
February 2022
Welcome to our very first edition of IH2: All Hands Dispatch. We are so very excited to kick-off our campaign for 2022! We will be implementing a number of new processes, beginning with a monthly communication that will be sent to update you on all things IH2! (Just in case you’re wondering, IH2 is short for Inspired Hearts and Hands :-))
This year marks the 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY of the first distribution which started out of my garage! That year, we distributed 64 small baskets of non-perishable food.
In just 10 years, we’ve grown to providing nearly 1700 meal baskets annually, holiday gifts for some 850 children and veterans, back-to-school shopping experiences, and after-school programs, just to name a few of our many amazing efforts. Soon, we will be releasing our 2021 year-end review. Look for that report to come in March. I am so pleased to report that we more than doubled in size! We cannot wait to share the metrics with you.
In the meantime, we are off and running for 2022. We are making key infrastructure enhancements to ensure an efficient, safe, and enjoyable experience for our volunteers. Most immediately, we are rolling out a more robust volunteer management portal, enabling users fingertip access to real-time volunteer opportunities, reporting, and updates. Second, we are expanding our facility footprint. Any volunteer from 2021 can attest that IH2 has outgrown our space in a big way. In May, we will expand an additional 2500 square feet at our existing facility. This is an absolutely essential step for us as we continue to grow. The added space will ensure greater safety and efficiency while improving the volunteer experience!


NEW VOLUNTEER PORTAL
STEP 1:
SELECT THE APPROPRIATE REGISTRATION OPTION
If you will be signing-up for volunteer opportunities for only yourself and/or need to be able to track your volunteer hours in any way, you should be registering as an individual. For example, if you are a student who needs to provide a report of your total volunteer efforts, you should be registering as an individual, separate of your family.
If you will be signing-up multiple individuals for your family, corporate group, or team, AND you DO NOT need to track individual hours for those volunteers, you should register as the group liaison by completing the group application. You will then have the ability to reserve more than one spot for any given activity in the system. Again, please note that if you register as a group, it will track the hours of the total individuals, but will not associate those hours with any one particular individual. If you, your child, or a member of your team needs to produce a personal report of hours, please have that person(s) register as an individual.
STEP 2:
GET FAMILIAR WITH YOUR PERSONAL PORTAL
Upon completing the application, you will arrive at a screen that looks the following:

From here, you can click on the link that says, “Go to Opportunities Page” and Log Into Your Personal Portal. This will lead you into your individual profile for the system. Be sure to make a note of the username and password you set during the application phase. You will also want to bookmark this site for easy navigation in the future.
The activities visible to you are those for which your application has “qualified” you to see, which in most cases is nearly all of the activities we have available since most are accessible to all. This portal will allow you to run volunteer reports, sign up for activities, and communicate directly with IH2 Administration.
Once you have signed-up for activity(s), you will see that your schedule is populated. It is possible to subscribe to this calendar by following these steps.
STEP 3:
INSTALL MOBILE APP
The mobile app is a great way to quickly and easily access your volunteer profile. From the app, you will be able to access your schedule, sign-up for activities, and so much more. Quick tip: Click on the time clock under your profile and pin your QR code….makes for easy clock in for volunteer activities.
TO DOWNLOAD THE APP, CLICK ON THE APPROPRIATE DEVICE:
IMMEDIATE NEEDS AND OPPORTUNITIES
Spring Food Drive
This year, we expect to distribute 600+ Essential Holiday Meal Boxes to local families in need. To make this goal, we need all the help we can get! If you are interested in hosting a food drive in your neighborhood, team, club, school, corporate organization, or even your study group, please signup in the Volunteer Portal. Upon registering, you will be able to download a customizable flyer. In addition, one of our team will reach out to you to get you going. As the champion, your role is to announce the drive in your area, offer a collection point, and coordinate a drop off at our facility. It’s really that easy. We are able to also award volunteer hours for individuals for the time that they invest. It’s a flexible way for students to earn volunteer hours that fit within their busy schedule commitments.
Spring ALDI Gift Card Drive
In each of our meal boxes, we provide a $10 ALDI gift card that enables the recipient to purchase fresh ingredients and proteins. In total, we will need to raise $6000+ in ALDI gift cards / equivalent financial donations to cover the 600 boxes we will distribute. An alternative to the food drive is hosting a campaign for ALDI gift cards. We request $10 denominations for the gift card(s). If you are interested in hosting a drive, lease signup in the Volunteer Portal. Upon registering, you will be able to download a customizable flyer. In addition, one of our team will reach out to help you launch the effort.
2022 Facility Needs
The expansion of our facilities is greatly needed. While we have been managing with our existing space and equipment, we’ve reached a point that necessitates investment in our infrastructure. This is really exciting, but also a bit scary as we look to navigate the financial burden of procuring the additional shelving and equipment we need to run our program safely and efficiently. If we want to continue to expand our outreach efforts, we need to make this investment now. We’ve held off a year or so in light of the pandemic, but the timing is now critical. We will work to fundraise for these efforts throughout the year, but if you would like to make a financial donation to these expansion efforts, we would be deeply grateful for your support and the peace of mind that comes from having additional funding to assist with these expenses.
