Promoting Civic Engagement: Hands On Twin Cities
Volunteer work requires a lot more behind-the-scenes planning, expertise, and logistics than many people realize, and that’s where St. Paul-based HandsOn Twin Cities has built its niche. The oldest surviving volunteer center in the nation, the organization helps connect businesses and individuals with nonprofits who need help.
Tracy Nielsen, HandsOn Twin Cities’ executive director, says her team is “kind of like the wedding planners of volunteerism.”
“We do everything,” she says.
Originally founded back in 1919 as the Volunteer Service Bureau/Voluntary Action Center, the nonprofit joined the national HandsOn network in 2005. Two years later, the HandsOn network merged with Points of Light Foundation, which formed in response to former President George H.W. Bush’s call for increased volunteerism. Brand names have changed over the years, yet HandsOn Twin Cities’ focus on volunteer coordination has endured. Today, it provides volunteers to over 750 nonprofits and community organizations in the metro. It also offers a searchable database of volunteer opportunities.
Nielsen says HandsOn aims to take volunteer work beyond rote activities— making sandwiches for a food shelf, for instance—and help participants think through larger systemic issues at play, like why hunger exists in a community and what can be done about it on a policy level. “We want people to think of the sandwich-making as a catalyst,” she says.
HandsOn helps connect workforces at businesses of all sizes with volunteer opportunities. Nielsen estimates that the organization works with about 150 corporations each year, including Fortune 500s like General Mills, Boston Scientific, and Thrivent.
Katie Knutson, corporate responsibility manager at Thrivent, says she regularly relies on HandsOn Twin Cities to help direct her employees to volunteer opportunities. The nonprofit has been particularly helpful in connecting employees with “skills-based” volunteer work, giving them a chance to lend their expertise to address wider issues. “HandsOn helps our employees really connect and have that cultural humility with nonprofits,” Knutson says. In some ways, HandsOn has essentially become an additional staff member on Thrivent’s corporate responsibility team, she says.
Nielsen says HandsOn works hard to develop year-round relationships with corporate partners that go beyond one-time engagements.
That work appears to have paid off, with HandsOn logging notable growth within recent history. Over the last five years, the nonprofit’s annual revenue has increased from $852,000 to $1.6 million. Nielsen attributes that growth, in part, to HandsOn’s pro bono advisory program, which helps other nonprofits and small businesses build out their own philanthropic programs. That revenue stream grew to $403,000 in 2023, she notes.
As Nielsen sees it, reinvention is essential in her line of work. “It is never a time to rest on your laurels,” she says. “We’re always moving forward and trying to keep focused on the true needs of the community and our nonprofit partners.”
