Engage Library

In this first-person Engage feature, Sharleen Tarnate-Nguyen, the Volunteer Engagement Manager for the San Diego Humane Society, gives readers an impassioned account of her journey to implement an organization-wide philosophy shift toward diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)…

Research, as well as practical experience, points to the myriad benefits of volunteering. For some individuals, volunteering may provide an opportunity for learning, particularly among younger volunteers looking to build lasting skills to enhance professional and personal lives…

Many sensitive environments or volunteer programs that serve vulnerable populations have requirements of their volunteers – ranging from complying with specific laws related to licenses, training and credentials to persisting inherited norms from years of operating programs…

In this Ethics column, author and Volunteer Engagement professional Kari Astles examines the ethics of engaging staff as volunteers. This common practice raises a number of ethical considerations – namely, whether staff can or should volunteer, and if so, how and when to…

In September 2024, TAVA’s Leadership Committee made the difficult decision to shut down the unincorporated Toronto Association for Volunteer Administration (TAVA). The committee members quickly discovered that this wasn’t an isolated incident but one in a series of closures that…

In Points of View, authors Erin R. Spink and Rob Jackson look back to a 2003 Points of View column from Engage founders Steve McCurley and the late Susan J. Ellis that  posed this question: Is All Volunteering Created Equal? The authors admit that when they started…

In Part 2 of Ethics, co-section Editor Erin R. Spink continues to explore how to build an Ethical Volunteering Policy in the workplace. After writing in Part 1 about the considerations and questions that surface when creating such a policy, Spink now presents…

In 1985, Susan J. Ellis published an article in the Journal of Voluntary Action Research (later republished by Energize in 2015) about the state of research on volunteerism and volunteer management entitled “Research on Volunteerism…What Needs to Be Done.” In her piece, Ellis…

Volunteering can mean many things to different audiences – acts of kindness, scheduled shifts, mentoring, fundraising. But there is one category of public service that often stands alone: disaster relief. Some disasters give us warning, others happen so quickly that our ability…

Across sectors — from education to healthcare, community services to environmental action —volunteers are often engaged in roles defined by convenience rather than impact. This Voices  article by Isabella Oliver calls for a fundamental shift in how organizations approach…

Struggling with conversations around volunteer retention at your organization? Is retention a talking point you have not been asked to dive into? Is it one you avoid? Or perhaps retention is something you have not previously considered for your volunteer roles? To many Leaders…

Laurence Bolotin, an experienced Volunteer Engagement Leader with a background in higher education, nonprofit leadership and board development, is absolutely convinced: “Generation Z is ready to serve and they can change the world. But they’re doing it differently.” Born between…

In this Points of View, co-editors Erin R. Spink and Rob Jackson conduct a video debate on a topic that they readily admit they need input to resolve: Are National Volunteer Weeks fit for purpose? Indeed, what are they for? What have they achieved? And frankly, are they even…

Why is it especially important to keep community-centered in times of uncertainty? How do our identities as Leaders of Volunteers shape our view of volunteerism? Is it still possible to be innovative when the ground feels like it's unsteady underneath us? Cristina Johnson, a…

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,…

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…