Research to Practice seeks to identify, review and interpret academic and other research important to the volunteer engagement field. Because the various reports and studies are discussed in terms of their major relevance to practitioners, each of the articles is also listed in the Engage Library by subject covered.
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Research to Practice
This Voices celebrates legacy and leadership in Volunteer Engagement, just in time for the International Volunteer Managers Day (IVMDay) Celebration of “Legacy and Leadership” on November 5, 2026. Here, Voices Co-section Editor Tracey O’Neill brings together leaders in the…
October 2026
Not long ago, Beth Steinhorn and about 140 other volunteers arrived early to a volunteer site, watched an orientation video, waited for assignments that primarily never came, and left in a few hours when told they wouldn’t be needed after all. Turns out, Steinhorn hadn’t…
October 2026
For 10 years from 2013 to 2023, Leaders of Health Volunteer Engagement (LOHVE) Network conducted annual surveys of health-specific volunteer programs, initially across Victoria but later more broadly across Australia and then in other parts of the world. Taking data from all 10…
October 2026
Volunteer retention remains one of the most persistent challenges for organisations worldwide. Yet despite considerable investment in recruitment, training and induction, attrition among volunteers who take on leadership responsibilities continues at rates that threaten mission…
October 2026
Whether or not your employer encourages AI use, the ethics of AI implementation in Volunteer Engagement are tricky. This Ethics article explores the hopes, fears and real-world dilemmas that Leaders of Volunteers face when working with AI tools. Authors and Volunteer Engagement…
October 2026
Everything shifted for Tracey O’Neill, CVA, the moment Counter-Colonialism Workshop designer and Facilitator Rob Patton said: "Colonisation dehumanises us all." The comment reframed 25 years of O’Neill’s practice as a Volunteer Engagement Leader and an “expert” in the sector,…
July 2026
What really stands in the way of great Volunteer Engagement? Funding, leadership buy-in or something less obvious? It can feel difficult or overwhelming to answer this question in today’s fast-paced and resource-constrained workplace environments. This issue’s Research to…
July 2026
What happens when a volunteer's personal beliefs conflict with the needs, choices or identity of the person they are serving? In Ethics, Lori Showalter explores this issue from the lens of healthcare volunteers in a video presentation that addresses the ethical challenges…
July 2026
Volunteering has long been recognized for strengthening communities, but its impact extends well beyond service. As employers increasingly value practical experience, transferable skills and demonstrated commitment, volunteer programs are becoming powerful pathways to employment…
July 2026
This month, Voices goes on the road for a wide-ranging video conversation. Tracey O'Neill, CVA, takes you to the National Volunteering Conference in Adelaide, Australia and speaks with leaders of Volunteer Engagement from across the country, unscripted and in their own words.…
July 2026
Volunteers doing court-ordered community service at nonprofits, NGOs and charities was meant to be an alternative to fines and jail time. But there are nonprofits and probation officers offering another alternative: make a donation to a nonprofit and get a letter for the court…
July 2026
The future of Volunteer Engagement Leadership: A video conversation with Rob Jackson, Erin Spink, Betsy McFarland and Faiza Venzant What should the future of Volunteer Engagement Leadership look like? How should the field move forward and what should be considered as…
July 2026
For more than a century, women’s leadership has been central to shaping the voluntary and community sectors in Aotearoa, New Zealand. This Engage feature by Cheryll Martin explores that evolution—from early grassroots organising and wartime mobilisation to today’s complex,…
April 2026
Due to the history of philanthropy, nonprofit and civic organizations have mostly built their engagement infrastructure around a single question: Is this person willing to serve? And that willingness to serve, author Breauna Dorelus argues, automatically generates moral…
April 2026
When it comes to the user experience and digital volunteering workflows in Volunteer Engagement, what is needed and what has changed with the introduction of AI? Ahead of the Curve’s Sam Fankuchen dives into these dilemmas and more in this issue, and delivers a surprise or two.
April 2026
“Experience required” has long been a standard in volunteer recruitment, an understandable way to ensure that competent people fill key leadership roles. But when prior experience becomes the main pathway to meaningful participation, it’s worth asking how that readiness is built…
April 2026
When asked if they had volunteered, only a few students raised their hands. Ten minutes later, almost all of them had their hands in the air.
What if the problem isn’t that people don’t volunteer – but that they don’t recognize what they are doing is volunteering?
In this…
April 2026
Researchers and practitioners alike have long discussed the relationship between volunteering and monetary donations, particularly with respect to the question of whether these two forms of giving are substitutes or complements of one another. Despite these discussions, those in…
April 2026
“Who cares?” When it comes to volunteer impact, that’s the question Volunteer Engagement experts Rob Jackson, Erin R. Spink, Sue Carter Kahl and Jessica Pang-Parks strive to answer in this issue’s Points of View. Watch and learn from this video conversation as these four experts…
April 2026
In recent years, democracy around the world has been declining. According to one report, the “global index score is at just 5.17 out of 10, its lowest point in the history of the Economist Intelligence Unit’s annual Democracy Index.” Understanding why and where democracy is…
January 2026