Weekly Volunteer Management News

2008 (Current News)

28 Dec: Volunteer Centre Slough in Berkshire, England has just launched an ambitious new Web site, Chances4Volunteering (C4V, http://chances4volunteering.org/), with the goal of engaging as many people as possible in creating the “Supported Volunteering Toolkit” and fostering a community of people with experience and/or interest in furthering supported volunteering in the UK. However, anyone, anywhere is welcome to take part in the effort and the community.

The project’s working definition of “supported volunteering” is: an organised effort to overcome the barriers to volunteering faced by a group of individuals with common support needs. This frequently means volunteering by people with physical or mental disabilities who serve in groups with an assigned leader/supporter who may be a paid or a volunteer worker. Following the working definition on the site’s home page is the following invitation:

…though this description may seem simple & straight forward to most people it is important that the project is able to validate that position with those who are, have been or will be working at the grassroots efforts to help people into volunteering where major obstacles are experienced - so please let us know what you think .

C4V is a three year project with three stages:

Collect baseline knowledge or existing practice in supported volunteering;
foster a discussion amongst a community of people engaged in supported volunteering - both as supporterand supportee;
and publicly report back on what we've learned.

The C4V site will build a library of useful links, documents and resources on supported volunteering, as well as encourage sharing of visitors’ thoughts through a project blog. C4V is part of the Chances4Change Programme, funded by the UK Big Lottery Fund.

21 Dec: Inaugural day for Barack Obama is Tuesday, January 20, the day after the Martin Luther King, Jr. national holiday. A four-day schedule of inaugural activities has long been in the planning, but last week the Obama team upped the ante by circulating the following letter to its corps of volunteer supporters. It announces a “National Day of Service” that expands the original intent of the MLK “Day On – Not Off.” The letter is worth reading because it invites all Americans, regardless of political and other beliefs, to commit not just to a single day of service but to ongoing volunteering (see the sentences we highlighted in red below).

Every time our nation faces crisis, our national experience has shown Americans rise to the challenge. While government has an important role to play in helping rekindle our economy and addressing the problems of a distressed nation, President-elect Obama believes each of us, as Americans, have a responsibility to do what we can for our communities and fellow citizens. We are one nation.

The United States is once again at a crossroads and that is why the President-elect hopes to use the occasion of his Inauguration to rally our nation to commit to service in our communities. We are asking for your organization's participation in meeting this challenge.

In 1994, Congress transformed the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday into a national day of community service to further commemorate a man who lived his life in service to others. As a tribute to that legacy and the very real needs of our nation, the President-elect and Vice President-elect will launch a national organizing effort on the eve of their Inauguration to engage Americans in service. This national day of service will fall on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, January 19, 2009 and, unlike past calls to service, President-elect Obama will ask Americans to do more than just offer a single day of service to their cities, towns and neighborhoods. He will ask all of us to make an ongoing commitment to our communities. Never has it been more important to come together in shared purpose to tackle the common challenges we face.

The call will go to all Americans to organize service projects and join others at events in their communities. As the Co-chairs of the Presidential Inaugural Committee, we invite you and your organization to join other Americans to organize service projects in your communities. The Presidential Inaugural Committee will offer Americans a new website to help promote your events and for Americans to make their commitments, build communities, find opportunities to serve and share their results. These can be events that orient people to your organization's work, engage people in direct service, or bring people together to reflect on Dr. King's legacy and how they can commit to becoming more engaged citizens. Please see the attached information on how to get involved.

We have a great opportunity to set the tone for the next four years and I know you will rise to the challenge. Thank you for all your support.

The Presidential Inaugural Committee Web site is already asking people to post their thoughts on service and volunteering. It is not clear yet whether this will be the “new” site mentioned in the letter above, but this is where more details will be revealed about the plan in the next few weeks.

14 Dec: VolunteerMatch , the largest online registry of volunteer opportunities in the United States, has reached its 10th birthday. The Fall 2008 edition of Carnegie Results, published by Carnegie Corporation of New York, is devoted to a report titled, “VolunteerMatch: An Online Service Helps Everyone Find a Great Place to Volunteer.” It documents the rise of VolunteerMatch over the past decade and what distinguishes it from other Web-based services.

The VolunteerMatch story starts with a question: What prevents millions of would-be volunteers from getting involved in causes they care about? Conventional wisdom suggests apathy is the answer: people don’t volunteer because they don’t care passionately enough. But research in the field points to a lack of information about volunteer opportunities as the most significant drawback for individuals.

Although this 12-page report does not credit the original founders of Impact Online, the nonprofit that provided the platform for VolunteerMatch to start, it does explain both the reasons for and the evolution of what was a creative idea merged with new technology. It also credits VolunteerMatch with public reporting and establishing achievement benchmarks.

What of the future?

“It’s been a tremendously successful first ten years,” agrees Greg Baldwin, now VolunteerMatch president, “but we see things as just getting started. Relaunching the Website with a new design and enhanced functionality in the second quarter of 2008 led to the highest number of referrals (158,301) of any quarter in our history,” he says. “The site is just a lot cooler.”

VolunteerMatch has just launched a new review function to allow volunteers to share the quality of their experiences – certainly a pioneering effort worth watching.

7 Dec: United Nations Volunteers (UNV) has launched its redesigned Online Volunteering service Web site (http://www.onlinevolunteering.org/en/vol/). The site has been upgraded to increase its reach and ease its use by people with special access needs. It is also now available in Spanish and French as well as in English and complies with international accessibility standards. The clear design and intuitive navigation of the site, as well as the knowledge and resources it offers, will further help development organizations find suitable online volunteers.

Online Volunteering allows anyone with Internet access to contribute to efforts at economic development. Development organizations can thus find volunteers across the globe who provide technical expertise and freely share their skills online.

Organizations simply register with the Online Volunteering service and, after initial checks by UNV, are free to post assignments for which they seek volunteer support. Online volunteers then apply directly, allowing development organizations to select the most qualified candidates themselves.

There are more than 1,000 organizations currently registered with the UNV Online Volunteering service, and 2,800 online volunteers complete about 3,800 assignments every year. Online volunteers come from 184 different countries (46 percent from developing countries): more than 60 percent are women.

30 Nov: The International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development (IVD, http://www.worldvolunteerweb.org/int-l-volunteer-day.html) was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1985. Since then, governments, the UN system and civil society organizations have successfully joined volunteers around the world to celebrate the Day each 5th of December.

IVD offers an opportunity for volunteer organizations and individual volunteers to make their contributions - at local, national and international levels – visible. Over the years, rallies, parades, community volunteering projects, environmental awareness, free medical care and advocay campaigns have all featured prominently on IVD. These events are led by IVD national committees.

Go to the World Volunteering Web IVD site and find an array of information and resources, including:

Project and planning ideas
IVD logos, banners, bookmarks and clothing templates in six languages
(Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish)
Press releases
Descriptions of events planned as submitted by colleagues
An invitation to post your video or view ones already posted to the IVD 2008 YouTube group

Whether or not your country celebrates IVD, every organization can take notice and use the opportunity to thank volunteers. Or use the ideas shared here to develop recognition events at any time of the year.

Happy International Volunteer Day!

23 Nov: In the summer of 2008, Do Something (www.dosomething.org), the organization enabling teenagers to be doers, surveyed admissions officers of top colleges and universities in the United States to understand the importance of community service in the college admissions process. Does it matter? Are there kinds of service that are more meaningful than others?

Do Something received feedback from 25 of the top 50 colleges and universities, as compiled by US News and World Report. Do Something required that participants be a currently employed admissions officer, responding on behalf of his or her college or university. Among the highlights of the survey results are:

When asked, “Which would you value more: four years volunteering at a local community center or one month helping orphans in Somalia?” 100% surveyed chose four years at a community shelter. This response indicates passion and consistency hold much higher value than a smaller, even more intensive program. This theme is reiterated in the entire study.
When asked, “Which would you value more: raising $100,000 for the homeless or spending a summer working at a homeless shelter?” 68% surveyed valued time spent over money raised....They are looking for evidence of actual service, not the ability to connect with wealthy people.
When asked to rank GPA, SATs, legacy, reference letters, extra curricular activities, and community service, 37.5% surveyed ranked community service fourth. While GPA and SATs are obviously the most valued criteria, community service ranks higher than legacy and reference letters. Quite simply, hard academic numbers remain the most standard and significant factors of getting into a top college, but community services are noted and valued experiences.

16 Nov: Family Volunteer Day, an annual day of service held on the Saturday before Thanksgiving in the United States, is sponsored by HandsOn Network, generated by Points of Light Institute and The Walt Disney Company. The Day is designed to "demonstrate the power of families who choose to volunteer together to support the communities in which they live and serve." Although its focus is American, the concepts and project ideas can be applied to any country.

Family volunteering encourages the members of a family to volunteer together. A "family" is "any group of two or more people who consider themselves a family." Family volunteering can be done by the whole family together, by one parent and one child or teen, by siblings together or by extended family such as grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. It can be as simple as drawing cards for children in the hospital or as complex as bonding hundreds of families together in a day of volunteer work at a community park. However families choose to do it, family volunteering can help mobilize thousands of new volunteers to meet community needs and instill a lifelong commitment to volunteering.

Family Volunteer Day is based on the premise that:

Volunteering as a family provides quality time for busy families, strengthening family communication and bonds.
Family volunteering is a hands-on way to teach children the values of kindness, compassion, tolerance, community responsibility and good citizenship.

For more information, project ideas, volunteer opportunities, and other resources, visit the extensive site prepared by Disney: http://disney.go.com/disneyhand/familyvolunteers/

9 Nov: Since the Congress of Volunteer Administrator Associations (COVAA) meeting in December of 2006, steady progress has been made to bring the Association of Leaders in Volunteer Engagement (ALIVE, www.volunteeralive.org) to fruition. ALIVE is now officially incorporated and seeking to elect its first board of directors.

ALIVE has just been selected by the UPS Volunteer Impact Fund as the recipient of a $100,000 grant. The grant will support the development of ALIVE with the goal of building the capacity of the volunteer management field. Quoting directly from the RFP:

The intent of the initiative is to mobilize and equip volunteer managers and their organizations on a wide scale to advance and expand volunteer resource management and, in so doing, to increase the capacities of nonprofit organizations to engage more volunteers in meaningful service. More than a one-time project, the Fund seeks to help create resources, infrastructure, andsustaining capacity to advance volunteer resource management nationally.

ALIVE’s incorporation documents and by-laws identify the approximate 90 members who were the former COVAA delegates at the Congress in Denver as the “Founding Members” and, thus, the electing authority for the Founding Board. These delegates represented over 6,000 volunteer resource managers in the field and we believe reach the diversity necessary for a visionary board. Board member criteria encourage background, knowledge, and experience from inside and outside the field of volunteer management.

Do you know someone that can lead the new association into the future of volunteerism? Please consider submitting your name or recommending the name of someone who you think would provide the type of leadership needed. Inquiries regarding the process and/or election should be directed to Christine Sorrels, Board Development Committee Chair, at CSorrels@cox.net .

Once this new Board is elected by the COVAA delegates, final membership criteria of ALIVE will be determined and opened up to the field. A transition retreat for the Initial and Founding Board of Directors is planned for mid-February.

2 Nov: You’ve heard of “integration of technology” – how the future lies in blending the capacity and interactivity of computers, the Internet, cell phones, television and more. Well, buckle your seatbelts. It’s coming to volunteerism, too.

In a posting, “Volunteering Via Mobile: Dialing Up New Ways To Help,” learn about the Do Something NOW (mobilized!) get teenagers (or anyone) to sign up to receive two volunteer opportunity text messages a month on their cell phones.

Then look at “The Extraordinaries: A New Way of Thinking about the Volunteer Economy.“ The idea is under development and proposes setting up a Craig’s List model for connecting “mini-opportunities to volunteer on demand” to a mobile phone.

Mobile Commons is a “a start-up based in New York City with big ambitions to change the way that people and organizations interact with their mobile phones,” and represents the commercial wave they may be crashing on us soon.

What does all this mean? No one is sure, but stay tuned and as informed as possible.

26 Oct:

Listen Closely – It's the Sound of Your World Changing Forever. Generation We – the Millennials – has arrived. They have emerged as a powerful political and social force. Their huge numbers and progressive attitudes are already changing America. And the world.

This is the introduction to the Web site, Generation We (http://gen-we.com). It focuses on young adults and how they have the potential to transform everything.

A centrepiece of the site is the book, Generation We, by Eric Greenberg. He explores the emerging power of the Millennials, the largest generation in American history. Based on a 2,000-person survey and twelve focus groups in four different regions of the country, Greenberg's research provides insight into the subtle and nuanced political views of young people today. The book can be purchased in print or downloaded for free as a 257-page PDF.

The site offers more resources, a blog, and ways for young people to join “the movement.”

19 Oct: From a volunteerism perspective, the presidential election campaign process has all sorts of spin-offs. Some are very serious and some are humorous. But maybe after the dust settles we can learn something from them for our ongoing work. Here is just a sampling:

Peritus Pundit poll
Tired of all those TV experts telling you who’s going to be our next President? The Peritus Pundit gives you the opportunity to compete against a national audience of political enthusiasts in picking the next President of the United States. Predict the winner of the election, and not only will you be crowned the Peritus Pundit, we'll also donate $1,000 to the charity of your choice.
Shout America
“A community united to solve the health care crisis.” See their “digital badge” form of online contribution.
The Great Schlep
With the hilarious, even if profane, Sarah Silverman as spokesperson, this campaign is serious about mobilizing grandkids: The Great Schlep aims to have Jewish grandchildren visit their grandparents in Florida, educate them about Obama, and therefore swing the crucial Florida vote in his favor. Don’t have grandparents in Florida? Not Jewish? No problem! You can still become a schlepper and make change happen in 2008, simply by talking to your relatives about Obama.
The Dog Vote
“The fate of our nation lies in their paws.” Mainly a site to purchase dog accessories for your favorite candidate (as of today the bandana for Obama has sold out), but cleverly done as a way to capture dog lover interest. There are plenty of cat-related election items scattered on the Web, too, but this is a more focused site.

12 Oct: Idealist.org has announced the launch of what they call the “International Volunteerism Resource Center” at www.idealist.org/ivrc. This is a free, comprehensive online source of information, tools, and strategies for making informed decisions about engaging in meaningful international service. Designed for individual global citizens, the site has pages dedicated to such topics as:

What is international volunteering?
What should I consider before deciding to volunteer in another country?
What are some of the ethical and cost issues associated with volunteering abroad?
Should I go with a volunteer-sending organization or on my own?
How do I choose a volunteer-sending organization or program?
How do I find, plan, and embark on my own independent volunteer abroad experience?
What questions should I ask to determine if an opportunity or organization is legitimate? A good fit for me?
How might I volunteer while studying abroad, going on a gap year, or working abroad?
How might I volunteer abroad with my family or employer?

Individuals can then search or browse by country through Idealist.org's 14,000+ global volunteer opportunities.
The International Volunteerism Resource Center is a comprehensive, easy to use, and accessible collection of information, opportunities, and all-things-useful for both those interested in volunteering in another country as well as those who already have. Idealist welcomes feedback from current, future and past volunteers, so share your suggestions and critiques by e-mailing erinb@idealist.org.

5 Oct: The Reinvestment Fund, a not-for-profit national leader in the financing of neighborhood revitalization, has launched PolicyMap (www.policymap.com), an online mapping tool that empowers decision makers with better access to quality market and demographic data.

PolicyMap offers more than 4,000 indicators related to demographics, real estate markets, crime, schools, housing affordability, employment, energy, and public investments. Every data variable comes with simple descriptions and precise technical definitions. The goal is to make it easy to gather and analyze credible data that policy makers, foundations and investors need to make decisions.
PolicyMap users can access the data through maps, reports, charts, and tables – all of which can be saved and printed. Users can create reports based on a specified radius of a location or a custom-drawn region. For example, as part of a volunteer recruitment campaign, one could create a “Community Profile, showing up-to-date information about a specific neighborhood’s population, racial and household composition, age, income, and workforce.
PolicyMap’s basic service is available to the general public for free. Users can also select from various subscriber levels to access proprietary data and projections, upload their own data, and use additional features. There are online tutorials and live online training sessions.

28 Sep: Volunteering England (www.volunteering.org.uk) “is working to secure and support an England-wide network of quality volunteer development agencies, promoting and enabling volunteering and community involvement.” In its continuing advocacy effort, VE has created a new area of its Web site to educate about and provide tools for “Volunteer Centres.” .

The site includes such sections as:

What Do Volunteer Centres Do?
Strategy for Developing the Volunteering Infrastructure
Funding Framework for Volunteer Centres (including a 74-page report that can be downloaded for free)
Good Governance at Volunteer Centres
Volunteer Centre Quality Accreditation

In alerting colleagues to the new Web area, Rob Jackson, VE’s Director of Development and Innovation, said: “We quite like this picture, it isn’t perfect (who or what is?) but we’re hoping it will be quite a useful tool in communicating why Volunteer Centres are central to volunteering.”

21 Sep: On September 11 and 12, the ServiceNation Summit was held in NYC, including a televised appearance by both presidential candidates who pledged their support of Federal-subsidized service programs such as Peace Corps and AmeriCorps. But the real agenda of the event lies in a 60-page document released at the same time. Strategies for Becoming a Nation of Service, represents the blueprint of a vision, endorsed by ServiceNation coalition members, to “unleash the energy of citizens on our most pressing social challenges by strengthening and increasing community and national service opportunities.”

Download the full document (or a 3-page Executive Summary) to see the proposals for “meaningful opportunities for service at every key life stage, and for every socioeconomic group, from kindergarten through the post-retirement years.” Among the highlights of Strategies for Becoming a Nation of Service are ideas for:

Engaging 100 million Americans in community volunteering.
Engaging 20 million youth per year in school and community-based service learning.
Expanding service on college campuses.
Placing 1 million Americans per year in full- and part-time stipended national service by 2020.
Launching a Veterans Service Fellowship. Attracting talent to America’s public sector.
Forging alliances of peace and prosperity through overseas service.
Fostering new innovations and growth to scale in the nonprofit sector.
Providing millions of Americans age 50 and older opportunities to use their lifetime of learning and skills to help address America’s challenges.
Measuring outcomes of expanded service opportunities.

14 Sep: The latest series of destructive hurricanes is again mobilizing volunteer response. One resource that can help is Google Earth Outreach (http://www.google.com/earth/outreach/index.html), designed to give nonprofits and public benefit organizations the knowledge and resources to educate potential supporters about their work in a vivid way. An article on TechSoup explains the way that organizations are using Google Earth Outreach to “provide a visual – and intimate – presentation of” their efforts.

Along with other tools Google makes available for free is its popular Google Earth site, in which, in their words, “lets you fly anywhere on Earth to view satellite imagery, maps, terrain, 3D buildings and even explore galaxies….” Used extensively by armchair travelers, it became critically important during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina:

…when Hurricane Katrina slammed the Gulf Coast in August 2005, a philanthropic purpose was born. Google worked with the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to publish real-time flooding imagery that the Coast Guard used to locate and rescue victims. The software provided emergency workers with a situational awareness by showing collapsed bridges, road conditions, and nearby landmarks. Many volunteers hailed from other states and used the resource to familiarize themselves with the area as they sought out people stranded on submerged homes.

Stories about Katrina victims rescued by using Google abounded and nonprofit organizations took notice of the software’s philanthropic potential. As did several people on the Google Earth team. Google employees devote 20 percent of their time to a project that impassions them, and several team members determined that their project would entail supporting humanitarian efforts with Google Earth.

That led directly to Google Earth Outreach:

According to Rebecca Moore, Program Manager of Google Earth Outreach, the resource "shows the world what’s at stake, rather than just telling people about it"…people can be transported to exactly where the work is done on Google Earth’s globe. Once there, users are given further context and information with pop-up "balloons" that offer everything from text, to photos, videos, and blogs.

At the Google Earth Outreach site, you can learn how to create maps and virtual visits through tutorials and case studies.

7 Sep: The Council for Certification in Volunteer Administration (CCVA, http://www.cvacert.org) sponsors the “Certified in Volunteer Administration” credential for professionals in the field of volunteer resource management. In order to ensure that the CVA credential remains current and relevant, they must periodically update a Practice Analysis Study of the core competencies upon which the credential is based.

If you have at least 3 years of experience in leading and managing volunteer involvement, please take a few minutes to help CCVA validate the work of their task force and ensure the CVA professional designation reflects actual practice.

To participate in this survey, click on the link below. It will take about 20 minutes of your time, and the survey will remain open for the month of September.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=eSo9KZqYgFJyUtdOKtZAaw_3d_3d

Please feel free to pass this message along to peers and colleagues. The more responses, the better.

31 Aug: The first Monday in September is Labor Day in the United States and Canada, giving most of us a day off from laboring. Just a reminder that this gives leaders of volunteers a wonderful opportunity to recognize unpaid labor as well. It may not be traditional, and perhaps some unions would object, but why not thank everyone who is productive on your behalf? If nothing else, it might get people thinking about all the hands, hearts, and elbow grease needed to accomplish goals. Besides, why pass up any chance to say thank you?

A day commemorating workers is celebrated throughout the world, with most often on May 1 but it depends on the country. See a list of the dates at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_Day.

24 Aug: Staples (the office supply chain), Ashoka’s Changemakers and Youth Venture have collaborated to run the Staples Youth Social Entrepreneur Competition (http://www.changemakers.net/en-us/competition/staplesyv). The competition aims to identify and support innovative ways young people are making life easier for others. Entries are accepted from young people ages 12-24 from any country in the world. See criteria and guidelines. Winners receive feedback, find supporters, win prizes, and up to US$1,000 in funding.

Entries must be submitted by October 15, 2008, 6:00 p.m. EST (21:00 GMT).

17 Aug: Take Pride in America® (www.takepride.gov) is a national partnership program authorized by Congress to promote the appreciation and stewardship of public lands. It encourages citizen stewardship through a public awareness campaign and an interactive Web site that showcases volunteer opportunities at natural and cultural sites. Take Pride is active in all fifty states, has partnerships with public, private, and nonprofit organizations. One of its initiatives is to urge Americans to consider volunteer vacations centered on the environment.

Travel for Good, the voluntourism program of online travel agency Travelocity (www.travelocity.com), believes that a volunteer vacation can be an economically affordable alternative to the traditional vacation plans of many Americans. But they know there are lots of potential volunteers who cannot afford to go without assistance, and so created the Change Ambassadors Grant . This grant will fund up to $5000 for the transportation to, as well as the cost of, any trip organized by one of Travelocity’s volunteer travel provider partners for individuals or groups deemed worthy based on the merit of their applications (including financial circumstances) and their ability to meet the grant requirements. Travel for Good and Take Pride in America are partners in this effort.

Thanks to a generous contribution from Marriott®, they will be awarding 3 grants in 2008. The Marriott®-sponsored grant will be awarded specifically to an applicant whose expedition focuses on an environmental cause. The grant requires applicants to select a trip as part of the application process. See the application guidelines for more details.

10 Aug: In 2005, Innovations in Civic Participation (ICP, www.icicp.org) published a report entitled “Summer of Service: A new American Rite of Passage?” that proposed a national “Summer of Service” (SOS) program to help communities create positive alternatives for young teens during summer vacation. Now in August 2008, ICP has launched the Summer of Service Online Resource Center, with information and technical assistance in the design and evaluation of high quality SOS programs.

The idea is that:

SOS would enable a large number of young teens to participate in service as a “rite of passage” from middle to high school and provide opportunities for them to enter their teenage years with a positive experience that reinforces their connections to the community, enlivens their education, and strengthens their personal and civic values. At the same time, communities across America might find an important new resource in their own backyards – young people who are ready to serve, if only they are asked and provided with the opportunity to do so.

The new SOS Online Resource Center provides resources including tools for program management and curriculum design, information about funding opportunities and resources, a discussion forum for information exchange, recently published reports and research, and featured exemplary SOS programs.

ICP is seeking to gather more information about Summer of Service programs and policies to add to their searchable database of youth service programs and policies. If you would like to add your program to their database, you can complete a survey on their site. You can also contribute sample materials to add to the Resource Center’s offerings.

3 Aug: Last week the Corporation for National and Community Service announced the availability of the Volunteering in America report containing six years of data on volunteering, rankings of states and cities, and volunteer trends and demographic information for every state and 162 large and mid-sized cities. This is the most comprehensive data ever produced in the United States and, even more important, is presented through a new interactive Web site: www.VolunteeringInAmerica.gov.

Site users can access volunteering statistics and information for the nation, U.S. regions, states and major cities. Users can see how states and cities rank by volunteer rates and volunteer hours. The site features information on new research findings, customizable reports, information on how people volunteer and helpful tools and training links. Several key documents are available for free download.

Visitors can even take a 6-question quiz to find out how much they know about volunteering in America. Try it – the answers may surprise you!

27 Jul: The Volunteer Impact Fund and the National Human Services Assembly have issued a new Request for Proposals. The Fund, which was established by The UPS Foundation and is managed by the National Human Services Assembly, has received funds from an anonymous donor and The UPS Foundation for this particular project.

Quoting directly from the RFP:

The intent of the initiative is to mobilize and equip volunteer managers and their organizations on a wide scale to advance and expand volunteer resource management and, in so doing, to increase the capacities of nonprofit organizations to engage more volunteers in meaningful service. More than a one-time project, the Fund seeks to help create resources, infrastructure, and sustaining capacity to advance volunteer resource management nationally.

Note the phrases underlined for emphasis.

Also please note that the kinds of organizations that will be deemed qualified to receive funding are fairly specifically prescribed in the RFP.

There is a relatively short turn-around for this RFP. It is not the Fund’s intent for applicant organizations to create an entirely new initiative but to provide additional dollars to help make existing/developing efforts to achieve the purposes of the grant (and The Fund) in as lasting and broad a way as possible.

20 Jul: We announced this conference a few months ago, but it’s worth noting again. The Volunteer Resource Center of Hawaii (http://vrchawaii.org/) has taken the lead in convening a major conference in Honolulu on September 16-19, 2008: the first Asia Pacific Volunteer Leadership Conference (http://vrchawaii.org/APVLConference/). Co-sponsored by organizations committed to the common theme of international volunteer management, the conference has four “Streams”:

international volunteer management
opportunities for the aging
disaster readiness and recovery
pathways to peace and service

Breaking News!

As of 18 July, the conference fee has been REDUCED to only $200 --

read the press release for details.

Speakers have been invited from almost a dozen countries, including the US, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. Attendees may choose to remain in one Stream for the workshops or may sample workshops from different streams. In addition, everyone will take part in unique Reflection Pool sessions. There will also be a day of site visits to multicultural Hawaiian volunteer programs.

This promises to be an exciting and visionary event. Hawai`i is the ideal location for bringing together people from the Pacific Rim who share a common focus in encouraging and strengthening volunteer engagement. If you are located anywhere around the Pacific Rim (including the west coast of the USA), consider attending this special conference. Check out the airfares before concluding it’s too expensive! There are some good deals out there!

For more information and registration, go to: http://vrchawaii.org/APVLConference/.

13 Jul: A press release last week announced a new initiative – named This Land Is Your Land – to coordinate public and private efforts to engage newly naturalized Americans in volunteering with the National Parks and other public lands. This is a collaboration among the White House Office of USA Freedom Corps, Department of Homeland Security’s Task Force on New Americans, National Park Service and the American Recreation Coalition.

This Land Is Your Land was unveiled on July 7, 2008 at a special naturalization ceremony in Ellis Island’s Great Hall where 20 new citizens from 15 countries took the Oath of Allegiance within sight of the Statue of Liberty. Cokie Roberts, broadcast journalist and member of the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation, led the event and encouraged the new Americans to vote and to volunteer on public lands. She specifically challenged them to volunteer 100 hours to earn the President’s Volunteer Service Award during their first year of citizenship.

Upon naturalization, new citizens are granted the rights and responsibilities associated with the shared ownership of America’s public lands, which cover one-third of the United States. Keynote speaker Mary Bomar, Director of the National Park Service and the first naturalized American to hold that position, spoke passionately of her own Oath of Allegiance ceremony and of how National Parks connect all Americans through shared ownership and responsibility. “There are special places that unite us all as Americans,” said Bomar. “National Parks are those special places, and by visiting them, I hope you’ll be as inspired as I was.”

The New Americans Outreach Task Force met after the ceremony to set an action agenda for the partnership’s next steps. The Task Force will work to make the successful launch of This Land Is Your Land part of a larger, sustainable effort to welcome naturalized citizens to their new public lands.

6 Jul: The European Volunteer Centre (CEV, www.cev.be) is urging its NGO partners in Europe to call on their MEPs (Members of European Parliament) to sign the “Written Declaration 30/2008” to support the proposal to make 2011 the European Year of Volunteering. The deadline for MEPs to sign is the 15th of July. So far, 348 MEPs are on the signature list but more are needed for the final adoption.

On the CEV site, you can learn more and download the Declaration in 22 languages plus read an eloquent statement on why the resolution matters. The proponents declare: “There is no Europe without volunteers: they contribute greatly to both social Europe and its growth.”

2011 will be the 10th anniversary of the UN International Year of Volunteers (IYV). While the European Union has increasingly paid attention to volunteering in all its forms since 2001, advocates of the European Year of Volunteering note “we are still far from a comprehensive strategy and action at the European level to promote, recognize, facilitate and support volunteering in order to realize its full potential.” Celebrating volunteers officially in 2011 will allow for greater visibility, further work on a strong volunteering infrastructure across Europe, and expand collaboration between government and communities.

Europeans are asked to contact their MEPs now.

29 Jun: More than 2,500 free downloadable tools and e-courses are available through the new Resource Center at www.nationalservice.gov/Resources. It’s a fully accessible and dynamic Web 2.0-based clearinghouse that contains a wide range of publications, tip sheets, Web links, toolkits, widgets, and other resources to strengthen national service and volunteer programs.

The Resource Center’s content is generated by a network of training and technical assistance providers and experts, funded by the Corporation for National and Community Service, primarily to serve the needs of Senior Corps, AmeriCorps and Learn and Serve programs, but also for use by any nonprofit or community group that uses volunteers to meet local needs.

Features that are available to the public include:

The Effective Practices Collection, now 800 effective practices strong.
Enjoy search results conveniently classified by resource type for easy access and retrieval.
Take advantage of RSS feeds that bring live, up-to-date news directly from the Corporation for National and Community Service.
Access short tip sheets and podcasts on important service and management topics from the “Grab and Go” section.
Consult a Pro — get advice from featured consultants and training and technical assistance providers

Through the “search,” “browse,” “select,” and “connect” functions, users will be able to quickly retrieve all of the Center’s online content including training tools, event calendars, and a catalogue of printed publications and videos available on loan.

22 Jun: Australia-based consulting and training company, People First – Total Solutions (www.pfts.com.au), has released the results of its first-ever global Volunteer Management Survey. Conducted over the past several months, 851 volunteer managers from 23 counties participated with responses.

Some key findings:

Volunteer Managers pay is not linked to any measure: length of service, volunteer program size, etc.
44% of volunteer coordinators have been in their current role for less than 2 years
42% will be out of the field within five years
63% see their job only as a stepping stone
Most see their volunteers as essential to their program, but – no surprises – the biggest issue faced was getting the resources needed to run programs

The summary of the results is now available on the PFTS site. Martin Cowling and his team will continue analyzing the data and will be publishing more commentary including results for Australia, New Zealand, the USA and UK.

Readers can also comment on the survey via a “commentary wall.”

15 Jun: United Way of America has recently announced new priorities, including a focus on education, income and health: “These are the building blocks for a good life…Our goal is to create long-lasting changes that prevent problems from happening in the first place.” They have launched a new tag line (“Live United”) and Web site – www.liveunited.org – along with a new emphasis on volunteering as well as giving money.

United Way has also announced a national “Day of Action” on June 21st:

We invite you to be part of the change. On June 21 – the longest day of the year – United Ways across the country are participating in a nationwide Day of Action. With more daylight hours than any other, June 21 is the perfect day to let your actions speak louder than words. It’s the perfect way to show, by example, what it means to LIVE UNITED.

What will you do on the longest day of the year? Click here to find ideas.

8 Jun: The International Committee steering the annual day focusing on celebrating the profession of volunteer management has been listening seriously to the feedback received from around the world and are making some changes in accordance with that feedback. Here are excerpts of a recent notice from them:

Name Change – One key theme that keeps emerging is that many volunteer managers don’t want to be ”appreciated.” Rather, they want the day to be about the promotion of a cutting-edge profession and not simply an occasion for us to pat ourselves on the back. With this in mind we have made the decision to change the title of the day from International Volunteer Managers Appreciation Day to the more simplified International Volunteer Managers Day (IVMD).

Website – To fit with our name change we made the decision to change the URL of the IVMD website. The content of the website has been changed to reflect the new title of the day, and you’ll see we have a new look and a new logo. You’ll now find it at www.volunteermanagersday.org.

New Date – While we are reluctant to do so, feedback has indicated that November 1 is problematic in some countries due to it conflicting with the celebration of All Saints Day. Though it will remain November 1 this year, we are hoping to find a new (and permanent) date to celebrate IVMD beginning in 2009. At this point we are suggesting a new date of November 5, which is close to the existing date and has some nice synergies with December 5 being International Volunteers Day. We are aware that this is Guy Fawkes Day in some parts of the world, but don’t imagine that will impact too much on the celebration of volunteer managers (it just means the fireworks are at the ready!!!).

The Committee values constructive feedback on the newly proposed date. Feedback can be sent to Andy Fryar at andy@ozvpm.com.
Plan now to mark November 1, 2008 as IVMD!

1 Jun: 1-7 June is Volunteers’ Week throughout the United Kingdom, so we join our colleagues and friends there in celebrating. To see what events are planned in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, go to http://www.volunteersweek.org.uk/.

You can also see the winning photos from the 2007 Volunteers’ Week photography competition.

25 May: An innovative online walking program (which sounds like an oxymoron, of course) has been launched in conjunction with the new Google Health service, partnering with Cleveland Clinic. It’s called “Walk for Good” (http://www.google.com/webmasters/igoogle/goforgood.html) and the press release from the Cleveland Clinic speaks mainly of the public health benefits:

“Walk for Good is a groundbreaking effort that brings health and wellness into the 21st century by marrying the latest in online technology with timely health and wellness information from a leading medical resource," said C. Martin Harris, M.D., Chief Information Officer, Cleveland Clinic. "We are giving individuals a state-of-the-art tool they can use to incorporate healthy living into their daily routine."

But on the Google site, it’s clear that there’s a charitable aspect to this as well:

Earn your vote for charity
Complete the 15-week "Walk for Good" program, then vote for your favorite health charity.
Your walks can change the world
Watch for us to announce each charity's share of the $100,000 donation in November, 2008.

That means this online option is a new version of the old stand-by fundraising walk-a-thon. Volunteering, improved health, community building, raising money, cyberspace. Consider the implications!

18 May: Spark the Wave (www.sparkthewave.org) is an organization with the mission to “empower youth through educational programs to be great volunteers and community leaders.” The centerpiece of their program is their annual “Wave Week,” scheduled this year on July 20-25, 2008 at Villanova University in Radnor, PA (25 minutes from Center City Philadelphia).

Wave Week is a six-day summer camp for 7th to 11th graders. Sessions are scheduled on topics as diverse as effective communication, diversity awareness, group leadership, getting a group to work more efficiently, and more. There’s also a community service project done in a local agency. Here’s the group’s philosophy:

We introduce youth to lessons in a unique peer-learning environment. Almost 3/4 of our staff are high school and college students! We keep the lecturing to a minimum and teach most of the concepts through a range of small group activities. Our volunteer staff is composed of dedicated young people who have been preparing teens in the area for years to lead in their schools, organizations, and communities.

For full details and registration information, click here. Applications are still being accepted.

11 May: After years professional exchange around the Pacific Rim, the Volunteer Resource Center of Hawaii (http://vrchawaii.org/) has taken the lead in convening a major conference in Honolulu on September 16-19, 2008: the first Asia Pacific Volunteer Leadership Conference (http://vrchawaii.org/APVLConference/).

Co-sponsored by organizations committed to the common theme of international volunteer management, the conference has four “Streams”:

international volunteer management
opportunities for the aging
disaster readiness and recovery
pathways to peace and service.

Speakers have been invited from almost a dozen countries, including the US, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.

Examine the universal issues we all face in volunteer management, regardless of setting or location, and explore how we can use our similarities to further our work.
Identify how we are different from country to country and setting to setting, and seek creative ways to learn from those differences.
Benefit from the four different Streams of interest to spark new ideas.
Recharge everyone’s batteries through international collegial exchange in one of the world’s most multicultural—and enchanting—locations!

The conference will attract upwards of 600 participants, drawn together by a commitment to volunteerism. The four Streams will each present one of the four general sessions throughout the event and offer a menu of concurrent workshop options each day. Attendees may choose to remain in one Stream for the workshops or may sample workshops from different streams. In addition, everyone will take part in unique Reflection Pool sessions. There will also be a day of site visits to multicultural Hawaiian volunteer programs.

If you are located anywhere around the Pacific Rim (including the west coast of the USA), consider attending this special conference. For more information and registration, go to: http://vrchawaii.org/APVLConference/.

4 May: In line with last week’s news feature (see below), Energize’s Susan Ellis has been invited to guest on an hour-long, live Web talk show to discuss what “voluntourism” is and how the principles of volunteer management apply to this new type of service. David Clemmons of VolunTourism.org hosts the weekly show called “The VolunTourist.” He and Susan will also discuss the three different types of voluntourists.

The one-hour show airs on Tuesday, May 6, 2008, and starts at 10 a.m. EASTERN Time – scheduled to be available to people in many international time zones. Listen in.

Recordings of this and all past shows are also accessible on the site.

27 Apr: The evolving interest in combining vacation time with volunteering (often called voluntourism) has moved to the big time, as The Ritz-Carlton Hotel company launches “Give Back Getaways” (http://corporate.ritzcarlton.com/en/About/GiveBackGetaways.htm) worldwide. The Web page already gives a calendar listing over 90 different projects, in which the upscale hotel chain will offer:

… our guests an exceptional opportunity to give back to the community in a way that is meaningful to them and to the lives of others. Participating in a half-day local community experience, guests will work alongside our Ritz-Carlton Ladies and Gentlemen in a Community Footprints humanitarian or environmental project. The Give Back Getaway experiences are unique to each destination and designed to make a lasting contribution and enduring impression.

Registered guests at the properties can sign-up for a half-day of volunteering and pay a fee to cover transportation and lunch. Any funds remaining after these costs are covered are donated to the host organization.

The Community Footprints program has been operating since 1983, involving the staff of The Ritz-Carlton Hotels in employee-selected, service projects that collaborate with local organizations to direct resources where the most impact will be made. In 2007 alone, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company donated over $7.4 million in products and services to charitable organizations, and their staff, whom they refer to as “our Ladies and Gentlemen,” contributed over 40,000 hours of volunteer work.

20 Apr: Blue Avocado, a new bite-sized magazine by and for people who work and volunteer in community nonprofits, has just launched as a free electronic resource (http://www.blueavocado.org/). It will publish on the 1st and 15th of every month—and is delivered via e-mail newsletter, Web site, and RSS feed. For those who previously subscribed to Board Café edited by Jan Masaoka, that has become a column in the expanded Blue Avocado format – with Jan at the helm of the new enterprise.

Blue Avocado's aim is “to engage and support the people of community nonprofits, the ones who do the heavy lifting in building social justice and strong communities, and who create and drive the ideas that change our world for the better.” The first editorial also proposes that reading the piece should “feel like a 10-20 minute vacation: rather than careful abstract prose you feel you ought to read, we hope Blue Avocado will be enjoyable, ultra-practical, [and] authentic….”

Planned content includes:

Board Cafe for nonprofit board members
Personal Finance column: making it work on nonprofit salaries
A nonprofit-specific human resources advice column
Consumer reviews of useful (and not so useful) products
Strategies for Financial Sustainability
Worth Reading and Why: we find the (free) great needles in the haystack of nonprofit reading material
Three Minute Vacations (cultural experiences you can have right now)

13 Apr: The Consortium of Lesbian, Gay Bisexual and Transgender Voluntary and Community Organisations (The Consortium) operates as a national body to develop and support LGBT groups, organizations and projects across the UK. In response to requests from their network, they have just launched a Web area with a range of free downloadable resources titled: Volunteering on a Shoestring (not another toolkit!) at http://www.lgbtconsortium.org.uk/c1/activities/involved/resources_lgbt.php. While The Consortium describes the resources found there as “for small LGBT organisations who don’t have the time or money to involve volunteers according to ‘best practice’,” they are inaccurate twice! First, the material is hugely applicable to any type of grassroots, predominantly-volunteer setting and, second, it very much recommends quality volunteer management practices.

There are four parts to Volunteering on a Shoestring:

A short, easy to use, step-by-step guide (Volunteering on a Shoestring) on how to involve volunteers.
20 steps to involving volunteers on a shoestring” – adding to the toolkit.
Case studies on working with volunteers in LGBT organisations to see how they have put together their volunteering programs. (Again with wide applicability.)
Policies, procedures and guidance sheets. A downloadable volunteering handbook to adapt and give to volunteers, guidance sheets on volunteering procedures and a number of template forms and procedures.

6 Apr: The NonProfit Times (www.nptimes.com) has launched a new online portal which gives nonprofits and other researchers free access to corporate donation data for fundraising research. The portal is powered by the Internet search company NOZA, Inc., provider of the world’s largest database of charitable gifts. The research portal gives access to over 4,300 searchable records of corporate donations valued at $1 million or more to U.S. charities – the largest such list ever compiled.

The only free service of its kind, users can search, view and save information about the corporate donor, recipient organization, size of gift, and year of donation. Nonprofits can research current donors and create customized prospect lists to assist in solicitation planning. For those seeking funding for volunteer programs and projects, there are search categories such as “Philanthropy/Voluntarism” and “Membership Organizations.”

Access is available immediately at www.nptgrantsearch.com or from NPT’s home page. The new Corporate Philanthropy Portal will be updated monthly.

30 Mar: Every March, Sport Nova Scotia – the provincial body that coordinates sport and recreation activities – runs an advocacy campaign called “Sport Makes A Difference,” aimed at educating decision-makers in business and politics, health care workers, social service providers, educators, parents and youth about the benefits of amateur sport to the economy, health, community and youth.

For 2008, the theme has been sport volunteers:

Without volunteers, kids can’t play. It’s that simple. Every day across Nova Scotia tens of thousands of our youth participate in sport programs. But it is because of the volunteer coaches, officials, administrators, fundraisers, and event organizers that our youth have the opportunity to keep active so they can be healthier people, do better in school, stay out of trouble, meet new friends and learn skills that will benefit them for life.

Volunteerism is the backbone of Nova Scotia’s sport and recreation system. Volunteers have been, and continue to be, a vital component, contributing extensively to the organization, governance and administration, and delivery of sport in Nova Scotia.

In an online article on NovaNews.com, a columnist writes:

Just for fun, take a minute or two and drop by your local rink – or gym, or any other sport and recreation facility. Take a look at all that’s going on, then stop a minute and imagine the same scene without volunteers.

For the past month, as the focus of its annual “Sport Makes A Difference” awareness campaign, Sport Nova Scotia has been promoting the contributions of sport and recreation volunteers…

Every day throughout Nova Scotia, tens of thousands of youngsters (and adults) participate in sport and recreation activities. It isn’t much of a stretch to suggest there are an equal number of volunteers driving those programs.

The bulk of these volunteers do their work behind the scenes, with little or no fanfare and, by definition, without any financial remuneration. Volunteer coaches tend to often be as visible as their players, but there are so many other volunteers – officials, adminstrators, fundraisers and event organizers – who toil in anonymity, and seldom receive nearly the credit they deserve for all the work they do.

Sport volunteers do what they do out of a love for the game, and the satisfaction of seeing a successful and fun event come to fruition. They don’t do it out of a need to be recognized for their efforts but, at the same time - like any of us, they’re only human. No matter what we might say in public, we all enjoy being appreciated.

As March draws to a close, bravo to all the sport volunteers of Nova Scotia – and around the world!

23 Mar: The extensive Web search services and tools company, Google, Inc., already supports philanthropic programs through its Google.org site, but has now opened a new “portal” specifically to explain how to apply various Google features and software to charitable work: http://www.google.com/nonprofits/index.html.

The Google™ “suite” of applications includes an e-mail program, mapping software, blog software, tools to analyze Internet traffic, a grants search engine, and more. These are free for nonprofit groups, and the new portal offers tips on how to use the applications for philanthropy, video tutorials to explain how each tool works, and links to outside groups that have incorporated a Google application into their daily work.

In a Chronicle of Philanthropy article describing the new site, Bob Boorstin, Google’s Director of Policy Communications, said:

The project had been in the works for months… and it was put together by Google employees who came together on their own to work on it. “Many of us have heard from our friends in the [charity] community that, while they knew our tools could be helpful to them, sometimes they weren’t sure exactly where to start,” he says. He believes the portal will help answer such questions.

Make the work of these Google employee volunteers worthwhile by spending some time exploring these incredible free resources, available to all.

16 Mar: As reported in The Chronicle of Philanthropy, on March 12th the U.S. House of Representatives rejected by one vote a bill to reauthorize and expand the national-service programs operated by the Corporation for National and Community Service (which runs AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, and Learn and Serve America). The Generations Invigorating Volunteering and Education (GIVE) Act, H.R. 5563 would have authorized AmeriCorps to expand from 75,000 participants to 100,000 over five years. The Chronicle explained:

[GIVE] also would have created several new programs, including a summer service program for middle- and high-school students, a Silver Scholarship Program to provide $1,000 educational grants to people age 55 and over who volunteer at least 600 hours a year, and a “reserve corps” of AmeriCorps alumni to help during national emergencies.

While the bill had broad bipartisan support, it got caught up in wrangling between Democrats and Republicans that brought it to the floor under procedures that are designed to speed approval but that require a two-thirds majority to pass. The vote was 277 to 140, one vote shy of the number needed to win. All those voting against were Republicans.

Voices for National Service, a coalition of nonprofit groups and state agencies, said it was disappointed that the lawmakers passed up the chance to reauthorize the country’s national-service programs for the first time in 15 years.

David Eisner, CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service issued the following press release in reaction to the House vote:

This afternoon, unfortunately, the House of Representatives did not pass the GIVE Act, the reauthorization package for the Corporation, when it came to a vote. Because the bill was brought up under the “suspension calendar,” passage required two-thirds of the votes and it fell short – with 277 voting in favor, 140 against. Had one “No” vote been a “Yes” instead, the bill would have passed. It’s useful to keep in mind that this is really a very strong margin of support, even though it did not muster the super-majority required.

…This is one step in a long process, and we will continue to work with Congress on legislation to support your vital work. As always, check www.nationalservice.gov for more information, and we will keep you posted about further developments.

9 Mar: The Anambra government in Nigeria has set up an Environment Volunteer Corps, also called the Green Club, to tackle environmental problems in the state. At a news conference reported in The Tide News Online, one official said the Green Club was mainly for youths “because they are the future beneficiaries of the environment.” Participants, drawn from various organizations as well as ENVOCORPS at the local government level, are expected to retrain youths and children from 41 secondary schools in the state.

This action comes in tandem with the Center for Development Support Initiatives’ (CEDSI - Nigeria) recent launch of its ECO GREEN Initiative on Climate Change. Learn more at http://www.cedsinigeria.org/ecogreen.html.

2 Mar: Making maximum use of the attention focused on the 2008 presidential campaign, the national organization, Keep America Beautiful (www.kab.org), is embarking on a campaign of its own as part of the “Great American Cleanup,” which takes place annually from March 1 through May 31.

Unlike the presidential candidates, the organization is making a rather unusual campaign promise: to "fight dirty" and focus on improving communities nationwide.

PNN Online gives more details about the Great American Cleanup:

Nationwide, close to 3 million volunteers will campaign for a cleaner, greener America as part of the 2008 Great American Cleanup by participating in 30,000 community improvement activities and educational workshops happening in over 17,000 communities nationwide. All will spread the message of individual responsibility to keep America's communities clean, green and beautiful...

In 2007, cleanup efforts resulted in 200 million pounds of litter and debris removed from America's landscape, including 3,500 illegal dump sites and over 10,000 abandoned vehicles. Participants planted 4.6 million trees, flowers and bulbs, and collected over 2.2 million scrap tires, 22.4 million pounds of aluminum and steel, 592,000 pounds of wireless phones and related equipment, and over 70 million PET bottles for recycling. Great American Cleanup events improved over 178,000 miles of roadway (more than seven times around the world), 121,000 acres of parks and public lands, 7,000 miles of rivers, lakes and shorelines, and 3,900 miles of hiking, biking and nature trails - equal to a winding trail stretching from Key West, Fla., to Seattle..

The 2008 Great American Cleanup kickoff celebration will begin at 9 a.m.(PST) on Tuesday, March 4, 2008, in the Roundhouse of the California State Railroad Museum in Old Sacramento.

24 Feb: The results of the third annual survey of 1,000 adults commissioned by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans reveals some expected and unexpected data. As before, Americans report that it is easier to give money than to give time. But consider this from Thrivent’s press release:

The survey showed that age, income, education and employment status affect attitudes about giving. Fifty-eight percent of seniors (age 65+) and 53 percent of pre-retirees (age 55 to 64) favor giving money over time versus 44 percent for young adults (age 18 to 24).

Young adults are also three times more likely than seniors (age 65+) to say giving one’s time is easier than giving money (49 percent versus 15 percent). They are also twice as likely as pre-retirees (49 percent versus 24 percent) to find giving time easier.

What are the implications of this for the assumptions so often made about seniors and service?

For more details on the study, see the Chronicle of Philanthropy article.

17 Feb: A passionate volunteer, Robert Egger, using his own money and energy, has started something he calls the “V3 Campaign” (http://www.v3campaign.org/) in an effort to organize the American nonprofit community into political action to hold elected officials accountable for doing something to support the needs of the sector. In his words from the site:

I have seen lots of great organizations in action and met thousands of passionate professionals who all struggle with the same issues. We cannot wait any longer for our leaders to lead us, or our elected officials to hear us, or our funders to support us.

We have to make it happen ourselves.

The V3 Campaign is simple: we are going to ask every candidate for higher office—from small town mayoral contenders to presidential nominees—to provide details about their experience with and plans for strengthening the nonprofit sector if they are elected.

We want to impact every election, in every town, in every state.

In describing the nonprofit sector, all the materials mention volunteers as a significant factor. The Web site provides a simple, one-page questionnaire that anyone can give to any candidate to elicit a response. There are other suggested actions to take as well.

One interesting page on the site shows the photos of all the current Presidential contenders with the challenge to them to respond to the questions so their answers can be posted and compared. As of today, only Mike Huckabee has responded (judge his level of knowledge on the subject for yourself).

This is a simplistic, basic campaign, but it does break new ground and has the potential to open fresh dialogue on a subject long ignored. Take a look.

10 Feb: ABC National Radio is preparing to air a second series of shows on volunteering this March for its Australian audience. But listeners can be anywhere in the world thanks to the Internet and the archive of 2007 broadcasts are still available for online listening at: www.abc.net.au/rn/lifematters/features/vitaactiva

“Vita Activa,” as the show is called, is the special project of Melanie Oppenheimer, a historian with a special interest in tracking the voluntary sector. She shared her purpose in an e-mail to Energize:

The idea behind the program (it took me about 2 years to get the idea up with the ABC who is our national radio broadcaster) is that every facet of Australian society and Australian life touches on, and is touched by, the volunteering and the third sector in some way. The series aims to bring a fresh and innovative perspective on issues of volunteering that matter to Australians today.

Each week I selected a topic and the presenter of Life Matters, Richard Aedy and I talked through the issues, and occasionally we had guests. As you can imagine, there is so much to cover, which is why a second series is being presented. The segment was very popular with listeners (I wasn’t surprised by this and neither would you be) and really hit a chord.

Bravo to Melanie and ABC National Radio! Maybe the idea will catch on in other countries?

3 Feb: The European Volunteer Centre (Centre européen du volontariat, CEV) is a network of currently 60 mainly national and regional volunteer centers and volunteer development agencies across Europe, that together work to support and promote voluntary activity. CEV channels the collective priorities and concerns of its member organizations to the institutions of the European Union. It also acts as a central forum for the exchange of policy, practice and information on volunteering.

The new Web site, www.cev.be, contains a wealth of information about volunteering in Europe, including the "Facts & Figures" reports compiled by the CEV since 2003 aiming to provide comprehensive statistical data and information about volunteering and volunteers in the different European countries. Also check out the well-articulated section on “Why Volunteering Matters!”

You can sign up for the monthly CEV e-newsletter and read past issues in the online archives.

27 Jan: The Australian-based consulting firm, People First – Total Solutions (www.pfts.com.au), is conducting research into the state of volunteer management globally. The results will be used to:

Identify trends and issues globally
Develop appropriate training resources
Provide data for articles for publication
Assist Volunteer Centers, volunteer-involving organizations and professional associations to see what volunteer managers/coordinators are saying and feeling
Raise the profile of managers/coordinators of volunteers

Over 500 people have already responded to the survey and you should, too. The cut off is March 1st. The link for the survey is
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Nto5qBdHKg7IbDFKX0ZfPA_3d_3d

The survey is completely anonymous.It will take between 20 and 30 minutes. If you have any questions or comments, please email pfts@pfts.com.au.

People First -Total Solutions is an international company, headed by Martin J Cowling, whose mission is to assist not-for-profits to succeed in mobilizing their people through training, consultancy and coaching services. PFTS will happily provide you with the results and will also be providing feedback in a written and seminar form.

20 Jan: 2008 marks 40 years since the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. So this year, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (A Day On, Not A Day Off) is running a special “40 Days of Nonviolence: Building the Beloved Community” to commemorate the milestone. Taking the concept even further, Youth Service America and the Corporation for National and Community Service are encouraging semester-long service-learning projects. The “Semester of Service” will take place in classrooms as part of the academic curriculum; in schools as part of the extra-curricular activities of student councils, honor societies, student clubs, and sports teams; in congregations of faith; and in youth development groups in neighborhoods across the United States.

During these 12 weeks, young people from elementary schools to graduate research universities will identify a problem or unmet need that affects their community, the nation, or the world. They will prepare a plan, take action to implement their solution, reflect deeply on their progress and next steps, and celebrate their success.

Youth Service America has prepared a number of resources to assist anyone interested in participating in the Semester of Service, including:

13 Jan: Leonard Cheshire Disability (http://www.lcdisability.org/) is a UK-based organization dedicated “to change attitudes to disability and to serve disabled people around the world” – and they involve many volunteers. The charity has teamed up with Aardman Animations, the group behind the enormously popular Wallace and Gromit animated films, to create a highly original campaign called “Creature Discomforts.” The awareness campaign is based on the much-loved Creature Comforts series, featuring the hallmark plasticine characters, but with disabilities, combined with the real voices and experiences of disabled people.

“Creature Discomforts” provides free online animated public education clips for television and radio, including ones with sign interpreting for the deaf. The campaign highlights the disadvantage and discrimination that disabled people experience every day, largely as a result of the ignorance of the wider population.

The Aardman Animations team has created new characters for Leonard Cheshire Disability’s campaign including a bull terrier in a wheelchair, a stick insect with a walking stick and a tortoise on crutches. The animations are based on the genuine voices of disabled people describing in their own words the negative attitudes and barriers they experience, which separate them from society.

In November of 2007, the characters began appearing in the UK in ads at bus stops, in newspapers, in magazines, as well as online. As of this month, the animations will be aired on ITV. To learn more about the campaign – and to send free electronic postcards with the characters -- visit www.CreatureDiscomforts.org.

6 Jan: As Americans age, older adults' volunteer activities become increasingly important. The nonpartisan Urban Institute, which “publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration,” has just released a new report entitled Volunteer Transitions among Older Americans. The report can be downloaded for free.

This study uses longitudinal data from a nationally representative survey to examine entries into and exits from volunteer activities by adults age 55 to 65. The findings reveal considerable persistence among volunteers. Nearly 7 of 8 older adults who volunteered in 1996 volunteered again by 2004, and nearly 4 in 10 volunteered consistently over the eight-year period. The findings indicate that, to maximize volunteer engagement later in life, it’s best to recruit older adults as early as possible, ideally before they retire.

Older adults are more likely to stop volunteering than to start, according to the study. The duration and intensity of volunteer activity, as well as marriage to a volunteer, are strong predictors of continued volunteering. And the time spent away from volunteer activities, as well as marriage to a non-volunteer, decreases the odds of volunteer starts.

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