The TorontoStar.com
Sat. Apr. 24, 2004. | Updated at 09:36 AM

STEVE RUSSELL/TORONTO STAR

Anil Patel is organizing a "timeraiser" at CBC's
Front St. headquarters tonight, where young
professionals can bid on art work and pay for it
by volunteering with a charitable organization.

Going once, twice, sold! For 60 minutes
Volunteer fair trades art for donation of time to charities

T.O. man organizes evening to engage young professionals

CATHERINE PORTER
CITY HALL BUREAU

Anil Patel is the poster child of volunteerism.
For the past year and a half, the 29-year-old has spent more
of his time on pro-bono work than on anything else,
including eating, sleeping and seeing friends.

Now, he wants others of his television-watching,
stereotypically disengaged generation to follow suit.

"I don't think they're apathetic. People just don't know,"
he says from the small, cluttered office that has become his
volunteer headquarters over the past few months.

"They're time-impoverished. If they do find the time, they
have to work through upwards of 10,000 charities and NGOs in
the city. And if they do find one they like, they're not
always guaranteed an opportunity relevant to them. Those are
the barriers."

To confront those barriers, Patel has formed the Framework
Foundation, and devised a novel plan: a volunteer fair with
a twist.

Tonight, he's expecting about 400 young professionals to
arrive at the CBC building on Front St. for an art auction.
But, instead of bidding for the paintings and photographs by
local emerging artists with money, he's asking people to pay
with the most valuable thing they have: their time.

More than 50 local charities — from environmental
groups to battered women shelters — will be on hand,
looking to collect on the pledges, signing volunteers.

He's hoping the "timeraiser" raises 10,000 volunteer hours;
more than a year of constant help to boost Toronto's
slumping charitable sector.

"We were immediately taken by the energy, enthusiasm and
creativity of this concept," says United Way president
Frances Lankin, who helped link Patel and his three co-
founders with different Toronto charities over a series of
meetings.

"Any initiative that really targets young professionals to
come out and be part of a charitable event to raise time is
incredibly creative."

Lankin visited about 160 different agencies around the city
last year, and "almost every one talked about the struggle
of recruiting, training and retaining volunteers."

Less than a quarter of Canadians between the ages of 25 and
34 volunteered in 2000 — down from 28 per cent a few
years earlier, according to Shelley Smith, co-author of a
recent report called "Citizen Re:Generation: Understanding
Active Citizen Engagement Among Canada's Information Age
Generations."

That age group is the most difficult one to reach, as it
hovers between two stages, she says. They typically have
left school, where volunteer opportunities are organized
like sports teams, and they haven't yet settled down to
become permanent part of a community, which often results in
volunteer work.

"The number one reason people don't volunteer is because
they don't have time," Smith says.

"This is when they are just starting their careers and
there's lots of pressure."

Patel's experience has shattered that mould.

Since the idea came to him at a charity event three years
ago, he has been inundated with support.

Framework's core quickly swelled to 40 from four.

"It wasn't easy to galvanize with only an idea and no
resources," says Patel, whose own volunteer career began
with hospital visits in high school.

Over the past 18 months, to put his idea into action, Patel
enrolled in a crash course at Ryerson University on the ins
and outs of operating a not-for-profit business.

He has spent countless hours in corporate boardrooms
convincing high-powered executives; including the Toronto
Star's; to sponsor his event, raising almost $100,000. He
has interviewed dozens of charities to discuss their needs.
He has lobbied lawyers, printers, advertising agencies,
lighting companies, rental firms, among others, to donate
their equipment and services for free or at cost; saving
hundreds of thousands of dollars.

And he has developed an eye for art, visiting dozens of
artists' studios to look over their work and talk about the
plights of their cash-strapped calling.Patel is particularly
proud that with some of the money it raised, his foundation
has paid all the artists an average of $800 for their work.

"We didn't want to offer a trip to Cuba or a house in
Richmond Hill. This provides an incentive, but it's still
altruistic," he says. "For someone interested in becoming
more active in their community, the art work will inspire
them and become a reminder of their goodwill. I think that
leaves an interesting legacy."

Along the way, Patel has learned how to incorporate a
business and follow his real passion. He quit his job as a
business analyst at Molson, and enrolled at York University
in September to pursue a master's degree in environmental
studies.

"I started drinking coffee eight months ago," said Patel,
whose sleeping schedule has been shaved down to 4.5 hours,
between his school work, family and the 60 hours a week he
now spends running Framework.

He hasn't earned a dime doing it. But it's been worth it, he
says.

"Volunteering is essential to our well-being. It gives life
balance," he says. "I've had a lot of personal growth the
past three years."

When tonight's auction finishes at midnight, and all the art
is packaged up, it will be only the beginning for Framework,
Patel says.

He plans to host the event annually in Toronto and
eventually take it across the country to different cities.
But, more importantly, it will be the birth of many new
volunteers.

"We want this to be the first step in the process. There's a
real sense of `You build it, and they will come,'" Patel
says.The Framework Foundation Timeraiser starts tonight at
the CBC Broadcasting Centre, 250 Front St. W., at 7. Tickets
are $20 each, with participants expected to commit a minimum
total of 20 hours to one or more agencies.



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