Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
The fundraising aspect of things like the Walk Against Homophobia and the Manchester Run in the last couple of years.
Seeing people get involved in areas where they're not used to running 10 kilometre runs.
It's just the best feeling in the world, to be honest,
and I just want more of that because once you've done it once,
once you've done it twice, you want the event to be bigger next time.
It's really addictive; it's very difficult to put down something like this once you're involved in it.
I would recommend to anyone who wants to get
into a sector like this to absolutely start off as a volunteer.
Just, you know, put your finger in all the pies and see what you want to do
because there's always so much to do.
You don't have to volunteer continuously; it might be that you just want to dip in and out
like in big events like Pride, Walk Against Homophobia,
or you might want to do something that's a bit more structured
like the helpline operator
or you might want to do group-work.
We've got something for everyone.
The staff, I think, are really supportive here. I think the staff really appreciate
our volunteers, because the simple
fact is the LGF could not do what it does without its volunteers.
Not all our volunteers and not all our staff team identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual;
you know, we work with colleagues
who identify as heterosexual. So, yeah come and volunteer. There's loads of stuff to do.
I thought: 'Am I of value to the LGF for just doing an hour?' but I got slapped, quite happily,
for that and said "Don't be
silly; any time is worth it. Any time." So you can give us an hour of helping to count
the money at the end of Pride, or
an hour of standing on a corner shaking a bucket, or an hour of going out and handing
out some leaflets or putting up some
posters a month, or something, that's fine. It's time we wouldn't have had and we appreciate
every single minute you can give.
We put the 'fun' in 'fundraising'. Shaking a bucket at a nightclub, asking people for money
and meeting the general public;
it's good fun, so that's why I'd encourage people to come and volunteer for the LGF.
Public donations, in particular, allow us to do work that we don't get funding for anywhere else,
because it's just as important that lesbians and bisexual women, or the helpline, or the counselling service,
still gets work done for the community.
Hello, Lesbian and Gay Foundation Helpline.
When people are contacting the Helpline, it's kind of like, you've got that time to talk
to them and really find out what
their issues are and what's going on for them in their life and you can start
to hopefully help them make a big difference.
We're not afraid to say thank you for raising X amount of money at Pride and this is what
it's providing and this is what it's produced,
because people want to know where their money's going and they want to
know that the money they work hard for
is being spent on the things they donated to; that they believe in.
You know, 99% of people that come to volunteer for us are happy that they did so. So I would say...
the bottom line is just
go for it, because we need your help as well We need people's help.
Come on! Volunteer!