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In a perfect world, everybody would love volunteering – getting their hands dirty, so to speak, by helping others. In a perfect world, our service projects would be our most popular events. Our members and other students would pick up trash, spend time with seniors, paint the local Boys and Girls Club, and walk pets waiting to be adopted. We all know that service makes you feel good, and it helps others. Should be the biggest no-brainer in the history of the Earth.
But anyone who has organized a service event knows that it's not so simple. People treat community service like tax planning and eating right – we know we should do it, we know it would be good for us, but it's not something we necessarily want to do right now.
As a student leader charged with organizing a service activity, you have two choices. You can either stomp around, pout about the apathy of your members, guilt people into showing up, and plead for them to see the good they can do in the world. Or, you can make service projects more fun and appeal to other motivations. I assert that the latter works a lot better.
For several years, I worked for Push America, the national service project of my fraternity. One of the first lessons I learned was that young men had the capacity to care deeply about serving children with disabilities, but sometimes you had to get them in the door another way. Today, Push America runs three summer-long bike trips with hundreds of young fraternity men riding their bikes coast to coast. Along the way, they interact and serve people with disabilities. I believe it's the most amazing example of collegiate service in the country, and the men who participate emerge profoundly affected by the experience and the people they serve along the way.
But, the people at Push America will readily admit that the "sizzle" of spending your summer biking across the country is what gets most of the guys in the door. They are drawn in by the challenge, by the achievement, by the cool uniforms, by the once-in-a-lifetime experience. They are drawn in by 20 years of photos like the one above of my friend and fraternity brother Patrick hoisting his bike above his head in front of the U.S. Capitol. The service "high" is what they take away, but the sizzle brings many of them to the table.
There are countless other examples. You may be raising money for the amazing work of St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, but the idea of being "Up Til Dawn" having fun with your friends is part of the motivation. You might be helping end leukemia or breast cancer, but the challenge of running that mini-marathon is the fuel in the engine.
You have to find the sizzle! People like to work out, but there's a reason why they sign up at the shiny new 24Hour Super Mega Fitness that just opened. It looks so cool, doesn't it? You could work out at the rec center, but that wouldn't be half as fun would it?
If you want to boost participation and interest in your community service events, consider these suggestions:
• Consider giveaways to people who participate. Everyone who shows up gets a coupon for a free burrito from the place down the street who agreed to cosponsor the service event. What about tshirts, or water bottles, or even ribbons the participants can wear the rest of the day?
• Make your service event a coed event, if it isn't already. It's terrific that your men's basketball team is going to visit the residents at the local seniors center. But why not involve the cheerleaders, and the women's hockey team? Adding a social element makes it more fun for everyone.
• End your event with some sort of meal or a gathering at a local watering hole. Again, adding a social element is very motivating, as is promise of food and drink. Especially if it's free. Go out and get that co-sponsorship from the local joint that would love to be full of students eating and drinking at 4 pm.
• Make sure there is a goal and a sense of achievement at the end of the project. By the time those cyclists ride up to the Capitol, they are in ecstacy! All those miles totally feel worth it for that amazing final moment. How does your service event end? Is it with cheering children outside a freshly painted facility or with a lame fizzle? When you're planning your service event, you need to know how the event will culminate. Make the ending exciting. Very important.
• If you can, involve the people you are serving in the project. Painting the Boys and Girls Club is so much more fun and rewarding when you're painting it with the kids who go there.
• Add games and an element of competition. Have contests throughout the service event. Spontaneous dance contests during breaks. Awards for groups who turn out dressed in costumes. Use the uneaten donuts from the morning in a donut toss contest.
• Make it seem like a party. Why is it that you hire photographers to walk around snapping pictures at parties, but you don't hire a photographer to walk around snapping pictures during your cool service event? Always have a music. Hell, hire a DJ!
These are just a few ideas. Leading service projects is one of the coolest student leadership opportunities available, particularly when you understand that there is a large degree of salesmanship in the job done right. You need to get people in the door with the sizzle, give them a fantastic feeling while they are participating, and send them home excited about the next opportunity to serve.
