Author Archives: jcravens

About jcravens

Jayne Cravens is an internationally-recognized trainer, researcher and consultant. Her work is focused on communications, volunteer involvement, community engagement, and management for nonprofits, NGOs, and government initiatives. She is a pioneer regarding the research, promotion and practice of virtual volunteering, including virtual teams, microvolunteering and crowdsourcing, and she is a veteran manager of various local and international initiatives. Jayne became active online in 1993, and she created one of the first web sites focused on helping to build the capacity of nonprofits to use the Internet. She has been interviewed for and quoted in articles in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the Associated Press, as well as for reports by CNN, Deutsche Well, the BBC, and various local radio stations, TV stations and blogs. Resources from her web site, coyotecommunications.com, are frequently cited in reports and articles by a variety of organizations, online and in-print. Women's empowerment and women's full access to employment and education options remains a cross-cutting theme in all of her work. Jayne received her BA in Journalism from Western Kentucky University and her Master's degree in Development Management from Open University in the U.K. A native of Kentucky, she has worked for the United Nations, lived in Germany and Afghanistan, and visited more than 30 countries, many of them by motorcycle. She is currently based near Portland, Oregon in the USA.

Forget pursuing a magical number of years of experience: here are things that will distinguish you when applying for humanitarian development jobs.

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Most of the posts on subreddits like r/UNPath, r/InternationalDev (International Development) and r/Humanitarian are from people that want to know the magic number of working at a particular United Nations agency, or the magic number of internships, or the magic university degree that will land you a job at the UN or other big INGO.

Here are better ideas for distinguishing yourself when applying for these jobs:

  • Have experience doing locally what you want to do internationally. Want to work with refugees? Work, professionally or as a volunteer, with immigrants and refugees in your own geographic area/country – not just with food delivery, but with helping them enroll kids in school, helping a family member find a job, helping someone navigate enrollment in a government aid program, etc. Want to be focused on emergency housing? Work on initiatives in your own community that address emergency housing – not just after disasters, but also for people experiencing homelessness. Public health? same. And represent this work on your CV explicitly.
  • Have experience addressing community pushback or hostility or skepticism to ANYTHING. Could be a new housing development, the closing of a school, a proposal for a data center, the opening of a clinic providing abortion services, the opening of a mosque, the elimination of a program at the local school, changes in zoning laws, and on and on. Show that you have at least witnessed this kind of pushback / hostility for yourself and the efforts to address it – but having been a part of a committee dealing with such, or part of an advocacy group pushing for change, is even better.
  • Show experience where you have raised money, mobilized in-kind resources and/or saved money for a cause, a public school, a local nonprofit, etc. Even raising money for a for-profit endeavor is worth mentioning.
  • Show your experience to make and stay within a budget, stretch resources, etc. at a company or organization.
  • Show experience where you have worked with local elected officials, local unelected government officials, local business owners, etc. to change a rule, or introduce a rule or law, or to get them to collaborate on something.
  • Show experience working with programs that address the needs and challenges of a diversity of people and people who are particularly at-risk: people with disabilities, immigrants for whom your local language isn’t their native language, people leaving incarceration, people with HIV/AIDs, people who are in a religious minority in an area, seniors/the elderly, etc.
  • Survived a program or department or agency restructuring, downsizing or moving from one place to another? Or a radical rehaul of all software your agency used? Talk about it: were you involved in communicating layoffs? Organizing the packing up and moving of an office? Helping staff transition to the new system or new place?
  • Be able to work in at least one language other than English. Having proof, like passing the B2 DELE in Spanish, is really helpful. Being able to work in three languages is particularly attractive – even if you cannot communicate with a local population, being able to communicate with donors in their native language is very, very attractive.
  • Have designed and led a successful project: overseen the revamp of a web site so that it is mobile ready and fully accessible for people with disabilities, overseen and expanded a volunteer engagement program that supported literacy activities, expanded a children’s summer theater program, led a successful Women’s Build for your local Habitat for Humanity, researched and made recommendations regarding the walkability of a neighborhood or community, including with regard to people with mobility issues, helped lead a petition drive to change a local ordinance or law, led a successful voter registration drive, and on and on.

No one can have ALL of the aforementioned experience (and I laugh when someone tries to tell me that they have done ALL of the above). But any one of those things makes a person stand out when applying for jobs. Doing any of those things shows what you are capable of far better than a number of internships, or number of years in a role.

For those of you who have been on hiring committees, or reviewed applications for INGO jobs, what would you add?

And also remember: it is absolutely the worst time ever to pursue a career in international development. Foreign aid budgets have been slashed around the world. Many countries are impossibly behind in their United Nations dues. There is no amount of individual or corporate philanthropy that can make up that massive, devastating funding gap. You are competing for far, far few jobs than there were before 2022, and with far, far more people, many of them seasoned professionals. Have a backup plan.

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. 

Keys to Success in a Court-Ordered Community Service Program.

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Court-ordered community service, where a person convicted of a crime is ordered by a court to provide a certain number of labor hours to a nonprofit, community of faith or government agency. is common in the USA and, as an Internet search will show, is growing in popularity in other countries such as Malaysia, Ghana and India.

According to a 2019 survey of those involved in such sentencing in the USA, the potential to reduce the negative impact of monetary sanctions was the most commonly identified benefit of such mandated community service.

“When we asked courts to identify commonly recognized reasons for using community service mandates, the majority of participating courts responded that community service mandates should serve as an alternative form of payment for court fines and fees (76 percent) or as a means to reduce the imposition of court fines and fees altogether (54 percent). Another half (49 percent) of respondents endorsed the idea of “repairing harm to the community” as a reason for community service mandates, while 42 percent reported that community service mandates are, or should be, used as an alternative to jail sentences.” (See footnote at the end)

It’s worth noting that none of the respondents in this survey said that the reason for court-ordered community service was because nonprofits, non-government organizations (NGOs), religious groups and charitable organizations need the time and labor of such people, nor that these programs are asking for such volunteer placements.

For a court-ordered community service to be successful, in my opinion,

  • the nature of the service and its completion needs to satisfy the court,
  • the program must not be over-burdensome to those charged with administering it,
  • the program must have written, well-communicated policies and procedures in place to keep it free of corruption (such as people ordered to do community service being able to make donations to the nonprofit in lieu of actually doing their community service hours),
  • the program needs to have a variety and abundance of community service roles, so that a variety of schedules, availability and skills or limitations can be accommodated and the person can complete their community service within a reasonable time frame,
  • the program needs to be done in full partnership with the nonprofits, NGOs and other organizations that are expected to engage these court-ordered volunteers, providing all the training that’s necessary, offering real-time assistance, not over-burdening host organizations with paperwork, etc.

In my opinion, to make all of the above possible, these are the keys to success in court-ordered community service programs:

  • There must be clear guidelines on what a person that is sentenced to community service may, and may NOT do, as a part of that service. For instance, some jurisdictions prohibit people from performing court-ordered service with religious communities, while others allow it. Some allow online volunteering to fulfill court-ordered service and some do not.
  • Those sentenced to court-ordered community service should be given a list of organizations they could contact about performing their service, and told explicitly if they are limited to only this list or if they could seek placement with other organizations not on the list, but that meet the court’s requirements.
  • Those sentenced to court-ordered community service must be given ideas for community service that are easy to reach from their home or before or after work, that can be done at a variety of different times and on different days (as people’s schedules vary), and that provide childcare.
  • There must be a way for an officer of the court to verify community service hours, in terms of where the service was performed, how many hours were performed, and what the person did for this community service. This verification takes more than a signature on a form: it also requires someone to call the agency where service was supposedly performed and confirm information on forms, as well as someone ensuring that the agency meets the requirements of the court for community service.
  • Those sentenced to community service should be able to count hours where they are interviewed by the agency expected to involve them in community service and for any training they have to undergo for this service.
  • The court must be explicit regarding whether or not someone who is to do community service can make a donation to a nonprofit, NGO, charity, community of faith, etc., in lieu of some or all of his or her hours. Is it allowed that someone sentenced to community service could pay the nonprofit or NGO $10 for every hour he or she needs for community service? This is a growing, controversial and unofficial practice in many parts of the USA, one that courts are struggling to address.
  • If online volunteering is allowed to meet community service requirements, it must meet all of the same standards as onsite community service: there must be a way to verify community service hours, in terms of how many hours were performed, and what the person did for this community service. This verification takes more than a signature: it also requires someone to call the agency where service was supposedly performed and confirm information on forms, as well as someone ensuring that the agency meets the requirements of the court for community service. Someone needs to ensure it is real online volunteering and actual labor, not an AI automation doing the work, or a nonprofit or NGO that, in exchange for a fee and a claim that the person watched some videos and wrote some essays about them, gives a person a certificate claiming a certain number of hours completed.
  • The nonprofits, charities, NGOs, communities of faith and others expected to engage court-ordered community service people must receive:
    • training in how to create volunteering activities for court-ordered community service
    • training in how to work with people doing court-ordered community service
    • training in the basics of volunteer support and engagement
    • support for their questions and concerns when working with someone doing court-ordered community service
  • There should be a survey of nonprofits, NGOs and other organizations who engage community service volunteers for them to share their experiences with such with the courts, so that challenges can be identified and problems addressed.
  • Nonprofits, NGOs, charities, etc. have the right to say no to court-ordered community service people, as they do with any volunteer. No organization has an obligation to engage with a court-ordered community service people, as they do with any volunteer, unless they have signed an agreement that they will do so. Organizations may say no because they don’t have time to supervise and support an additional volunteer, because they have nothing for that particular person to do as community service, or because of a negative experience with court-ordered community service volunteers.
  • The best way to increase the number of organizations engaging court-ordered community service people is to fund those nonprofits, NGOs, charities, etc. to do so. Creating activities for someone to do takes time. Supervising and supporting someone takes time. Filling out paperwork takes time. That time should be funded.

I base all of the above on:

researching court-ordered community service since the late 1990s.

working with court-ordered community service folks myself.

You can see other things I’ve written about court-ordered community service here.

What would you add? Or what do you think is actually not that important?

(Footnote) Court-Ordered Community Service: A National Perspective. by Sarah Picard, Jennifer A. Tallon, Michela Lowry, and Dana Kralstein, July 2019, Center for Court Innovation, New York, New York.

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. 

The ICT4D subreddit has been restarted!

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The ICT4D subreddit (an online community on Reddit) was started in 2011 by someone – not me. But it was abandoned in 2017. Nothing has been submitted to this posting for posting since 2018 – until now. I stumbled upon it a while back and went through the official process to take it over as moderator.

The ICT4D subreddit is being restarted as of today, June 15, 2026. It’s new description is this:

ICT4D stands for Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) for Development. ICT4D refers to the application of ICT to economic development, humanitarian aid & development, & to causes that help empower a particular demographic or all people to address challenges, have greater access to education, protect their environment, etc. It is a term popularized by various United Nations initiatives.

Examples of ICT4D:

  • Activities to help build the digital literacy skills of an underserved group (seniors, women living in rural areas, etc.).
  • A computer lab open to the public at a public library.
  • An app to help refugees navigate various challenges.
  • Farmers working with drones and GIS to gather information that can help estimate crop yields with real-time satellite data.
  • An app that allows people to track and report on birds in people’s yards.
  • Producing IT materials in local languages.
  • Smart phones used to organize activists in real time.

Are you applying ICTs to economic development, humanitarian aid & development, &/or to causes that help empower a particular demographic or all people to address challenges, have greater access to education, protect their environment, etc.? This subreddit is a place to talk about that. Please write your testimonial yourself & remember that AI should assist your writing, but not author it here.

Up-to-date statistics about the digital divide and recent information about ICT4D-related initiatives are also welcomed.

I’ve had a focus on ICT4D since before I knew it had an acronym. And was it really 25 years ago that I was in my first year working at a United Nations agency, directing the UN Online Volunteering service and helping to manage the United Nations Information Technology Service? Wow.

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.

Nonprofits, you still need someone managing communications (& who knows how to do it)

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

A county in the state where I live is considering laying off several emergency response administration staff, including the communications person, due to a severe funding shortage. The thinking is that another agency can step in and lend some staff for the job when the need arises.

A local nonprofit decided that it didn’t need a dedicated communications person and handed the job off to a staff member with no training in such. The result: social media posts that don’t say the same thing as the web site, incorrect dates announced for events or deadlines, public online complaints going unanswered, an annual financial report where the numbers, literally, did not add up, lack of signage at events, lack of photos of program activities, no notice at all about the traffic pattern in front of its thrift store being significantly altered such as to prevent left turns into the parking lot, and more. But, hey, look at the money saved by not paying someone for this job!

I’m watching a nonprofit now, one that has long had a reputation of inclusion and celebrated its focus on equity, give up on having its web site materials up-to-date in both English and Spanish, and no longer take steps to ensure its web site updates are accessible to people with disabilities. Why? Because they no longer have a communications person who is driving those priorities.

I’m watching a nonprofit post its images for events on social media without putting the most important text in the body of the post or putting in alt text, thereby not only excluding people who use screen readers but also missing out on search engine optimization, which not only affects how many people actually find the event but also will mean if, some time in the future, they need to go back and see how they marketed something, they will have a difficult if not impossible time finding that post, as there’s nothing for a search engine to search for (there’s no text!). Why aren’t they doing this? Because they no longer have a communications person who is driving those priorities.

I’m seeing a disturbing trend among nonprofits and government agencies thinking that communications can be done by just anyone: another person on staff who has other responsibilities and no training can just pick up the work that used to be done by someone in that position, or a volunteer intern, with little or no experience, can do it, or how about an AI tool to write content and post it, respond to clients, etc.?

Communications staff don’t just create and post messaging. Communications staff also are engaging in activities to LISTEN to what is being said. They are reading and analyzing feedback. They are building relationships with others to help amplify messaging and to create listening channels back to the organization. They are building trust with the community, and their work affects everything: fundraising, partnerships, volunteer engagement and more.

It is bizarre and disturbing to see so many organizations and programs decide they don’t need a dedicated, trained communications person – a human – even part-time, in this era of mass misinformation and mass misunderstanding, both of which have led to people being openly hostile to government and nonprofit programs that have enjoyed wide, bipartisan public support for generations.

If management at or funders of your nonprofit or government agency are rethinking having a dedicated communications person, then they don’t understand what a communications staff person does, and everyone who believes that a communications person is fundamentally important to a program needs to get busy now educating them on that.

Does your communications manager ever present to staff or the board about trends they are seeing in customer communications or complaints? Or talk to your staff or board about communications challenges and how they have been handled? Do you do more than just present statistics on visitors to social media or web site; do you also provide examples of feedback, or show how social media posts affect ticket sales or event attendance? Are you asking every new donor, every event attendee and event new volunteer, “How did you hear about our program?” and then reporting that back to senior management?

Also see my other recommendations on nonprofit communications.

Design Checklist: What to Review Before Publishing a Communications Product

How to do a fundraising, volunteer recruitment or other video on the cheap for your nonprofit.

What is your social media manager doing?

Prepare now to leverage International Year of Volunteers for Sustainable Development 2026

Why the Verboort Sausage & Kraut Festival is successful as a fundraiser & community event & what you can learn from it

The Nonprofit & NGO Guide to Using Reddit.

Could your organization be deceived by GOTCHA media?

Social networks continue to lose their influence & that hurts nonprofits. What to do?

Reaching women in socially-conservative areas, even in other countries

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

The PR genius of Collie J, Grambling’s Man with the Golden Pen.

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

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. 

Dos & Don’ts of Using Artificial Intelligence at Nonprofits.

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HAL from 2001 a space odyssey

On LinkedIn, a volunteer engagement consultant in British Columbia, Canada, Karen Knight, wrote

AI is impacting volunteer engagement more and more every day, so I’ve finally given up waiting to understand it before writing about it and the challenges we’re all facing with it.

and then linked to her blog, which is a frank, brutally honest narrative about her frustration at not understanding artificial intelligence tools. I was blown away by the excellent questions she asked and how she framed her frustration.

I have been working on a resource for a while now, in preparation for a workshop I’m doing in August, but I was push to finish it early because I was so inspired by her blog.

Dos & Don’ts of Using Artificial Intelligence at Nonprofits.

This new resource is not a list of AI tools for nonprofits. There are plenty of people and companies out there doing that. Instead, it’s a list of things nonprofits, non-government organizations (NGOs), community groups, government agencies and other mission-based initiatives need to consider and policies those organizations need to clarify before staff start using more AI tools than they are already, and that you need to think about regarding the AI tools staff are using now. Otherwise, you won’t be making fully-informed decisions, and you may be replacing authentic, human presentations and interactions at a time when authentic human-to-human connections have never been needed more. 

Instead of listing AI tools, I’ve focused on when nonprofits should, and should NOT, use AI in their work, to give them an understanding that they can use to ask more specific questions of those trying to push them into using AI, as well as to guide them in their use of AI no matter what tools they choose. I have no doubt that there is going to be disagreement on what I am proposing.   

I’ve been helping nonprofits understand new tech since the 1990s. I am a plain language person (I loathe tech and corporate jargon) and believe in my bones that if users can’t use a tech tool easily and appropriately, it’s poorly designed and they shouldn’t be forced to use it. I also believe that nonprofits should always keep human connection, human rights and the emotional attachment humans have to a mission, to a cause, at the heart of their work.  Know those two things as you read this resource.

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. 

Don’t let AI bury your nonprofit in search results; here’s what to do.

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a simplistic drawing of a wizard

The rise of AI-powered search engines is already adversely affecting search results for nonprofits.

Web sites are still critically important to get your message out, just as important as what you do on social media, and your nonprofit needs to make sure your nonprofit’s web site isn’t getting buried in search results: you need to make sure potential volunteers, potential donors, the press, politicians, even critics, can find you easily online when they are using certain keywords, not just your nonprofit’s name.

Things that help a web site to be favored by search engines powered by artificial intelligence:

  • Clearly written headings that adhere to HTML hierarchies (H1, H2, H3, etc.).
  • Logical structure of information on a page.
  • Plain language.
  • Short paragraphs (but the number doesn’t matter – don’t eliminate essential content in pursuit of shorter pages!).
  • Clear and comprehensive content.
  • Bullet points.
  • Descriptive summaries.
  • Alt text on photos and images.
  • Page titles in the HTML.
  • Words on your home page you want people to use to find you (the name of your city, the name of your state, the word volunteer, words relating to your mission, words like help and impact, etc.).

Nonprofits that have web sites that follow W3C accessibility standards – that remembered that people with disabilities also use the Internet – already have a strong advantage over those that don’t when it comes to being favored by AI searches, as do those organizations that use plain language and words on their home page they want search engines to use to find their organizations.

Go to a variety of search engines, like Google, Duck Duck Go and Brave Search, and use the words you want people to use to find your nonprofit, like volunteer with refugees Louisville. Did you nonprofit come up in the search results for the words you used? Was it first after the sites that paid for placement? If not, you have work to do.

Don’t just take the word of your web site manager that all of this has been done: YOU, as executive director, as board president, as marketing manager, should ask that person to show you examples of this on the nonprofit’s web site, if you don’t know how to look at HTML yourself.

Also see:

Design Checklist: What to Review Before Publishing a Communications Product

Focus on content as much as design!

Web Sites Still Matter

Web Site Construction & Content Suggestions for Nonprofits, NGOs and small government offices.

The Information About & For Volunteers You Should Have on Your Web Site.

Accessibility: a human rights & a digital divide issue too many ignore

accessibility, diversity & virtual volunteering.

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 are the consequences of allowing court-ordered volunteers to make a donation instead of actually doing service?

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image of a panel discussion

I’ve drafted an article about how some nonprofits and probation officers are allowing people who are court-ordered to do community service to pay a fee or make a donation as a substitute for actually volunteering. But I’d like to ask for feedback on one part of the paper.

I wanted a list of some of the consequences of this practice of allowing court-ordered volunteers to make a donation instead of actually doing service. But I have just three points:

  • People becoming skeptical that community service is actually being done and believing those that receive court-ordered community service are getting “an easy way out” of real consequences for their actions.
  • Inequity, as some people still have to do actual community service because they cannot afford to make a financial donation, and the donation being asked for is often less than the fine the court issued and offered to waive in return for community service.
  • In the case of nonprofits offering legitimate online community service, a growing belief that virtual volunteering is merely someone watching videos or producing text that is supposedly their self-reflections – something that could easily be generated in seconds by artificial intelligence – which undermines the credibility of actual virtual volunteering, such as transcribing scanned, hand-written historical documents, redesigning web sites to that they are accessible for people with disabilities, correcting captions on videos, etc.

Are there more consequences of allowing this practice? I would love your thoughts. Please know that, in sharing them here, I might include them in the final paper, though I won’t be identifying contributors, unless I have the contributor’s permission to do so and feel that it’s necessary (such as for quotes).

Here are all my blogs to date regarding some aspect of court-ordered community service.

July 1 2026 update: the article has been published in the Engage Journal! This is a subscription-based journal, so to access, you will either have to pay a month’s subscription, which is just $5 (and gives you access to all of the journal’s articles for 30 days), pay for a year’s subscription, or visit your local public library or nearest university library and see if they have a subscription. I encourage probation officers, court judges, anyone working in the juvenile justice system and others who are involved in court-ordered community service to read this article.

July 27 update: Crystal Washington, head of a nonprofit in Texas, CHARM North Texas, was arrested and booked into the Wichita County Jail on Tuesday, July 21, and charged with nine counts of Tampering with a Governmental Record to Defraud or Harm. According to the affidavit, on October 13, 2025, a deputy with Wichita County Sheriff’s Office was told a probationer had reported to her probation officer that Washington was falsifying Community Service Records (CSR) submitted to the Wichita County Adult Probation Office. CSRs are used to verify hours of community service performed by each probationer.

According to the affidavit, the probationer stated that Washington was charging $12 per hour, with a minimum of 10 hours, for every hour assigned to probationers by the court. On November 13, 2025, the deputy spoke with a probationer, who stated that she paid Washington $120 for every 10 hours of community service hour that was reported as worked, according to the affidavit. The affidavit states that the probationer also stated she never performed any community service work for CHARM North Texas.

The deputy stated he received a list of probationers who completed their community service hours through CHARM North Texas from January 2020 through July 2025 and that numerous records had indicated that multiple probationers had worked their hours at Meals on Wheels. When the deputy contacted Meals on Wheels in both Wichita Falls and Burkburnett, both stated they have policies in place that prevent probationers from performing community service with their organizations.

On December 9, 2025, the deputy met with another probationer, who stated he paid Washington $12 per hour for 10 hours of credit for the month of August 2025, according to the affidavit. Washington submitted a CSR at the Wichita County Adult Probation Office indicating that this probationer worked 10 hours in August, with five of those hours credited as Meals on Wheels work on Saturday, August 16, 2025. The deputy verified that Meals on Wheels does not operate on Saturdays. This probationer denied working any of the credited hours and instead paid Washington, according to the affidavit.

The affidavit states that one entry on the mutual agreement with CHARM North Texas stated, “It is prohibited for agencies/organizations and their staff members providing CSR opportunities to solicit gifts, goods, money and/or personal favors from participants in exchange for credit for CSR hours worked.”

Story 1 and Story 2 about this case.

Once you’ve read the article I did for Engage, the question is – how much longer will this practice be illegal?

Before your nonprofit tries to recruit new board members…

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image of a panel discussion

Board recruitment is volunteer recruitment.

If your nonprofit is needing to recruit volunteers for its organization, then before you start writing up the profile of the perfect board member and all that will be expected of such, your board membership needs to answer this question:

Why is it GREAT to serve on this board of directors?

If your board cannot answer this question, you need to rethink what your board of directors is doing.

Being on the board of a nonprofit is a tremendous responsibility. The board members are fiscally responsible for the organization. Most boards fall into two categories: working boards, where individual members take on different roles with regard to the organization (helping with marketing and outreach, helping to cultivate funding or programming partnerships, working with clients in some capacity, organizing the annual large fundraising event), or funding boards, where each member must give or raise a certain amount of money every year.

You aren’t going to attract board members by saying, “We have all this work to do. Please come help do it.” Or “Here is this desperate need in our community that our nonprofit addresses, and if our nonprofit goes away, it will be a disaster for the community” Or “Here’s how much money you have to give or raise every year.”

You are going to attract people to the board who

  • think the responsibilities of board membership are worth it because of the inspiration they will regularly receive regarding the work of the nonprofit.
  • think membership will be prestigious, something helpful for their profile in the community or within the company where they work, because of all that your nonprofit does in the community.
  • want to do the activities board members are required to do, who look forward to doing those activities, because they look fun, impactful and/or meaningful.

If your board cannot answer the question of why it’s great to be on your organization’s board of directors, it means there’s no good reason for someone to want to join your board.

At a board meeting, have your board members answer this question. Write the question on a white board or flip chart and capture their answers. Ask them to reflect on more answers, or clarify their answers, after the meeting if they wish, and to send their new ideas and clarifications to your board president before the next board meeting. Display all the answers at that meeting and let them discuss them on more time. They may find that there are some things that need to be addressed before new board members are recruited, like the number of board meetings, or how meetings are conducted, or how much the board is or isn’t involved on the front lines of the organization’s work (which can often make the difference between an energized board and one that feels uninspired).

And, of course, it should go without saying, but before your board starts recruiting new members, your organization also needs

  • to make sure everyone understands the bylaws, which note the role of the board, term limits, leadership succession, etc.
  • board duties in writing.
  • a form for nominees to fill out noting both their areas of expertise (event organizing, graphic design, accounting, etc.) as well as what skills they want to offer or develop.
  • a list of board committees.
  • a process for reviewing board nominees, for contacting nominees, for interviewing nominees, etc.

But I think getting your current board to answer that question is CRUCIAL in ensuring your search for new board members is successful – and that your board members complete their terms!

Also see:

Executive Directors & Board Members: Get Out in Your Communities

When Board Members (& other volunteers) Get in the Way of Much-Needed Change

Recruit board members to be board members, nothing more

Recruiting board members with LinkedIn?

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Reflecting on the challenges of a career in nonprofits

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a simplistic drawing of a wizard

I’ve been working for nonprofits, as a professional or as a volunteer, for 47 years, starting when I was 13 and volunteered in the office of a hospice where my mother worked. I’ve always been drawn to nonprofit organizations – to mission-based organizations. It’s more than the charitable nature: nonprofits work to create appreciation for things I hold dear, like the arts or a clean, natural environment or walkable, livable cities. They push for causes that are core to my own values, like human rights. Whether it’s encouraging people to spay and neuter their dogs and cats or encouraging young girls to play sports or providing shelter to people experiencing homelessness or promoting the idea that web sites should be accessible, nonprofits play a crucial role in making life worth living.

But working for nonprofits – or charities, as they are called in the United Kingdom, or non-government organizations (NGOs) in other countries – is not easy, and having devoted most of my professional life to such, I’ve been reflecting on those challenges:

  • Despite our vital, necessary work, despite the level of responsibilities we have, despite the experience and expertise we bring to our work, and despite the expectations for our work, nonprofit professionals are grossly underpaid. I work with employees receiving SNAP benefits because they are paid so little – EMPLOYEES!
  • There are people actively encouraging funders NOT to pay nonprofit professionals competitive salaries. There are people that don’t believe nonprofit professionals should get to be homeowners, or send their children to university, or drive a new car. These people don’t believe a university degree, including higher degrees, are necessary for the complexities of nonprofit work, and therefor they think it’s ridiculous that nonprofit employees have degrees and the debt that comes with such. There are people that believe those that work at nonprofits should never expect to financially prosper from their work.
  • Many from the for-profit world don’t believe nonprofits are experts at anything. They believe that nonprofit staff are people who couldn’t get jobs at corporations or other businesses. They think nonprofit staff don’t know how to do basic business functions, like accounting or project management. They believe they could figure out how to do any job at a nonprofit in just a few minutes (if that). I cannot count how many times someone from the business world has talked down to me because I work at nonprofits.

  • Many from the for-profit world think volunteers are just free labor, and the reason to involve volunteers is because there’s too much work to do for employees, or that it’s a great way to eliminate paid positions. They never see volunteer engagement as a way to reach potential new donors or other supporters, and get angry when they have to work with volunteers. These for-profit business folks also have never taken any course nor read any material on how to work with volunteers and scoff at the idea that they need such.
  • Many from outside our industry think that solving an ongoing community or environmental problem is just a matter of inventing a tool. How many times have I seen yet another design for a simple home for the homeless or for refugees – ignoring the fact that the challenge is WHERE the homes will go, not what they are made of or how quickly they can be assembled? Or all the people that think the challenge to more people volunteering at nonprofits is recruitment, not the reality that most staff have no training in working with volunteers and the resources needed to adequately support volunteers are out of reach for most nonprofits?
  • Too many people ignore what nonprofits are trying to achieve and that most of what we do is NOT charity. Absolutely, people are in need of things like free food, temporary shelter, blankets, etc. But most nonprofits are trying to create and improve community, promote social cohesion, address inequities, improve public health, help more people access education, jobs and more, and on and on. And these activities aren’t just nice; they are necessary. They affect housing prices, property values, the quality of public schools, public safety, crime rates, the profit margins for small margins, and employee recruitment for large corporations.
  • The idea of being a mission-based organization, rather than a profit-focused organization, is completely lost on most of corporate America. Promoting the arts in prisons isn’t meant to be an income-generation activity – it’s meant to teach people how to understand the range of their emotions and their connection to other humans, with the hope that they won’t harm other humans or themselves. That something isn’t financially stable through income-generation doesn’t make it somehow NOT something worth having.
  • Our industry is dominated by women professionals except at the executive level. And most major conferences will have a slew of men as speakers and trainers disproportionate to the number of women who staff nonprofits and NGOs. Women leaders are still seen, primarily, as pushy, not as the innovators and amazing managers that they are.
  • There are people actively trying to disparage and undermine our sector. Some are angry that nonprofits have been successful at curbing business activities that harm the environment or that have been harmful to certain groups of people – and therefore curbing their personal profits. Some are angry that nonprofits have successfully advocated for marginalized people, thereby eating into the power of men, especially white men. Some are angry that nonprofits are advocating for equity – also known as fairness – for all people which, again, eats into the power of men, especially white men, forcing them to work as hard as others.

Nonprofits – mission-based organizations – aren’t without fault, and there are many that could, and should, be run better. But the same is true of many corporations.

I have no regrets at the career I’ve chosen. But I’m sad to see a lot of my work disappear from the web, and a lot of initiatives I’ve been a part of and that were making a difference for certain communities get defunded and abandoned. I am sad to see so many nonprofits fighting to continue to exist and under attack from political and corporate forces.

As nonprofits shrink and their work disappears, the loss will be for everyone, not just for the nonprofits.

What funding volunteer engagement looks like

Disrupting Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Corporate employees are often not successful at virtual volunteering. Why?

Are charities “stuck up” – or the corporate volunteers offering help?

Corporate volunteers can be a burden for nonprofits

Corporate Volunteer Programs: What Do Nonprofits Want From Them?

Deriding the monetary value of volunteer hours: my mission in life?

The problem with volunteer matching platforms isn’t a software issue

Donors offering feedback on humanitarian projects & proposals

The Upsides of Working for a UN Agency

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Since early April, I’ve been writing and publishing my thoughts and advice related to a career in international humanitarian development. I think this will finally wrap up that series of blogs, though I’ll probably have more to say later.

To end this series, I’m going to share an answer that I posted to Reddit in response to this question:

Is there any thing that makes the UN a good place to work at? The upsides of working for UN agencies?

This question also asked lots about the “best” United Nations agency to work for, the “best” country to work in, etc. And, of course, that’s impossible to answer.

Here’s what I posted:

The UN isn’t a monolith when it comes to workplace environments nor the kind of work you do. And an office that everyone loves working in now can change drastically when a new person takes over.

Working at UNICEF isn’t the same as working at WHO. Working in the field isn’t the same as working at an HQ. Working in Kosovo isn’t the same as working in Congo. Working in procurement isn’t the same as managing a program focused on maternal health.

What I liked about working for UNDP the three times I did so:

  • I prefer working in organizations that are focused on a mission, as opposed to those focused on working for a profit. In that sense, I found it as satisfying as working for any nonprofit.
  • I loved the kind of work that I did. I worked in communications. I love writing reports. Yes, really. I love interviewing sanitation engineers about what they did last week. I love reading proposals and making them better. I love digging into data and finding things we should highlight or otherwise pay attention to. I love taking photos or going through the photos someone else took and picking the best one for a report. I love meeting with funders and “selling” what we’re doing. I love editing other people’s writing. And I loved that all of this very non-glamorous work was in pursuit of a mission to make people’s lives better, to make the environment cleaner, etc. I don’t know that I could do this kind of work for a company that makes toasters.
  • I loved working with local staff. I always considered them the real reason I was there – to build their capacities so they wouldn’t need me or anyone like me eventually. The best was in Afghanistan, when I got to work with federal government workers. I loved their energy, I loved their curiosity, I loved how much they wanted their country to be better, and I worry about them every day. Every. Day. Especially the women.
  • I loved working with the communities we were serving, on the RARE chance I got to be in the field and really experience that.
  • I really liked a lot of my co-workers that were also from somewhere else. Many were incredible workers who helped me SO much in my work. Many inspired me. Many got me through the rough times of the work.
  • I loved learning about development, and seeing what I learned about in a Master’s program really happening in real life contexts. I loved learning that a government-led community meeting in Ukraine is a heck of a lot like a government-led community meeting in Oregon.
  • There were two heads of mission that I ADORED and I am grateful to have worked with them. They were tough, they were inspiring, they were frustrating, they were demanding and they were utterly supportive. And it’s interesting to note that a lot of staff did NOT like them for all the reasons I did.
  • Yes, sure, absolutely, at times, it was a kick to get to say “I work for the United Nations.” No question.

I think that, because I was a seasoned nonprofit professional, I didn’t go into my first UN job with stars in my eyes. I also at that point had worked for a Fortune 500 company, so, altogether, I already knew the frustration of bureaucracies and encountering staff who were on power trips or who actually didn’t know what they were doing and didn’t care except for the paycheck. What sector does NOT have this? I get frustrated with people acting like the UN ecosystem is SO unique in these “negatives” – it’s not.

One last thing: I am so disappointed to be one of the few former UN workers who actively, deliberately gives career advice online to people that want to work in international development. When you take the elevator up to a higher floor, you should always send it back down. That’s common courtesy.

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.