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The sofa

I was sitting on my sofa one day last summer.

It was one of those days where the routine feels a little too routine. I’d recently stumbled across a book about the link between the act of giving and happiness. A question came to mind. Can life be pretty good but have something seriously big missing?

That’s exactly how I felt. Laptop in lap, I googled ‘volunteer’.

There were pages of results. I thought I’d found what I was looking for. After searching around 7-8 charity websites, it was clear all of them required speaking to someone at the charity to inquire about volunteering.
Failure

So I did. I was pretty excited. I called 3 of them right then and there.

First call

First call: Very nice lady answers the phone. I say hello and ask about volunteering opportunities and she puts me through to someone else.

Another very nice lady. She says I’ll have to fill out a criminal record bureau (CRB) check to do any work with their charity and that would take between 6-8 weeks to complete. I was itching to do something that weekend. “Sorry Sir, it doesn’t work like that.”

So I said something like “Sounds great, thank you very much I’ll get back in touch if I don’t find anything else”.

Second call

On to the next. A very nice lady answers. She explains they have a volunteer program and participants need to make a commitment for 6 months, after completing a 2-day orientation course. Is that something I would be able to do, she asked. Sounds exciting, but nothing simple this week or this weekend? No, I’m afraid not.

Third call

And onto the third. Again, a nice lady answers the phone. Yes, we do have an volunteer program. It’s in Kenya for 4 months and you stay on a farm and work with families teaching in a local school. Wow, that sounds amazing I thought. Unfortunately I was working full-time and my boss wouldn’t have agreed with my Wow. How about something simple this weekend, I ask. No, sorry sir. Just the full-time program.

I remember half-smiling, saying thanks and sitting there on the sofa.
Friends

The next day I told some good friends about my failed attempts to do good. Turned out a few of them had very similar experiences. My curiosity was sparked. I started asking people at work, in the pub, on the tube, everywhere. Within a week I was hooked on one question: Why is it so hard to do good?

Friends got involved. We did a questionnaire with over 500 people in Hyde Park, talking for hours in the pub and thinking about the logistical, psychological and other barriers to doing good.

The barriers

It was clear: people wanted to help charities but the large majority didn’t know what to do, were very turned off by criminal record bureau checks and didn’t have time to go to Africa for 4 months. Some others said, ‘what’s in it for me?’ or ‘why should I bother?’

We found some people who had amazingly positive experiences and getting involved in a charity had changed life. Unfortunately they were the exception. Most people’s attitudes towards charity and volunteering was far from positive. People were turned off by the bucket collectors in streets, depressing negative advertising on television and phone calls from solicitors working on behalf of charities to raise money.

Time to get off the sofa

It seemed like there was something that could be done there. After months of thinking, talking and a kick in the butt from some very good friends, that was it. I left my job and we launched LeapAnywhere in June 2009.

The aim: Come up with a better way to do good. More fun. More simple. Less about the money. More about the ‘what’s in it for me?’ and the ‘why should I care?’

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