Volunteer Peterborough has received a $12,000 grant from The Commonwell Mutual Insurance Group to help bolster local volunteerism by raising awareness of the volunteer match-making service.
The not-for-profit organization is one of 11 projects across Ontario that were granted a total of $400,000 in funding this year from The Commonwell’s Learning Engagement and Accelerator Fund (L.E.A.F.), which invests in community-based projects that build capacity and resiliency.
“We received more than $3.7 million in funding requests this year, highlighting its crucial role in supporting communities,” says The Commonwell’s president Tim Shauf about the program. “Our L.E.A.F. grants are about caring beyond us and beyond now.”
Created in 2023, Volunteer Peterborough is an online and in-person service that helps match people who want to volunteer with non-profit organizations that need volunteers. The organization works in partnership with the Peterborough and Kawarthas Chamber of Commerce, Community Foundation of Greater Peterborough, Age-friendly Peterborough, Peterborough County, Telecare Peterborough, and more.
According to Volunteer Peterborough’s submission to The Commonwell for its “Making Volunteer Connections” project, non-profit organizations lost around half of their volunteers during the pandemic, and only around 40 per cent have since returned.
Although Volunteer Peterborough can facilitate the volunteer recruitment process, many organizations are unaware of the service’s benefits and continue to follow their legacy practices, which makes volunteer matching “more tedious and less successful.”
“Volunteerism faces a number of barriers, including general awareness,” says Volunteer Peterborough founder Lois Tuffin.
“This program will help to match interested volunteers to opportunities in our community. By matching the right people and skills to roles, we can help build confidence and independence for prospective volunteers while creating lasting benefits for organizations who rely on volunteer support.”
For more information about Volunteer Peterborough, visit volunteerpeterborough.ca.
The Commonwell Mutual Insurance Group was established in 2014 as an amalgamation of Farmers Mutual Insurance Company (Lindsay), Glengarry Mutual Insurance Company, and Lanark Mutual Insurance Company.
Previously supporting community resiliency through its Create a Ripple Effect (C.A.R.E.) initiative that provided over $5.5 million in grants, The Commonwell recently updated the initiative to create two new core programs: L.E.A.F. and the The SEEDit Initiative, which inspires food sharing by supporting backyard gardening.
