What better way to show your corporation’s achievements than by giving back to the communities you serve and work in every day? For Neuberger Berman, when it came time to plan the perfect celebration for their two-year anniversary for their re-establishment, the decision was easy – join New York Cares to better our great city!Their enthusiastic employees recently worked on six New York Cares volunteer projects as part of their Celebration with Service Week. Here are some of the highlights of their great work!

Gardening at Fort Greene Park— Serving as the kickoff for their Celebration with Service Week, this family-friendly project was held on a crisp morning in Brooklyn revitalizing the borough’s first public space designated as a park. Volunteers spent the morning clearing gardens and playgrounds of leaves and organic debris, replacing protective fencing, repairing areas subjected to erosion and sprucing up the park’s storage house by giving it a fresh coat of paint. Their impact was tremendous as these Neuberger Berman employees and family members were able to accomplish in two and half hours what would have taken four parks employees five days and 160 man hours of work to accomplish.

Revitalizing Lower East Side Ecology Center (LESEC)— Founded by Outstanding Renewal Enterprises, Inc. to increase recycling efforts, the LESEC now serves as the steward for many acres of the East River Park. Neuberger Berman volunteers helped revitalize critical areas of this green space by spreading compost and mulch, weeding and planting native plant beds and ensuring safe habitats for native butterflies, bees and birds. Read the rest of this entry »

When some people hear the word “taxes,” they think of number crunching, confusing forms, and headaches. But when others hear the word, they think “opportunity.” People like our dedicated volunteers and Community Partners, Ariva and NYCfNAC, who turned tax headaches into relief for some low-income New Yorkers this year.

Here are some tax numbers you’ll actually enjoy reading: 250 volunteers, 10,600 tax returns filed, and $18,160,000 in refunds. That’s more than $18 million dollars back in the pockets of low-income New Yorkers -  money that can make a big difference, especially in this economy.

What kind of impact can $18 million make? One example is 22-year-old South Bronx resident Angela*. Angela supports her live-in boyfriend, two children, and is expecting a baby girl. She works at a sporting goods store, earning a little more than $9,000 last year. When our volunteers asked Angela about her financial goals, she said she wanted to put $500 in a savings account for her new baby. Our enthusiastic volunteers set to work and were able to get Angela – drum roll please – a $6,800 refund! That’s a great early present for Angela’s new baby. Read the rest of this entry »

New York Cares is committed to fostering leadership among our volunteers, and each year we host a Leadership Conference to help our most highly engaged volunteers explore new ways of enhancing the impact of their projects.

Attendees will hear from keynote speaker Diahann Billings-Burford, New York City’s first Chief Service Officer, as well as experts from local organizations on such topics as:

• Volunteer Retention and Recognition
• New York City’s Diminishing Food Supply
• The Changing Face of Unemployment
• Getting to Know New York Cares’ Client Populations
• Making Your Volunteer Experience Work for You

Team Leaders and volunteers who are interested in getting more involved with New York Cares are invited to attend this year’s conference on Saturday, March 27. Contact Takisha.Dozier@newyorkcares.org to find out more.

New York Cares Day, New York City’s largest day of volunteer service, brings out 8,000 volunteers to revitalize public schools and fundraise for New York Cares. Diane Conroy, a New York Cares Annual Events Manager, is hard at work planning the day.

Q: What makes New York Cares Day so important?

A: New York City has the largest public school system in the United States, serving about 1.1 million students. Read the rest of this entry »

Spring brings New York Cares gardening projects. Last weekend, 18 volunteers went to Added Value farms, a 2.75 acre urban farm in Red Hook, Brooklyn, that engages local youth to take part in planting, harvesting, and selling the crops they produce.

Weeds completely covered the field, but New York Cares volunteers worked alongside teenagers from the surrounding community to pull every last one, clearing 6,000 square feet in less than three hours. Once we reached that goal, we continued on to weed the entire east side of the farm, way more than the farm had originally planned to do. At the end of the day, we kicked back with some homemade hibiscus tea and surveyed a job well done.

Ready to get your hands in the dirt? Find your gardening project.

According to this recent story on CNN (from O, The Oprah Magazine) about what makes people happy and relieves stress, volunteer work is one of the three “most reliable vehicles for uplift.”

Look for a mention of New York Cares and the surge of  new volunteers who’ve joined us.

This weekend CNN featured New York Cares in a piece on the recent surge of unemployed people coming to volunteer.

CNN stopped by our office last week to film an orientation and interview our Executive Director, Gary Bagley, about how New York Cares has been stepping up to meet the demand.

In February, twice as many new volunteers attended a New York Cares orientation as did last year, and about a third of them said they had chosen to start volunteering because of a recent job change.

Watch the piece here.

If you’ve started volunteering because you’re not working and are willing to speak to media, our Communications team would love to hear from you at nycares@nycares.org or 212-228-5000.

If you watched Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game, you probably caught President Obama’s video encouraging all Americans to serve their communities.

Looking for a great way to follow through? Volunteer on Hands On New York Day, Saturday, April 25. On this day, 5,000 volunteers will revitalize parks, gardens, playgrounds, and other public spaces across the five boroughs while raising money for New York Cares. Registration starts today–get your coworkers and friends to form a team to make a difference.

Have you volunteered on Hands On New York Day in the past? Leave a comment about your experience. Your words might just inspire the next round of volunteers.

Our ED Gary Bagley did a great interview and call-in show with Brian Lehrer  of WNYC radio on MLK day (Jan 19th).

We’ve been remiss in posting a link, so we hereby present it for those who may have missed it.

Listen to the interview on WNYC.

As you’ve probably seen on our home page, we’re expanding volunteer projects in Staten Island. From now on, we’ll be running local orientations for volunteers and engaging nonprofits to bring volunteer programs to the people in Staten Island who need them most.

We’re thrilled to be expanding beyond our big service days (like New York Cares Day, etc.) to better serve the borough at long last.

The Staten Island Advance, THE Staten Island paper, wrote an editorial about us on Sunday.

You can read it here.