Eva Schindler-Rainman was one of the few volunteerism pioneers to gain popularity both within and outside of the volunteerism management field. An organizational consultant, social worker with a PhD, and behavioral scientist, Schindler-Rainman was known for her advocacy of effective human resource development - paid and volunteer - and for non-traditional organization design and development. She moved easily between nonprofit circles and the corporate world, eventually becoming one of the "deans" of the highly-respected National Training Laboratory (NTL) in Maine. Without question, Schindler-Rainman was an inspired and inspiring group facilitator, always looking for innovative ways to engage trainees in active, creative thinking. She was one of the originators and disseminators of "brainstorming," a problem-solving exercise that we take for granted today but that broke new ground in the 1970s.
Schindler-Rainman and frequent co-author Ronald Lippett wrote one of the very first books presenting both the value of volunteering to society and the importance of effective leadership of volunteer efforts. The Volunteer Community: Creative Use of Human Resources was published in 1971 by NTL Learning Resources and subsequent revised editions remained available until the late 1990s. She was an active national board member with the Girl Scouts of the USA, for which she delivered a number of speeches and wrote several articles. In 1977, she enumerated "challenges" facing that organization (and all volunteer-involving groups) in response to fundamental social changes. The Association for Volunteer Administration gave Schindler-Rainman its Distinguished Member Service Award in 1981.
Read more about Eva Schindler-Rainman in a 2001 journal article, Eva Schindler-Rainman: Innovative Trainer and Vocal Advocate for Volunteerism.
