News in the Volunteer Field Blog

Energize is celebrating its 35^th birthday this month!  What has changed since 1977 in how we do business, and also in the volunteer world?  On the surface, a lot.  But maybe the more things change, the more they stay the same.  Take a look back with Susan and share your thoughts, too.

In June 2011, Paula Beugen wrote a guest Hot Topic for Energize titled, “Is the Corporation for National and Community Service on the Right Track for Volunteerism?”  She cogently cautioned that CNCS’ proposed budget was not supportive to the vast majority of volunteer-involving organizations in this country, particularly by the programs they slashed or reduced. We are once again on the brink of eliminating what some of us feel are the most important elements of the 2009 Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act (Serve America Act).

As serious as our work is, it is also frequently very funny.  So why is it so hard to find witty stories, cartoons, and other forms of humor focused on life in nonprofits, government, and volunteer management? 

Energize has been finding links to humor and sharing funny stories from our site visitors for years and we can always count on board development expert Carol Weisman to make us laugh with her great newsletter, but we all now have a really wonderful, regular humor resource!

On Tuesday, January 24, 2012, VolunteerSpot launched a “Tiny Cars” campaign to fight for support of H.R. 387: Charitable Driving Tax Relief Act of 2011.  Passage would mean an increase of the measly $.14 per mile tax deduction rate for charitable driving unchanged by the U.S. Congress since 1997. That’s compared to the 50 cents per mile deduction for business use of a personal vehicle in 2011.  And the new bill would also no longer count such reimbursement to volunteers as gross income.

Increased migration – by choice or by force – throughout Europe has created economic and social concerns in many countries.  Last year, through the impetus of the European Year of Volunteering, Portuguese academic Henrique Pinto invited a range of scholars and practitioners to write articles about the connection of volunteering and migration for a special theme issue of Migrações Journal, “Migrantes e Voluntariado.”  It was published in December 2011 with half the chapters in Portuguese and half in English.