Professional associations for volunteer program administrators are nothing new in North America, with the Association for Volunteer Administration (AVA) emerging as far back as 1960 and the Canadian Administrators of Volunteer Resources (CAVR) established in 1972.
One of the most basic and vital types of volunteering is citizen involvement in democratic political processes. All the elements of volunteering and volunteer management are here: recruitment, volunteer leadership, supervision, volunteer motivation, etc. Guest contributor Debbie…
Volunteer voices, millions of them, all speaking up and speaking out with passion about what they're doing and what they believe in. Lots of people responding to what they're hearing and giving time to volunteering for whatever they're passionate about. Now that would be…
I remember trying to recruit church volunteers for regular, one-to-one visits with jail inmates. I wasn't having much luck, until I realized that my broader, "real" or "true" goal was not one-to-one visits. It was, instead, providing healthy outside contact and influence for…
If there were a Ten Commandments of Volunteer Management, one of them would surely be the statement "volunteers should supplement, not supplant, paid staff." Drilled firmly into the head of every new volunteer manager is the fact that staff support is dependent upon relieving…
Australia has been a hotbed of volunteering activity for the past few years and this report is an indication of the increasing seriousness with which the Australian government is attempting to involve itself in promoting volunteering. The report was produced as part of the 2001…
Abstract
An innovative approach to raising funds burst onto the nonprofit scene a few years back. Entitled "new philanthropy," it has enthusiastically been adopted by fundraisers wishing to raise the level of their success. This article proposes that those responsible for…
We often speak of volunteers as being on the "cutting edge," or challenging the status quo - both descriptions that represent change. Likewise, the presence of volunteers within an organization may also represent change, a new ways of doing things, or a new way of…
No ancient holy book mentions "volunteering" by that name, but every religion in the world encourages charity, service to others, and personal risk for one's beliefs. This unique article compares the major religions of the world in terms of charity.
One of the more amazing things about the Internet is the sheer amount of information that is available. While much of it is foolish, a good bit of it is the result of hard work and research. Those seriously interested in volunteerism can find an immense amount of survey research…
