Engage Library

Twenty years ago, colleagues Steve McCurley and Susan J. Ellis together founded e-Volunteerism, which was at the time the first and only electronic publication for the volunteer management field. In this poignant Points of View, McCurley reflects on their shared vision and quest…

Volunteer recognition is one of the few aspects of volunteer involvement about which we actually have quite a bit of reliable information. Mostly this is because volunteer recognition is simple to evaluate since recognition is, after all, in the eye of the receiver: “Does the…

Just think about it: What helps explain why organizations don’t bother giving volunteers proper training or structure? Why do paid staff often act as though volunteers aren’t really human? Why are milk and cookies universally present at volunteer recognition events? In this…

e-Volunteerism is now 12 years old, and their joint amazement about that fact caused Steve McCurley and Susan J. Ellis to look back and review what they’ve done. They write this Points of View in a somewhat anecdotal and disorderly fashion, since there are a lot of different…

In his final Along the Web, internationally-recognized author Steve McCurley presents a reference to himself: a guide to “where to find Steve McCurley’s stuff on the Web,” neatly divided into Books, Articles and the ever-popular “Other” category. This is one of those articles to…

It’s good to have a plan. In this issue of Along the Web, author Steve McCurley presents a wide range of global, national and local strategies for improving volunteer involvement – covering pretty much everything from the grand scheme to the minor details.  

In keeping with the theme of this issue, author Steve McCurley presents an Along the Web about accreditation and credentialing of volunteer program managers. McCurley provides a diverse range of resources – including articles by individuals with personal perspectives on the…

Between them, Steve McCurley and Susan J. Ellis have about 70 years of experience in teaching volunteer management, providing training for far more than 500,000 managers of volunteer programs. In this Points of View, these well-known trainers and authors nonetheless acknowledge…

The last decade has witnessed an incredible growth in volunteering by youth, with several countries operating intense schemes to generate and foster youth volunteering efforts. We first looked at volunteering by youth in the January 2004 edition of Along the Web. In this issue,…

The next time you have a few volunteer program managers together, here’s an interesting exercise question:  “How many of you have volunteers working side-by-side with you to do what’s needed for successful volunteer engagement – beyond helping with clerical work?”  When we ask…

In this issue of Along the Web, author Steven McCurley takes a quick trip through recent reports and studies on volunteering from Japan, Canada, the United States, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad, Tobago and Northern Ireland. Then, to make sure that no one feels…

In March 2011, 10News in San Diego, California, ran a story with the following headline: “Habitat For Humanity Charging Local Volunteers: Group Forcing Local Volunteers To Pay Before Helping Build Homes.” The resulting controversy revealed both facts and opinions about “passing…

The Reimagining Service campaign in the United States is an effort to change the way organizations and funders think about and support volunteer management. In addition to the usual advocacy efforts, the campaign has conducted some interesting research projects. One such project…

e-Volunteerism usually take a somewhat serious approach in Along the Web. After all, the Internet was originally designed to be a tool for research, at least theoretically. But anyone who uses the Web quickly discovers that no matter how unusual you think you are, there is…

At some point in any meeting of volunteer managers there emerges a recurring theme:“They” don’t respect us! It is raised in tones ranging from angry shouts to bemoaned cries, and is often followed by a litany of examples of neglect, misunderstanding and abuse. To whom the “they…

This edition of “Along the Web” is designed to complement our Keyboard Roundtable discussion topic for this issue. What follows is a listing of a variety of discussion papers regarding current status, future trends and emerging developments. While most of these are relatively…

In this issue of "Along the Web" we focus on liability, risk management and other legal issues pertinent to volunteering. These legal areas tend to be very jurisdiction-specific. We've limited the list here to countries with a common background in the English system, but we've…

This issue of Along the Web looks at a great variety of things: genetic influences on volunteering, involving volunteers from different ethnic and immigrant communities, the impact on various modes of housing on volunteer involvement and a wide assortment of other topics. All in…

In their last Points of View, Steve and Susan offered a somewhat tongue-in-cheek reaction to the current fad that suggests volunteer involvement would improve if we simply turned everything over to corporate human resources “professionals.” But in this follow-up column, the…

Arts, heritage and cultural institutions have always been one of the bulwarks of volunteer involvement, engaging large numbers of volunteers in a very wide range of institutions. One of the more fascinating aspects of volunteering in these institutions is that some programs are…