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Energize December 2005 Susan J. Ellis |
Charity Burnout? How to Cope with the Impact of Mother Nature in 2005 The huge commitment of time and money to so many areas needing disaster relief has a ripple effect on volunteer recruitment and fundraising for "everyday," local organization needs. Here are some suggestions to cope during tight times.  |
Energize October 2007 Susan J. Ellis |
The Moral Obligation of Volunteer Recruitment Promises Recruiting volunteers to contribute their time and effort to your organization puts you in the middle of an implied promise.  |
Energize November 2010 Susan J. Ellis |
When Volunteers Resist Change Always remember that volunteers bring their own perspectives and stereotypes about volunteerism to their service. Here are some ways of thinking that reflect a lack of training or understanding.  |
Energize Susan J. Ellis |
Volunteers and the Quest for Innovation Are we inventing bigger and better Band-Aids for the symptoms rather than eliminating the root causes of seemingly intractable problems?  |
Energize December 2009 Susan J. Ellis |
When the Ax Falls: Budget Cutting and Volunteers Can an organization turn to volunteers to fill gaps when budgets are cut and employees laid off?  |
AFP eWire July 31, 2006 |
Online Volunteering: Factors for Success A new study examines the potential benefits of cultivating online volunteers and the necessary infrastructure and capacity organizations need to effectively employ these volunteers.  |
Energize February 2012 Susan J. Ellis |
Volunteering is Inherently Political What would happen if we intentionally appealed to the political motivations of prospective volunteers? Instead of recruiting mainly by expressing the needs of our organizations and clients, we might put our work into a broader community perspective.  |
Energize June 2013 Susan J. Ellis |
Stop Volunteers from Being Their Own Worst Enemies Maybe we need to educate volunteers about who they are and how they fit into our organizations. If we wrongly assume that volunteers "get it," we open ourselves to potential problems of various sorts.  |
Energize May 2012 |
Three Things Volunteer Managers Can Learn from the Social Media Revolution Quick Tip: Recruit what Susan Ellis calls `cyber deputies.' These are volunteers who perhaps have more knowledge or comfort with social media than you.  |
AFP eWire January 22, 2007 |
Survey Examines Corporate Support of Employee Volunteers in Canada Most corporations and businesses in Canada encourage or accommodate their employee volunteer activities during work hours, although the manner and extent of the support varies widely, according to a new survey.  |
Energize November 2008 Susan J. Ellis |
How Will the Economic Crisis Affect Volunteering? Will volunteering increase, decrease, or change in some way as the financial situation becomes more dire?  |
Energize December 2011 Susan J. Ellis |
My Personal "State of the World's Volunteering" Report On December 5th, International Volunteer Day, United Nations Volunteers is set to issue its State of the World's Volunteering Report, officially bringing to a close the 2011 International Year of Volunteers + 10.  |
Energize October 2012 Susan J. Ellis |
Practicing What We Preach: Volunteers Helping Us, Too One of the enduring mysteries of the volunteer management field is how often those who lead volunteer efforts do not build a team of volunteers to help them in their important work.  |
Energize October 2011 Susan J. Ellis |
What Leaders of Volunteers Can Do To Gain Executive Attention This month, I am turning the spotlight 180 degrees to examine how leaders of volunteers contribute to the problem of not getting enough attention from higher-ups.  |
Energize Susan J. Ellis |
Prospective Volunteers Are Closer than You Think Ask yourself what you have done in the last year to make sure that you are really issuing an invitation to become a volunteer to the people in greatest proximity to you.  |
Energize November 2006 Susan J. Ellis |
Encouraging Entrepreneurial Volunteering Whether we are dealing in social entrepreneurship, civic engagement, donated professional services, pro bono work, or volunteering, our mission is to mobilize as wide a spectrum of community members as possible to meet real needs.  |
Energize November 2014 Susan J. Ellis |
Pulling the Rug Out from Under Volunteer Involvement: Sudden Staff Changes How are major changes communicated to volunteers in your organization? Is there a plan in place for continuity should you leave your job, whether by choice or not?  |
Energize November 2012 Susan J. Ellis |
The Perfect Volunteer Storm What can we observe in all of this outpouring of time and effort for the presidential election and for Hurricane Sandy and what implications can we see for calmer times? Let's do some analysis from our volunteer leadership perspective.  |
Energize May 2013 Susan J. Ellis |
Strategic Volunteer Management: Expanding Your Organization's Brain The problem in volunteer management is not that our organizations are without strategies of various sorts; it's that volunteers are not naturally integrated into those strategies even as an operational tactic.  |
Energize May 2006 Susan J. Ellis |
Online Spying Can Improve Your Volunteer Management Skills Use the Internet to be a quiet explorer, observing carefully what other non-profit organizations are doing. Educate yourself about approaches and models that you might follow, adapt, or even avoid.  |
Energize August 2014 Susan J. Ellis |
Identifying Who Is and Is Not a "Volunteer" Here are ten time-tested volunteer recruitment tips that still work.  |
Energize June 2011 Paula J. Beugen |
Is the Corporation for National and Community Service on the Right Track for Volunteerism? After energetically working alongside many others to advance the concepts for what became the National and Community Service Act of 1990, I am stunned by the current state of what is now the Corporation for National and Community Service  |
Energize June 2006 Susan J. Ellis |
Wouldn't It Be Nice to Really Know.... Trends in volunteering are reported largely based on observation and anecdotes rather than on hard data.  |
Energize January 2006 Susan J. Ellis |
The Implications of History Volunteering lessons gleaned from the newest edition of By the People: A History of Americans as Volunteers.  |
AFP eWire August 4, 2008 |
Volunteering Up, Dropout Rate Still High Retaining donors is not the only challenge nonprofits face. A recent study shows that retention rates for volunteers are nearly as daunting.  |
Energize August 2011 Susan J. Ellis |
I'll Never Understand Why Executives Still Don't Understand Here is the most succinct set of arguments for not ignoring volunteer involvement.  |
Energize December 2014 Susan J. Ellis |
What Did You and Volunteers Do Well this Year? 2014 is rapidly coming to an end. Before you consider making any resolutions for the new year, use December as an opportunity to reflect on the past 12 months.  |
Energize July 2006 Susan J. Ellis |
"I Don't Have Time" It's still possible to engage people in more intensive volunteer service, if we pay attention to their needs.  |
Energize September 2013 Susan J. Ellis |
What Volunteer Resources Managers Can Teach Human Resources Managers Volunteer resources managers are constantly being told what we can learn from professionals in personnel or human resources. Maybe it's time we tell HR what they can learn from us.  |
Energize March 2013 Susan J. Ellis |
Why Social Media Is Not the Cure-All for Building Volunteer Engagement You can become very successful at recruitment if you are able to brainstorm where you are most likely to find the right people -- not just people -- and where your message will not compete with thousands of others.  |
Energize April 2013 Susan J. Ellis |
Revisiting the Seven Deadly Sins of Directing Volunteers In the early 1980s, Energize produced a mini-poster with the dramatic title of "The Seven Deadly Sins of Directing Volunteers," which proved extremely popular. We are reappraising them for 2013.  |
Energize November 2011 Susan J. Ellis |
Part-time Volunteer Management Means Equally Limited Volunteer Involvement, It is hardly news that the majority of people who lead volunteer involvement are expected to do so part-time.  |
Energize Susan J. Ellis |
Volunteering and Employability: Cause or Effect? Most of us in volunteer management support the observation that volunteering builds resumes, provides career exploration, and demonstrates each volunteer's abilities, but can we make the case that volunteering directly affects employability? And is that the point?  |
AFP eWire February 19, 2007 |
Volunteering Slightly Down in 2006, But Overall Still Strong Results from a survey on volunteering by the Bureau of Labor Statistics show a modest decline, but they may reflect special circumstances instead of a trend. Includes statistics on the demographics of volunteers.  |
Energize January 2010 Susan J. Ellis |
Differentiating Volunteering and Working for Pay The distinctions between the two groups are vital because we need both for different reasons.  |
Energize January 2014 Susan J. Ellis |
Virtual Volunteering Revisited Some people will volunteer solely online, others will combine a virtual component with an onsite placement, and others may do their service totally hands on.  |
Energize September 2012 Susan J. Ellis |
"Why?" Is More Powerful than #@#%! Throughout my years in working with clients and audiences, I have found that asking someone to explain the reason for a particular statement, action, or decision almost always puts things into context and enables forward progress. So it's surprising that we do not ask "why?" more often.  |
Energize January 2007 Susan J. Ellis |
Should Volunteer Program Managers Be Volunteers, Too? There's never been a better time to volunteer for a volunteer management network - and that's true in a range of countries around the world, many of whom are nurturing embryo associations right now.  |
Energize February 2005 Susan J. Ellis |
Why Can't we Make Progress on Public Perceptions About Volunteering? Until it becomes important for any sort of application to list and describe one's community service as well as one's employment history, the public will continue to think these are done by two separate groups.  |
Energize Susan J. Ellis |
What's Ahead for 2009 in the Volunteerism Community? Here are several ways that the Obama Administration may impact volunteering in the United States, along with some of my own editorial comments.  |
Energize December 2012 Susan J. Ellis |
End-of-Year Reports Can Illuminate Volunteer Achievements The invisibility of volunteers in many agency reports is matched only by the presentation of generally useless information about volunteers in other reports.  |
Energize June 2005 Susan J. Ellis |
Mobile Volunteers - `Tis the Season In the past, one simply wished vacationing volunteers a good time and hoped they'd return in a few months. But if the person is going to have access to a computer and the Internet while away, consider a virtual assignment.  |
AFP eWire March 1, 2004 |
Many Nonprofits Using Volunteers Ineffectively A joint study by the UPS Foundation, the Corporation for National and Community Service and the USA Freedom Corps has revealed that 80 percent of nonprofits rely on volunteers for critical activities, but admit they do not have the resources or knowledge to manage them as they might like.  |
Energize July 2005 Susan J. Ellis |
Save a Life, Win a Car! When Do Incentives to Volunteer Cross the Line? Perhaps the diehard volunteers who want to give back to someone that has helped them will continue without perks, but the casual or more transitory volunteer will be siphoned off.  |
AFP eWire May 30, 2006 |
New Website Registers Volunteers for Future Disasters The Points of Light Foundation and Volunteer Center National Network have created a new website to help prepare for future disasters by linking charities with volunteers.  |
Energize May 2010 Susan J. Ellis |
The Self-Directed Volunteer The author discusses what is meant by the "self-directed" volunteer and what this means for philanthropic organizations.  |
Energize March 2010 Susan J. Ellis |
AmeriCorps and Senior Corps Targeting Volunteer Management The most popular capacity building option among both charities and congregations with social service outreach activities is the addition of a one-year, full-time volunteer with a living stipend (like an AmeriCorps member), with responsibility for volunteer recruitment and management.  |
Energize February 2009 Susan J. Ellis |
"A New Era of Responsibility": An Open Letter to President Obama A call for the President to remember the professional field of volunteer resource management during his presidency.  |
Energize February 2006 Susan J. Ellis |
The Fair Labor Standards Act and Other Obstacles to Progress As advocates for volunteer engagement, we need to approach specialized counselors as equal team members, remembering that we, too, have expertise to offer.  |
Energize November 2005 Susan J. Ellis |
Strength in Numbers: Engaging Volunteers as Partners in Program Development There is a specific form of volunteer involvement that has great potential as a tool for internal advocacy: activating a visible team of volunteer representatives.  |