In my home town of Burlington Ontario Canada there are four Rotary clubs. Like most service clubs there are principles to the organization that are common in every club around the world and unique characteristics that make clubs even from the same community different from each other. Like other services clubs, Rotary clubs are recruiting new members and one measure of success in a club is its membership growth. Despite the inherent competition for new members though, a philosophy exists that in the words of one of our past club presidents in Burlington, “We are like one club with four doors.” In the end it really does not matter to which individual club this new member’s dues or volunteer efforts are channeled. Rotary’s international projects such as the eradication of polio have a new ally regardless of which club it is. Local projects that support local nonprofits too have a new ally regardless of the specific club. Rotary, and all that it supports, benefits by having more than one door into its organization.

United Way understands this concept. Their innovative approach to fundraising creates a significant number of doorways to donating through the workplace community. In the big picture, does it matter if I give though where I work full time, where I work on a temporary contract, where I volunteer or directly to the United Way? No. But when their campaign is on I cannot help but to notice the number of opportunities (doorways) I have to donate.

For those of who live in Canada or have visited Canada, you can easily see how Tim Hortons understands this concept. When the goal is to get a coffee and a donut, Tim Hortons has door for you just about everywhere you go. And even though one location competes with another, they all win with each new customer because the customer who buys in one store will very likely then buy in another.

So when it comes to welcoming volunteers into new ways to get involved, can there be too many doors? A former chair at a prominent national organization in the volunteer sector put it quite succinctly “It is incumbent upon all of us to encourage and support volunteerism”. If we all do what ever we can to encourage new connections between volunteers and organizations, even if it is not our own, we all win. The corollary to this is of course is that, like the experience one has as a member of an individual Rotary club, donor to a nonprofit or customer at Tim Hortons can influence future decisions, we need also do what ever we can to ensure a good experience for the volunteer. That topic will have to wait for another blog. For now, no, there is no such thing as too many doors.