Planning, Strategic

In the volunteering support space, there are two distinct audience segments: organizers and volunteers, sometimes lumped together as “stakeholders” with needs that may vary based on your program and operations. Providing support to these volunteers or to organizers isn’t just about giving instruction on how our technology works. It's about helping these stakeholders maximize their own potential by setting them up for success! Likewise, digitally-enabled volunteer management is not simply volunteer coordination.

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 ethical lens. Others are tweaking volunteer engagement to make it more accessible online. And still others are undergoing a wholesale review of the place and value of volunteers within their work.

The language we use to talk about Volunteer Engagement is a topic we’ve touched on before in Points of View. We revisit the theme in this issue because earlier this year, author Simon Sinek published a short YouTube video that posed quite a challenge for those of us working in the not-for-profit / nonprofit / voluntary / charitable sector. His challenge was to make a fundamental shift in our vocabulary, and it certainly got us thinking.

The light at the end of the COVID-19 pandemic tunnel may finally be coming into view. After over a year of lockdowns, restrictions and changes to how we all live, there is the promise of a return to something like the lives we used to lead.

In this Points of View, Rob Jackson and Erin Spink sit down (well, Rob stood up!) to chat on video about all things volunteer engagement and 2020. In what was an exceptional year for the whole world, volunteer engagement professionals faced new challenges and opportunities of a scale and at a speed that few had ever encountered before. The two authors seek answers to such questions as:

The good news first: 2020 is almost over! This article launched on October 15, just 77 days until we arrive in 2021. Few will be sad to see this year over. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there hasn’t been a year like this in living memory (thank goodness). “Unprecedented” should be the word of the year, along with “you’re on mute” as phrase of the year!