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Reaching Out On Campus
So you want to change the world for the better? Here at Idealist On Campus, we want to work with you to make it happen – and the great news is we can start right now. Check out our ideas below, and share your own with us.
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If you have a few minutes and you're a...
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- Sign up for an individual profile, then invite friends and colleagues on campus to join. Find a social network where the least common denominator is the drive to work toward a better world.
- Consider attending the Idealist Campus Conference.
- Looking to bring an expert to speak on campus? Search for speakers through our Find page. And if you have a experiences or information to share, be sure to sign up as a Speaker on your Personal Profile.
- Encourage your campus’ clubs and student groups to post events and volunteer needs on Idealist. You’ll reach a broader audience!
- Use Idealist’s resource centers such as the Volunteer Center, the Nonprofit Career Center, and the Nonprofit Human Resources Center.
- Write “Check out Idealist.org” on your dorm room whiteboard or in sidewalk chalk all over campus
- Educate yourself about local and global happenings such as politics, disaster relief, and human rights issues. Start here, at our News, Media and Publications page.
- Develop a community bulletin board to highlight local events and needs. Encourage your resident assistant (or take it upon yourself) to post a hall bulletin board highlighting dorm residents’ skills and availability to share their knowledge with others.
- Support Idealist by making a financial contribution to help us reach more people who are imagining a better world.
- Give us feedback on how Idealist can improve, or let us know that you like what we're doing.
- Check out Idealist.org’s broader Reach Out page.
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- Sign up for an individual profile, then invite friends and colleagues to join. Let everyone know that you’re dedicated to making the world a better place.
- Check out the Idealist Campus Conference. Register to attend, and help a delegation of students from your school obtain funding.
- Looking to bring an expert to speak on campus? Search for speakers through our Find page. And if you have a experiences or information to share, be sure to sign up as a Speaker on your Personal Profile.
- Post and find listings on Idealist’s databases (including jobs, internships, volunteer opportunities, and events). Encourage campus clubs to post volunteer needs and events on Idealist.
- If students express anxiety about graduation, familiarize them with Idealist’s job search engine and Community Points search engine. Both may be comforting as students shape their career paths and consider relocating to new cities.
- Use Idealist’s resource centers such as the Volunteer Center, the Nonprofit Career Center, and the Nonprofit Human Resources Center.
- We’ve assembled a list of news and media sources that may be of particular interest to students. Contact us if you know of a publication we should consider including.
- Support Idealist by making a financial contribution to help us reach more people who are imagining a better world.
- Give us feedback on how Idealist On Campus can improve, or let us know that you like what we're doing.
- Check out Idealist.org’s broader Reach Out page.
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- Sign up for an individual profile, then invite colleagues on campus to join. You’ll learn more about the folks on your campus, and they’ll learn about your interests outside of the classroom.
- Looking to bring an expert to speak on campus? Search for speakers through our Find page. And if you have a experiences or information to share, be sure to sign up as a Speaker on your Personal Profile.
- Speaking at a campus event? Need a research assistant? Want to mobilize folks on campus around a cause or issue? Post listings on Idealist’s databases (including jobs, internships, volunteer opportunities, and events).
- Use Idealist’s resource centers such as the Volunteer Center, the Nonprofit Career Center, and the Nonprofit Human Resources Center. Refer students and colleagues to these pages if you find them helpful!
- We’ve assembled a list of news and media sources that may be of particular interest to students. Contact us if you know of a publication we should consider including.
- If your academic department doesn’t have a community bulletin board highlighting local events and needs, create one!
- Support Idealist by making a financial contribution to help us reach more people who are imagining a better world.
- Give us feedback on how Idealist On Campus can improve, or let us know that you like what we're doing.
- Check out Idealist.org’s broader Reach Out page.
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If you have more time and you're a...
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- Volunteer at a Community Point in your neighborhood. Can’t find one? Create a Start-Up Meeting to team up with other students or neighbors to form a Community Point on or near campus!
- Promote Idealist and its resources online through your website (such as linking, banners, logos, XML feeds and others), in your online social network (such as Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, Tribe, Orkut, and others), through email (such as by adding a link to Idealist in your signature), and in your blog.
- Email friends on your campus and/or on other campuses (students, listservs, professors, career services and community service offices, etc.) and invite them to join Idealist’s network.
- Email individuals outside of your campus (nonprofits, civic groups, schools, individual community members, etc.) and invite them to join Idealist’s network.
- Email your friends and teachers from high school, middle school, and primary/elementary school to tell them about Idealist and encourage them to get involved. Point them toward Idealist’s Kids and Teens resource center!
- Send stories, pictures, local news articles, and success stories to us about good things happening in your community or what you would like to change for the greater good. Also submit design ideas, send along samples of your creative outreach, and tell us where you’ve seen Idealist mentioned online and offline.
- Promote Idealist and its resources offline to your co-workers, organization members, classmates, religious leaders, alumni, partners, legislators, community leaders, local media, and others in your community via word-of-mouth, SMS, the arts, radio, sidewalk chalk, podcasting, text messaging, listservs, discussion boards, bulletin boards, and other creative methods.
- Encourage your friends to paint their bikes green, blue, and yellow and add an Idealist logo to the bike or on a bike flag!
- Do you tutor at a nearby school or do youth-related community service? Tell students and teachers there about Idealist. Ask other people who you work with to do the same with their kids. Plan an “Idealist day” with the youth, and use the resources we offer on our Kids and Teens page!
- Put an insert in your campus newspaper or community service bulletin, explaining Idealist’s new initiative and encouraging others to join the network.
- Have an “Idealist spirit day” for your hall/sorority/fraternity/sports team/campus club, where all members wear yellow, green and blue, or spell out the letters that form “Idealist.org” on their shirts or their bodies. Post your photos on Flickr with the tag “Idealist.org.”
- Produce a short segment for your campus radio or television station, promoting involvement in the community to fellow students, staff, and faculty.
- Create and distribute Idealist flyers, table tents, posters, buttons, bookmarks, or desktop wallpaper. Create and display table tents for your campus’ dining hall(s), encouraging people to look at the website and find ways to connect with others interested in justice around the world. Make an Idealist banner to hang prominently in the student union, at a sports or performing arts event, etc.
- Join or start a club, service organization, nonprofit board, or affinity group to share common interests.
- Collect information on all student groups on campus and provide it to all incoming students on your campus either in a document, online, or through an opportunities fair.
- Organize group volunteering for your fraternity, sorority, club, athletic team or dorm community.
- Promote your community’s efforts to local media outlets by submitting letters to the editor, publicizing photos of local fundraisers, or posting to a community calendar. Tell your friends and neighbors about local events and community resources.
- Invite a community member to speak at a local event, such someone working in a nonprofit organization, a community activist, or a professor. Check out our Speaker's Bureau for ideas.
- Have a knack for fundraising and development? Lead your fraternity, sorority, or campus group in a sporting event to raise funds for a local nonprofit organization. Or hold a fundraiser to bring a delegation of students to the Idealist Campus Conference.
- Be a socially responsible citizen by supporting your local economy. Promote dignified employment conditions and fair wages for all campus staff. Foster relationships with campus staff members by encouraging them to create individual profiles on Idealist.
- Donate leftover cafeteria food to a local food bank rather than have it go to waste. Advocate that your campus cafeteria switch to locally-produced food as much as possible.
- Be an environmentally responsible citizen. Calculate your campus’ “environmental footprint” and create or mobilize an Affinity Group to reduce that impact. Check out our Campus Greening resources for inspiration.
- Learn about your community's resources and needs and raise awareness of them among other people. Learn how to create a “resource map” of your campus community
- Find out whether a nonprofit and/or public service listserv or e-newsletter already exists in the neighborhood around your campus. If so, publicize it; if not, create one!
- Meet your neighbors and network with other communities. Promote positive community relations by starting a joint service project between the university community and the surrounding neighborhoods.
- Search Idealist’s individual profiles database for people on nearby campuses connect with them. Invite students, staff, and faculty from nearby campuses to discuss opportunities for working together.
- Contribute time, equipment, and space to your community's causes. Find a way to donate campus computer lab time and meeting space to a local nonprofit or Community Point.
- Advocate for new and improved services in your community such as neighborhood healthcare, an employee volunteer program, safer playgrounds, and art spaces.
- Encourage the career services office on your campus to invite at least one nonprofit organization to every career fair held on campus. Work with one or more offices on campus (career services, community service, service-learning, etc.) to plan a nonprofit career fair.
- Organize a volunteer fair for all organizations near the campus that are trying to connect with students.
- Advocate for a community service requirement for graduation. It’s easy to find opportunities on our Volunteer Opportunities search page. You can even advocate for graduating seniors to take the Graduation Pledge during graduation weekend.
- Encourage local nonprofits to offer paid or unpaid internships during the school year and the summer.
- Begin a dialogue series on campus around one or more issues that have been controversial among members of your campus community.
- Connect with other communities (such as libraries, schools, prisons, local companies, and senior centers) in creative ways. Host and/or attend local gatherings such as neighborhood meetings, workshops, meals, parties, dances, and community service events.
- Convene a Leadership Summit for all students leading service and activism organizations on your campus. If you need ideas for the content of the Summit, download our free leadership workshop.
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- Plan your own on-campus workshops/forums to promote the interconnectedness of activism, service advocacy and politics. Email us if you come up with a good one!
- Promote community service among students by advocating for course credit for volunteer work. Encourage professors to incorporate service or service-learning into the curriculum.
- Encourage the study abroad office to give course credit for community service and to offer service-learning courses when students study in other countries.
- Encourage your financial aid office to give work-study hours or grants to students who volunteer, or work for little money, at nonprofit organizations either over the summer or during the school year.
- Publicize the existence of (or the need for!) a database of your school’s alumni working in the nonprofit sector.
- Encourage local nonprofits to offer paid or unpaid internships during the school year and the summer.
- Begin a dialogue series on campus around one or more issues that have been controversial among members of your campus community.
- Convene a Leadership Summit for all students leading service and activism organizations on your campus. If you need ideas for the content of the Summit, download our free leadership workshop.
- Help a delegation of students and colleagues to secure funding and register for the Idealist Campus Conference. Apply to facilitate a small group session, moderate an affinity group, or present at a poster session, and encourage students to gain visibility and skills by doing the same thing.
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- Promote community service among students by giving course credit for volunteer work. Encourage your fellow professors to incorporate service or service-learning into the curriculum.
- Encourage your financial aid office to give work-study hours or grants to students who volunteer, or work for little money, at nonprofit organizations either over the summer or during the school year . Encourage local nonprofits to offer paid or unpaid internships during the school year and the summer.
- Publicize the existence of (or the need for!) a database of your school’s alumni working in the nonprofit sector.
- Begin a dialogue series on campus around one or more issues that have been controversial on your campus. Encourage students to invite members of the Idealist Speaker's Bureau to share their insights.
- Connect with other communities (such as libraries, schools, prisons, local companies, and senior centers) in creative ways. Work this into your syllabus next semester!
- Meet your neighbors and network with other communities. Promote positive community relations by starting a joint service project between the university community and the surrounding neighborhoods.
- Talk to people on other campuses to get them involved. Invite people from nearby campuses to discuss opportunities for working together. See who in your area is already involved with Idealist’s network.
- Contribute time, equipment, and space to your community's causes. Find a way to donate campus computer lab time and meeting space to a local nonprofit or Community Point.
- Advocate for new and improved services in your community such as neighborhood healthcare, an employee volunteer program, safer playgrounds, and art spaces.
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