As President-Elect Obama prepares to take office, the power of the internet has been leveraged to create a national call to action urging Americans to volunteer within their communities.  The USAService.org site began by encouraging community events and volunteerism to coincide with Martin Luther King's birthday, which is a national day of community service.  However, the goal is to "reignite the American tradition of service and volunteerism and to that end the current call to action is viewed as a starting point”. 

Several non-profit organizations have already tapped into this initiative by posting their events and calls for volunteers on the site - I counted 45 opportunities in my community alone. 

Moving forward, it will be interesting to track non-profit organizations’ experience with USA Service.  Are we on the brink of an explosion in the number of volunteer hours logged by Americans?  Will people just volunteer their time or will donations increase?  Are most volunteers looking for a one-time experience or will they become engaged long-term.  Can the Obama grassroots initiative encourage people to contact their legislators?   How quickly can non-profits implement the USA Service tools and will they have the resources to manage the response? 

The hope Obama encourages could well be the catalyst that social-service organizations need - just as state funding is being cut across the country, especially here in Florida.  Incorporating USA Service into communications plans is worth considering, even though there is currently no data to allow us to anticipate outcomes. 

Despite today’s atmosphere of economic gloom, it is exciting to embrace the possibilities that Obama’s message of hope inspires. 

One of the key components that has traditionally been incorporated into managing client relationships is corporate responsibility - more readily known as community service or corporate philanthropy.  A troubling remark I heard from one of central Florida's business leaders this past week related to being more careful with charitable dollars.  When I say troubling, it's because I know from experience that most businesses equate care in charitable giving with cutting back.  

Donations have been declining for many social agencies over the past year.  But now things are reaching a state of critical proportions at the same time that more people are finding themselves in need of help.  Just this morning, my friend, Rob Mellen, President and CEO of Dr. Phillips Charities, was quoted in the Orlando Sentinel,  saying that the bottom line is "clearly that there will be less money for us to distribute until the market has turned around."

When we see that foundations, which exist only to distribute charitable dollars, are being forced to cut back, we know that we're in real trouble.  Families are going to suffer - children are going hungry and in many cases are in line to endure higher rates of abuse and neglect. 

A lot of us have worked to get the message to Florida's legislators, who cut funding to services last session.  But we must go beyond the efforts of Florida's People - Florida's Promise. 

Rather than cutting back, businesses must find better ways of enriching the community through the donation of time and resources.  Mid-size and small companies can learn from some of our country's largest corporations and become more strategic in their community outreach.  With a little creativity, even a small company can redirect its resources to develop a signature, community-based program that affects real change by bringing together employees and customers for the common good. 

We can take inspiration from the efforts of one of America's largest corporations.  According to a recent post on Cone's What Do You Stand For blog - "As economic conditions further unravel, the importance of in-kind programs that help heal local communities and engage employees in meaningful work will only continue to grow." 

Adversity has traditionally brought Americans together.  Today, America's businesses have an opportunity to band together to shore up critical social services and while doing so, cement strategic relationships. 

Past experience has convinced me that an organization's success is heavily reliant upon how relationships are managed and how carefully the reputation of the organization is protected and enhanced.  Future blog posts will explore this topic in depth, but today we’ll start with a little lesson from one of my favorite authors … Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Doing well is the result of doing good. That's what capitalism is all about.”

Think about Emerson’s words – every day.  Then practice doing good.  Share a kind word with a subordinate, take action to improve someone’s life through community involvement, provide value to a client without considering remuneration and most importantly, make time for the people you love and care for.  You’ll feel better and in time, you’ll do well.