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Community • Social Impact and Purpose

Combine Elements of the Points of Light Civic Circle® to Amplify Your Social Impact

How can you amplify your efforts by combining different civic activities? Read on for some tips and inspiring examples.
Diane Quest

Diane Quest

3 Min Read

 If you’re looking to amplify your impact as you contribute to social good, start by considering which activities you’re engaging in. The truth is that civic engagement comes in many forms, and by combining various types of efforts, you can make your impact exponential rather than linear. 

Points of Light’s Civic Circle® is a framework that helps guide individuals to live full civic lives by demonstrating nine different ways to get involved in causes they care about. Today, we’ll cover three of these avenues so you can consider how you might combine them to magnify your efforts and make your impact stretch that much further. 

Volunteering 

Of course, when many people think of civic engagement, they think of lending their time and talent through volunteerism. And for good reason – nonprofit organizations and NGO’s thrive on the collective power of their volunteers. Volunteers enable these organizations to do the best work they can with the resources they’ve been allotted. 

It’s a good idea to think through your volunteer activities to ensure they align with your passions, capabilities and schedule. Whether you volunteer once a month for a few hours, a few times a year with a corporate team or every weekend, you are making a difference in the world! 

See how Daily Point of Light Award honoree Dallas Smith lends his time and talents as a volunteer pharmacist in his community. 

Donating 

When you donate to a cause or organization you care about, you allow for your dollars or goods to be put to the best use possible to benefit others. Donating allows organizations to continue their mission and spread awareness about a cause area. Donations can also directly benefit recipients – as in the case of a natural disaster. 

Be aware that donating is only helpful if the donations – monetary or in-kind – are truly what the organization needs. Unwanted or unneeded donations are often trashed, contributing to waste. So be sure to do your research and ask for what donations are most helpful before you donate! 

See how Daily Point of Light Award honoree Sofia Petito collects and makes use of donations in her community. 

Using Your Voice 

Everyone has the ability to use their voice to elevate the causes they care about. Whether you’re sharing information via social media, talking to friends or family members about a specific issue, or marching in a peaceful protest, you can use your voice – which includes your own opinions, perspectives and concerns – as well as contributing to a collective voice rallying around a cause area.  

Combining your voice with other types of civic engagement can be a powerful way to make your mission and message louder, clearer or more accessible to others. That said, be mindful that you don’t use the element of voice for performative activism, but rather that you “walk the walk” along with “talking the talk”! 

See how Daily Point of Light Award honoree Tristan Espinoza is amplifying the voices of indigenous peoples. 

  • civic circle
  • civic engagement
  • Inspiration
  • Leadership
  • Points of Light
  • Self Improvement
  • social impact
  • volunteering
Published July 5, 2023

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Author(s)

  • Diane Quest

    Diane Quest

    Interim President and CEO

    Points of Light

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    Diane Quest is the chief operating officer at Points of Light and has served as an executive leader with the organization since 2016. An accomplished nonprofit executive, she brings 20 years of experience in management, strategy, and external affairs, including marketing and communications, event production and experience, and partnerships. In her tenure at Points of Light, she has served in a variety of roles as a member of the executive leadership team responsible for enterprise strategy, and most recently she served as chief external affairs officer, where she was responsible for brand strategy, the annual Points of Light Conference, The George H.W. Bush Points of Light Awards and Celebration, and The Daily Point of Light Award. Diane has an extensive background in strategic and crisis communications. In her previous role at MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership she successfully led a rebranding effort, a strategy that resulted in increased visibility in earned media and social media, and the doubling of registration at the organization’s annual national conference. Prior to MENTOR, she was a consultant with Camino Public Relations, a boutique firm with a focus on social justice nonprofit clients. She served at The Pew Charitable Trusts as the communications manager for a jointly sponsored advocacy project with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Prior to her work at Pew, Diane was the national media director at the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. She managed the development and implementation of media relations campaigns to advance the mission of the $1 billion reproductive health care and advocacy organization. In addition to her nonprofit work, Diane also has experience working within the federal government. She was the media and legislative affairs liaison for the inspector general at the U.S. Department of State. Before entering the field of communications and public relations, she was a television journalist. She has a Master of Arts in political science from American University in Washington, D.C., and a Bachelor of Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin.
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