United States

Loyal readers of e-Volunteerism will remember Ivan Scheier as part of the journal’s advisory team and frequent contributor until his death in 2008. He was a pioneer and mentor to many of us and we devoted an entire issue in 2009 in tribute to him. He was also a prolific writer. In this Voices, we reprint one of Scheier's article on values that evolved in various stages between 1975 and 1998. It does not surprise us that the challenges Scheier laid down more than 40 years ago remain pointed today.

Here is part of Scheier's introduction to the topic:

I believe volunteerism has the potential to integrate with the best and most powerful values in our society today. We can draw more fully on that power if only we will understand, appreciate, and publicize values. This means raising our own consciousness first, launching dialogue and debate, reaching some decision on what the main values are, then announcing them.  The first announcement should be to ourselves – volunteer leaders and volunteers. Then announcements should be made to the world. The purpose is to buttress our case for fundamental, rather than ornamental, status in the world of work and caring, to place us more securely in the mainstream of society. This article attempts to stimulate dialogue.

One week after this issue launched, the 2017 National Summit on Volunteer Leadership Engagement began in St. Paul, Minn. A special track at the summit convened a group of funders (public and private foundations and other donors) who met with volunteer resources managers and other nonprofit organization leaders. The purpose? To discuss the challenges of funding volunteer engagement efforts. JFFixler Group, led by Beth Steinhorn, partnered with Jane Leighty Justis of the Leighty Foundation and volunteer training expert Betty Stallings to revise and republish a “guide for funders” that was originally developed in 2003 to provide companion resources for nonprofits. Summit participants received this hot-off-the-press booklet on site, which is also available electronically for free at the Leighty Foundation website. 

In this article, Steinhorn excerpts and consolidates tips and strategies from the guide to help non-profits make the case to funders: investing in volunteer engagement is beneficial.

Imagine teen volunteers in a healthcare setting. Admit it: Your first impression probably centered on teenagers pushing carts, delivering flowers or books, or escorting therapy dogs to patients’ rooms. But in the Medical Center Health System in Odessa, Texas, teenagers did more than push carts – they pushed the proverbial teen volunteer envelope to help develop an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) or Electronic Health Record (EHR) volunteer interdisciplinary team within the health care system.

In this feature story, Patricia Q. Garcia, Director of Volunteer Services and Community Relations Coordinator at the health system, highlights how teens became involved in developing the EMR and EHR systems. She explains the benefits derived from this youth volunteer initiative, and why the administration supported this volunteer-driven program. According to Garcia, this initiative was not only a success, “it serves as a best practice for future volunteer-led programs.” And it helps illustrate how to engage, value, and retain tomorrow’s leaders by working with teen volunteers.

Editor-in-Chief Susan J. Ellis met “DR CurlyBubbe” a year ago in the parking garage at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) as Ellis arrived for one of her weekly chemotherapy visits. DR CurlyBubbe, a/k/a Esther Gushner, was hard to miss, what with her bright yellow knee socks, hat with a red rose, and doctor’s coat covered with smiley faces and various badges. As Ellis took in her whole outfit, including a badge saying, “Eat a prune – start a movement,” she realized she was watching a volunteer “clown doctor” report for duty at the hospital! And naturally, they started talking.

This special feature by Ellis tells the story of Esther Gushner, who nearly 18 years ago became a clown doctor and founding member of Bumper “T” Caring Clowns. Readers will soon discover why Caring Clowns prefer to be described as “Hospital Visitors with Red Noses;” why Gushner doesn’t really like the word “clown;” and how these “faux doctors” focus on one-to-one conversations (most often with adults) instead of trying to be funny with patients in critical and often frightening situations.

With 120 trained Caring Clowns in 27 hospitals in six states, Ellis and Gushner explain how the Bumper “T” Caring Clown volunteers mesh with each hospital’s existing Volunteer Services department, a part of the story that sends a strong message about how volunteer resources managers can successfully collaborate with community organizations. And by the end of this story, it will be perfectly clear why each Caring Clown’s signature red nose is the passport to people’s hearts - including Ellis’ own.

Like the proverbial phoenix that rises from the ashes, George Washington Carver Senior High School rose from the ravages of Hurricane Katrina. Over the decade since the storm, the community has seen the emergence of a new brand of school and a different way of teaching—along with a new group of caring people, reaching out and giving back to help restore the city. One such project is Big Class, an organization that goes into the city schools to help students with their writing and creative skills. Through the mentoring of noted poet, writer, and essayist Kiese Laymon, and a corps of other volunteers, the Carver students are now authors of a published book.

History Between the Folds: Personal Narratives by the 11th Grade at George Washington Carver Senior High School, published in May 2017, is written by the 11th grade students of Eric Parrie, a young, energetic history teacher at Carver, a predominately African-American, inner-city school. Parrie, who is white, brought with him a style of teaching that gives the students a chance to have a voice, to see history, and to make history. The book gives readers the opportunity to see into the hearts and minds of teenagers who were young children when Hurricane Katrina hit, and some teens new to the city. They share their personal experiences and feelings about life and their futures.

This very special e-Volunteerism feature, by writer and writing volunteer Willmarine B. Hurst, reveals the process of writing and publishing History Between the Folds, and explains how volunteers served as student writing mentors.

If you Google it, there are 10 times the number of articles on “volunteer recruitment” than “volunteer retention.” With the number of volunteers declining nationally, understanding the dynamics and rates of volunteer retention for different groups of volunteers is crucial.

In this Research to Practice, reviewer Laurie Mook presents the findings of several studies that investigate predictors of volunteer retention, with a special focus on a recent study that explores how volunteers’ feeling of “community service self-efficacy” (CSSE) affects their continued volunteer engagement. This study—based on results of a volunteer program assessment survey of volunteers in three U.S. nonprofit organizations—was influenced by research on students in service-learning courses. In terms of practice, a volunteer’s feeling of CSSE can be assessed in the recruitment process, and increases or decreases in CSSE measured periodically. As Mook explains, this information can be useful for developing and refining volunteer management practices that contribute to volunteer retention.

More people want to volunteer today than ever before. As practitioners, we recognize that it’s important to not just make volunteer opportunities more accessible but to also make them more personalized.

While some of us have yet to adopt a web-based approach to recruiting and working with volunteers, the conversation has already advanced to using more effective mobile apps. These apps offer more relevant opportunities to individual volunteers and also help automate check-in, background checking, and dynamic reporting processes. Today’s app developers aim beyond visual interfaces to target voice detection and artificial intelligence capabilities – such as those supported by Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and Samsung's Bixby – to predictively deliver personalized content and experiences to us. Such advances have real implications for volunteer engagement, too.

In the past, the volunteer community has often been burned by online volunteer opportunity registries and other volunteerism-related website providers who over-promise and under-deliver. But improved electronic tools now offer growing opportunities for us to engage more volunteers and retain them. In this e-Volunteerism feature, Sam Fankuchen, the founder of Golden, a top-ranked mobile app for volunteers, shares his expertise on electronic access that impacts volunteers. Fankuchen clearly challenges us to broaden our vision when he asks: Are we ready to position our volunteer opportunity listings so that every volunteer on every device in every community can find them? 

Free, live-streaming video platforms like Facebook Live, Twitter’s Periscope, and YouTube Live allow users of smartphones or tablets to live stream something they are viewing in person so that people off-site can view and share in it, too, in real-time – events, speeches, announcements, celebrations, and more.

The keyword here is live. Viewers watch the video at the same time it’s being filmed. While videos are recorded on Facebook and available after the live event (just like on YouTube), the draw for Facebook viewers is that they can view the event as it is happening, in real time. As with other Facebook posts, they can even join in by commenting.

Could Facebook Live and other live-streaming video platforms be used to celebrate volunteers? Welcome new volunteers? Educate and train volunteers? Recruit new volunteers? “Sure!” argues Jayne Cravens, an internationally-recognized volunteer management researcher, consultant, and trainer. In this e-Volunteerism feature, Cravens outlines some captivating ideas for how to embrace live-streaming video platforms to benefit volunteer engagement, noting that you can even “plan out” your video ahead of time. “It doesn’t have to be entirely spontaneous,” writes Cravens. “It just needs to feel that way.”