Image of Volunteering

In this e-Volunteerism feature, the story of volunteers at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo shows how and why your organization can empower volunteers to help tell your story. As writer Karie Hajek explains, volunteers are often referred to as the “heart” of an organization and represent a crucial, untapped voice that can help organizations embody their mission.

“With strategic attention to incorporating your messaging into your recruiting and training process, you can better equip your volunteers to engage your audience and support your cause,” writes Hajek, who is Volunteer Services Specialist at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. “It is through this lens that you can truly see and acknowledge volunteers as an invaluable extension and voice of your organization.” 

Vicar Fraser Dyer of St. Anne and All Saints, an Anglican Church in South London, believes that the “whole business of volunteer management in churches is somewhat tricky.” And he should know. Before Vicar Dyer became ordained, he was an active and passionate secular volunteer manager.

For starters, he writes, “there are no volunteers in church.” Though some churches do run proper volunteer programs for such projects as food banks and charity shops, Vicar Dyer notes that the rest of church life requires the active participation of those who hand out hymn books, drive elderly to church, arrange flowers, usher, take up and count the collection, and serve at the altar, to name but a few critically needed functions. And while these people are technically volunteering their help, they mostly do not self-identify as ‘volunteers.’

In this e-Volunteerism feature, Vicar Dyer argues that many of the strategic approaches to volunteer management don’t automatically apply in churches. He offers advice and guidance to clergy and volunteer managers in religious settings, and explains why “it is vital to understand which roles will benefit from more conventional approaches to volunteer management (such as office holders or those volunteering for a discrete church programme), and those for which a more relationship-based and collaborative approach will work better.” Above all, he believes, “individualisation rather than standardisation is the key.”

Loyal readers of e-Volunteerism will remember Ivan Scheier as part of the journal’s advisory team and frequent contributor until his death in 2008. He was a pioneer and mentor to many of us and we devoted an entire issue in 2009 in tribute to him. He was also a prolific writer. In this Voices, we reprint one of Scheier's article on values that evolved in various stages between 1975 and 1998. It does not surprise us that the challenges Scheier laid down more than 40 years ago remain pointed today.

Here is part of Scheier's introduction to the topic:

I believe volunteerism has the potential to integrate with the best and most powerful values in our society today. We can draw more fully on that power if only we will understand, appreciate, and publicize values. This means raising our own consciousness first, launching dialogue and debate, reaching some decision on what the main values are, then announcing them.  The first announcement should be to ourselves – volunteer leaders and volunteers. Then announcements should be made to the world. The purpose is to buttress our case for fundamental, rather than ornamental, status in the world of work and caring, to place us more securely in the mainstream of society. This article attempts to stimulate dialogue.

One week after this issue launched, the 2017 National Summit on Volunteer Leadership Engagement began in St. Paul, Minn. A special track at the summit convened a group of funders (public and private foundations and other donors) who met with volunteer resources managers and other nonprofit organization leaders. The purpose? To discuss the challenges of funding volunteer engagement efforts. JFFixler Group, led by Beth Steinhorn, partnered with Jane Leighty Justis of the Leighty Foundation and volunteer training expert Betty Stallings to revise and republish a “guide for funders” that was originally developed in 2003 to provide companion resources for nonprofits. Summit participants received this hot-off-the-press booklet on site, which is also available electronically for free at the Leighty Foundation website. 

In this article, Steinhorn excerpts and consolidates tips and strategies from the guide to help non-profits make the case to funders: investing in volunteer engagement is beneficial.

Being outdoors is, for many people, one of the great pleasures in life. Whether out in wide open spaces, walking in hills and mountains, or navigating the crashing waves at the seashore, contact with the natural environment is good for us. Except, that is, for when it isn’t, when the curse of bad luck or poor judgement means that something goes dreadfully wrong.

When things get out of hand and we need assistance, emergency services like volunteer firefighters and ambulance crews are typically there for us. But in many communities, rescue service volunteers are the first responders, especially in rural or coastal areas where they have the highest levels of training and skills needed to rescue people in peril. These volunteers put themselves forward to save the lives of those who face extreme conditions, regardless of the usually dangerous, life-threatening situations they face.  

In this Along the Web, writer Arnie Wickens writes about emergency services volunteers who are experienced specialists in the art of outdoor rescues. Whether climbing up mountains, diving into lakes and oceans, or venturing into underground caves, these volunteers are true lifesavers when something outdoors goes wrong.