North Idaho Alliance Women of Impact: November is Idaho’s nonprofit awareness month
Marilee Wallace
Did you know Idaho has a dedicated nonprofit center that offers a plethora of resources for starting a not-for-profit business, maintaining and running a successful not-for-profit and detailed volunteer recruitment with opportunities for you to be engaged with a local nonprofit? The Idaho Nonprofit Center is based in Boise and it’s been around since 2001. According to their website, “The Center represents the interests of our state’s 9,000+ registered nonprofit organizations and serves as a broker of information and a bridge between the nonprofit, for-profit, and government sectors. They are an association of forward-looking nonprofit leaders who come together to share knowledge, solve problems, pursue common interests with a mission to educate, advocate, and collaborate in support of stronger nonprofit organizations.”
Did you also know that when you volunteer, you immediately become nicer and better looking? OK, that’s a fabrication. But here are some real facts from Idaho Commission on Aging studies that show that volunteers:
• Are happier
• Report better health
• Feel better about life
• Are more independent
• Have better blood pressure
• Live longer
The November’s meeting of the Women of Impact Leadership Roundtable investigated some local not-for-profits with a lively discussion of what opportunities exist and some eye opening needs that we have right here in our own community. Children’s Village, Matt’s Place Foundation and the Salvation Army Kroc Center each presented to our group of ladies and conveyed the ongoing needs of their important organizations. Top of the list for all is the staggering growth of the populations they serve. Each organization is in more need of financial and volunteers support then in recent years and all spoke of hands-on opportunities on how our group can get involved. Both as a volunteer and as a board of director member.
Women as board directors are needed. This is because women generally have a positive impact on board tasks, particularly those of a qualitative nature. Multiple studies show that they are adept at fostering strategy development, improving corporate social responsibility related issues and highly effective in monitoring management. We encourage our Women of Impact and all women in our community to offer their time and talents to a local nonprofit of choice. Besides, who doesn’t want to live longer? (see above list)
And finally, we were reminded about the Idaho Gives program. It is a statewide, online giving event which take place every spring. Since the inaugural event in 2013, Idahoans have raised nearly $20 million for participating organizations, one donation at a time. If a nonprofit wants to be considered to be part of this annual giving, they can find the registration form online at www.Idahononprofits.org.
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Marilee Wallace, IOM, president/CEO of the North Idaho Alliance Women of Impact.
The Women of Impact Leadership Roundtable meets once a month for a nine-month series, and we base our monthly agenda on the word IMPACTED. To see the lineup of our monthly topics and to get details or view additional programs NIA is offering to Impact women in our region, please visit our registration page at www.thenialliance.com or join https://www.facebook.com/groups/972216519983800.
