Why Volunteer?

An interview with Tom Reeve

04/13/2011

Credit: Seth Sherman

Ask Tom Reeve about why he volunteers for The Trust for Public Land and other environmental organizations, and you get a little bit of history, some thoughtful perspective, and a healthy serving of inspiration.  

“Everyone has special places from their childhood that have changed,” Tom notes. Growing up in Honolulu, mostly outdoors, he watched many favorite play spaces disappear. Tom moved to Seattle after college and began a career at Microsoft.  In the Pacific Northwest, he found abundant opportunities for outdoor activities in mountains, forests, and other wild spaces.   

“I traversed the whole state finding great places to cross-country ski, camp, explore,” he recalls. “My wife and I spent about one third of our time living in a tent somewhere -- even while working.”    

Tom, who is now retired, first supported TPL as a donor.  As he considered what he could do that would have the broadest positive effect in helping “communities across the country and reinforcing connections to land in people I’ve never met,” he was attracted to the organization by what he calls TPL’s “multiplier effect.”  “TPL’s impact is disproportionate to the size of the organization,” Tom notes. This appealed to him as a donor, and both he and his wife, Sally, have contributed to TPL many years, most recently at the Conservation Champion level of support. 

In 2002 Tom became a TPL volunteer. He served first as a member of the Washington State advisory council, moving up to the national board in 2009.   He currently serves as chair of the board advancement committee, which provides guidance in marketing and fundraising . 

“For me it’s important to try to say “yes” when someone asks for help,” Tom says.  This belief has led Tom into many volunteer positions.  People should be “open to being asked” he maintains. Often this will take them outside their comfort zone, so they come to see the value of an experience they might not have recognized otherwise.  

Tom recalls his first volunteer job--helping his mother at a book sale for their local friends-of-the-library organization. It was exciting being around the books—and others who also loved books. Volunteer work, he emphasizes, is inherently social.  Through it you form great bonds, develop friendships. 

“You remember that you are part of a community,” Tom says. “Contributing to a greater whole, not just to personal needs, makes a community work, and our communities are the foundation of society.”