By: Hanna Nakano

Healthy communities thrive on volunteerism—but that doesn’t always mean picking up trash on the side of the road. Serving as a board member at a local nonprofit is a powerful way to put your professional skills, lived experience, and leadership to work for a cause you care about. Whether you’re a finance whiz, a strategic thinker, or a creative problem-solver, joining a board is a uniquely impactful form of community service.

Clear benefits

The act of volunteering can improve your physical and mental health, provide a sense of purpose and potentially level up your career, all while nurturing new friendships and deepening existing ones, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Purple Tree Cafe

Purple Tree Café is a Davis-based nonprofit that provides community-based employment for people with disabilities and brings people with and without disabilities together through food, music, and art.

Purple Tree employees make, package, and sell vegan baked goods and organic beverages at the UC Davis MIND Institute in Sacramento, at the Davis Farmers Market, and other public and private events in Davis and Sacramento.

Right now, Purple Tree organizers are seeking to fill vacant positions in their all-volunteer board of directors. Board members are elected for two-year renewable terms, and are asked to attend monthly board meetings and invest several hours per month to support Purple Tree’s work.

The ideal board member should:

• Have experience starting or growing a business, in fundraising, or in human relations.
• Be skilled at working collaboratively.
• Be able to build & execute complex strategies.
• Have enthusiasm about working with a team of dedicated volunteers toward a shared mission.
• Live in the Davis or Sacramento area.

Visit Purple Tree Café’s website to learn more or apply to be the next board member.

Many other local organizations are also looking for support from volunteers and new board members. Here are a few to research and consider.

• Empower Yolo. Provides crisis intervention, counseling support, legal services, safe housing, & more.
• Yolo Healthy Aging Alliance. Distribute meals or become a phone friend with a local senior citizen.
• Yolo Farm to Fork. Nurturing school gardens & organizing farm field trips.