Skill-Based Volunteering

There are many great opportunities for anyone to serve as a volunteer. Opportunities to work with children, feed the homeless, build houses, and do manual labor all seem to be easy ways to volunteer. However, if someone wants to use their skills to volunteer, it can be much more challenging. This causes us to consider something we call “skill-based volunteering.”

Non profits actually need skill based volunteers. I have had the joy of serving alongside many non profits and most need the skills that their volunteers use every day. Almost all ministries and nonprofits are struggling with good strategy and clarity in communication. There are often gaps in leadership, as well.

When we have paired up strong business leaders with strong nonprofit leaders, we have seen great results. This is one of the ways that volunteering can be much more fun and effective and it’s the reason we all volunteer anyway. I believe we would get a lot more participation if we believed we could actually use our skills to serve the ministry or nonprofit that we are talking to.

So, I encourage you to volunteer but also look for specific ways you can use your skills. Take the time to talk to the nonprofit and let them know some of the skills you can offer. Ask questions to find out what they think are the ways you can best be of service to them. Often, you will find a gap or a need that is obvious but no one has ever offered to help them with it.

ABOUT DALE SUTHERLAND

Throughout the entirety of his career, Dale Sutherland has remained invested in community involvement, whether it be with his church body or with global neighborhoods living under extreme levels of poverty. Upon graduating high school, Dale felt called into the ministry field, leading to him pursuing a degree in Bible and Biblical Studies. He began a successful career with McLean Bible Church as the Pastor of Student Ministries, increasing the weekly participation by hundreds. Through his involvement with this mega-church, he grew invested in growing the community in a variety of ways, whether it was through throwing events, leading missions trips, or brainstorming outreach projects.

After over a decade of service to this church, Dale Sutherland was given the title of Director of Outreach, later becoming the Associate Senior Pastor. With this heightened responsibility also came the allowance to develop new strategies for outreach and community involvement, not just within the church body but throughout the local neighborhoods and global areas. His leadership contributions advanced missions efforts in the following locations: India, Uganda, Ethiopia, Philippines, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic.

Nowadays, Dale is more invested in missions than ever before. In 2019, he assumed the role of the President of International Care Ministries (ICM) USA. This nonprofit organization was founded in the Philippines and has since expanded its outreach efforts. In working with the branch in Washington D.C., Dale Sutherland is able to oversee global missions as well as raise awareness for this purpose in his home country. ICM exists to alleviate poverty and bring hope and ongoing assistance to the ultra-poor who live on less than the US $0.50 per person per day. This unfathomable income level is what sparked the foundation of ICM and continues to drive its community outreach efforts.

Dale is proud to work for an organization that emphasizes community involvement by partnering with local churches, sending volunteers and even employing many of the people it serves. To bring sustainable life change, it is important to form ongoing relationships that enable these individuals to pursue their goals.