Carl Fernando is a risk management professional from Macquarie with 15 years of experience in the field.
He is also a Skilled Volunteer of our Community Connections Program, who went to great lengths to help our Community Partner, PathFinders, create a risk management framework.
“Carl was invested from the beginning, and willing to go the extra mile,” said Harriet Beavis, Director of Fundraising at PathFinders. “He didn’t wait for us to tell him the next steps. He did the legwork and made recommendations or chased us for an answer – this was key to his success. He was very proactive in sharing his skills and what he could support us with.”
After meeting Harriet at a Connection Session, Carl took the lead to manage a thorough organization-wide risk review for PathFinders. He also spent a day at PathFinders’s community center to learn more about the organization’s work and operations and to meet key staff. He then organized a series of conversations with different team and board members, until a scope of suitable work around risk management was developed for him to drive forward.
Time commitment is an issue for corporate professionals like Carl, but he managed to find a way to make it work, and his skills-based volunteering partnership with PathFinders proved to be rewarding.
“I’ve benefited immensely. From PathFinders, I’m obtaining the education, experience, and opportunity that comes from working with an incredible organization looking to support and enrich the lives of expectant mothers and their children, that are some of the most under-represented and vulnerable in our society.”
Carl Fernando
Carl is not alone in finding value in skills-based volunteering.
Monica Cai, Controller, Cost Management & Analytics at Nomura, and Michael Fung, Senior Accountant at PwC Hong Kong, found a great sense of achievement from their partnership with Third Sector Connect, another of our Community Partners.
The benefits of volunteering are plenty, from improving mental health and employee morale to developing empathy and career advancement.
Starting Your Social Impact Journey
So, how does one start?
When working with the Skilled Volunteers of Community Connections, we often came across high-calibre professionals who didn’t know how they could contribute to our Community Partners.
What they didn’t know is that their skills and expertise in legal, accounting, finance, PR and communications etc. are already invaluable to social impact organizations who often don’t have the budget for these headcounts.
To quote Monica, “Be open-minded. Really sit down and think about what you can offer. There is actually a lot you can offer to help social enterprises in their daily work.”
It is important that you, as a volunteer, first get a thorough understanding of the organization. Like Carl, you can visit the organization’s office and meet the key staff in person. Or you can schedule an online call with them to learn more about their daily operations, beneficiaries, and pain points.
Once you have a better grasp of the organization’s needs, you can then identify the areas where your expertise and skill-sets can provide the most value.
Depending on your schedule and desired level of commitment, you may want to start with a short-term project first, and then extend your commitment to longer-term engagements, such as joining the organization’s board of advisors or directors. In fact, that’s how our three women directors came to join the FSI board!
Are you ready to join our community of Skilled Volunteers to contribute your skills and expertise for positive social impact? Get in touch with our Community Connections team at communityconnections@shared-impact.com
