Giving back to volunteers

Volunteers offer their time, energy and invaluable ideas towards realizing the mission and vision of oikos International. Offering thousands of unpaid & free hours, their invaluable contributions remain a key part of the internal ecosystem of oikos. As a token of appreciation, gratitude and to further motivate them, oikos will be giving back to volunteers via:

• Certificates/Letter of Recommendations: Let's face it, even though we live in a world where certificates are continuously stripped off of their significance, still certificates come with this feeling of the proverbial ‘eureka’ and a sense of finality, mentally opening that door of imagining what the future holds. Beyond being tokens of appreciation from oikos, certificates can also be used by volunteers in their hunt for future opportunities—say, scholarships & fellowships—to prove how far they've gone in selflessly offering hundreds of their hours freely to help create a better world for all.

• Training opportunities: Via their volunteer role(s) at oikos, volunteers have already demonstrated and proven their individual capacity in carrying out collaborative tasks and their inner drive to work for the collective good of the world. It is only logical and fair to give them the first eye when it comes to oikos’ development & training programs such as LEAP YOUth. After all, ‘one good turn deserves another,’ so the saying goes.

• oikos Camp participation: As an event in which students from all over the world gather in order to develop projects related to sustainability and education over a week, oikos Camp sounds one beautiful way of giving back to volunteers. It will offer them an opportunity of ‘physically’ feeling oikos and its culture in a new, probably never-visited location while getting to work in bridging the disconnect between today's education and the question of sustainability.

• Team retreats & travels to conferences

• Giving them space for, and helping them with, networking.

• oikos Team member thank-you call (maybe email?)

• Post their Bio and a picture of them on our website where we showcase our volunteers.

• Consider sharing about their efforts on social media

• Encourage them to add oikos Volunteers to their LinkedIn and resume and that they should feel free to ask for a job referral or recommendation