A defining feature of young professionals, particularly millennials, is their keen interest in community engagement. It’s something employers can’t ignore because intense competition for their professional skills makes accommodating their interest in community service a business necessity, and it’s something nonprofits can’t ignore because of the readily available supply of willing volunteers.
One local nonprofit tapping into this reservoir of community engagement is Gilda’s Club Madison, which has established a young professionals associate board known as Club Red to augment the support it provides to cancer patients and their families. It’s one of many ways companies and nonprofits are engaging “YPs” in volunteering and serving on their boards and committees.
For Ben Halfen, 35, branch manager for Adecco General Staffing in Monona, work-life-charity balance is very important because like other young adults he wants to work for an employer who contributes something good and meaningful to the community beyond the business services it offers.
At first, Halfen’s motivations were admittedly self-centered. One of 470 local Gilda’s Club volunteers, he was attracted to the personal and professional development that’s gained when volunteering his time, including networking, references, and resume building.
As he spent time planning for and volunteering at events and programs like Tuesday night meals, where a variety of local groups cook meals for cancer patients and their families, he began to experience emotionally fulfilling benefits, as well.
Halfen had read that people who volunteer generally experience both emotional and physical benefits, but that didn’t hit home until he experienced it first hand. From that point on, whatever emotional and physical benefits he derives have been the least of his concerns.
“Once I got involved, I realized that there are so many benefits to just building those relationships and being able to network and communicate with other professionals in the area,” he notes. “Once you get involved and you realize how you’re making a difference or a contribution, it really changes things for you.”
Going with Gilda
Among of the things that have changed is that Halfen is chairman of Club Red, which puts him in a position — an enviable position — to involve other young professionals in the cause. Before joining Club Red, he was well aware of Gilda’s Club’s sterling reputation, but had no personal experience with the devastation cancer can bring to families other than a relative who had battled and survived liver cancer. Now that he’s been brought up to speed, he makes personal time to connect with Club Red members and others interested in learning about Gilda’s Club.
Halfen has come to appreciate the motivation of the organization’s namesake, the legendary Saturday Night Live cast member Gilda Radner, whose death from ovarian cancer and her concern about a lack of support for people with cancer spurred the formation of the club. In Madison alone, more than 400 support groups and nearly 150 youth programs augment the work of Gilda’s Club.
“Gilda Radner said she wished there was a community that understood what it was like to go through cancer and support each other,” Halfen notes. “When she got cancer, there wasn’t anyone around her that could relate to what she was going through. She wanted to provide a place where people could gather, and from the beginning the club expanded on that.”
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Club Red is doing plenty of expanding, too, as its members also serve as ambassadors for Gilda’s Club and help spread awareness of what the organization does to support cancer patients and their families. They also have fun doing so, if annual fundraising events such as Gilda’s Backyard Barbecue are any indication.
The barbecue draws recognizable figures such as University of Wisconsin Athletic Director Barry Alvarez and wife Cindy — a former Gilda’s Club Madison board chair and now board member emeritus — and while Halfen appreciates they way they make everyone feel part of the effort, the real rock stars are the patients and their families.
“When you hear the stories people tell of their families or themselves about how they were supported by Gilda’s Club and what a difference it made for them, and to be part of 300 people at the Backyard Barbecue that are all contributors to that end, it’s pretty amazing,” he states. “Even if you’re the young guy who just came in and who has been there only six months, the people who’ve been supporting the cause for the past 10 years made us all walk away from that event feeling a great sense of pride.”
“Being able to shake the hands of people who have beat cancer and knowing how we impacted their family, that’s very, very rewarding.”
Mission critical
Gilda’s Club isn’t the only nonprofit with a formal structure for attracting young professionals. Lannia Stenz, executive director and CEO of Gilda’s Cub Madison, cited the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center and the Urban League of Greater Madison as organizations that have done an exemplary job of incorporating young professionals in leadership positions.
“Most of the time, when you are talking about a board of directors, these are folks that are long established in their careers,” Stenz notes. “One of the things an associate board does for us is bring excitement, new ideas, and a different perspective.
“Every club is a little bit different but as far as our Club Red goes, it’s an opportunity for us to engage emerging leaders in our mission.”
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