Giving Tuesday: Coaching to Make an Impact
This year, Giving Tuesday will take place on December 3.
To celebrate the ICF Foundation’s #GivingTuesday efforts we would like to share how you can give and illustrate ways that charitable giving can positively impact your life and others around you:
1) Give Back to Your Community
The ICF Foundation works in service of ICF’s vision of making coaching an integral part of a thriving society. As a coach, you can bring this vision to life. Ask your ICF Chapter Leader if your Chapter is part of the Foundation’s Ignite initiative. If not, maybe you’re the coach to start one!
Even if you’re not part of an ICF Chapter, consider utilizing the Foundation’s Ignite resources for pro bono coaching projects. Being generous by donating your time to people or organizations can impact someone’s life in big ways.
Volunteering can also give you the opportunity to learn about the issues going on in your community and enable you to develop new skills and make new connections with people who are also committed to making a positive impact in your community.
Research shows that volunteering leads to better health and that as you continue to volunteer throughout your life, you are more likely to receive physical and mental health benefits from volunteer activities, such as lower mortality rates, greater functional ability, and lower rates of depression.
2) Bring More Meaning to Your Life
Giving to organizations and causes that you believe in can give you something to represent and support for the rest of your life. As an international day of charitable giving, Giving Tuesday is the perfect day to take action.
Giving your career a purpose and finding the passion in your work is a great way to get involved. Foundation volunteers—including Ignite project managers, pro bono coaches who have volunteered their time and skills as part of a Foundation initiative, and members of the Foundation’s Council of Ambassadors—have done exactly that by engaging participation in initiatives that ignite social change.
Another way to get involved is by proposing an article for the Foundation’s blog. Suggested proposal topics include pro bono coaching in your practice, applying the ICF Core Competencies in the nonprofit setting and measuring return on investment and return on expectations in nonprofit organizations.
3) Develop a Mindset of Willingness
Donating your time and or money is a great way to improve your way of life and happiness. And as a coach that is what you strive to do every day for the lives of others. It is important that you are keeping yourself in good mental and physical health as well.
Developing a giving mindset is an instant mood booster and can influence long-term wellbeing and happiness. Consider research from the University of Zurich that showed simply pledging to being generous with your money (as opposed to spending it on yourself) can positively impact altruism and happiness, as well as contributing to more generous decision-making overall.
The Foundation’s mission is to connect and equip professional coaches and organizations to accelerate and amplify impact on social progress though coaching. Join us in celebrating #GivingTuesday on December 3, 2019, by making an investment in the ICF Foundation and ending your year with a mindset of generosity.