Susan J Ellis's blog

Voluntourism, also known as volunteer vacationing, gives people the opportunity to travel for leisure and pleasure and volunteer in the countries they visit. Ideally, the vacationer gives meaningful service in return for getting the chance to meet local people in a personal way. A great place to learn more about all of this is VolunTourism.org, which has consistently advocated for the highest quality of service while genuinely doing good.

For some time now I have been impressed at the level and quality of the blogs and discussions across the pond in the UK via the social action platform, i-Volunteer.org,uk.   A range of volunteer management practitioners use this forum to post thoughtful commentary, often on provocative themes, and – amazingly – other members respond in kind!  Bravo to our British colleagues! 

Energize gets asked a lot of questions about volunteers that would never be posed in relation to paid staff. Susan shares some examples of illogic, overreaction, and unthinking policies that hinder volunteer success.

Details have just been released on the Summit on Advanced Volunteer Engagement (SAVE), a preconference for directors of volunteer resources on June 16-18,  immediately before the start of the 2012 National Conference on Volunteering and Service in Chicago.  SAVE (the successor to the previous Advanced Volunteer Management Institute) has gathered a great faculty.

At the end of February, there was a spurt of articles renewing attention to an initiative started a few years ago, “A Billion + Change.” The campaign was launched by the Corporation for National and Community Service and is now housed and managed by the Points of Light Institute. The gist of the current news is how much time has been given and continues to be pledged, as well as how much money the corporate volunteers have “saved” nonprofits. But try as we might, we can’t seem to find interviews or other accounts from the nonprofits actually benefiting from the pledges.