Engage Library

The sudden withdrawal of many formal volunteering opportunities at the start of the COVID pandemic in March 2020 cast a spotlight on the nature of volunteer work. In many cases, important services were suddenly curtailed while still other organizations pivoted volunteer roles…

If you’ve ever been in the market for software and your organization has an IT person, there’s a good chance you’ve been advised to “pick something with integrations.” That’s because software integrations aren’t just a nice-to-have feature – they’re your silent assistants. Why?…

In May 2018, after a long and established career working in the areas of law and social advocacy, Kim Roots became a Coordinator of Volunteers for the very first time. As a newcomer to the Volunteer Engagement and Leadership field, Roots was able to view her new role through the…

Leaders of volunteers come from many varied backgrounds and, between them, have taken almost every twist and turn possible on their way into the profession. In this Voices, we hear about the journey of Laurence Bolotin, who attended a graduate class in volunteer engagement…

In this issue's Research to Practice, reviewer Laurie Mook looks at a very interesting study of online volunteer mentors. Researchers compared the quality of volunteering between four different online mentor groups who participated on the same platform in the same activities:…

In Volunteer Engagement circles, we all too often hear tales of woe about minimal support or a lack of understanding of what we do. This sometimes leads us to view the world from a ‘glass half empty’ perspective, where we play the victim and not the victor! In this article,…

Digitally-enabled volunteer management is not simply volunteer coordination. Rather, it is the experience of facilitating the relationship between the volunteer and the organization, initially and over the lifetime of engagement. It's important to note that designing and…

The global pandemic – along with raised consciousness on diversity, equity and inclusion – has forced many organizations to refocus, change directions and reflect on a range of issues. For example, some are re-evaluating how they serve their community, from both a procedural and…

The Year 2021 was certainly another challenging year in Volunteer Engagement as we continued to face novel and complex situations. A number of these challenges were notable enough to make it into the headlines. This final Ethics column for an unprecedented year takes a look back…

We are living through the democratization of impact data and impact analysis. Once the reserve of elite, institutional philanthropy, new tools and data are enabling a much wider swath of nonprofits to credibly demonstrate their mission impact to stakeholders, including donors …

The language we use to talk about Volunteer Engagement is a topic we’ve touched on before in Points of View, and authors Rob Jackson and Erin R. Spink revisit this theme in this issue of Engage. Their article builds on a challenge issued recently by author Simon Sinek, which…

  “Just a volunteer…” How often do you hear these words spoken at your organization? The implication that these three words indicate a lack of ability, lack of trust or lack of accountability is worrying. We all know, after all, that volunteer indicates a pay category, not a…

Imagine that you are on a trip visiting your nation’s capital, and about to step into one of the highlights listed on your “places to visit.” Would that list include an interactive museum space that’s dedicated to volunteering and service? In this Voices, former U.S. Congressman…

Mentorship: As defined by Merriam-Webster, "the influence, guidance or direction given by a mentor." Opinions, interpretations, acceptance and application of that definition can vary between individuals, and can be the foundation of discussion and debate. What changes when the…

In 2003, while working at The Urban Institute, Mark A. Hager spearheaded a national study of volunteer administration called the Volunteer Management Capacity (VMC) study. In 2019, he returned to the field to collect new information and update the study. In this Research to…

When volunteer engagement relies on practices borrowed from business for paid staff, we can lose the relationships and purpose that are fundamental to success. Adopting a concept known as “radical welcome” as a guiding principle offers an antidote that reconnects us with…

Editor's Note:  Due to unfortunate circumstances, this issue's Ahead of the Curve on "End-to-End Impact: Crediting Volunteers with the Differences They Make" has been delayed but will appear in our July - September issue. In its place, we revisit a story on volunteer management…

As leaders of volunteer engagement, are you actively involved in ‘building back better’ discussions that are taking place in your post-pandemic organisation? Have you been invited to be part of these conversations? Have you asked if these conversations are happening, whether you…

The proposal of a universal basic income (UBI) – the provision of unconditional cash payments to all citizens of a given society – is neither new nor unproblematic. The idea has, however, enjoyed a wave of renewed interest in the wake of the pandemic and its social and economic…

“We had to be gone by 12 noon.” In this poignant, first-person Voices, Claire Haggarty describes what it was  like to be a volunteer manager who was forced to evolve during a pandemic. She recalls the touchstones of a year that included a fantastic professional start before the…