By Bruce Urben, President
This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association’s January 2020 Newsletter edition.
Wisconsin Waterfowl Association was granted their 501(c)(3) non-profit status in May of 1985. Since 1985, our Organization has been blessed with a cadre of volunteers from all reaches of the state; small towns, large cities, rural areas and even some from outside our borders.
Bags of trash removed from Rome Pond parking lot during a volunteer clean-up day December 2019
According to Webster Dictionary, a non-profit organization is one that is dedicated to furthering a particular social cause or advocating for a shared point of view. In our case, WWA’s mission includes youth education, habitat restoration of wetlands and advocacy for conservation legislation. What this Organization accomplishes in one year could not be done without our hundreds of volunteers.
According to statistics, today more than 61 million Americans (27% of us) volunteer through non-profit organizations, with another five million finding ways to help outside any formal group. Volunteers are a huge value to non-profits, not only saving money, but providing better service to customers, increased contact with the community, make available better expertise and reduce cost of services.
A family volunteers for WWA by checking wood duck boxes.
Volunteers choose to help their causes for a variety of reasons. For some, it offers the chance to give something back to the community, or to make a difference to the people around them. For others, it provides an opportunity to develop new skills, or to build existing experience and knowledge. We all have our reason for volunteering and they are all important. From volunteering time to sell raffle tickets at an event, cutting brush at a public access point, soliciting sponsors for a program, paddling a canoe and planting wild rice, meeting with legislators to give them input on legislative bills or serving on the Board to guide the Organization; all volunteers in this Organization are the reason we can continue our mission. Volunteers are our lifeblood at WWA. You have heard me say time and time again – we can’t do it without you!
What I do know is that WWA has the best and most active volunteers I have ever seen. Define a project or a need, and there are people right there wanting to know how they can help.
2019 WI Decoy Carving Contest’s volunteer judges
As we start this New Year I thought it only fitting to honor all of our hundreds and hundreds of volunteers all over the state and beyond that make a difference for our waterfowl and wetland habitat.
We all know why we do it, and together we are able to accomplish miracles. Volunteers don’t necessarily have the time, they just have the heart. Winston Churchill said it best, “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”
Thank you for all you give!
Happy New Year!