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):
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.”
Disclaimer: this is not legal advice. I am not a lawyer. Any activity incurs risk. The author (me) assumes no responsibility for the use of information contained within this document.
I don’t usually blog twice in a week, but this couldn’t wait:
In the USA, it is imperative that you keep immigrant volunteers, clients and employees safe from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which has been documented frequently abducting people, many of whom have no criminal records and many of whom are in the USA legally.
Among the things you can do to help volunteers specifically:
(1) Be aware that volunteers who are immigrants may need to cancel their volunteering shift within minutes of it starting, in order to stay safe.
(2) Remove names and photos of volunteers who are immigrants from social media and your web site if you think there is any chance whatsoever of the information being used by ICE.
(3) Encourage volunteers who are immigrants to check in with their families frequently, such as every time they leave any location and when they arrive at any location.
(4) Have emergency contact information for all volunteers.
(5) Have sections of your work sites clearly marked as “Staff only” and “This area is closed to the public”, and make sure all staff know which areas these are and the different ways to access them quickly. Anyone – including ICE agents – can legally enter public areas of your business without permission, but not areas marked “private.”
(6) You may want to have a lookout specifically for ICE. For instance, perhaps you have volunteers building a house, or cleaning up a yard. Put up signs that say “Private property” on such outdoor sites and have someone, even two people, whose role is to watch out for ICE and to warn others if they suspect ICE agents approaching.
(7) Train all staff on how to quickly warn everyone on the premises that ICE may be entering the building or worksite (whistles are very effective) and how to direct people to private areas.
(8) Train your staff to NOT TALK to ICE agents. A worker can say, “I can’t give you permission to enter this private area. You must speak with my supervisor.” Practice – just like a fire drill.
(9) Immigration agents can enter a private area ONLY IF they have a judicial warrant. A judicial warrant must be signed by a judge and say “U.S. District Court” or a State Court at the top. Without a judicial warrant, ICE agents need YOUR permission to enter private areas of your business. If ICE agents try to enter a private area, you should say: “This is a private area. You cannot enter without a judicial warrant signed by a judge. Do you have a judicial warrant?” If ICE agents tell you that they have a judicial warrant, ask for a copy and read it. Sometimes, ICE agents try to use an administrative warrant to enter. But an administrative warrant does NOT allow agents to enter private areas without your permission. Administrative warrants are not from a court. They say “Department of Homeland Security” and are on Forms I-200 or I-205. (5) Connect with immigration response networks in your area. Look at their social media and web site and if they have a workshop on dealing with ICE, go to it.
Much of this advice was adapted from What to Do If Immigration Comes to Your Workplace from the National Immigration Law Center and the National Employment Law Project.
Here are more of my resources on related topics:
Are you an officer of a US court, a law enforcement officer, a police officer, a probation officer, or any official charged with overseeing people who have been assigned community service by a court, and part of your role is to verify their community service hours? Then you need to be aware that there are companies that, for a fee, which they call a “donation”, will give a person assigned community service by a court a letter claiming they did those volunteering hours.
These companies are registered nonprofits, and their web sites are carefully worded to imply that they help connect people assigned with community service, or who need volunteering hours done FAST, with online volunteering opportunities, also known as virtual volunteering. But these nonprofits’ web sites list no board of directors, list no staff members, and list no activities being undertaken by that nonprofit. They will say things like “our programs are developed and reviewed by a team of trusted professionals – including doctors, clinicians, professors, licensed psychotherapists, clinical psychologists, and certified behavioral health coaches.” But then never name even one of these experts on their “team.” And as you dig deeper, you discover that the “virtual volunteering” isn’t volunteering at all: it’s writing essays to say how you felt about watching a video (which you don’t really have to watch) or reading someone else’s essay. Or developing a “personal growth” plan. One company says its volunteering is “self-guided, growth-oriented activities focused on personal development and rehabilitation” and the process is like “group therapy.” And, of course, they say that you can volunteer for them by posting about their wonderful program to other social media platforms, Craigslist, etc., bringing them more paying customers.
And if you dig even deeper, you discover that the nonprofit will give a person a letter saying they volunteered for a certain number of hours, and they will base those number of hours on how much the volunteer “fundraises” for the nonprofit. “you can begin your community service now and pay later with a $20 registration plus an access fee of $1 per work-hour (based on the time you complete.)” So for 300 hours, a customer pays $320. They claim this is to cover fees to administer the program – yet, where’s the list of staff they pay? Where’s the financial annual report saying what their fees are?
Virtual volunteering is real. In fact, I have researched, documented and engaged the practice since the 1990s. I wrote a book – many call it THE book – on virtual volunteering. I have a wiki that details what virtual volunteering actually looks like – and it’s not writing personal growth plans or watching videos and then reflecting on how they make the viewer feel. Many thousands of nonprofits and NGOs and government agencies have been involving volunteers to develop web pages, translate texts, transcribe videos, transcribe historical documents, design graphics, add keywords to photos, and on and on – LEGITIMATE online volunteering tasks.
That’s one of the reasons I’m so angry at these companies that associate their selling of community service with virtual volunteering. It’s a subject I care about deeply, and I hate to see it maligned. And some courts now no longer accept virtual volunteering at all for community service because of these unethical nonprofits.
I have a list of these companies that are engaged in this practice of selling letters saying someone has completed community service. I won’t post the list online because I know it will be used by people desperate to get community service done – it will turn out to be wonderfully promotional for these companies. But I will give the list to any person who contacts me from an email address that is associated with a court or law enforcement agency. I’ll be looking for .gov at the end of email requests and I’ll be double checking names at the agencies web sites to make sure you really work there. But once verified, I’ll be happy to send you my list, which I update frequently. My hope is that you will use this list to tell those you are working with, “No, you may not use these companies for your community service hours.” And that over time, they will be driven out of business. Or even better, that your state attorney general will investigate them, as other states have done, and shut them down.
And if you want to recommend LEGITIMATE virtual volunteering to court-ordered folks, here’s a list of credible organizations, like the Library of Congress, where such can be found.
Here are all of the blogs I’ve written to date on this subject. You will see accounts there of courts shutting down nonprofits that engage in this practice, and some courts refusing to accept virtual volunteering at all because of the practice of selling letters that say someone did community service hours.
Please note that I have had some great experiences with community service folks as volunteers – most that I’ve worked with have ended up volunteering long past their required hours, because they enjoyed the experience. I don’t want to further punish them – but I do want them to not get ripped off, and to not further engage in unethical, and possibly illegal behavior.
The staff at nonprofits, no matter its size, no matter its focus, need at least one short video that succinctly explains their programs and their impact, or a video that shows how the organization engages volunteers. They may also need a video that helps onboard program participants or explains safety measures.
Your small nonprofit with just a handful of staff – maybe just a few employees, maybe just one employee, maybe all volunteers (unpaid staff) – may think it cannot make such a video, because it can’t afford a professional videographer. In fact, you can, and with just the tech assets you have.
Making a short video for your nonprofit with just the tech you have.
This resource on my web site takes you step-by-step in how to identify the hardware and software you have right now, via your smart phones and laptops and operating systems, and how you can leverage that very basic technology, as well as the photos you may already have on hand, to create videos you need, from videos of clients explaining the impact of your programs to short videos for Facebook and Instagram reels, Tik Tok, and whatever else shows up as the fun new social media.
If you want to see the video I made for the Habitat affiliate I work for now, the video I made on the cheap, it’s linked off the aforementioned page, but here’s the link to the video as well.
This is the first tech-focused resources I’ve created on my web site in YEARS. It’s nice to get back to the subject that inspired my web site back in 1996.
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