Noteworthy Resources

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Volunteering England Shares Its Wealth

Submitted by Susan J Ellis
on Mon, 02/13/2012 - 14:59

Volunteering England has just announced the launch of its new Employer Supported Volunteering Resource Hub, an outgrowth of work done last year for a European Year of Volunteering project.   This site has all sorts of resources for employers wanting to sponsor employee volunteering and for volunteer-involving organizations receiving those business volunteers.   They have posted free practical guides and tookits to implement or develop an ESV program.  Good stuff!  (And applicable wherever you are.)

We All Need a Laugh

Submitted by Susan J Ellis
on Tue, 02/07/2012 - 19:24

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!

Nonprofit Spark Radio Interview Makes Great Advocacy Tool for Volunteer Resource Managers

Submitted by Cara Thenot
on Tue, 01/24/2012 - 16:43

Thanks to Nonprofit Spark, an online radio show for new or emerging non-profits, volunteer resource managers have a new tool for garnering attention to the importance of volunteer involvement in their organizations. The January 23rd show, “The Case for Strategic Volunteerism in Your Non-profit,” makes a compelling case for being as strategic about involving volunteers as nonprofits are about other management issues such as fundraising.

Are You Putting Volunteers in Harm’s Way?

Submitted by Susan J Ellis
on Fri, 01/06/2012 - 21:58

The U.S. Peace Corps announced in late December that they would be suspending volunteer efforts in Honduras and other countries because of increased security concerns.  It’s not uncommon to hear reports from organizations such as the Peace Corps that they must place the safety of their volunteers above program service goals.  

How to Use and Add More Events to VolunteerMatch’s 2012 Volunteer Engagement Calendar

Submitted by Cara Thenot
on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 22:14

Thanks to Engaging Volunteers, VolunteerMatch’s informative and focused blog, for starting Google calendar with dates and ideas for motivating volunteers throughout 2012. You can download the calendar by clicking on the tiny “Google Calendar” button at the bottom of the calendar on their blog post.

“Making a Noise” – Free Online Seminar closing the European Year of Volunteering 2011

Submitted by Susan J Ellis
on Tue, 11/29/2011 - 15:36

Volunteer Centre Warrington is an active resource for leaders of volunteers in the UK.  As part of the European Year of Volunteering 2011 (EYV), they have been delivering a series of free online training sessions which will wrap up on December 8th  with “Making a Noise: What volunteer managers need from leaders and decision makers.” 

November 20, 2011: International News From the Field

Submitted by Susan J Ellis
on Sun, 11/20/2011 - 00:00

Emergen (http://emergen.com.au) is an online community for "emerging young leaders" in Australia, made up of over 1000 professionals aged 20-35. Along with online and in-person learning opportunities, it provides participants "the opportunity to develop their professional brand and reputation. Members can do this through blogging, being interviewed for Emergen TV or participating in our Awards program." They even provide Bloggers Training online.

One of Emergen’s projects is "Blogging for a Cause Ebooks," the latest of which is a Tribute to the International Year of the Volunteer. This 60-page, graphically elegant document (using the issuu publishing platform) offers first-person accounts of different volunteer experiences, as expressed by volunteer bloggers. The contributors are diverse in all sorts of ways: culturally, ethnically, degree of involvement in volunteer work, and the types of causes they support.

The essays even tackle negative perceptions and controversies about

November 6, 2011: International News From the Field

Submitted by Susan J Ellis
on Sun, 11/06/2011 - 00:00

Volunteer2 (volunteer2.com), provider of popular volunteer management software, has created another free online resource for the volunteer field:  the Mission Points ROI Calculator, designed to help measure the “Return on Investment” associated with engaging volunteers at an organization.

Most organizations value the contribution of volunteer time without assessing its true worth.  The concept that a report documenting more and more volunteer hours appears better does not take into consideration what gets accomplished during those hours – and what if that time was actually wasted?  Further, the most popular method of measuring the ROI of volunteer engagement is calculating the wage replacement value of the number of hours contributed by volunteers.  This simply furthers the questionable idea that hours equal cash equal impact.  

The Mission Points ROI model treats the number of volunteer hours consumed by an organization as an expense.  It also allows measurement of desired outputs

October 16, 2011: International News From the Field

Submitted by Susan J Ellis
on Sun, 10/16/2011 - 00:00

Get Volunteering, www.getvolunteering.ca, is the national registry of volunteer opportunities for Canada.  It is run by Volunteer Canada with support by Manulife Financial.  They also have a presence on Facebook, where they are currently offering a 12-part "Get Volunteering Conversation Series" with the intention of "providing a place for users to discuss, promote and participate in volunteerism."

A cluster of people of various backgrounds are invited to open the Conversation with early postings (Susan Ellis was invited this week) and then anyone may add their comments.  The current topic, "Benefits of Volunteering," is the fourth in the series; it launched on October 12th and will run through the 17th, when a new topic will be posted.

All the previous Conversations are archived and can still be viewed.  Previous topics have been

  • "Volunteers in Politics"
  • "Can Canada Become a Destination for Voluntourism?"
  • "Is Volunteering in Our DNA?"

4317 people already "like" this feature (and the

October 9, 2011: International News From the Field

Submitted by Susan J Ellis
on Sun, 10/09/2011 - 00:00

Last week a new neighborhood park opened in New York City called Planters Grove.  The New York Times described it as " Offbeat Corporate Giving: A Park Inspired by Peanuts."  It is a great example of a project that combines corporate philanthropy and volunteers to promote a business while meeting a list of large and small community needs. 

Planters, the snack nut brand owned by Kraft Foods, developed and paid for the new park at the Lillian Wald Houses, a 16-building public housing complex in the East Village.  According to the Times, Planters Grove "has an unmistakably peanut-inspired design, an effect created by the studied placement of poles amid beds of sage, rosemary and thyme" (see an artist rendering of the park).  Planters gains positive publicity while showing how a public-private partnership can benefit low-income neighborhoods.

  • It created useful, open space for an area without such amenities, at no cost to government.
  • Planters worked with Green City Force, an AmeriCorps

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