Pro Bono Work

Voluntas is a pilot project underway in New South Wales, Australia, that aims to test whether early intervention when conflict begins among volunteers can lessen the burden of destructive conflict. The pilot uses the services of volunteer facilitators trained in mediation to assist and intervene when there are difficult conversations to be had with and between volunteers.

The Voluntas committee is made up of mediators, HR professionals, and volunteer management experts to address an important unmet need in the volunteer sector: affordable conflict management services.

In this e-Volunteerism feature, authors Steve Lancken and Zeynep Selcuk explain the pilot and some of the questions it raises, such as: 

• What services are available to manage conflict and disputes?
• Can early intervention avoid expensive processes or loss later in the conflict cycle?
• Are volunteers more likely relate to volunteer facilitators and mediators?
• How does conflict impact volunteer engagement?

Voluntas’ experience will provide insights into some of the challenges in relationships that occur when volunteering.

Retiring Baby Boomers, life-long tech users, and skilled professionals! Oh, my! What’s a volunteer administrator to do? It may seem overwhelming to keep up with all the recent trends in volunteering – especially when trends force us to change or adapt how we recruit and work with volunteers.

But fear not: the basic components of volunteer management don’t go out of date. We can meet the unique needs and preferences of these so-called “newer” volunteers with some tweaks to our traditional methods. This edition of Along the Web explores Web resources that describe the characteristics of evolving categories of potential volunteers, with a focus on their motivations, preferences, and needs. Here, you'll also find tips and strategies for effectively engaging and retaining such newer volunteers. 

During 2011, a small group of volunteer managers in the UK responded to an invitation to be part of a project that would ultimately allow them to develop new skills, extend their networks and create a team of ‘Volunteer Management Champions.’ The goal was to help create a ‘buzz’ about the volunteer management profession, and to raise the profile of the valuable work carried out by managers of volunteers across all types of organisations.

In this article, authors Rob Jackson and Sue Jones present the comments and view points of some of the volunteer managers who participated in this key group. Through the use of video and audio, these volunteer managers review their involvement and reflect on their achievements. A year on, they assess both the personal and professional impact of the project, and explain why and how more leaders and managers of volunteers should contribute to the field.

There’s a huge train leaving the station, and it’s loaded with resources that many say have the potential to fire a capacity building revolution in the nonprofit/government organization service “industry.” Let’s call it “The Pro Bono Express.” Pro bono is the latest buzzword whenever folks gather to talk about volunteerism and service in the United States. Highly skilled volunteers are not a new phenomenon, but the current twist means that for-profit corporations, especially, are seeking to offer the expertise of their employees in strategic ways that make a difference to the community.  

But what’s powering this train? What is it carrying? Can the promise be delivered? And why are some nonprofits and government organizations already on board and others concerned they’ll be left waving at the station? In this e-Volunteerism feature, author David Warshaw explores these questions and argues that finding a way to engage pro bono volunteers should be on every organization’s agenda.  

People are the competitive advantage of the voluntary sector. And yet we seem to concentrate very little time on how to work with this amazing resource. This Training Design presents a workshop that introduces five important tools to help organizations fully engage specifically skilled volunteers.

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 shares how creating work assignments that engage highly-skilled volunteers effectively provides a win/win situation for you and the volunteer.

Using five case studies of real organization experiences, this article explores what “highly-skilled” means and why such volunteers are increasing, what makes working with highly-skilled volunteers special or different from working with other types of volunteers, and where to find highly-skilled volunteers.