The Birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. holiday is more than a welcome three-day weekend or time to shop for bargain towels and discounts on bedding. It’s about something more. It is a celebration of the human spirit and the power and promise of volunteerism and citizen engagement. Now, more than ever, it’s a time [...]
In Part 1 of this post, we noted that volunteer program assessments are a great way to get candid volunteer feedback and boost leadership at the same time. We also noted some of the benefits of involving volunteers in an audit of your operations and identified three preliminary steps to setting up your volunteer team [...]
Volunteer program assessments are a great way to get candid volunteer feedback and boost leadership at the same time. Unfortunately, most organizations don’t take time out to reflect on their current practices in a purposeful, comprehensive way. But, if volunteers are truly essential to your mission, doesn’t it make sense to maximize their environment so [...]
Although we’d like to think that volunteers learn most of what they need know during our formal volunteer training, in reality, most of what we learn, we learn by doing when we’re on the job. This makes mentoring volunteers of utmost importance. On-the-job training may, in fact, be the most effective training strategy—even more [...]
We are back with a list of some more great content for volunteer coordinators from the past month. Celebrating Volunteers December 5th was International Volunteer Day, and we saw some fantastic content around the importance of volunteer programs: Adrienne Picone, CEO of Volunteering Australia, makes a great argument that now is the time to increase [...]
Yes, You Can Actually Learn How to Let a Volunteer Go Volunteer management isn’t easy. As leaders of volunteers, you are often responsible for a wide range of duties. You manage schedules and manage feelings (of your volunteers, your co-workers, and yourself). It can be exhausting. There’s one simple thing you can do to lighten [...]
3 Steps to Successful Volunteer Recruitment Campaigns Using the Current Volunteers “Tell-a-Friend” initiatives are an easy way to create successful volunteer recruitment campaigns by tapping into the networks of your existing volunteers. Your biggest fans will be more than happy to help you spread the word, but they need encouragement and the tools to [...]
If you send volunteer communications emails on a regular basis, you may find that your writing becomes stale and rote over time. It happens, even to pro copywriters. Sometimes it helps to get “outside the box” and rethink your communications, because if they are boring to you, they are likely boring your volunteers. Your writing [...]
