Engage Library

Nonprofit organizations are required to identify funding streams and raise a significant amount of financial resources to provide services to clientele, operate facilities, and to pay staff.  At the same time, organizations conduct capital campaigns to raise a large amount…

It has been said that public speaking is one of the number one fears of people.  Knowing that, how do volunteer program leaders attract volunteers to an organization’s public speaking program?  And then, what do volunteers need to know once they get there?  This…

Debbie Usiskin, an experienced volunteer programme manager in London, shares her personal exploration of how government requirements to ‘check’ (screen) volunteers provide contradictory and conflicting responsibilities and messages.  She raises important questions about…

There’s a phrase circulating that crops up periodically in speeches or books:  “volunteers are not a program.”  This concept can be traced back to an early article by Patty Bouse, Resource Development Specialist in the Nebraska Division of Social Services, in the…

Recruiting volunteers to be the leaders or presidents of their organizations can be a daunting task.  Once there, these leaders take on the role with varying levels of effectiveness.  Given their brief leadership reigns and the unusual circumstances bringing them to…

Volunteering is intricately intertwined with many areas of society and public life, some obvious and some that should be better recognized. In this issue of “Points of View” we discuss public policy arenas that relate to volunteering.  For each arena, we pose some…

A year ago the RGK Center at the University of Texas at Austin (UT) started the Investigator series and has generously shared pre-publication drafts with the readers of e-Volunteerism to get additional input.  The goal of the series is to act as a resource and a promoter of…

This Research to Practice reviews a report on recruiting and retaining volunteers to work with AIDS service organisations. The study findings were developed through a survey of volunteers plus interviews and focus groups with managers of volunteers. The study…

Research shows that over 50% of those volunteering do so in response to being asked by a friend, co-worker, or relative.  This leads to what Steve McCurley and Rick Lynch call the “concentric circle” theory of recruitment, an approach that maximizes the relationships of…

Thousands of volunteers from around the world donate their time and considerable talents to knit, crochet and quilt handmade items, often blankets, for those in need.  On many levels this simple act of compassion weaves a common theme – that comfort heals.  The history…

In the post-Enron (or Tyco, WorldCom, IGA, etc) accounting-scandal era, corporate citizenship has taken on new meaning and relevance.  Boards of directors are suddenly on the hook as much for their company’s ethical performance as their financial results (as well they…

South Australia boasts the highest volunteering rate in Australia, celebrates a strong level of government support for volunteers and even has volunteer involvement featured in the state’s ‘strategic plan’. The northern suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia’s capital city, has…

Building collaborative relationships with highly-skilled volunteers can gain huge dividends for your organization and for the volunteers who participate. Based on her research for the upcoming book, The Art and Science of Engaging Baby Boomer Volunteers, Jill Friedman Fixler…

We have, in Points of View, spent some time in past columns looking at questions, problems, difficulties and quandaries. Alas, there are a lot of those things in our field to look at and ponder. But since that’s not the only picture, in this issue we thought we’d focus, for a…

This article examines a research report done at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada by Evelina J. Rog, S. Mark Pancer, and Mark C. Baetz: “Corporate Volunteer Programs: Maximising Employee Motivation and Minimizing Barriers to Program Participation.” The…

This training exercise aims to get participants to explore their own perceptions around cultural diversity. Nancy Nuñez, Training Service Manager for Volunteering Ireland, shares an exercise she learned in ‘Anti Racism Training for Trainers’ that she usually uses with volunteer…

It is often said that volunteering is a great way to test-drive a career.  But that premise is only as good as the opportunities we make available to volunteers.  And with an increasing number of thirty- and forty-somethings expressing disaffection with their…

We often think of well-functioning volunteer programs as happy little families, systems in which people get along so well that they resemble the idyllic picture of family relationships portrayed in U.S. television shows from the 1950s. And while this is often true, occasionally…

Volunteering is increasingly being recognised as an activity that can promote social inclusion. However, it has been debated (certainly in the UK) how far volunteering is still an exclusive activity benefiting certain sections of society far more than others. We know barriers…