Melissa Young is a planner. She likes to feel prepared and wants to make an impact. She knew how she wanted to support her community before she knew which organizations she wanted to donate to.
“About thirteen years ago, I discovered different tools to help me figure out how to donate smartly, and not only when responding to changing needs.”
Melissa first learned about Second Helpings while researching local organizations on Charity Navigator, a nonprofit rating site. Tools like this are helpful, Melissa explains, because “I want my money to have a bigger impact.”
While searching for organizations, Melissa filtered by four-star ratings only, to see only the organizations with the highest scores on Charity Navigator’s rating system. She focused her search locally, to find organizations making an impact in central Indiana.
“Second Helpings stood out to us,” Melissa remembers. With so many causes and organizations to choose from, “Learning that you’re preventing food waste, launching careers, and feeding people…You’re matching more than one of our interests and values.”
From that initial research, Melissa learned more about Second Helpings and was inspired to set up a monthly gift.
Another tool Melissa discovered to help her plan is FreeWill, a free online will-writing tool. She was motivated to establish her will after working through the process with her parents. “My husband and I are in our forties, and aren’t having children, so if something happened to us, where everything would go is very up in the air,” Melissa explained.
She also decided to include Second Helpings in her will, which she created on FreeWill. “I feel so fortunate,” Melissa shared. “We’re not millionaires or anything, but we’re doing well and we’ve always worked hard to be financially responsible. We have enough to share, and so when I pass away, I want my money to go somewhere it can be used well.”
Here’s Melissa with some friends she made through volunteering at events for Second Helpings. “I had not met either of these generous souls before that night, but when they saw me walking around alone at the event they took me in to their group so I wouldn’t be alone. They are just a small snapshot of some of the truly impressive people I have met through volunteering.”
“We’ve been donors to Second Helpings for a while now, which I’ve always felt good about. But after seeing one of my good friends volunteer weekly for their chosen charity, it really made me question my own capacity to help,” Melissa shared. “Yes, regular donations are valuable to organizations, but so is time and effort. I realized I could do more, and I felt I should do more.”
“So, I nervously signed up to volunteer at Tonic Ball in 2023. As an introvert, I was pretty anxious at first, but everyone was very nice and welcoming, even on such a hectic evening. I also discovered these event volunteer shifts can be very generous to the people taking them. Everyone who worked with Second Helpings checked in to make sure I was able to enjoy the festivities myself, not just help out.”
Since then, Melissa has volunteered at other special events and in our Hunger Relief kitchen too.
“I think these kitchen shifts are the most impactful for me personally. It gives you just a glimpse into the amount of work it takes to get those meals out to feed people that need them. It is not exciting or glamorous, but the people around you have such good spirit and heart. You can’t help but be awed bythe people that tell you they’ve been coming to help on a weekly basis for years. Even though again I didn’t know anyone when I walked in the door, everyone was friendly and happy to talk and help me out when I needed it.”
We’re so grateful for all the ways Melissa has, and continues to support Second Helpings’ mission.