The Pro Round Up: Advocating for Volunteer Resource Management Happy Friday! We've put together a list of some of the best content for volunteer resource management advocation from the past couple of weeks. First, we released our third-annual Volunteer Management Progress Report survey this week! Take the survey now (it takes less than 15 minutes) to [...]
To all those involved in volunteer management around the world, Happy International Volunteer Managers Day! We are celebrating all week! In keeping with this year’s theme of “be the voice,” we are releasing the 2018 Volunteer Management Progress Report survey this week. We hope you will take a moment to take the survey and become [...]
I was looking back through some of the slide decks I developed when I first started creating volunteer training. They made me cringe! I suppose we all have to start somewhere, and my journey to becoming an effective instructional designer and learning facilitator has had many ups and downs along the way. The good news is, you inevitably get better. If you're [...]
New volunteers arrive at nonprofits with expectations and feelings. They negotiate conflicting emotions – surprise, anticipation, joy, fear, ambiguity, etc. – as they acclimate to their new surroundings. During this critical time in the volunteer’s lifecycle, these emotions are important to address but are often ignored, as organizations focus on communicating organizational requirements, policies and procedures versus prioritizing [...]
As we approach the end of 2017, it might be a good time to revisit your volunteer strategy and refresh it for 2018. Below are eight of our favorite resources for volunteer program development and strategic planning to get you started. Informed Volunteer Program Development These can be used to both assess where you're at now [...]
One of the most researched and validated theories of volunteer motivation is that functional motives drive the volunteers willingness to join and continue the volunteer activity. Scholars argue that certain pre-exiting needs must be met in order for volunteers to start and stay. This theory represents a major finding in the field that has been validated over [...]
It's no secret that volunteer services departments suffer from an often stunning lack of adequate resources. In fact, our Volunteer Management Progress Report survey found that about one-third (31%) of nonprofits have annual budgets of $1-$5,000 set aside for the volunteer program (not including staff salaries and benefits) and six percent (6%) have no budget at all [...]
In his book Cognitive Surplus, internet expert Clay Shirkey shares an inspired view of the digital age, where our online connections make it even easier to pool energy and talent for the greater good. This could include pro bono volunteers. But, has this dream come to fruition? Have connections been made between professionals with specialized [...]
