Engage Library

Laura Otten, the Executive Director of La Salle University’s Nonprofit Center, was the opening speaker at the first “National Nonprofit Human Resources Conference: Putting People at the Center,” sponsored by Action Without Borders, in Philadelphia, PA, USA, on June 12-14, 2003.…

Excerpt from "Steve Says…" The strangeness began about 20 minutes into the meeting when a number of the assembled academics launched an all-out orchestrated attack on the survey [entitled “A Measure of Commitment – Volunteering for Serious Social Problems.”], contending…

Victoria is a fascinating city nestled in the westernmost portion of British Columbia. It is a city which is known for being “more English than the English” and a great place to have afternoon tea in the old style. You wouldn’t think they’d be producing material on the cutting…

As Managers of Volunteer Resources, Executive Directors and other leaders of volunteer programs in nonprofit organizations, you are dealing with one constant: CHANGE. To stay current with trends in the volunteerism field, technology advances, new management systems, etc., you…

The 1998 book by Simon Winchester, The Professor and the Madman (Harper Collins, 1998), recounts the true story of (as the subtitle proclaims) “murder, insanity, and the making of the Oxford English Dictionary.” But what does this have to do with volunteers?   The compilation of…

Somewhere, in an organization quite like yours, a staff member is in the countdown for the annual fundraiser... With the countdown underway, the lead staff member is juggling a thousand balls: confirming logistics for the entertainment; finalizing attendance figures with the…

One of the hottest and most complex topics in volunteer management is the screening of volunteers. The amazing thing is that making comprehensive background checks of volunteers is a relatively new practice, almost unknown twenty years ago. It is now, however, a requirement in…

One of the most fascinating things about volunteerism throughout history is that it represents the basic human response to "can you help?" It also reflects the culture, values and state of the times in which it occurs. What kinds of things are people willing to do to meet needs…

Interviewing is a lot like archery. The athletes who participate in that sport have their mind on one thing: hitting the bull’s-eye. Their strategy is to develop the skills to hit the bull’s-eye portion of the target every time. Your target when you interview is the kind of…

Ten Thousand Villages, the largest fair trade organization in North America, works to provide vital, fair income to artisans in Africa, Asia and Latin America by marketing their handicrafts and telling their stories. The nonprofit organization has its American headquarters in…

The field of volunteerism spends inordinate amounts of time arguing the finer points of just what is and what is not volunteering. Most readers are familiar with a range of concepts that strive to ‘define’ volunteering. Such concepts include volunteering being conducted without…

Right now in volunteer management we are facing a rising tide: the increasing preference among potential volunteers for short-term, episodic volunteering. By all guesses, in practically all countries, the number of volunteers preferring a shorter term commitment is rising and…

World Leisure, an international organization devoted to the scientific study and promotion of leisure, has as part of its structure several commissions devoted to matters consistent with this mission. One of these – the Volunteerism Commission – was founded to organize and…

Every one of us has experienced at least one if not many times when we approached an organization and were treated in a less than satisfactory way. Perhaps it was the first time we arrived to volunteer and no one really knew what to do with us. How many of us have called an…

The founding of the American Lung Association is intertwined with the work of many courageous volunteers who began by fighting the dreaded scourge of tuberculosis at the end of the 19th century. Read the stories of Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau, the first volunteer president of…

The emergence of employee volunteer programs has been one of the most significant developments in volunteerism in the past 20 years. In this issue of “Along the Web,” we look at 42 resources from six countries with solid information to help both businesses and charities make use…

As many managers of volunteer programs with minuscule to nonexistent budgets would attest, money alone does not make an outstanding program, but it sure can help. When money does become available, the best way to spend it might be to first spend none at all. Get your bearings,…

Every once in a while we run into someone from Corporate America who, upon learning that we work primarily with nonprofits, proceeds to talk about how charities should be run more like businesses. We also occasionally find the Nonprofit Executive who is certain that social…

Good, skilled people in the field of volunteer management are often unsuccessful because they function reactively in programs where there is little or no true commitment, understanding or support for developing and sustaining a healthy, cutting-edge volunteer program.…

When I conducted my first workshop in England in 1992, I vividly remember discussing the topic of organizational image. I asked participants how long their organizations had been operating in the community. When one response was "since the Crusades," I knew I wasn't in Kansas…