United States

Though online volunteer recruiting has been around for decades, it is still a rapidly evolving field. Today, online recruiting is boosted along not only by technological advances but also by the ingenuity and determination of dedicated nonprofit professionals who recognize the value it can have for organizations of all shapes and sizes.

In this feature article, e-Volunteerism looks at online volunteer recruiting by examining the evolution of VolunteerMatch, the largest online volunteer opportunity network. Through this platform, author Shari Tishman, the director of engagement at VolunteeerMatch, argues that we can learn something valuable and instructive about the past, present, and future of online volunteer recruiting. Tishman obviously has a unique perspective on this topic. So here it is, folks, straight from the proverbial horse’s mouth: everything you ever wanted to know about online volunteer recruiting.

Chris Linnell, volunteer services supervisor at the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County (FPDDC), Illinois, thought it was crazy when Eagle Scout Gavin Burseth approached her with the idea to bring a herd of goats to eat the poison ivy and other invasive plants at FPDDC’s campground. But sixteen-year-old Burseth, working to achieve the prestigious Hornaday Award from the Boy Scouts of America for significant contributions to conservation, was persuasive. After some creative volunteer management thinking and convincing advocacy from Linnell to the Natural Resources/Land Management staff, the project was approved. In the end, the goats did a perfect job of clearing the dangerous plants, and Burseth also delivered public education lectures and generated media interest in the project.

This fascinating example of an unusual set of volunteers (with lots of pictures) has important implications for volunteer resources managers in any setting. How do you react when a teenager proposes an unfamiliar or nontraditional service project? What does it take to convince others in the organization to support the idea? What special considerations arise when stepping into the unknown? This special e-Volunteerism feature will show you why the nontraditional and the unknown can be a very good thing.

 

Do you think that creating training videos requires special expertise, lots of time, and a big budget? Think again. Perhaps nothing has evolved so rapidly in useful technology than videography: every smartphone has the capability to produce quality video; camcorders today have come down in price as their functionality has increased; and online conversations using webcams can be recorded as videos.  

Patricia Wright, the director of volunteer services at Western Maryland Health System, recently began experimenting with homemade video as a tool for volunteer orientation and training. She is the first to acknowledge she’s a novice at the process, which is one of the reasons her article is so interesting. Wright explains why she began experimenting with video, the successes and not-so-successful outcomes of her first forays into videotaping, how even her first attempt upgraded her previous curriculum and ensuing discussion, and what she plans next. This Training Designs article includes links to relevant Web sites and YouTube videos to help you, too, develop your own training tools, along with a  list of available video content that’s useful to almost any kind of volunteer effort.

Understanding the health benefits of volunteering for older adults can provide multiple opportunities for increasing the impact of nonprofit organizations, and the quality of life generally in our communities. From a volunteer management perspective, this has implications for recruitment, retention, and reporting.

In this Research to Practice, reviewer Laurie Mook looks at an analysis of 73 peer-reviewed articles on the benefits associated with volunteering among the growing demographic of older adults. The goal of the meta-analysis was to acquire a comprehensive view of how formal volunteering might protect against cognitive decline and dementia. Although many activities provide social, physical, and cognitive opportunities for older adults that have been shown to result in health-related benefits, volunteerism has an added dimension: altruism. Here we explore how strategic volunteer management can add to making a difference.

Founded in 1901, the Junior League rapidly became the most influential women’s organization in the United States. Today there are also chapters in Canada, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. Its mission statement puts volunteering and women front and center:

The Association of Junior Leagues International Inc. (AJLI) is an organization of women committed to promoting voluntarism, developing the potential of women, and improving communities through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers. Its purpose is exclusively educational and charitable.

Local Junior Leagues made many significant contributions to their communities, but also developed an elitist public image of wealth, social standing, and exclusion. The list of famous women who were members of the League is very long. When the feminist movement affected every women’s organization, the Junior League found itself challenged to retain its position while changing with the times.

This Voices from the Past story explores the history of the Junior League and how it evolved in the face of modern life, still keeping its mission rooted in the power of volunteers.

Organizations use many different approaches to attract and retain volunteers. For instance, one attempt at a macro level is required high school service, which aims in part to inspire large numbers of students to continue with volunteering into their adult lives by having them engage in volunteering during high school. 

This Research to Practice looks at another approach: conducting a reflective activity after volunteering to promote an intrinsic desire to volunteer. It is based on a novel field experiment study conducted in a controlled setting in order to provide clear evidence for the causal impact of reflective activity. The study found that those who had an incentive to complete a task (writing about the benefits of volunteering) that complemented their volunteer activity became more interested in volunteering going forward than those who volunteered but did not participate in the reflective activity. The study provides food for thought regarding the use of this mechanism, not only for retaining volunteers but also for providing important data to document the impact of the organization.

Cees M. van den Bos, a pioneer in the volunteering field in the Netherlands, recently discovered that there was very little academic research on the subject of volunteering infrastructure. So he set out to investigate the establishment, development, and functioning of local volunteering infrastructure since the 1970s in these eight countries: Denmark, England, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, and the United States.

In this special e-Volunteerism issue devoted to Volunteer Centers, van den Bos presents his research and findings on volunteering infrastructure, and shares his conclusion that Volunteer Centers should be defined as “agencies that have the mission to support volunteers, volunteer-involving organizations, and volunteering in general.” He specifically notes that Volunteer Centers are characterized by six functions: brokerage, the marketing of volunteering, the development of good practices, the development of volunteering opportunities, and the strategic development of volunteering.

Through his important research, van den Bos provides insights and findings that he argues are “relevant for makers of volunteering policies, for people working within the volunteering infrastructure, and for countries that aspire to establish a volunteering infrastructure.” And, he concludes, the “legitimacy of volunteering infrastructure cannot be considered outside the context of the increasing political recognition of civil society and civic engagement. Political interests in the concepts of civil society and civic engagement in the eight cases investigated has caused volunteering to be rediscovered and re-evaluated.”

This quarter’s Research to Practice contributes to the theme of Volunteer Centers. Reviewer Laurie Mook looks at a study of the direct and secondary impacts of the HandsOn Network and its affiliated member organizations: Measuring the Impact of HandsOn Network: An Evaluation of Direct and Secondary Impact from the Stakeholder Perspective.

Based in Atlanta, GA, HandsOn calls itself “the largest network of local volunteer centers around the world,” with 250 affiliates. Whereas previous studies relied on self-reports from affiliates to provide evidence of their impact, the researchers in this study used surveys and interviews to collect data directly from affiliates, community partners, and volunteers. Based on the perspectives of these groups, the researchers developed a conceptual framework that other Volunteer Centers and other intermediaries can use to measure the impact of their work.  

 

In 1984, a very important article about funding volunteer efforts was published in the Spring issue of Voluntary Action Leadership: “The No-Apologies Budget: How to Justify the Financial Support a Volunteer Program Deserves.” Written by Neil Karn, then director of the Virginia Division of Volunteerism, this article was the first strong argument for truly adequate funding of volunteer efforts. Thirty years after it was first published, e-Volunteerism is pleased to re-introduce this seminal article, which remains as powerful today as it was in 1984. The budget line items might look a bit different now, but Karn’s points still resonate in advocating for the support and tools volunteers continue to need in 2014.