Engage Library

Many organizations that engage volunteers also work with paid staff. This mixed workforce can be a huge benefit, but it can be difficult to schedule these two groups’ hours in a way that allows organizations to optimize efficiency and ensure adequate coverage of all roles and…

If you were training to become a train driver, would you learn how to start the train and travel along the tracks without learning anything about how to stop? Of course you wouldn’t. So, why would we start a volunteering journey and continue that journey without any…

What if Volunteer Management software providers had a crystal ball? What would they see and hope for in the next decade? And, looking back, what visions did they have for software today, and how have those expectations been realized or not? In this Ahead of the Curve, author Sam…

Ruth Leonard gets right to the point: “I never intentionally planned to become a Volunteer Involvement professional. I wonder how many of us do?” In this Engage feature, Leonard continues this issue’s feature focus on why and how people choose life-long careers in Volunteer…

In November 2024, Sue Kobar retired after 44 years of working in the volunteer sector in both paid and unpaid leadership roles around the globe. In this poignant, first-person account, Kobar highlights many of the key lessons she learned along the way, and describes the…

What if every volunteer-involving organization had, as part of its mission, a mandate to involve community members as volunteers – a mandate that is fundamentally tied to why the organization exists and not simply how it achieves its goals? In fact, should volunteer-involving…

Although they live 1,000 miles from each other, good friends Laura Rundell and Meridian Swift have for many years always made time for long-distance chats. With a glass of wine or a cup of coffee in hand, they’ll catch up, first with family news before venturing seamlessly into…

When it comes to volunteerism in America, the good news is that it’s alive and well. Recent data from AmeriCorps and the U.S. Census Bureau shows a significant rebound in volunteerism in the last year, with 28.3 percent of Americans engaged in formal volunteering, up from a low…

In this two-part series, Ethics co-section editor Erin R. Spink explores how to build an Ethical Volunteering Policy in the workplace. In Part 1, Spink shares conversations, considerations and questions to reflect on as she explores the importance of such a policy and why to…

Several recent studies examine volunteering trends from a variety of countries, using the latest available data. What do these studies reveal about volunteer participation and the factors that contribute to current trends in global volunteering? This Research to Practice takes a…

"Ahead of the Curve" doesn't begin to describe this April 2001 article about virtual training, and Engage is delighted to revisit this prescient feature by our founder, Susan J. Ellis. In "Workshops the Wired Way," Ellis describes how to develop and deliver virtual training (…

The COVID-19 pandemic proved a watershed moment for Volunteer Engagement the world over. For many, it marked the end of a time where volunteers were plentiful, funding readily available and program stability an almost certainty. COVID meant that many organisations had to…

In this Points of View, editors Erin R. Spink and Rob Jackson try something new. Instead of presenting their personal musings on topics, trends and issues that they see as relevant to the Volunteer Engagement profession, they turn their gaze inwards and examine an article…

On any given day, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri welcomes thousands of guests through its doors. During their visits, guests might encounter several of the museum’s more than 400 volunteers at multiple points. These museum volunteers – ranging from…

In honor of the start of our 25th year at Engage (formerly e-Volunteerism), authors Rob Jackson and Erin R. Spink revisit the first ever Points of View from our journal's founding co-editors, Susan J. Ellis and Steve McCurley. Never known to mince words or shy away from a spicy…

After 13 years of dedicated service to Engage, Laurie Mook, PhD, is stepping down as editor of the Research to Practice section. An engaged professor and scholar, Mook’s own body of research has contributed significantly to the study of volunteering and Volunteer Engagement…

In today’s rapidly changing and unpredictable world, managing volunteers comes with distinct challenges. Volatile social and political climates, frequent technological disruptions, and the ongoing impact of global events such as pandemics and social movements have created an…

Volunteering is at the heart of most social change, and volunteers form a crucial part of electoral politics and campaigning. But imagine being co-leader of a local campaign group during a critical referendum to recognize the First Nations peoples in the Australian constitution…

For as long as there's been a formal practice of Volunteer Management, there's also been a notion that professional Volunteer Managers should do a better job of training a more effective volunteer. That notion is about to change. Could it be possible that one of AI’s hidden…

The COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the ongoing conflict in Israel….what do these three global crises have in common when it comes to volunteers? In Ethics, author Stuart Garland explains that all three require ethical considerations for volunteer rights, welfare and…