The purpose of Training Designs is to pool the knowledge and experiences of trainers around the world and to create a unique, user-friendly, expanding training resource to enhance the training activities of those working with volunteers and paid staff. The quarterly articles provide training examples, exercises, tools, resources, and tips on various aspects of content and processes in training staff and/or volunteers. Each issue offers an in-depth exploration of one technique or topic applicable to a wide range of organizations.
The training materials are intended as a starting point to stimulate further sharing among readers. Please share your insights, experiences, and knowledge of previously published or unpublished training examples on the topics addressed.
Direct action organizing is a powerful instrument for change while engaging your organization’s supporters and volunteers. It is how ordinary citizens become involved in the democratic process and have an impact. Its tools are many, ranging from voter registration drives to…
Introduction
Nonprofit organizations everywhere are engaging in strategic discussions to discover how they can be more efficient and effective in delivering services to enhance their missions. Too often they are not thinking about the impact of proposed changes on their…
You don’t need to be a drama queen (or king), or the star of your 1971 high school production of Bye Bye Birdie, or even a Shakespearian scholar to tap into the rich tool kit of theatre techniques available to any trainer.
While a few very successful trainers go out of their way…
Meetings, no matter what format is used, take considerable time. I hear many stories about the difficulty organizations are experiencing as they recruit volunteers for the board, a committee or a special project team because of the number of meetings required or because these…
Nametags are your best friends – especially in volunteer situations where new people constantly come and go. They provide outlets for communication not unlike front porches, in that they make people less uncertain and more approachable. What’s more, with the disclosure of…
Brenda Clifton of the Volunteer Center of the Pikes Peak Region offer this fun group exercise to enliven volunteer recruitment training. Participants are given one-half of a pair of job titles and have to find their matching half. The catch is that group 2 has traditional,…
Betty Stallings assisted a hospital in northern California to change the future of volunteering in its institution by facilitating a process that allowed the hospital auxiliary to reach the decision to disband itself and design a new volunteer involvement program. Betty shares…
This training design offers four exercises (with a worksheet or other training tool for each) to help you, your board members, paid staff and/or frontline volunteers to become strategic thinkers who are constantly looking for new solutions, new options, and better ways of…
As Managers of Volunteer Resources, Executive Directors and other leaders of volunteer programs in nonprofit organizations, you are dealing with one constant: CHANGE. To stay current with trends in the volunteerism field, technology advances, new management systems, etc., you…
Every one of us has experienced at least one if not many times when we approached an organization and were treated in a less than satisfactory way. Perhaps it was the first time we arrived to volunteer and no one really knew what to do with us. How many of us have called an…
Good, skilled people in the field of volunteer management are often unsuccessful because they function reactively in programs where there is little or no true commitment, understanding or support for developing and sustaining a healthy, cutting-edge volunteer program.…
Rather than offering a training design, I'd like instead to share a lot of quick ideas with you that I have learned and found invaluable in almost 30 years as a trainer. Instead of adding more words than you would ever want to read about each idea, let me just offer them in "…
The activities in this training module are intended to foster a sense of teamwork and collaboration among paid and unpaid staff, among leadership and members, and in situations where management, paid staff, and volunteers participate equally. The activities may be used…
This training design offers a complete strategy for fostering organizational commitment to the volunteer program. The following training sections are available in PDFSection I - The In Depth ViewIs My Organization Commmitted to the Volunteer Program?Assessment of Volunteer…
It is difficult to isolate the topic of recruitment because its ultimate success is intertwined with the development of good volunteer assignments (the product you are selling in recruitment) and with having an organization prepared to utilize volunteers' time and talents…
In the training of volunteers who provide direct services to clients, it is critical that volunteers have a basic understanding of the psychosocial issues faced by those they will serve. Having this knowledge prepares volunteers for successful short-term interactions, such as…
Keeping a volunteer program responsive to today's volunteers involves leading a periodic environmental scan to determine what trends are factors in attracting and retaining volunteers. It is important that all staff and leadership volunteers understand these trends. They have…
We often speak of volunteers as being on the "cutting edge," or challenging the status quo - both descriptions that represent change. Likewise, the presence of volunteers within an organization may also represent change, a new ways of doing things, or a new way of…
Getting your workshop off on the right foot is essential. Like the appetizers to the full meal, icebreakers allow participants to get a taste of what is to follow. As with every other part of effective training successful icebreakers result from proper planning and interactive,…
