My Nonprofit Reviews

I've been working as a mentor for three seasons now and am constantly blown away by the care, creativity, and management of this nonprofit. The group has at least three dimensions—monthly genre-specific workshops, weekly one-on-one mentorships, and college prep. Each volunteer is encouraged to work behind the scenes as well, be it on curriculum development, publicity, mentee outreach, and a handful of other high-value teams. My team, curriculum/workshop development, spends much of our time coming up with fresh ideas for workshops (we never repeat an activity!), and ALL of our time thinking about how girls can benefit from the material—keeping the work positive, fun, engaging, and creatively compelling. The girls/mentees can speak to the value of the work—I will speak to the value of the program to mentors themselves. I cannot do a lick of work for this organization without higher-level executive managers tripping over themselves to thank me, effusively, for my help, even leaving volunteers with food, drink, and gifts! Typical volunteers don't do work for the thank you or the pat on the back, but it sure is nice to know that you are appreciated. What's more, the volunteers—all accomplished female writers from every genre (fiction, poetry, screenwriting, memoir, journalism, songwriting)—are supportive of one another, providing mentoring advice, friendship, and even writing advice and job leads. The volunteer workload is as heavy or light as you want it to be, and there's always a "please" and a heartfelt "thank you" attending every request. The group is also run absolutely METICULOUSLY, with every "I" dotted and every "T" crossed—never, ever, have I ever left a meeting thinking that things could be done better in any way, big or small. With that said, management is always more than open—and always asking—for ideas to lift its game, which is already operating at the highest levels. Finally, I can't say enough about this group's positivity. No matter how busy I might be with my own writing and family obligations, I find myself uplifted and inspired after leaving a WriteGirl meeting or workshop. Volunteering for this group is like meditation or exercise—it's an absolute necessity for my spirit.