This page is a portal to the many and various volunteerism and
volunteer engagement /management resources I've created or to
which I've contributed.
The resources cover a range of topics: volunteer recruitment, onboarding, support and safety in volunteer engagement, virtual volunteering, group volunteering, micro volunteering and so much more for nonprofits, NGOs, schools, government agencies and more.
These are resources that are here on my web site, on my blog, on other people's web sites and blogs, and on various online communities.
Think of all of these resources, altogether, as a free book on volunteer management / community engagement.
My resources about volunteerism and volunteer engagement (support, management, recruitment, ethics, etc.) are based on almost three decades of work and research with hundreds of programs and many thousands of people all over the world, sometimes as a manager of volunteers and sometimes as a researcher, as well as my own experiences as a volunteer .
It's worth noting that, when I started working with volunteers at nonprofit organizations, there was no Internet, no computers and fax machines were just starting to be used. I have been amazed, as we've transitioned to a computer technology-soaked world, how many principles from those pre-tech days still hold true when it comes to successful volunteering engagement.
Sections:
My Videos on Volunteer
Engagement
Free trainings, some that were originally presented online,
some which were recording during onsite presentations. If
you can't afford to hire me as a consultant, you absolutely
have my permission to use these videos with your own staff,
your students or your association members.
Foundations of Volunteer
Engagement
Before you recruit volunteers, these are fundamental pieces
that MUST be in place. If you choose not to do these and,
instead, start recruiting volunteers right away, you are
setting up your organization and those volunteers up for
failure.
Support for
Volunteers/Management of Volunteers & Safety
Considerations
All of the resources I have regarding the support for and
management of volunteers, as well as safety in engaging
volunteers, are on one page because I believe they are
inextricably linked - it's impossible to separate these two
issues. Also, I believe that these MUST be explored and
drafted BEFORE you start recruiting volunteers.
Creating Roles & Tasks
for Volunteers
A key to retaining volunteers is having roles and tasks
well-defined and IN WRITING, so that expectations are clear.
This is yet another step to undertake BEFORE you start
recruiting volunteers - and if you don't, don't be surprised
when you can't keep volunteers and your volunteer engagement
flounders.
Recruiting Volunteers
Recruiting volunteers is easy - and, sadly, too many
nonprofits recruit volunteers before they are ready. Please
don't click on this link unless you have prepared policies,
written out tasks and roles, written a mission statement for
your volunteer engagement, etc. - all of which is detailed
in the previous links.
Ethics in Volunteerism &
Court-Ordered Community Service
If your organizations involves volunteers, you should also
be thinking regularly about the ethics of such. Involving
people who are not financially compensated for work that
they do carries with it regular questions and criticisms.
Exploring ethics in volunteerism has not won me many
friends. Exploring ethics in volunteerism can help you avoid
public relations disasters later. .
My Opinion-Pieces &
Observations About Volunteerism & Volunteer
Engagement
I write a LOT about volunteer engagement on my blog and in
my tweets. "How to" web pages and blogs are important, but
so are observations and opinions - we need to be thinking
about, discussing and debating different approaches, ethics
and more. Otherwise, volunteerism stagnates. These are some
of my blogs and web pages that offer opinions about
volunteer engagement and trends in volunteerism..
My Resources Regarding
Research & History of Volunteering
The best part about reading the history of volunteering is
that you find out other people have solved the problems you
are now facing regarding volunteer engagemet - and have some
great solutions! Certainly anyone who wants to develop an
app regarding volunteer management or recruitment should
read through some of the research first - and not be
surprised when they find their great idea isn't such a great
idea.
Corporate philanthropy /
social responsibility resources
My advice for corporate social responsibility (CSR) is
different than most anything else you will read on the
Internet or read in a book. It's different from most
anything you will ever hear at a conference or workshop or
consultation. My advice is meant to be provocative and
disruptive. I'm sharing information and approaches and
complaints that so many nonprofit, NGO and public school
staff want to say to corporations and foundations, but
they've been too afraid to. This
new section of my web site provides an index of
resources meant to help for-profit businesses, large and
small, engage in CSR - financial donations, in-kind
donations, employee volunteering, etc. - in a way that
really does benefit the causes, communities or nonprofits
and goes beyond feel-good public relations.
International Volunteer
Engagement Resources: For Both Agencies Involving
Volunteers & Those That Want to Volunteer
International volunteering, where a person from one country
goes to another country to volunteer, or volunteers while
traveling in another country, is the most dreamed-of kind of
volunteering by people that want to help others. It is
highly romanticized and misunderstood, both by those that
want to volunteer abroad and those NGOs and charities that
want to involve such volunteers. Having experience in both
working in development and humanitarian aid initiatives
abroad AND in all aspects of volunteerism, particularly
regarding appropriate support of volunteers and the ethics
around volunteerism, puts me in a unique position to talk
about international volunteering. Most of the resources here
are for those that want to volunteer abroad, but some of it
is for NGOs that want to involve foreign volunteers.
Resources for volunteers
My work over the decades has been focused on organizations
that involve volunteers, rather than volunteers themselves.
But more and more, I find myself writing and consulting for
volunteers themselves. This link goes to an index of all of
the resources I've created for volunteers, rather than the
organizations that volunteer for them. .
Also see my own experiences as a volunteer.
Quick Links
my web site home page my consulting services
&
my workshops &
presentations my credentials &
expertise my research projects my book: The
Last Virtual
Volunteering Guidebook How to
Support This Web Site & My Work (or to say thank
you for such) contact me or
see my schedule My Resources for Community Outreach, With &
Without Tech
My
Resources for Nonprofit, NGO &
other
mission-based management My Technology Tips for
Non-Techies My Advice for Web Development,
Maintenance, Marketing for non-Web designers My Resources For people & groups
that
want to volunteer linking to or from my web
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policy. Coyote Helps
Foundation
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The art work and material on this site was created and is copyrighted 1996-2024
by Jayne Cravens, all rights reserved
(unless noted otherwise, or the art comes from a link to another web site).