6 Ways to Add Peace, Joy and Contributions to Your PM Career

Bruce is the founder of ProjectManagementHacks.com, a resource for growing IT project managers.

  Career Development  

As the year comes to a close, let’s think about ways we can make the world a better place. As project managers, we know how to ship products and deliver change. If you want increased satisfaction, skill development and happiness, applying your project skills to a charitable organization is the way to go.

Why should you bother with philanthropy?
If you’re a busy project manager, you might reasonably ask whether charity and philanthropic projects make sense to pursue. It depends on your season of life. Use these diagnostic questions to see if this is the right time to seek this kind of opportunity:

• What are your past philanthropic projects? Consider both situations you found satisfying and those that you did not enjoy.
• Which organizations inspire you? In my case, a few come to mind, including Room to Read, an educational organization; and Doctors Without Borders, a healthcare organization.
• What skills do you want to develop? Skill development is one of the ways you can benefit from volunteering. For example, can you assist an organization with running an effective procurement process so that it gets competitive pricing on its next fundraiser?

How do you find the right philanthropic opportunity for your interests? Choose your path by picking one (or more!) of the options below.

1. Contribute your expertise as a volunteer. In the project management…

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