I Spend My Free Time Working With Non-Profits — And It’s Unexpectedly Boosted My Business

I volunteer because I enjoy it and I genuinely want to make a difference in the causes I’m involved in. But aside from personal fulfillment, my charity work — which includes serving as an active board member for non-profit organizations — has rewarded me with so much more.

At SellUP, many of our initial clients have come from relationships I built while volunteering. Of course, your objective should never be to propel your business forward — you have to pick an issue and organization you’re genuinely passionate about. But when you approach non-profit work in an authentic, altruistic way, you can form some amazing connections and relationships that can increase your success in business tenfold.

In my case, at some non-profits, I was collaborating closely with people it would have taken me years to get in touch with otherwise.

In this atmosphere, I had the opportunity to reveal my values and work ethic to important people on a level playing field. I was able to show the people I worked with at non-profits that I’m a trustworthy, reliable person who makes good decisions — which tells people a bit about how I run my own business.

I’m proud to say volunteering has been a true game-changer, both for my business and my personal life. Here’s how:

When you work with non-profits, you can build a positive reputation while working alongside many highly successful people.

When I started my email marketing company, I was already a board member at two non-profits, and I was president of one of them.

A lot of opportunities opened up easily because of that alone. Being active in charity work shows who you are and your character, and in business, people like to know that the person and company they’re working with align with their values.

It gets you to that point where people you’ve volunteered with say, “That’s a person I want to do business with, and I’m going to find a way to do business with them” or, “I’m going to introduce them to people I know would want to work with them.” In my experience, this has happened over and over again.

Plus, I’d been sitting on boards alongside many highly successful people — fundraising with them, negotiating contracts with them, or even planning out the future of an organization with them.

What’s special about working at a non-profit is that everyone’s working for free — and that’s a powerful equalizer. If you’re doing business with a much larger corporation, the smaller organization is typically in a subservient role. But in the non-profit world, that dynamic doesn’t exist. Because everyone’s working toward the same goal — a greater good.

But I never forced these relationships — or even entered a non-profit position with networking in mind.

When you want to do business with a person or company, you usually have to pitch them: “I think my business is well positioned to help you with the issue you’re dealing with. I’d love the chance to discuss how we can work together.”

But while volunteering, these types of connections happen organically.

For example, while working with someone on a non-profit project, I realized through conversation that I was likely able to help them solve a sales issue they were experiencing at work. They’re now a happy client. I’ve also made friends who have then introduced me to their CEO friends who are also now satisfied clients.

That’s just how it works. At the end of the day, people prefer to do business with friends who they trust and respect.

Working with non-profits has directly provided a number of major wins for my business.

On one non-profit board, I worked with someone who was running a promising startup out of his garage.

I advised him for a number of years. Eventually, that $200,000 startup became a $2 million business. Today, they’re worth over $60 million — and are one of our most valued clients. In fact, our first-ever client — and for a number of years, our biggest client — was someone I met serving on my children’s private school board.

Both companies were major success stories, and I feel we played a part in that in both cases. And I never would have had either opportunity had I not been involved in non-profits.

I should mention that, before they signed on, I looked into conflicts of interest. After all, I was the president of the non-profit board that advised the startup. Luckily, everything checked out in both cases. Always consider this kind of thing when mixing volunteering with business, though — especially if you serve in a leadership role at a non-profit.

Volunteering has improved my personal life as well.

I’ll always make time for volunteering — even when it’s not easy. And it rarely is.

Because I genuinely believe volunteering makes a person more well-rounded. For those of us who are CEOs or executives during the day, non-profit work serves as a reminder that you don’t always have assistants to hand off tasks to. The vast resources of a big corporation aren’t usually available at non-profits. You may not be able to hire a research agency to provide direction while working on a big project, for example — so you’re doing the research yourself.

These reminders are humbling.

Plus, when I look back on what I accomplished in a given year, I always view my volunteer work as an incredibly meaningful, fulfilling achievement. Whether it be the amount of money I helped raise for a non-profit or a particular individual in whose life I made a difference, every experience I’ve had while volunteering has built my confidence and kept me grounded.

Getting involved in non-profit work is the most impactful decision I’ve made in terms of my overall success — both professional and personal.