Well, here is a short bio: Founded in 2009, the Social Impact Award conducts education and incubation programs in more than 15 countries in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Its mission is to support social entrepreneurs in the early stages of both developing and implementing innovative business solutions to address key societal challenges. SIA  organizes events and workshops to raise awareness of social entrepreneurship and to provide the necessary skills for young entrepreneurs. 

Twice a year, we the SIA team based in Vienna recruit new volunteers to support us with various tasks. As we are currently recruiting new volunteers, we thought it is of great importance to inform the newcomers about the real-life of a SIA-volunteer. We asked the current volunteers about the last half-year they spent with SIA and these are the 7 reasons they mentioned, why you should NOT join SIA:

1. You will have to meet a bunch of cool, creative, diverse, and caring people from different countries, work, and go out with them on a REGULAR BASIS. No, thank you!

2. You will have to take on responsibility from day one in a team that believes progress is always a team effort. And they always talk about creating impact and becoming a part of something bigger. Nobody told me that beforehand!

3. You get to work with people from various fields who can teach you a lot about what social entrepreneurship means and how to create social impact. And who would like that?

4. You will have to be open to the possibility of shaping your own learning experience by focusing on the development of your current skills or learning new ones. Is this really necessary?

5. You will have to learn about Holacracy, a new horizontal management technique that requires your participation in the decision making progress. Whaaat?

6. You will have to take part in interactive tactical meetings, with a team that loves to reflect and always tries to achieve higher goals. Even the Coronavirus can´t stop them!

7. You will have to become a “real” part of the team, they don’t treat you “just like another volunteer”. That is new to me!

And most importantly: you definitely shouldn’t join SIA if you are allergic to “Gute Laune”.

What do you think now? If you still haven’t changed your mind and want to join the team, then hurry up, the application period for SIA volunteering team ends on the 31st of May.