The Activist for Activists. Author of Make a Difference with Mental Health Activism and The Happy Activist: Journey the 5-Step Activism Path to Focus Your Passion and Change the World. Teacher, Psychologist, Environmental Activist, Animal Lover.
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Last Updated on February 18, 2025
Volunteer Impact: Your Effective Activism
In this post, you’ll learn about effective activism. At the end of the day are you seeing volunteer impact?
The last step in getting started in activism is checking your impact. After you find your passion, identify your skills, understand your motivation, and use what you’ve learned to match with the right activism opportunity, check to ensure you are making a difference.
In a previous post, I showed you how to apply effective altruism to effective activism. In the post, new activist Linda wonders whether her counter-protest against white supremacists made an impact. She decides her efforts had little impact. Therefore, she chooses to move in a different direction.
When you are passionate about a cause, you want your work to make a difference. So, check your volunteer impact.
[ You may also enjoy How To Make Impact With Your Activism.]
Linda Checks her Volunteer Impact
Linda looks for more impactful ways of promoting racial justice in her community. She knows that teachers are not well prepared to answer questions about race. Her students have been asking more about race since the 2016 election. She checks to see if this is true for her fellow teachers.
Linda speaks up during a grade-level planning meeting. Her fellow teachers are getting more questions about race, too, and wish to handle them better. Linda suggests a teacher and parent community training session.
Let’s look at Linda’s new activism efforts using the Effective Activism criteria.
Did Linda’s activism dramatically improve a massive number of lives?
Linda’s training activism has the potential to affect her school’s 15 teachers and 233 students and their families. Linda plans and holds the community forum. Afterward, she sends a short evaluation questionnaire to the teachers and parents/guardians, and after three months, surveys the students. Teachers rate the session as highly effective. Parent attendance was 10%, and they also find the forum highly effective. Students increased the number of questions asked from pre-forum to post-forum.
Overall estimate = approximately 335 lives impacted.
How much change did Linda make?
Linda’s goal is to counter racist attitudes in her area with support for racial justice. She focuses on helping teachers and parents talk with their kids about race. Now, students are more likely to have discussions with parents and teachers about race.
Overall estimate of change = Low, although Linda believes it is a start.
How much is the cause overlooked?
Racial justice is not a neglected area of social change. But Linda’s focus is unique in her community. As a result, Linda’s efforts provide actual practice and role modeling to better ensure skill-building.
Overall estimate of whether the cause is neglected = High.
Will my skills and passions lead to making a difference?
Because of Linda’s passion for racial justice, this is a fit. With her skills, she will achieve volunteer impact. In addition, she uses her teaching skills and her motivation to make a difference for her kids.
Overall estimate of personal fit leading to change = High.
Linda’s refocus results in more impact on her cause
Linda’s work started at her grade level and expanded to the entire school. The evaluation showed good results and the whole school system adopted the program. Linda now consults with other systems to help them make volunteer impact.
She refocused on making the most volunteer impact possible. Do the same. Keep asking yourself whether you are making the difference you want to see.
READ NEXT
I offer tools to focus your passion, pinpoint your gifts, and find the right activism opportunity. Learn more about Getting Started in Activism.
- Focus your passion and find the cause closest to your heart among the myriad of causes.
- Match your skills with the type of activism work that best suits you.
- Find an activism opportunity that works for your life.
- Determine if your social justice work truly makes an impact.
- Stay motivated in your activism for the long-term.
Browse How to Get Started in Activism
Browse How To Make Impact With Your Activism
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