Engage Library

We're all trying to up our training game and learn best practices from those with demonstrated experience and excellence as trainers. Who better to learn from than e-Volunteerism’s very own Betty Stallings? The journal’s first editor of the Training Designs section, Stallings…

If you find your way to e-Volunteerism and then to this article, you have done some things which many of us readily take for granted and increasingly do without thinking.  For a start, you will have some kind of electronic device which you know how to use and connect to the…

Volunteerism research has produced a wide range of palpable evidence supporting various motivations for volunteer involvement, including but not limited to humanitarian and altruistic concern for others; an unassuming yearning to help; a desire for satisfying self); an…

In this e-Volunteerism feature, author Jill Jukes from the March of Dimes Canada’s Western Region argues that it’s time to update how organizations plan and prepare for volunteer involvement. Taking a close look at what she calls the traditional “Volunteer Engagement Cycle,”…

In this thought-provoking Points of View, Susan J. Ellis and Rob Jackson profess that they are not trying to exhort volunteer managers or instill guilt (well, maybe a tiny bit). Rather, these two volunteer leadership vanguards explain why and how a strong profession like…

Virtual and remote activities are becoming more prevalent in the landscape of volunteer opportunities. However, most of the information or resources for volunteer managers continue to focus mainly on volunteering done on-site, alongside paid staff.   In this feature article,…

Good governance is the foundation of all successful nonprofit and membership organizations, and much has been written to help boards of directors do their work well. But most of the literature and available training about how to develop an effective volunteer board focuses…

Have you ever wanted to learn some tips that enhance how you relate to an audience when presenting? Or have you ever wanted some methods or tricks to put together a training session that helps people retain more afterwards? In this Training Designs article, Erin R. Spink…

Much has been written about the differences between paid staff and volunteers and the need to develop a management style for volunteers that takes into account their unique characteristics. But to date much volunteer practice has lagged behind the research, with many…

Last year, e-Volunteerism wrote about volunteers at the front lines of the refugee crisis in Europe, and how their impassioned scramble to help—though often inefficient and always insufficient—nonetheless addressed grave needs and sent a message to governments to act. These…

It all began when people with intellectual disability told us they wanted their own friends: friends who were not part of their own family or paid to spend time with them. At IHC we listened, and that premise became the foundation that IHC Volunteer Friendship Programme is…

In last issue’s Points of View, we examined the purpose and potential of a National Volunteer Week. We argued that such national celebrations are not just about individual volunteer recognition, and we took a more strategic look at the purpose and value of such weeks. In this…

The world is evolving and volunteers with it. Today’s volunteers have diverse lifestyles, preferences, and needs that must be accounted for when volunteer managers develop volunteer roles and fine-tune their personal leadership approaches. That said, one thing remains…

Volunteering is generally presented very seriously – largely because many of the causes volunteers support are very serious. But not all. And even grim situations can evoke laughter, since a sense of humor is a great coping mechanism. Humor is also a great communication tool…

Having access to professional e-learning and course-creation software — such as Adobe Captivate©, Camtasia®, and Snagit® — can be a great asset to anyone's training program. But have you ever considered using such software for multiple purposes? Did you know, for instance,…

Voluntas is a pilot project underway in New South Wales, Australia, that aims to test whether early intervention when conflict begins among volunteers can lessen the burden of destructive conflict. The pilot uses the services of volunteer facilitators trained in mediation to…

Now that we’ve gone through April, May, and June, most countries have completed their annual national “Volunteer Week” to celebrate volunteers and volunteering. Unfortunately, despite good intentions, it usually feels like the only people who are aware of the celebration are…

Lutheran Community Care SA/NT (LCC) is an Australian community services organization that utilizes a formal model of volunteering. In response to changing trends in volunteering and the desire of new volunteers for more flexibility, the organization has experimented…

Inquiry-based interpretation is a growing educational trend in zoos across the country.  But training zoo docents to become familiar and comfortable with this practice can prove challenging. It is critical to use existing research to develop an inquiry-focused training module…

Volunteer recognition is one of the few aspects of volunteer involvement about which we actually have quite a bit of reliable information. Mostly this is because volunteer recognition is simple to evaluate since recognition is, after all, in the eye of the receiver: “Does the…