 2007 version of the Giving Guide.

"We chose the Giving Guide because of the breadth of nonprofits and charities that they reach," said leadership team chairman Amy Nester, marketing director for M & M Orthopaedics.

The leadership team elected to make the guide smaller in physical dimensions so it's easier to carry and fits better on countertop spaces. They also did some marketing and awareness-building for the guide, she said.

"Every time I hand them out … a lot of people, their response is, 'I never knew this existed and I've been looking for (volunteer) opportunities,' " Nester said.

Blair said marketing surveys indicate the guide provides a useful, needed service.

"We know for a fact that people use the guide," Blair said. "It does make a difference."

Blair said the guide describes ways volunteers can give their time, their resources and donations. It also indicates which volunteer activities are well-suited to families and to youthful volunteers.

"The guide just lays it out," Nester said. "It tells you exactly what they need."

Holiday giving

What: 2007 Holiday Giving Guide for how to help during the holidays in DuPage County

Visit: www.givingdupage.org

Request a copy: (630) 407-6458 or e-mail givingdupage@dupageco.org