Volunteers who go ‘pro’ benefit selves, community

By Deborah Moon

Volunteers’ time, energy and ideas help non-profits “build community” and “save the world”; at the same time, volunteers reap benefits including satisfaction, new friends, new skills and, for some even, a new career.

“I got involved because I wanted a closer connection to the community,” said David Fuks, who began volunteering with the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland about 18 years ago and is in his 10th year as CEO of Cedar Sinai Park. “For my older son Ben’s bris 22 years ago, we struggled to find a minyan. When Ian was born six years later, we hardly had room in my home for all the Jewish friends I’d made.”
   
Fuks transition from unaffiliated to volunteer to Jewish communal professional is far from unique. Debbi Bodie, who in 1994-2000 was Temple Beth Israel’s youngest sisterhood president, now works with Fuks at CSP where she is the chief development officer.
   
Last summer JFGP Associate Campaign Director Jen Feldman commented that two volunteers with whom she had worked closely (Julie Diamond and Marisa Brown) recently had accepted professional positions in the Jewish community. Diamond is director of development at the Oregon Jewish Community Foundation. Brown is director of communications for Mittleman Jewish Community Center and Portland Jewish Academy, where CEO Lisa Horowitz and Admissions Director Linda Singer also came up through the volunteer ranks.
   
And Feldman’s co-worker JFGP Campaign Director Laurie Rogoway began her involvement as a volunteer with federation and National Council of Jewish Women before becoming the first Portland area director of the American Jewish Committee nearly 30 years ago.
   
“So often volunteers remark somewhat enviously that those of us who work in the Jewish community must feel incredibly enriched and complete at the impact we get to make,” said Feldman. “Often those same people have found opportunities to become professionals in Jewish communal work.”
   
Several of those who moved from volunteer to professional commented on their awareness of volunteers’ needs and the importance of volunteers.
   
“I was always proud to say that I was a volunteer,” said Singer. “I loved volunteering in the community knowing that the other volunteers’ help and my help were appreciated. … (As a professional), you appreciate the volunteers because you have been one.” 
   
“There are so many needs in our community and when you volunteer and give back it is very rewarding,” said Bodie, adding that volunteers and professionals are “equally as important and I believe they go hand in hand. You can’t do one without the other.”
   
“Part of the satisfaction as a professional is helping lay leaders find the satisfaction in their volunteer work that I found and seeing them develop their skills and voices,” said Rogoway.
   
Developing skills and connections were among the ways several current professionals said they got their jobs. Several said that they were asked to apply for their current jobs because of their volunteer work.
   
Rogoway said that when she applied for her very first job with the AJC 30 years ago, she used a booklet from NCJW that showed her how to translate her volunteer experiences there and as chair of the federation’s Community Relations Committee into work skills on a resume.
   
For Horowitz, volunteering was a way to use her professional skills to benefit the community and spend time with other adults beginning when her children were preschoolers.
   
“I served as chair of the PJA board for two years and continued on the PJA and Federation boards until (former PJA head of school) Julie Smith asked me to consider becoming development director for PJA,” said Horowitz, who became chief executive officer of both PJA and
MJCC with Smith’s departure. “I consider myself truly blessed to hold my present position where I can impact the future success of two organizations that I care about deeply.”
   
Singer also joined PJA after the school approached her: “I loved working with PJA and the Jewish community, so when they called I thought I would give it a try transitioning from volunteer to professional.”
   
Fuks’ experience was similar: “I didn’t seek the job as much as respond to the fact that I was approached. … It felt appropriate to have my spiritual and personal life merge with my work life.”
   
Diamond also appreciates the melding of various aspects of her life.
   
“As a staff person, I no longer have to juggle the demands of another job plus the volunteering on top of that,” she said. “Now everything is holistic for me; work, Jewish life, family values—it all goes together and this is very sweet.”
   
Brown is emblematic of all the benefits open to volunteers. She said before her first child was born, she felt totally disconnected from the Jewish community. She said the desire to become connected Jewishly surprised her: “I guess having children changes us in surprising ways.”
   
“My federation involvement not only got me connected with scores of wonderful people, … it helped me see what a wonderful place this is,” said Brown. “I absolutely credit my involvement in federation with helping me to make a decision to pursue a professional position within the community. I am glad to have the opportunity to make a difference now.”