Featured: TurnOut in the San Francisco Examiner

The San Francisco Examiner, a local paper on all-things San Francisco, wrote about TurnOut and the difficulties of low volunteer turnouts during the holidays in the article “How San Francisco Nonprofits Count On Your Holiday Spirit” by Natalia Gurevich.

Gurevich wrote about a conversation with Jack Beck, our Executive Director:

“For many, the holiday season means Christmas trees, candy canes, hot chocolate and gifts wrapped in colorful paper.

But for some, it’s time to give back — and nonprofits in San Francisco count on a spike in volunteering and donations as people embrace the holiday spirit.

“We’re really fortunate and really thankful for everybody who comes to volunteer around the holiday season,” said Cody Jang, the associate director of community engagement at the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank.

Throughout the year, the food bank aims to have around 2,000 volunteers during the week, but usually doesn’t make that goal. During the holiday season, it usually meets the threshold — or surpasses it.

“People are thinking about being thankful and thinking about serving others,” he said.

The food bank’s operations span two counties and help feed around 50,000 households every week, up from 32,000 before the pandemic.

Volunteers are especially needed for the warehouses and pop-up pantries as well as home food deliveries, for which groceries are picked up from the warehouses and dropped off at the doorsteps of those most in need.

“Regardless of the time of year, that is the most challenging,” Jang said. “Seventy percent of our distribution is fresh produce, so we need to really make sure that we’re continuing to deliver and distribute on a consistent basis.”

The food bank needs volunteers seven days a week, which can be difficult with outside scheduling conflicts such as work and school. But during the holidays, people might have more flexibility — and that’s where that extra push comes in.

“We’re really appreciative of that, and it makes sense that some people have time,” Jang said. “We want people to remember that in the new year, it’s still a great time as well.”

January and February see the lowest number of volunteers, Jang said.

“In the new year, many people make their New Year’s resolutions to go back to the gym or to eat healthy and there’s less messaging on helping out,” he said.

Other organizations see a similar drop-off after the holidays as well.

“January to March is definitely our low season,” said Jack Beck, the executive director of TurnOut, an LGBTQ volunteer organization that operates in the Bay Area. “Everyone is getting their year started, focusing on getting back to work after the holidays.”

TurnOut links volunteers with roughly 170 LGBTQ+ organizations. It has about 6,000 volunteers in its network and makes around 2,100 volunteer referrals a year.

Beck said many nonprofits don’t have as much programming during those months, either, providing fewer volunteer opportunities.

During the holiday season, there are many opportunities for people to give back to the LGBTQ+ community, such as meals during Thanksgiving and Christmas, and performances.

Unlike other nonprofits though, LGBTQ+ organizations might get their biggest boost every year in June, during Pride month, as opposed to the holiday season.

“We have steady interest throughout the rest of the year, but we don’t see a significant increase during the holidays,” Beck said.

Glide Memorial Church provides breakfast, lunch and dinner for The City’s unhoused population, along with other essential services, and during the holiday season it sometimes has to turn volunteers away.

“Everybody wants to volunteer for Thanksgiving or for Christmas,” said Khaboshi Imbukwa, the volunteer program coordinator at Glide. “But after that, people still need their breakfast.”

The rest of the year — and again, in the months after the holidays — it can be tough to fill each meal slot with an adequate number of volunteers, said Imbukwa.

“I want to encourage a lot of people to come on the 26th and the 27th (of December), through January, February, throughout the year,” she said. “Breakfast, lunch and dinner need about 25 volunteers each.”

On average, she estimates that Glide feeds at least 300 people a day, as many as 500 on Thursdays when it serves its “famous” fried chicken.

For other nonprofits, this time of year is not only the most significant time for volunteering, it’s also the time of the most need.

The Gubbio Project, a Mission district-based nonprofit offering services and resources for The City’s unhoused population, sees both an uptick in volunteering and donations during the holidays, but said they could use even more.

“Blankets and jackets,” said Andy McCabe, the program manager for The Gubbio Project. “The wintertime can also bring a lot of rain. A lot of times blankets get destroyed or it’s just very cold, especially at nighttime.”

People wind up coming in needing blankets on almost a daily basis during this time of year, he said. They lose them sometimes, as unhoused people often prefer to travel light, or sometimes they get taken by the Department of Public Works during encampment cleanups.

“We go through a lot of a lot of blankets and a lot of jackets right now just trying to keep people warm,” he said.

Typically, the organization gets around 10 to 15 volunteers a week to help serve coffee or meals, or more administrative tasks such as sorting through donations and assembling hygiene kits. During the holidays, this number swells to 25 to 30 a week, from people or sometimes school or corporate groups coming in together.

These groups are often helpful for larger projects, such as making blankets from large bolts of donated fleece.

“We have a group coming towards the end of this week and they’re making Christmas bags for everybody with little gifts and stuff inside,” he said.

While McCabe said he thinks the dip in volunteering post-holidays has more to do with the spike returning to normal levels, he has noticed that The Gubbio Project sees its own dip in August and September.

“A lot of people are getting back from vacation or their kids are about to go back to school,” he said. “Then things start to ramp up for the holidays and then we start getting more emails and more phone calls.”

McCabe said he isn’t surprised that more people are motivated to help out during the holidays. Even amid all the joy and celebration, not everyone gets to enjoy these things.

“Especially being in San Francisco, you see a lot of people that don’t get to experience that,” he said. “I think it reminds them that now’s a good time to help.””

Check out the article on their website here.