Engage Library
Volunteer resource managers leave their jobs at a rate of almost double that of the nonprofit sector in general (Ertas, 2018). Turnover of volunteer resource managers is a significant issue due to the wide-reaching direct and indirect economic and social consequences for…
January 2019
The last few years have been challenging for non-profits. Fundraising and safeguarding scandals, accusations of excessive executive pay, concerns over political bias – the list of controversies has grown, negatively impacting the public’s trust and confidence in good causes.…
January 2019
Humor is personal, but so is learning. And humor can be a welcomed training tool when it comes to training.
In this Training Designs, Erin R. Spink interviews Tane Danger from the Theater of Public Policy (known as T2P2), an innovative group that seeks to enhance learning…
October 2018
This past August 2018, Starbucks, the coffee giant, and the non-profit organization Points of Light launched a six-month pilot program that allows Starbucks employees to get their full pay check while volunteering at selected non-profits for half the work week. Before long,…
October 2018
The devastating impacts of hurricanes and floodwaters are well known throughout the world, including nearly every region of the United States. In September 2013, a catastrophic amount of flooding besieged Boulder, Colorado, when almost a year’s amount of rain fell in just a…
October 2018
In our last issue, Research to Practice focused on episodic volunteers, as one-time or short-term volunteering is often called. This time, e-Volunteerism looks at a study of super-volunteers, defined as “individuals who volunteer 10 or more hours per week with a single…
October 2018
As volunteer managers, we want to influence others to embrace the values of our organization. We want them to understand the uniqueness of the mission, the needs of clients, and the importance of volunteers’ contributions. We want to encourage them to join us and to support our…
October 2018
Points of View authors Rob Jackson and Erin R. Spink were recently inspired by a Canadian article that highlighted the coming funding shortfalls due to an escalating reliance on the services non-profits offer. In this Points of View, they take a page from this article to…
October 2018
Managing volunteer programs can be a whirlwind of risk management, policies, and procedures, with mounds of credentialing and more red tape than we’d like to admit. Jumping through hoops can become a necessary skill for volunteers to meet all of the criteria required to…
January 2019
After more than 30 years of working directly in a variety of volunteer leadership roles, Andy Fryar now works with volunteer involving organisations to assist them in establishing cloud-based software solutions. Along the way, Fryar has come to recognise that many volunteer…
July 2018
Volunteer Engagement Professionals (VEPs) commonly feel underpaid and undervalued and believe that their work is misunderstood. In times like these, they often turn to organizations like the Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration (MAVA) for support, education, and…
July 2018
When human beings have new experiences, new synaptic pathways forge in our brains. We become alert to new ideas and we can be guided to new understandings and different behavior.
In this e-Volunteerism feature, Angela Parker – the co-founder of a global agency called Realized…
October 2018
The majority of e-Volunteerism readers are leaders of volunteers and many of us play a significant role in training volunteers. But should that be the case? In this Training Designs, editor Erin R. Spink asks some tough questions about the role that leaders of volunteers play…
July 2018
Have you ever felt like you are working all alone in volunteer management, or being pulled in different directions by groups working in siloes? Then you will be excited to hear about the launch of the new National Alliance for Volunteer Engagement, a group that developed…
July 2018
In this month's Points of View, Rob Jackson and Erin R. Spink consider the importance of "laddering" in the volunteer management profession. Jackson and Spink define laddering as “the opportunity to report to someone more senior than you who is also a leader of volunteers.”…
July 2018
Freedom of speech and of movement, freedom from arbitrary arrest, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, and freedom of religious worship. . . All are taken for granted by many and they are, of course, fundamental to volunteerism as an associative activity within the…
July 2018
Episodic volunteering – as one-time or short-term volunteering is often called – is becoming the norm as times change and individuals move away from traditional volunteer roles that require consistent, long-term commitments. Technology has made it easy to find and sign up for…
July 2018
What’s one way to increase the effectiveness of an organization that wants to involve volunteers in meaningful ways? In this e-Volunteerism feature, volunteer management experts Melanie Merrill and Ruth Leonard of Macmillan Cancer Support, London, write that in order to…
April 2018
Definitions are important. But when it comes to volunteerism, a focus on the language we use can often result in a lot of navel gazing and little practical action. In this Points Of View, Rob Jackson looks at the ethical implications that can arise when we aren’t clear on the…
April 2018
It's the holy grail of all trainers – more interaction! But how do you increase interaction if you continue to use your typical orientation and trainings methods?
In this Training Designs, author Sammy Feilchenfeld introduces "Poll Everywhere" – a free plug-in tool for…
April 2018