UNHCR web sites are NOT focused on helping refugees & that is shameful.

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white outlines of human figures with luggage, on the move, trekking across various landscapes

I have a lot of friends and acquaintances who are refugees. They have fled dire situations in their home countries (countries that most of them did NOT want to leave) and they are now in a different country, either trying to figure out how to stay there or trying to get to somewhere else, often to join family or good friends. I can’t help them with much: I’m not a lawyer and have no legal training. But I can help with tracking down information they are looking for and debunking things they have heard (usually something about how easy it is to get into some South American country).

I have been pleasantly surprised and grateful regarding the web sites of a variety of countries for their clear information, in English, about exactly how someone can legally migrate to their country. Even tiny countries that aren’t at all wealthy often have very clear, up-to-date information on their web sites for anyone thinking of coming there under any circumstances. These web sites have been incredibly helpful in my efforts to help friends and acquaintances to get accurate information and to avoid scams.

The same CANNOT be said of the web sites of UNHCR , the United Nations agency that is supposed to be the leader in protecting refugees – people forced to flee conflict and persecution, as well as those denied a nationality. UNHCR web sites based in various countries all over the world are NOT focused on providing critically-needed, up-to-date information for refugees. And that is inexcusable.

UNHCR country web sites are often focused primarily on enticing donors rather than helping refugees access the critical information they need:

  • the information refugees would be looking for is either hard to find or not there at all,
  • many pages that are supposed to have information for refugees are horribly out-of-date,
  • the information for refugees that is there is usually is NOT the info refugees want most,
  • and the sites are so full of jargon I can’t understand the information and English is my first language!

An example of what I’m talking about: UNHCR Pakistan: this web site is NOT focused on refugees. I wish it was an exception, but it’s not. I have an Afghan colleague now in Pakistan trying to register as a refugee, but the UNHCR office is closed! There’s NOTHING on the web site saying it’s closed.

Each and every UNHCR web site in ANY country should have a link called “Help for Refugees” on the home page as prominent as any link to donate. That link should be on EVERY page and be as prominent as any link to donate.

And when someone clicks on that “help for refugees” link, they should be taken to a page that has this information (or links to such):

  • How and when to register with UNHCR in that country.
  • Notices about office closures.
  • UNHCR office hours.
  • Statement regarding who is considered a refugee.
  • Rights and obligations of asylum seekers in dealing with UNHCR.
  • A list of the first things someone should do upon arriving in that country as a refugee.
  • How to apply for refugee status in that country.
  • How to contact the UNHCR office in that country.
  • Where UNHCR offices are located in that country.
  • Where or how to find shelter in that country (if this information changes frequently, then tell refugees how to find the most up-to-date information themselves).
  • What NGOs are in the country that help refugees, or how to find them (NGOs that can help with education, legal matters, shelter, dealing with the police, etc.).
  • Information regarding working in that country.
  • How to avoid scams that target refugees.
  • Tips for staying safe (including for children, for women, how to avoid traffickers, etc.).
  • How to research rumors (and why it’s so important to do so).
  • Why requests for asylum take so long to process.
  • The dangers of lying or misrepresenting information to UNHCR or any immigration authorities.
  • A list of reliable news outlets.

UNHCR, you would reduce the amount of phone calls and visits to your offices if you made the aforementioned information available and kept it up to date on your individual country web sites. You would prevent at least some of the harm that refugees experience because they are targeted for crime and otherwise exploited. You would help stop harmful rumors before they get too widespread. And you would be fulfilling your mission!

Have you ever asked refugees themselves what information they need most?

Do better, UNHCR.

And for those who wonder why I have a lot of friends and acquaintances who are refugees, or who desperately want to be such: it’s because I have worked for the UN and talk about that work, as well as other humanitarian-focused work, online in various online communities and via my own social media channels, and because I frequently write about refugee-related efforts:

You can volunteer to address the critical needs of refugees IN YOUR OWN COMMUNITY

Our Lady of the Manifest: the icon for a very particular community of online volunteers

Digital Dunkirk: online volunteers scramble to help endangered Afghans get visas & out of Afghanistan

My request to my US congressional representatives regarding Afghan refugees

If you’re promoting AI to nonprofits, be SPECIFIC about benefits. No more generalizations!

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HAL from 2001 a space odyssey

The hype regarding Artificial Intelligence (AI) is out of control, including regarding mission-based organizations. There are blogs, webinars, YouTube videos and more, all singing the praises of AI for nonprofits and NGOs. Various companies, nonprofits and consultants are falling over themselves to say that AI can do ANYTHING a nonprofit or NGO needs done: raise funds, manage volunteers, talk with clients, administer programs, manage all incoming calls, all with little or no human involvement.

Yet, these promoters are rarely specific. “You can use AI to research grants!” Okay, how? Tell me exactly what that looks like and how it’s different than just typing in keywords to an online search engine?

“You can use AI to screen volunteers!” Great. How? Tell me exactly what that looks like and how it’s different than just requiring certain fields in a volunteer application to be filled out or require a certain number of characters in that field? And is the goal to eliminate all human interaction until the volunteer shows up for the scheduled volunteering gig, because it’s that personal, human interaction that often seals the deal for a volunteer to show up at all.

So many of you are breathless about your use of AI, but you aren’t being specific about what that REALLY looks like. Specifics and obvious, real-world benefits are what lead to tech adoption.

Back in the 1990s, when the Internet started going mainstream, I started my own web site as a place to be specific about how the Internet could be used by nonprofit staff, specifically those responsible for outreach and those responsible for recruiting and engaging volunteers. Lots of makers of software and computers were making claims about what these tech tools could do for nonprofits, but they offered no specifics and no detailed guides, probably because they were talking in theory, not actual practice. As a result, a lot of nonprofits were dragging their feet about switching from index cards to track contacts to software that would manage clients and donors – they relished their personal relationships and saw tech eliminating something fundamental to their fundraising, outreach and program management success. A lot of nonprofits balked at the idea of creating a web site when they weren’t using any web site themselves: if a web site wasn’t the primary way they got info, why should they care? Of course, the reluctance of government and corporate donors to fund tech equipment, Internet subscriptions and training for staff also had something to do with many nonprofits not adopting computers and the Internet for so long.

I was one of the first people to start talking online and in workshops, in low-tech PLAIN language, about practical, real-world applications of online and computer tech for nonprofits. I could see the digital divide emerging between nonprofits that were adopting tech, especially online tools, and doing so much more with less, and those that still hoped the Internet was the CB Radio of the 1990s. But those latter nonprofits were providing critical services, and I did not want to see them die due to lack of understanding about emerging tech tools. In my work, I emphasized not only the practical applications and the specifics of tech use, but also that I would never propose the Internet or software as tools to replace humans; I always emphasized the application of tech tools with the goal of increasing meaningful human interactions, to increase support and help for humans, both clients and volunteers, and to free up time for staff so that they could spend more time in real-time work with clients, donors, the press, potential partners, other staff, etc.

(if you want to see those early versions of my web site, type the URL into The Internet Wayback Machine.)

That web site and my trainings launched an entirely new career for me. One of the things that made me so successful was that I was SPECIFIC: I didn’t just say, “The Internet can help you reach new audiences!”; I gave specific details on what that looked like, and exactly what a person would need to do to replicate those results. The Virtual Volunteering Project (1996 – 2001) was laser-focused on specifics and practical applications. I wrote one of the first articles (October 2001) about how hand-held technologies – what we now call smart phones – were being used in humanitarian and public health field work and grass roots organizing.

In all of this work, I also never stopped emphasizing the human aspect: when I talked about online mentoring, I noted that success was NEVER about the tech tools, but about the HUMANS involved and how well they were trained and supported.

As a result of my approach, via my web site and via workshops, I regularly got comments like, “This is the first time I’ve ever understood why I should care about the Internet at my job” and “I finally know what questions to ask software salespeople.”

To all of you promoting AI for nonprofits: you have to be as specific as I was. For instance, be clear about why using AI would be preferable to just a web search on Google or Duck Duck Go. In fact, in my opnion: it’s not AT ALL preferable, and if you use AI to make suggestions about small-budget fundraising events for an animal shelter, you should still go to the search engine of your choice and look for fundraising events for an animal shelter, because you will find even more ideas. YOU should know the full range out there, and no AI tool provides that.

And also to all of you promoting AI for nonprofits: you need to be clear in warning nonprofits NEVER to take an AI-produced product, whether it’s a graphic, a press release or a social media strategy, and use it as is. AI makes mistakes (link goes to one that was very personal for me and would have been traumatizing). AI hallucinates and FREQUENTLY puts incorrect info into the written text it produces. AI not only claimed Ananda Valenzuela was speaking at an upcoming conference, it doubled-down when she tried to correct it. AI also doesn’t adhere to standards of accessible or even GOOD design: you can use an AI tool like Canva to produce your event flyer, but a HUMAN still has to make sure it adheres to standards of good design (like appropriate color contrast).

One final note to all of you promoting AI to nonprofits: the energy needs of AI are threatening to overwhelm the power grid. They are increasing our need for electricity at a time when we need to be DECREASING that need and RAISING energy prices for regular folks. You had better acknowledge this, full disclosure, when talking to nonprofits, many of whom are trying to adopt greener ways of doing business (and some of whom are focused on addressing global climate change specifically).

Yes, I use AI. One cannot use anything is on a network of any kind, or even a stand alone new computer, without using some form of AI. My spell checker and grammar checker tool is considered an AI tool, because, supposedly, this tool “learns” from me. I use Canva sometimes. I was once charged with writing a poem that might be a part of a fundraising campaign, and after I wrote my poem, I then asked AI to write a poem, giving it the same parameters that I was given, just to see how it compared. The AI poem actually wasn’t horrible. Mine was better, of course, but if all I had had to work with was that AI poem, with some tweaking, it would have been okay. But just okay. But I never trust the AI summary at the top of an online search – I always go looking for the source. WIkipedia remains a far superior resource for explanations and summaries, IMO.

Think of AI-produced material as something that a new employee from the corporate world or volunteer fresh out of high school, someone who might be able to use the latest computer tech to play video games and watch TikTok videos but does not understand that not everyone has the latest tech tools, not everyone has great eyesight, not everyone uses their hands to navigate web pages, not everyone speaks English as a first language, not everyone understands your soon-to-be dated jargon, etc. You are always going to have to correct and refine the material AI produces, just like you would that new employee or volunteer.

Why am I not taking up the challenge myself and researching and compiling real-world, practical examples of specific ways nonprofits and NGOs are using AI?

  • I do not have the finances to do yet another mostly-unfunded project. I was paid when I managed the Virtual Volunteering Project. I have not been paid for any of the research and resources I’ve produced for my own web site, nor for the Virtual Volunteering Guidebook (when it comes to the book, which I paid to publish, I barely broke even).
  • I think it should be NOT ME. It’s overdue for someone else to take up this let’s-talk-plain-language-about-tech challenge.
  • I am much older now and would like to focus on other things.

I really hope someone out there is reading this and will take up the challenge.

Also see:

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help. 

What some nonprofits ask for in job candidates is ridiculous.

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a simplistic drawing of a wizard

Within one week, I saw three different job announcements at three different mid-size or large nonprofits that, altogether, were what I did part-time at a small nonprofit for the last three years. And much of the activities in each of these roles are, altogether, what I have done at nonprofits for the last thirty years.

What each job listed for qualifications was so specific that the organizations are going to end up excluding MANY qualified people – and, probably, the best person for the job. Despite my extensive professional background, despite being expertly qualified for some positions, I don’t even bother applying because so many people don’t see a journalism degree as something desirable now.

When your small or medium-sized nonprofit is looking for someone to be a videographer or photographer, who you are going to pay a salary FAR below the market rate, what you need from job candidates is work portfolios, not a degree in videography or photography. Same for a web designer or a graphic designer or a communications manager and many other positions. And for education, what you may need most is graduation from a recent certificate program, not a full-fledged BA. You need people who can do the job, and since you cannot afford to pay people with the training and experience you are demanding, you need to adjust your expectations.

There’s a better way to attract and screen candidates for roles where the person will produce communications pieces – and will do the job you need done:

(1) Ask applicants to note in their résumés or applications where (in what professional and volunteer positions) they used the tools or produced the projects or demonstrated the skills you are asking for. If your job involves setting up press conferences, or designing web sites, or managing web sites, or designing brochures, or distributing brochures, etc., ask applicants to note in their résumés or applications where they have experience doing that.

(2) Note that you will be asking later for online portfolios from the top 10 candidates, what you will want in those portfolios, and approximately how many weeks you will contact the top 10 candidates to ask for those portfolios. Note how many people you will choose to interview from those top 10 candidates and approximately when those interviews will take place. If someone doesn’t already have the material for a portfolio, they aren’t going to apply – and if they do, they now know they need to make sure their portfolio is full of fantastic examples of their work.

And if you are going to demand that the person use certain specific software – Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Illustrator, InDesign, Final Cut Pro, etc. – then you had better say what YOU are going to provide the selected candidate. What kind of laptop or desk top are you going to provide? Running what software? What kind of camera are you going to provide? Do you have a quiet room for creatives to create and edit? Are you committed to web accessibility and will give your web designer the tools needed to make that happen?

Be flexible in asking for a degree. I know amazing photographers with English degrees. I know very talented videographers with music degrees. I know kick-ass web designers with philosophy degrees.

And, finally: what you see as an entry-level job may be, particularly for seasoned professional in their 50s or 60s, a way to work for a few more years, work at a pace that is better suited to their life now than the senior and executive positions they held in the past, and apply a vast amount of skills and experience that your organization may be in much more need of than you might think. If you are thinking, “Oh, but what about health problems they might have?”, then also consider that it’s likely that candidates in their 50s or 60s aren’t starting families in the next few years, aren’t going to quit to pursue other, better job opportunities, and aren’t going to move across country to get married. And they are no more likely to have home-care obligations than a 30 something.

If you have benefited from this blog, my other blogs, or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help. 

The campaign against US nonprofits has been a long time coming. The worst of it is starting. Are you ready?

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a primitive figure, like a petroglyph, shots through a megaphone

Upon the election of Donald Trump to a second presidency, many nonprofits became wary about how they talk about their work, even their mission statement. Even before the election, many nonprofits rushed to remove any mention of the phrase diversity, equity and inclusion or DEI, or ANY of those words on their own, from their web sites. Now, as the Trump administration threatens to revoke tax-exempt status from nonprofits supporting racial justice efforts, it’s made it further difficult for many nonprofits to communicate at all about their work. This article from the Chronicle of Philanthropy focuses on specific nonprofits who are having to significantly alter their messaging – or put a pause on public communications altogether (note that you must register on the site to read it, but registraiton is free).

Make no mistake: in addition to trying to purge the nonprofit world of work regarding diversity, equity, inclusion, racial justice, economic justice and climate change, they are focusing on the use of the word empathy, and any work regarding such.

This is an issue I’ve been researching, talking about and training about long before the current presidency. Because this campaign against nonprofits has been a long time coming.

I first wrote about the political right’s desire to undermine the credibility and support for nonprofit organizations in 2011, in my blog Could your organization be deceived by GOTCHA media?, where I showed examples of how any cause can become politicized, and any organization can become a political target. My favorite example of this is the successful and horrifying elimination of the wonderful Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), per right-wing misinformation via doctored videos.

I wrote about it again in Growing misconceptions about the role of nonprofits in the USA in 2018. I wrote about it AGAIN in Your nonprofit WILL be targeted with misinformation; prepare now at the start of 2025. And when I watched a nonprofit consultant on an online community advise nonprofits to not just soften their language but to bend the knee to the current administration, I wrote a strategy for myself, in my own work, and it became Your Nonprofit CAN Resist. Here’s how.

I hope your nonprofit won’t back off of its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. I hope your nonprofit won’t alter its mission statement. I do hope your nonprofit will:

  • Talk to your board of directors, staff and lead volunteers regularly, repeatedly, about why your nonprofit exists, why it does what it does, and why it has the values or commitments it does. Make sure they know how to talk about all of that from a place of confidence.

If this hasn’t been on a staff agenda or a board meeting agenda yet, then get it on there ASAP. If you had a meeting about it last year, you’re overdue to have one this year. Get busy.

Also see

Nonprofits: be honest with yourself, your staff & the public about how the November 2024 elections may affect you.

Governments cracking down on nonprofits & NGOs

Why I’m not outraged at the IRS from 2013.

Told ya. & I’m still telling you.

An old subreddit revived after seven years, now a place to discuss volunteerism.

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After seven years of no activity, the subreddit r/Volunteerism, an online discussion group on Reddit, is back, but with a new purpose, one that makes it starkly different than other subreddits: r/Volunteerism is not a subreddit for recruiting volunteers. It is also not a subreddit to ask “Where can I volunteer.” There are PLENTY of places to post those questions and pleas on Reddit. There are at least 25 different subreddits that exists so that people can ask for volunteers or ask where to volunteer.

Instead, r/Volunteerism is a place to discuss volunteerism philosophies, ethics &, debates, discuss support for volunteers & all aspects of volunteer engagement/management.

Want to recommend your book or blog on volunteer management? Go for it! Want to promote volunteerism – as in “I think volunteerism is necessary for a prosperous society”? Yes. Want to criticize volunteerism, as in “I think volunteerism is a scam and exists primarily so governments and corporations don’t have to pay people for necessary work and here’s why I think that…”? Yes. Testimonials regarding volunteer experience are also welcomed on r/Volunteerism, but not for the primary purpose of recruiting volunteers for one organization.

NO RECRUITING VOLUNTEERS &

NO “WHERE DO I FIND VOLUNTEERING”.

Reddit4Good is a list I made more than 10 years ago and have updated regularly, of subreddits focused on some aspect of volunteerism, community service, philanthropy or doing good for a cause. It includes a list of places on reddit that allow you to recruit volunteers or to ask “Where can I volunteer?” As you will see when you look at it, there are PLENTY of places to on Reddit to recruit volunteers or ask where to find volunteering.

But there is – or was – no where on Reddit that has a focus like r/Volunteerism. And there needs to be.

You may recall that, for many years, I moderated another subreddit, r/volunteer, and that I rebuilt that subreddit over more than a decade into one of the most popular online communities on Reddit. I noted in this blog all of the effort I undertook to turn the community into something of value, particularly for young people who wanted to volunteer and, no matter how many volunteer matching platforms and apps get launched, still need a great deal of guidance about volunteering. I think that via that online community I’ve finally gotten through in a big way to lots more people regarding why trying to be a volunteer can be so hard (because most organizations have zero volunteer management training, don’t have a person dedicated to volunteer engagement, and can’t get funding for such because foundations and corporations refuse to fund “overhead”). But, sadly, a small, angry, vocal group of new members on that subreddit wanted the community to have minimal rules and minimal rules enforcement – never mind that it was that strict moderation that vastly improved the quality of the content over the years and made the subreddit so popular. I wrote why I decided to walk away as moderator from that subreddit without a fight. And I have no regrets that I quit a project that I had made so, so popular.

But I am still on Reddit. Reddit is MUCH more than one community. After having left the other subreddit for about two months, I went back to have a look at how things were going. And it was so sad: the same “where do I volunteer” posts over and over and over. Unvetted organizations with questionable credentials recruiting international “volunteers.” And worst of all: no more posts or debates about volunteerism ethics, voluntourism ethics, volunteerism trends, volunteer management policies and tools, safety, and on and on. It’s now a subreddit just like the more than 20 others that are focused somehow on volunteering – nothing special about it all, and very little of value.

Well, it’s now just like all those other subreddits except one: a silent group called r/Volunteerism. I had put this subreddit on an early version of Reddit4Good, and had described it as an “anything goes” subreddit, just like most other volunteerism-related groups. And then I didn’t look at it for years. When I did, as 2025 ended, I realized that it hadn’t had a new post in seven years and that it didn’t have a moderator listed. After a week of thinking about it, I followed the steps to claim the subreddit and, voilá, the group is mine. Well, moderation is mine. It belongs to Reddit. But I claimed it for one specific purpose: to restore a place on Reddit to discuss volunteerism beyond the FAQs.

Another reason I wanted there to be a place to discuss volunteerism, not just “Where do I volunteer?”: I have been hired three times as a consultant, twice with a mega large, well known social media company, because of my participation on Reddit, specifically because of how I moderated and facilitated r/volunteer. Not going to lie: I would love for it to happen again.

And so, all of you volunteer management researchers and consultants out there, all you leaders of volunteer management associations, all you program managers at the volunteerism-promoting organizations like Points of Light and the Corporation for National Service, here is your chance at redemption. You ignored r/volunteer, probably the largest community focused on volunteering, for years, and now I’m not sure your posts would be welcomed there, given its new focus. But you could post your press releases and event announcements and conference results to r/Volunteerism. Not much of an audience there now, but give me time… I’m awesome at growing Reddit audiences.

FYI, I also moderate other subreddits (r/communityservice, r/inclusion, r/philanthropy, r/OregonVolunteers, r/Tech4Causes, etc.). And participate in far more.

Also see:

Design Checklist: What to Review Before Publishing a Communications Product

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A drawing meant to look like a petroglyph. It's of a person carving petroglyphs.

Nonprofits produce communications products, online and in print, from web pages to social media to brochures. Whether that product is designed by a professional designer or is designed by someone who has never had a design class, there are certain qualities those products MUST have. And while there are a plethora of online resources that provide excellent guidance on accessibility and usability for online products, like web pages and apps, there is a lack of guidance for how to make print products and graphics associated with social media relevant / necessary, complete, informative, legible for a majority of viewers / readers and understandable for a majority of the target audience.

This new page on my web site provides simple, easy-to-understand guidance for both designers and those who have the final say on something being published.

Design Checklist: What to Review Before Publishing a Communications Product.

And before I get the comment – yes, it’s pretty clear from the simple, almost primitive design of my web site that I’m not a professional designer. But when you work in communications for nonprofits, you often have to design flyers, posters, brochures, web sites, etc. My designs are plain and blocky. My designs won’t win any design awards. However, my designs adhere to all of the aforementioned suggested qualities, and that means they work: I am amazing at recruiting volunteers, at getting attendance to an event, at getting participation in a program, at getting traffic on a web site, and on and on.

Even if you are NOT a professional designer, you know what your nonprofit needs. You know your audience, which likely includes seniors and people over 40 who do not like to be called seniors but also can’t read 9 point fonts.  

If you have benefited from this resource, my other blogs, or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help. 

How to get a variety of staff to create roles for volunteers.

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graphic representing volunteers at work

It’s controversial to say, but here it is: I believe that creating volunteering roles is NOT the primary responsibility of the manager of volunteers and that most volunteers should not be working just the manager of volunteers.

And working from this premise, it’s impossible for the manager of volunteers to create most of the roles for volunteers; it takes program staff and even administration staff, a mix of employees and leadership volunteers, to be the primary generators of volunteer roles.

Consider a community theater that produces live performances: a manager of volunteers at such a nonprofit wouldn’t recruit volunteers to help build sets without first talking to the person in charge of set building and that person defining what volunteers will do. Such a manager at a nonprofit animal shelter wouldn’t recruit volunteers to show up to walk dogs without first talking to the shelter manager and working out what training needs to happen, as well as a schedule.

And if these other staff members, whether employees or volunteers, don’t want to involve volunteers, the work of the manager of volunteers is, quite frankly, doomed to failure.

Now, here’s the kicker: how do you encourage, or even require, staff to involve volunteers in their work?

In more than 25 years of working with volunteers and researching volunteerism, I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t. I finally decided to write it all down – and now I have updated the resource on my web site about how to create volunteering roles to include advice on what it takes to get staff to involve volunteers in their work. Have a look and, if you have more advice, offer it in the comments on this blog or email me directly.

If you have benefited from this blog, my other blogs, or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help. 

America Gives, a nationwide initiative designed to make 2026 the largest year of volunteerism in U.S. history

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America250, the official nonpartisan organization established by Congress to lead the USA’s 250th anniversary commemoration, launched America Gives, a nationwide initiative designed to make 2026 the largest year of volunteerism in U.S. history.

America Gives challenges businesses, nonprofits, schools, youth groups, faith-based networks, and organizations of all kinds to commit to increasing their volunteer efforts and measurable impact.

The initiative aims to build a movement of sustained impact — helping nonprofits expand their volunteer bases and inspiring individuals to continue giving back long after the fireworks fade.

America250’s National Co-Chairs are former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush.

Americans can take the Year of Service pledge and log their volunteer hours at America250.org/America-Gives. A live national counter on the site will track participation in real time, showcasing the collective hours of service across all 50 states, 5 territories, and Washington, D.C.

Participants can easily record their hours by entering their volunteer activity details directly into the America Gives portal. They can also upload stories and photos to inspire others and explore opportunities to get involved.

Americans can also visit the America250 website at America250.org/America-Gives to find service opportunities near them and based on their interests. America250’s National Resource Partner, Points of Light, will help join interested volunteers with the right organization. 

For ideas for volunteering beyond volunteer matching databases, see this resource, which offers advice regarding volunteering with seniors, volunteering to support wildlife or natural spaces, how to create your own leadership volunteering activities and more.

2026 is also the 2026 the International Year of Volunteers for Sustainable Development. I’ve created a IYV2026 resource on my site that notes the origins of the year, highlights the accomplishments and resources of the first International Year of Volunteers in 2001, and links to the growing number of official resources. I hope it can be used both to help organizations prepare for IYV2026 and to compare resources now and then, to see how far we’ve come and how much more we need to do.

January 21, 2026 edit: turns out that there is ANOTHER initiative as well:  well-financed, privately funded initiative called the “Be The People” campaign. It’s funded by a mix of 50 philanthropic foundations and individual donors. According to this article on the PBS News site, “Be The People,” will not incorporate as a new nonprofit, but act more like a banner for groups to organize under and use to connect to resources.

30 Years on the Web

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my company logo of a coyote howling at the moon

30 years ago yesterday, I launched my own web site online, a place to publish some of the work I was regularly posting to the soc.org.nonprofit USENET newsgroup, like Basic Customer Database Principles and Overview of Databases.

I created those database tips because so many nonprofit staff were being asked to manage data about volunteers, donors, event attendees and clients, but they had zero background in data management, and were regularly asking for help on that online community. My data management background came from hands-on experiences, mostly at nonprofit theaters, which live and die by data about event attendees and donors – and we used index cards before computers. I kept developing new web pages on other tech-related subjects to offer advice in plain language, because I felt like software developers and tech bros were doing a lousy job of doing so. I wanted to present tips for using all this emerging computer and Internet technology in human language so it could be understood by anyone, not just IT folks, and to show what it could do in language that showed it really was a great tool, not just something shiny.

I called my web site Coyote Communications. I wrote about why I called it that here, and what my driving philosophy was in creating the web site. That page also offers guidance on how to see that very first web site.

Merely having a web site of my own helped in my landing a few jobs in the 1990s, though I abandoned my web design business after my first client – I knew I was no web designer, although I quickly turned out to be quite a good manager of such, which is also a very important skill to have.

It was 1996, the start of what turned out to be a year of tremendous loss and change for me. I was really excited about launching my own site and, having been online for a couple of years and having a really positive experience from such, I was really optimistic about what the Internet could mean for humanity. I was downright perky. As I ended the year in a new home in Austin, Texas, having completely rebooted my life, I was down about personal things but still optimistic professionally, mostly because I was starting a new job that would allow me to do the oh-so-radical thing of work from home, a job I’d gotten because of my online work up to that date: I began designing the program I would direct for four years, the Virtual Volunteering Project, an initiative that eventually led me to a job, and a career, with the United Nations and a long time association with TechSoup.

But that’s getting ahead of myself. Back to Austin at the end of 1996: years passed, and my web site evolved as I evolved professionally. I never got rid of that focus on tech tips for the non-tech person at nonprofits, but over the years it expanded to resources for Community Outreach, With & Without Tech, resources for Community Engagement, Volunteering & Volunteerism, resources for people Working in International Development, particularly regarding communications, and travel resources for women, especially women motorcycle riders.

Lots of observations as I think about this anniversary:

  • People were nicer online in the 1990s. No question.
  • Web sites were easier to use 20 years ago.
  • It is so jarring to talk with people younger than my web site.
  • I could not survive without the Internet Wayback Machine.
  • I thought that accessibility in web site design would be a widespread priority now. I remain stunned that web site accessibility is still not the industry standard, and that so many web designers, and those that employ them, have either never heard of it or don’t think it’s important.
  • I thought the US Congress would have designed much better laws to protect the data of citizens and other residents, as well as visitors.
  • Most of the ideas I hear from tech bros regarding their new tech tools aren’t new ideas.
  • I have close friends and professional colleagues now that I first met online. Those type of connections don’t happen nearly as much now as they did in the 1990s and 2000s. I met so many of them on YahooGroups. I so miss YahooGroups.
  • I think those of us who worked in environments without computers and the Internet are better at using tech tools than so-called “digital natives.” My generation knows that we always have to be ready to adapt to change, and knows that most of the time we’re on our own to figure out how to use something – and how to best leverage that tool in our work.
  • AI slop is insidious and is ruining the Internet.
  • The algorithms that are supposedly putting information in front of us based on our unique preferences are making it harder to find the information I’m actually looking for. Search engines worked far better even 15 years ago than they do now.
  • The algorithms that are supposedly putting information in front of us based on our unique preferences are driving misinformation and a startling, horrific extreme right wing agenda. I regularly get things in my social media newsfeeds that I’m not only not interested in, they go against everything I believe at my core – and what I believe at my core is no secret online.
  • We all need to spend less time looking at computer and phone screens. More time looking at movie screens is acceptable.

I hope my web site is still valuable to someone out there. And I hope my 2026 goes far better than my 1996.

Also see:

What does Reddit AI say about YOU?

Leave a reply

Here’s what it says about me (It’s accurate – but it’s also based on my actual words, not what it thinks I have said):

Reddit name: coyotebroad. u/jcravens42. Joined 12 years ago. 69/.9K karma. Moderator. Overview: Posts focus on volunteer opportunities and philanthropy. Co,ments offer constructive criticism and advice in relevant subreddits. No NSFW or hateful content detected.

Hope you are ending 2025 well, and I wish you a 2026 of prosperity and your best hopes fulfilled.

And here is my list of Reddit4Good, a list of subreddits somehow focused on philanthropy, volunteering, noprofits and “doing good.”