Engage Library

Will Rogers, the American vaudeville performer and erstwhile cowboy, once famously said, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” This truism definitely extends to Volunteer Managers when they welcome volunteers for the first time. In this Engage feature,…

How do we volunteer – and involve volunteers in our programs – without falling into the saviourism trap, a concept that rears its ugly head when volunteers feel that we can come in and “fix” the problems of a group or community that we don’t belong to? In this highly personal,…

A chance encounter with volunteering legend Susan J. Ellis–in a New York City hotel lobby during the 1997 Points of Light conference–sets the stage for the start of this three-part series on “Digital Care Circles: The  Future in Volunteering?” In this feature series, author…

While recently donating blood, Adam Janes, CVA, started making comparisons between the funding and infrastructure afforded to the Canadian Blood Service verses the volunteerism sector. And that’s when the questions started. In this feature story, Janes seeks answers to determine…

For the past five years, the Minnesota Alliance for Volunteer Advancement (MAVA) has conducted research and education on race equity in volunteerism. Through funding from the Minneapolis Foundation, MAVA was able to convene the necessary voices – over 40 community members and…

As Leaders of Volunteer Engagement, we seek to make a difference to the agencies we work in and the communities we serve by recruiting community members to volunteer and make a difference. While we would like to believe we use processes that are equitable in making decisions…

Two and a half years after the emergence of COVID-19, the world has changed in many ways. Some things about today’s life would have been completely unimaginable in December 2019. To assume that volunteering is immune from this massive wave of change would be naive at best and…

While Points of View argues that a new energy is emerging in volunteering, the picture isn’t so clear to Holly Daniels of MAVA (Minnesota Alliance for Volunteer Advancement). In this Engage feature, Daniels taps into her daily connections with Volunteer Engagement Leaders to…

As a Volunteer Leader, you are entrusted with the stewardship of the sensitive, personal and private information that you and your agency gather and hold about your volunteers. And while most of us know we need to take care of this information, just how many Volunteer Managers…

We read a lot about Volunteer Engagement and Leadership from the perspective of agencies who have paid Volunteer Managers – employees in place to oversee, manage and coordinate the efforts of the volunteer team who are committed to support the work of their agency. And in that…

Caring for the mental health of volunteers is vital, especially in these COVID times when so many are already dealing with depression and anxiety as a result of isolation and illness. In this timely and important Engage feature, Karen Knight, a Volunteer Management strategist…

Should the same level of governance that’s applied to staff in a health service – or any setting, for that matter – be applied to volunteers? Kerryn Mitchell of the Leaders of Health Volunteer Engagement (LOHVE) Network set out to answer this question shortly after she helped…

In May 2018, after a long and established career working in the areas of law and social advocacy, Kim Roots became a Coordinator of Volunteers for the very first time. As a newcomer to the Volunteer Engagement and Leadership field, Roots was able to view her new role through the…

In Volunteer Engagement circles, we all too often hear tales of woe about minimal support or a lack of understanding of what we do. This sometimes leads us to view the world from a ‘glass half empty’ perspective, where we play the victim and not the victor! In this article,…

  “Just a volunteer…” How often do you hear these words spoken at your organization? The implication that these three words indicate a lack of ability, lack of trust or lack of accountability is worrying. We all know, after all, that volunteer indicates a pay category, not a…

When volunteer engagement relies on practices borrowed from business for paid staff, we can lose the relationships and purpose that are fundamental to success. Adopting a concept known as “radical welcome” as a guiding principle offers an antidote that reconnects us with…

The proposal of a universal basic income (UBI) – the provision of unconditional cash payments to all citizens of a given society – is neither new nor unproblematic. The idea has, however, enjoyed a wave of renewed interest in the wake of the pandemic and its social and economic…

There’s no denying that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused seismic shifts in the volunteer landscape. Organisations have had to re-evaluate how they involve volunteers, often dramatically accelerating the pace of progress. In many cases, long-held attachments to formal volunteer…

It’s a fact: 70 percent of volunteerism throughout the world is done by passionate individuals who wish to serve others and do so outside the framework of an organization or other entity. And during the COVID-19 pandemic – when organizational volunteerism is being reduced or…

Volunteer management professionals have been fighting for years to be recognized for their occupation, the work they do and the potential it holds. This journey contains key questions: What do we want? What has been accomplished? What have we yet to accomplish? What will…