Anil Patel

The challenge

With so many pressing issues facing people these days, it can be difficult to commit a lot of time or money to volunteering and charitable causes. People can begin to suffer from 'volunteer fatigue', which ultimately can be to the detriment of organisations that are doing good work.

Business approach

Anil Patel has devised a unique series of events called TimeRaisers in Canada, which encourages people to donate volunteer hours instead of money in exchange for original works of art. TimeRaisers is designed to engage the next generation of philanthropists in causes they care about by bringing together potential community volunteers, citizen organisations and artists.

Goals and objectives

By 2014, Anil hopes to have raised an additional 100,000 quality volunteer hours and invested an additional $500,000 in the careers of artists. Furthermore, he wants to get this new non-profit management model, which supports more meaningful and timely volunteer engagement, into the mainstream.

Website: www.timeraiser.ca