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Tips & Transparency: getting involved and supporting CSW
Updated: Jun 5, 2019
As an entirely volunteer run organization, it's often very difficult recruiting team members, volunteers, passionate ambassadors and even donors. Imagine that! It's hard to find people to support good things happening in the world!
If you're feeling at all surprised, don't worry, you're not alone. In fact, it often surprises us just how difficult it can be to enroll others in our mission. While it's hard to determine exactly why it's so hard, we'd venture a guess that there's a lot of factors such as time, money, energy, being unsure of who or where to donate to, not knowing what organizations are legitimate, a lack of transparency about where donations are going to, lack of interest, or the overwhelm that comes with having too many things to care about in this ever changing world of ours.
Despite these challenges, there is still a group of wonderful giving humans who do care and who do want to get involved regardless of how big or small their involvement. It's these people who make our work possible. We especially love when these individuals aren't afraid to exercise their rights as donors and ask questions about where their hard work, support and donations ultimately go. It's this care and consideration that allows you to give back and actually feel good about it.
After receiving a lot of questions from our community about how they can support CSW, we thought it would be a great idea to shed a little light on our organization and offer you some easy ways to get involved.
Where do my donations go?
CSW is an entirely volunteer run organization and this makes it possible to keep our operating costs to the bare minimum. What is our annual operating cost you ask? Less than $1000 CAD per year. This includes costs for maintaining our website, our domain, social media management software and the odd office supplies. Our operating budget is often funded out of pocket by CSW team members who work hard to keep our vision alive and sponsors who are knowingly donating to help cover some of our operating costs.
As a non-profit organization supported entirely by our donors, CSW answers to you. This means that when we say proceeds from your donations are funding a specific project, we mean that 100% of the proceeds are going towards that project. If not, we'll be specific about it and you'll know.
Finally, in comparison to other Non-Profit Organizations and Charities who fund large six figure salaries for CEOs and marketing campaigns, our annual operating costs are a tiny fraction of this. The hard work by our unpaid team of volunteers proves that large operating costs are not necessary and lots can be done with a little love and generosity.
How can I support or get involved with CSW ?
There are several ways that our community can help us on our mission. To make it easy, here's a simple list of what you can do:
Follow CSW on Instagram and Facebook. We post lots of great content that helps keep you informed and in the loop.
Engage with us by commenting and liking our content. If you like what you see, or have something to say, tell us!
Share your stories and ideas with us. Are you working on a cool project that's in line with our values? We want to hear about it. Send us an email or message us on social media and we'll make this happen!
Introduce us to those you know who are up to similar and interesting work in the community. Networking is an important part of community and relationship building and we appreciate every connection we make.
Host a fundraiser. If you, your school, your team, or your company are looking for a worthwhile organization and project to donate to, we'd love to be that for you. People love coming together for a good cause and our work at CSW is a cause worth celebrating.
Send us your content. If you like photography and are looking for a chance to showcase your photos of animals, landscapes, or people send them to us for a feature on our social channels. To share your, content tag #youllfindmeoutside and we'll get you featured. You'll get all the credit and we'll help get your stuff out there. #collaboration
Give a gift. Did you know that we offer a corporate and staff reward program? If you find yourself looking for a meaningful gift to reward your staff for birthdays or occasions, consider gifting a donation. In return, we'll send a personalized thank you to those who you're donating on behalf of.
Invite us to speak. Our team is made up of passionate motivated individuals with amazing stories to share. Are you looking for a speaker to come out and inspire your group or community? We'd love to be a part of that.
Talk about our cause. If you find yourself in an interesting conversation about charities and non-profits, drop our name and share what we're up to in the world.
Attend one of our events. Community is the most exciting when we come out and celebrate together. When you get a chance, come out and join us for one of our events.
Volunteer at an event. It takes a lot of hard work to execute an event and volunteers are always needed. Looking for community service hours? We'll help you get them. Send us an email and we'll reach out to you with future volunteer opportunities.
Join the team. We are always looking for like-minded individuals who share our values to take on roles within the organization. Whatever skills you bring to the team, we'll find a way to use them. We offer flexible volunteer hours to everyone involved so you can give as much or as little as you can. Click here to visit our website and learn more.
Register for the Botshabelo Volunteer Experience and see first hand, what our little organization can do with big goals, a lot of heart and tons of team work.
Finally, the easiest way to get involved, support our work, and give back in a meaningful way is to make a donation. Thanks to the love and kindness of our community over the last five years, CSW has shown the world that a little bit really does go a long way.
But the bottom line is simple, it takes a village. We hope that you know that which ever way you choose to get involved with CSW, it makes a difference.
Have questions? What to know more? Have a great idea for ways to get involved or support our work? We'd love to hear from you.
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