Evaluation/Program Assessment

The year 2024 marks the 40^thanniversary of International Volunteer Managers Day. With this in mind, Erin did a little digging. She discovered that in just three years from now, 2027 will mark the 80^th anniversary of the first document that discusses the management of volunteers as a paid job, leading to the development of the professional Volunteer Manager.

One of the most recognizable basics of Volunteer Engagement practice is the “3 Rs:” Recruit, Retain and Recognize. These are in most Volunteer Engagement job descriptions and Volunteer Management 101 texts and blogs, and remain a constant and ongoing topic of conversation amongst Leaders of Volunteer Engagement.

In this issue,Voices revisits two favorite Volunteer Engagement “voices” to debate a topic that could not be more timely today: Are we using the wrong model for volunteer work? In this repost of an April 2003 column by the late Susan J. Ellis and Steve McCurley, these two co-founders of e-Volunteerism, now known as Engage, discuss what happens when the patterns of volunteering change but the models and structures to support Volunteer Engagement remain the same.

In this issue, Voices revisits two favorite Volunteering Engagement “voices” with a
repost of a thought-provoking January 2017 column by the late Susan J. Ellis and Rob
Jackson. In this previously published column, Ellis (the Founder and former Editor of
this online journal) and Jackson (today’s Editor-in-Chief) profess that they are not trying
to exhort Volunteer Managers or instill guilt (well, maybe a tiny bit). Rather, these two
volunteerism vanguards explain why and how their profession must advocate for its