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.

Videos Your Nonprofit Should Have Online

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Video continues to surge in popularity as a way to meet just about any outreach goal. And that means every nonprofit, big or small, needs to be thinking strategically about what videos it needs to produce and share – and where it should be sharing those videos.

Videos aren’t difficult to produce: if you have a smart phone that records video and/or audio, you can create videos to share online about your organization. That includes Androids, not just Apple devices. If any employee or volunteer has an Apple Macintosh computer, you have easy-to-use video editing software already on that computer: iMovie. Affordable video-editing software for non-Apple computers is easy to find online. Even if you have only photos, you can use them to create a video with audio for most of the proposed activities below.

As always: volunteers can be a GREAT help in producing these videos! If you don’t have an employee that can produce these videos, and cannot afford to pay a consultant, volunteers may be a great option – in fact, there are people actively searching for these kind of online volunteering tasks. Any volunteer that knows how to use iMovie or its equivalent can produce videos from you from any raw video you have from a smart phone, recorded Zoom meeting, camera, etc. Volunteers can also provide closed captioning and transcriptions of videos. Volunteers can also help you brainstorm ideas for videos your nonprofit should create.

My latest resource on my web site offers advice on what videos your nonprofit, NGO, charity or other mission-based organization or community group should have online. Unlike other articles that offer such advice for nonprofits, I offer a long list of actual suggestions for content, including on micro-video-sharing sites like TikTok.

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. 

Focus on content as much as design!

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When it comes to a successful web site for a nonprofit, an NGO, a government agency, a school or other mission-based, cause-based initiative, content is king. When I say successful, I’m talking about a web site where the people that organization is targeting come to that site, and those people find what they are looking for: through experiencing the site, people have an understanding how this program can serve them or their community, know if the program is successful, can sign up to volunteer and can easily make a financial donation.

I’ve seen beautifully-designed web sites that meet all accessibility and usability standards that never say what the organization really does, what programs they offer, why I should care, if they involve volunteers, etc. The organization invested in design, but not content.

Lizzie Bruce has a wonderful blog, “Why Do You Need a Content Designer? The Words Just Appear, Right?” that says so much of what I’ve been trying to stay for years. It’s comforting to know I’m not alone in trumpeting the need for focusing on content in developing a web site (or any other outreach tool, for that matter).

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.

Remote work makes who does & doesn’t actually do work way more obvious

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For many years, in promoting virtual volunteering, I’ve talked about how it’s very hard to fake it when you volunteer online: if you say you have web design skills, and I get you started on a project, I find out very quickly if you really do have web design skills or not. If you say that you can translate something from English to Spanish because of your language fluency, I find out very quickly if that’s true or not. With online volunteers, I’m experiencing people based on their work and productivity almost immediately.

By contrast, I have been fooled many times by onsite volunteers: they come in on time, they are oh-so-nice, I see them onsite, walking in the halls or sitting at a desk, we chat here and there, and I just assume they are doing what they are supposed to be doing. I mean, they are THERE, right? I can see them and, therefore, they are volunteering, right? And later, I find out they haven’t done most, or any, of what they signed up to do, or they haven’t been doing it well.

That isn’t to say that I prefer online volunteers to onsite volunteers, but it certainly has changed how I manage people, volunteer and employee alike, onsite or online: I require onsite staff I am managing to check-in and report on what they are doing as often as online volunteers, and in the same way: in writing, via email or an online system I’ve set up. I want to know very quickly if a volunteer or employee is doing what they’ve signed up to do, what I NEED them to do. Weekly or bi-weekly check-ins are a must – it can be as simple as an email, but I have to have an update, something more than “I’m working on that.” And I do the same: my direct reports know what I’m working on as well, what is challenging me, what my priorities are, what my deadlines are, etc.

I’ve also said many times that organizations that start employing virtual volunteering – using the Internet to support and engage volunteers – may find out, as a result, that their manager of volunteers isn’t a very good manager. That person may have also have been judged by being seen walking in the halls, talking to volunteers and sitting at a desk, and always having a smile for everyone, rather than on abilities to create tasks and roles for volunteers, guiding staff who work with volunteers, tracking successes with volunteers, identifying challenges and addressing them, etc.

Similar thoughts can be found in this essay in The Atlantic by Ed Zitron. He’s writing about how companies need to let go of the idea that employees and consultants need to always be onsite:

Remote work lays bare many brutal inefficiencies and problems that executives don’t want to deal with because they reflect poorly on leaders and those they’ve hired. Remote work empowers those who produce and disempowers those who have succeeded by being excellent diplomats and poor workers, along with those who have succeeded by always finding someone to blame for their failures. It removes the ability to seem productive (by sitting at your desk looking stressed or always being on the phone), and also, crucially, may reveal how many bosses and managers simply don’t contribute to the bottom line… I have known so many people within my industry (and in others) who have built careers on “playing nice” rather than on producing something. I have seen examples within companies I’ve worked with of people who have clearly stuck around because they’re well liked versus productive…Remote work makes who does and doesn’t actually do work way more obvious.

How nice to see the corporate world once again catching up with the nonprofit world (grin).

I’m never going to want to entirely stop working with people in same place, at the same time. I do think there are some things that can happen in an office that just cannot happen remotely. An example: at a nonprofit that produced an event with more than 150 online volunteers in an eight-week period, the night before the launch, myself and another staff member sat at the same table, in the same place and time in Austin, Texas, with our laptops, a massive whiteboard and some yummy snacks, rapidly putting together all of the things that had to be in place. It was hours of frantic, at-times stressful, incredibly energizing work, and there’s an efficiency and clarity in having the person right there, at the table across from you, reacting in real-time, that can never be matched by Slack or Zoom. By the time we were finished from this marathon work session, we were mentally spent but oh-so-celebratory, and we broke out our favorite live musical moments on YouTube and all sang along at the top of our lungs. That wouldn’t have been at all the same at home. It wouldn’t have been as productive or as fun. But I carried that experience, and the onsite event launch, back with me when I returned to my home office in Oregon, and it fueled my remote work for the next several weeks. I felt oh-so-close to co-workers I’d spent those intense days with. Our incredible productivity and teamwork continued for the eight weeks of the project when we all went back to working remotely, and we were a stronger team for that onsite, face-to-face experience, no question – but working remotely after that was not just fine, but much more appropriate for the bulk of the project.

I was the chair of a board of directors last year, for a program that gives away small grants to nonprofits. We asked the county government agency a few times three years ago if we could have at least some meetings remotely, and were told, absolutely, NO. When the pandemic came along, suddenly, that thing we were not allowed to do, that could not be done, was permissible and possible. And I think our board meetings have been much more efficient as a result, with much better attendance, and much more productive. Do I want to get together face-to-face eventually? Sometimes, yes. But there’s no question: the norm for these board meetings should be online.

cover of Virtual Volunteering book with hands raising up various Internet connected devices

If you are a manager of volunteers and you want a better way to support and engage all of your volunteers, even if all of their service is onsite at your organization, The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook is worth your time. And if you want to create more tasks and roles for volunteers online – and you should, no matter the focus of your organization, even if your volunteers do things that must be done onsite, like care for animals in a shelter, repair roofs on homes where elderly people live, plant trees, whatever – this is the book for you. It’s available both as a traditional print publication and as a digital book.

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.

Nine plus four emerging volunteer engagement trends (a VERY different list than you will read elsewhere)

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graphic by Jayne Cravens representing volunteers

Lots of people public predictions of upcoming trends in volunteer engagement – and often, these are people who are not managers of volunteers nor researchers regarding volunteerism. Their lists are things like People want micro tasks! – something many have said year after year, and something that, in practice, never seems to be what people are actually looking for, no matter what they might say in surveys. In other words, most of the lists seem to be focus on a casual, perfunctory view of volunteer engagement, not one based on reality, on actual experience.

Below is MY list of growing trends in volunteer management. It’s based on:

  • what I’ve seen on online communities like the volunteer subreddit and various other regionally-based subreddits, as well as on Twitter and on TechSoup,
  • what I’ve seen in the comments on Facebook posts by various nonprofits requesting volunteers,
  • what I’ve seen in emails and DMs sent to me (people like to share things with me, which I very much appreciate),
  • conversations with oh-so-many volunteers, wanna-be volunteers, and managers of volunteers,
  • my own work with volunteers and in volunteer management.

And after my own list, I post four more points from another organization that I agree with very much (hence why I called my blog “Nine plus four emerging volunteer engagement trends.”

  1. People want to know why a position is unpaid & don’t always like the answer.

Especially for positions that require particular skills, like web development, video editing, graphic design, translation, online community management, accounting/financial management or social media management, people want to know why the role is unpaid instead of a paid position – and “we can’t afford to pay someone” is NOT the answer they accept. They are also pushing back against unpaid internships at nonprofits. Also, labor unions, professional associations and people with disabilities are asking why people who are experts in something are being asked to donate their services, without being paid for their time (groups that are experiencing high unemployment are particularly angry).

Most organizations don’t have a mission statement for their volunteer engagement, one that could help guide the organization on when a role should or should not be an unpaid role. Most organizations also haven’t thought about ethical issues, like the inappropriateness and disrespect to people with hearing issues of having a student studying American Sign Language trying to interpret a live event rather than someone with this particular skillset and credentials, specifically.

The result of this trend if it’s not addressed properly: a continuing backlash against ALL volunteering.

2. People want much more support as volunteers.

Especially true of public-facing volunteers, like members of school boards and people expected to support youth or at-risk populations. These volunteers are being asked to recognize and report child abuse, deal with extremely angry parents and navigate potentially violent situations. They need specific training on these issues and they need continued support regarding such – and that training and support costs money that most governments and corporations balk at funding.

The result of this trend if it’s not addressed properly: fewer people volunteering for community, city and county government advisory boards, more people with specific political agendas doing so. Fewer people volunteering for critical volunteering roles with children, or with people who might be experiencing mental health issues, meaning many programs, like youth sports leagues or programs to support homeless people, have to be canceled.

3. Volunteers want to know why their service matters.

A mug, a t-shirt, a thank you event via zoom – it’s just not enough of a “thank you” to volunteers, not anymore, and maybe it never was. Volunteers want to know WHY their service mattered. That does not mean saying the monetary value of their hours. It does not mean saying platitudes like, “We just couldn’t function without you!” Rather, it means talking regularly on social media, in the organization’s non-volunteer-focused events, and in board meetings about how what volunteers did made some kind of difference regarding the organization’s mission. It means integrating talk about the value of volunteers – and NOT monetary value – into all communications by the organization, public and internal.

4. Volunteers want to have fun, and/or an enlightening experience.

So many organizations that involve volunteers have forgotten that volunteers aren’t just laborers working for free, who show up, do what needs to be done and leave. For instance, firehouses that involve volunteer first responders seem to have forgotten the social aspects that many people seek through volunteering, and that interacting with fellow first responders outside of official duties – a sporting event, a picnic, a campout, a training or event not related specifically to their service, etc. – can help everyone recognize strengths in each other they may not have seen otherwise, further build a sense of team, and further build a connection to the community they serve.

Focusing on activities and events that are fun and that further build a sense of team and a stronger commitment to an organization and its cause is not just a good thing to do for volunteer recruitment and retainment: societies are becoming increasingly polarized. We all need to care about each other and our overall communities more, and that kind of caring comes from being around a diversity of people in contexts outside of professional work and standing in lines to buy something.

I was on a board for a nonprofit that gives away grants to arts organizations. I thought this would be a great experience to celebrate and learn about the arts in my community, but for most of the time, it’s been just work. A TON of work. In one year, I received more than 1000 emails just from fellow board members. After three years, I left, because there’s no fun. There’s no enlightenment. I was getting resentful about the arts instead of being inspired by them. The county government our organizations supported also was silent about our hours and hours of work.

5. People want “heart” from volunteering

I’ve struggled with the word to use here – personal doesn’t feel quite right. So I went with heart. What I mean is this: I think many people are just so, so hungry for very human experiences, where they hear voices, look into people’s eyes, feel like they are having a sincere, human interaction. They want to feel like they are in a community. Once it is safe to do so, people are going to fill concert halls, theaters, crafts classes, dance classes, sports events – I know this is happening in some places already, despite it spreading the deadly novel coronavirus every time, but in other places, where the culture is one more focused on personal safety and community, it’s not. Once hospitalizations finally go down, after years of a global pandemic, very personal experiences are going to be like a balm for the soul. No, that does NOT mean virtual volunteering is going away. Let me say it again: virtual volunteering can be a highly personal, even emotional experience.

Volunteers, more and more, are wanting to feel connected to other humans, and they want their volunteering service to provide some of that.

6. Managers of volunteers must master tech tools.

Not all of the tools – that’s impossible – but definitely social media (and not just Facebook), online community platforms and volunteer management software – beyond spreadsheets. The managers of volunteers that prosper – that are able to recruit and engage a diversity of volunteers in a diversity of projects and are valued within their organizations – will understand basic web design and be able to update the text on a web page, be able to edit a simple video and share it on YouTube and know how the audio software works on their laptop or phone so they can record things – like a conversation for a podcast.

7. An increasing number of traditional volunteering programs that refuse to evolve will disappear.

The town where I live no longer has an Optimist Club. Most of the remaining service clubs in town have seen dramatic drops in membership. Why? Those service clubs refuse to change: they don’t have social media channels or, if they do, they don’t update them regularly with event information, recognition of volunteers, information about how to volunteer, etc. They don’t post to the subreddit for their town. They don’t reach out to new residents. Their web site, if they have one, hasn’t been updated in years. They don’t invite the members of the high school Key Club or anyone from the high school or university newspaper to their events. They over-rely on Facebook as a way to advertise activities – and even then, don’t use it very well.

People under 40 really want to volunteer – just spend a few minutes on Reddit and you will see just how hungry young people are to volunteer. But they don’t know about service clubs, so they try to start their own. They don’t know about Meals on Wheels – that’s why they all tried to start their own meal and grocery delivery programs when the COVID-19 pandemic started. They don’t know about existing mentoring and tutoring programs, like Junior Achievement – so they try to start their own.

If your nonprofit is struggling to attract members, program participants or volunteers, here’s my challenge to you: try to find your information about such online, via a search engine or on Facebook, WITHOUT using your program’s name. Try to find it just using the name of your city and the word volunteer or community service, for instance. Here’s more on diagnosing the causes of volunteer recruitment problems (one of the most popular blogs I’ve ever written).

8. Trying to please corporate donors will further hurt volunteerism

Corporations say we want more microvolunteering, so nonprofits pour resources into creating micro tasks, something inefficient, time-consuming, and often more about creating busywork than getting things done that a nonprofit actually needs done. Also, corporations want a monetary value for volunteer time, so organizations will continue to focus on that, which will create more hostility with labor unions and the unemployed, who see it as more fuel for their argument that volunteer engagement is an effort to cut costs by cutting paid positions.

The pushback against corporations who say this is what they want is so overdue. Nonprofits have got to start saying “no” to corporations demanding volunteer engagement that is, in fact, creating conflict and more, and unnecessary, work for nonprofits.

9. Virtual volunteering will continue to become so mainstream that we stop talking about it.

Online roles and tasks for volunteers have not been unusual nor innovative for a few years now. Virtual volunteering was already widespread long before the COVID-19 global pandemic, and calling an online role virtual volunteering often isn’t even done anymore – it’s simply volunteering. Not that there isn’t going to continue to be a need to talk about creating virtual volunteering roles, managing virtual teams, supporting online volunteers, etc. – just as there is always going to be a need to talk about other volunteering modalities, like creating volunteering roles for families or corporate groups, and how best to support those groups. But that hard wall so many put up in talking about virtual volunteering as something entirely separate from traditional, onsite volunteering – that’s long been crumbling.

On a related note: back in 2017, the UK-based Association of Volunteer Managers published a blog, Ten Ten: How Does The Next Decade Look For Volunteering. These four points stood out to me then and still stand out to me now, four years later, because I think this is absolutely where volunteer engagement is going – or, at least, where it MUST go:

  • The potential for volunteering will go on growing. Whether its volunteers in schools, welcoming refugees, campaigning against government cuts, or helping neighbours, we haven’t begun to reach saturation in the ways that volunteering can change society.

It’s absolutely true: we haven’t begun to reach anywhere near the saturation in the ways, the potential in the ways, that volunteering can be leveraged to improve our world. When I talk about all of the ways organizations are involving just online volunteers, I watch people’s eyebrows raise – they start to realize just how much more volunteers could be doing at their organizations. And when I talk about volunteers engaged in delivering mission-based programming, I have seen mouths start to gape as it dawns on people that volunteers are so much more than people who get tasks done.

  • Volunteer managers will have specialisms just like fundraisers do. There are over 15 types of fundraising expertise. Expect volunteering management to become more and more specialist as it matures, just as fundraising has.

This is already happening, as predicted! There are volunteer managers who specialize in one-time, just-show-up group volunteering events, those who specialize in hack-a-thons and edit-a-thons, those who specialize in online transcription-based projects mobilizing hundreds of volunteers at once, those who specialize in volunteers as mentors for at-risk youth, those who specialize in volunteer activities for teens or for seniors or for immigrants or for people on parole or are incarcerated, and on and on.

  • Intertwining specific audiences by demographics (eg working parents) and product (eg micro-volunteering) will be the breakfast of volunteering champions. In other words, the best organisations will understand exactly who their volunteers are, or could be, and create the volunteering products to encourage, entice and engage them ever more into giving their time.

A thousand times this! Those who manage programs for volunteer engagement will be at the table with those that manage fundraising, those that manage marketing, those that manage program, and the HR Director (because HR and volunteer engagement are NOT the same thing!).

I would word this point differently. It says originally:

  • The most far-sighted charities will invest in volunteer recruitment the way they do donor recruitment. Typically they may invest several hundred pounds in donor recruitment and the total budget may amount to millions of pounds in the biggest charities. I wonder how many volunteer managers even have a recruitment budget.

Change it to this and it’s accurate:

The most far-sighted charities will invest in volunteer engagement the way they do donor recruitment. Typically they may invest several hundred pounds in donor recruitment and the total budget may amount to millions of pounds in the biggest charities. I wonder how many volunteer managers even have a budget for every aspect of their volunteer engagement, from recruitment to support to recognition to results-tracking?

And those are my predictions about trends in volunteerism. What are yours?

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.

Most popular blogs of 2021

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It’s the end of a calendar year, and that means it’s time to look at what were my most popular blogs of 2021 – and to try to figure out why. It’s an exercise I do not so much for YOU, my readers, but for me. It’s the kind of self-analysis every nonprofit, NGO, government agency, or consultant for such should do.

One seismic shift this year: not one blog I published this year made it to the list of top 11 blogs of all time. Usually, I knock off at least one blog from the top 11 spot – but not this year.

My top 11 blogs for 2021 – the ones that got the most clicks:

cover of Virtual Volunteering book with hands raising up various Internet connected devices

It was also another good year for The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook – lots of sales (though not as many as in 2020). If you want to learn how to avoid the common pitfalls in virtual volunteering and to dig far deeper into the factors for success in creating assignments for online volunteers, supporting online volunteers, and keeping virtual volunteering a worthwhile endeavor for everyone involved, you will not find a more detailed guide anywhere than The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook. It’s available both as a traditional print publication and as a digital book. And if you buy it directly from me, the last two boxes in my closet will soon go away! I also get a bit more money than if you buy it from Amazon (and it’s slightly cheaper to buy from me as well).

Also see Reflections on Virtual Volunteering in 2020 (& My Most Popular Blogs for the Year).

Here’s to 2022!

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. 

Volunteer to support a family from Afghanistan in the USA: form a sponsor circle

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The USA has evacuated thousands of Afghans in desperate need of safety, per the takeover by the Taliban, a terrorist group that does not believe women should be a part of public society and wants to require everyone in the country to live by their very strict views. Thousands of these Afghans are at military bases across the USA awaiting placement in welcoming communities. 

No matter where you are located in the USA, you can welcome an Afghan family and provide them with the practical support they need to get settled – by your serving as a certified sponsor circle. As a sponsor circle, you and your neighbors will volunteer to take on tasks like finding initial housing, stocking the pantry, connecting children to school, providing initial income support, and helping adults to find employment.

  1. Communities Circle Up: Bring together at least five adults in your neighborhood to form a sponsor circle. Complete background checks, fundraise, and prepare to submit your group’s application for certification.
  2. Members Make a Plan: Check your knowledge of what is needed to serve as a sponsor circle and prepare a Welcome Plan in advance of being matched with a newcomer. Support in completing your Welcome Plan is available!
  3. Circles Welcome Newcomers: Once certified, sponsor circle volunteers will welcome the newcomer directly into the community and provide tailored support through the initial integration process.

Each sponsor circle must fundraise a minimum of $2,275 per individual you will support. That means, if your sponsor circle is going to support a family of three, you will need to raise $6,825.

Each sponsor group must commit to providing a minimum of 90-days of reception and welcome support to an Afghan newcomer family. At least one sponsor circle member has to complete the required knowledge check, an online training program.

RefugePoint, which has been rescuing and resettling refugees for decades, is the NGO stationed at U.S. military bases to assign Afghans to circles for absorption.

Complete information about the web site sponsorcircles.org.

Also see this piece about this program by Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner.

Also see:

My request to my US congressional representatives regarding Afghan refugees

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

If you ignore women in Afghanistan, development efforts there will fail (2017)

Fun way to recognize a year’s worth of participation

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Reddit Logo

I’m a Reddit user, and in addition to being a part of a LOT of Reddit communities, I also moderate four subreddits, as a volunteer: one regarding volunteerism, one regarding inclusion, a subreddit to discuss community service, and the TechSoup subreddit. I’ve also joined a LOT of Reddit communities and spend way too much time reading them (and sometimes commenting).

So I was one of many reddit users that got a customized slide show “year in review” that Reddit sends to users (community members). And it’s a super fun way to recognize program participants.

Among the slides is one that shows that, in 2021, I scrolled the length of 35,495 bananas lying end-to-end:

A slide noting that in 2021, I scrolled the length of 35,494 bananas lying end-to-end, and proclaiing "The amount you scrolled is bananas."

There’s also a slide showing my most popular post in 2021 – it was to a subreddit I don’t frequent, the one for Portland, Oregon, and was how volunteers were urgently needed at cooling stations set up to help people deal with our 116 degree days (it got 218 “up votes”):

There was also a slide that showed how many hours I spent in 2021 in various subreddits – yes, I really did spend 123 hours, at LEAST, in the volunteers subreddit. The TwoXriders subreddit noted is for women motorcyclists, in case you were wondering, and the Malicious Compliance subreddit – that you will have to check out yourself:

There’s also a slide showing how many new communities I joined in 2021, how many user awards I got, and how many karma points (as Reddit calls it, fake Internet points) I got (pictured below):

What a fun way to recognize participation! Good ideas for honoring program participants and volunteers as well.

And note: they never said, “Your volunteering hours were the equivalent of this much money!” Because that’s a really, really bad idea.

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.

25 years ago: launch of the Virtual Volunteering Project

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25 years ago, give or take a week or two, I started my first day as director of the Virtual Volunteering Project, a then-new initiative that had been founded by a nonprofit organization, Impact Online (Impact Online was later absorbed by VolunteerMatch).

More than a year before the launch of the Virtual Volunteering Project, Impact Online had begun promoting the idea of virtual volunteering, a phrase that was probably first used by one of Impact Online’s co-founders, Steve Glikbarg. In early 1996, Impact Online received a grant from the James Irvine Foundation to launch an initiative to research the practice of virtual volunteering and to promote the practice to nonprofit organizations in the USA. This new initiative was dubbed the Virtual Volunteering Project.

The New York Times, on 13 May 1996, published Taking in the Sites; Now, It’s Philanthropy Surfing on the Internet, an article about the proliferation of web sites that facilitated online giving or online volunteering in some way. The article included this part:

One nonprofit group, Impact Online, was created to help charities use the Web. The group, in Palo Alto, Calif., uses its site to match what it calls ‘virtual volunteers’ with organizations that need them, and has begun a data base of group logos and missions.

This might be the first use of the term virtual volunteers in a newspaper, but any article about Project Gutenberg in the 1990s would also be about virtual volunteering, even if it doesn’t use the term (I believe that Project Gutenberg is the first initiative created specifically to involve online volunteers). 

After a few months of preparation and drafting web pages, I launched the first Virtual Volunteering Project web site in early 1997. After one year, I moved the Virtual Volunteering Project, and its funding, to the Charles A. Dana Center at The University of Texas at Austin, and Impact Online became fully absorbed by VolunteerMatch and discontinued its promotion of virtual volunteering (at least for several years).

My first two years of the Virtual Volunteering Project were spent reviewing and adapting telecommuting manuals and existing volunteer management recommendations to apply to virtual volunteering, as well as identifying organizations that were already involving online volunteers. When I started the project, I thought there were just a handful of initiatives involving online volunteers, but I was wrong: in less than a year, I had found almost 100 organizations involving online volunteers, and I had to eventually stop listing every initiative I found on the VV Project web site because there were just too many!

I also spent a lot of time in 1998, 1999 and 2000 presenting at conferences around the USA, trying to convince nonprofits that virtual volunteering was a viable, worthwhile practice and already well established at a good number of agencies. The amount of skepticism and even hostility I encountered regarding virtual volunteering in the late 1990s was, at times, overwhelming. In particular, established organizations like United Way agencies and volunteer centers were quite hostile to virtually volunteering. I did a workshop about virtual volunteering for the Corporation for National Service and Points of Light Foundation in 1997 and when I called them in 1998 to ask about presenting at their upcoming conference, the response was, “Oh, but you did that last year.”

World-renowned volunteer management expert Susan Ellis was key in getting me in front of nonprofits who needed to hear about virtual volunteering. Susan was unflinching in her support for the concept and her chastisement of traditional organizations balking at the idea of working with volunteers online was crucial in getting people to let go of outdated ideas about what volunteering could look like.

The Virtual Volunteering Project used research about organizations leveraging virtual volunteering, as well as testimonials from online volunteers themselves, to continually create and refine guidelines for engaging and supporting online volunteers. And I made a point of creating meaningful roles and activities for online volunteers to help the Project, so I could gain more experience supporting online volunteers myself. Those online volunteers were vital to the project, not only for their service, but their testing of methodologies and their feedback.

I’m also very proud that from the moment of the project’s launch, we had a commitment to showing how virtual volunteering could create more inclusion for people with disabilities in volunteering – and I have a conference in 1994 in San Diego by Computer Professionals For Social Responsibility (CPSR) – and speaker Deborah Kaplan specifically, for awakening me to that possibility long before I heard the term virtual volunteering.

You can see the 1998 version of the Virtual Volunteering Project web site by searching for http://www.impactonline.org/vv/ at the Internet WayBack machine, choosing archived web sites, and clicking on 1998. You can also see the last version of the Virtual Volunteering Project web site here, from 2001.

I left the Virtual Volunteering Project in January 2001, to work for the United Nations Volunteers program at its headquarters in Bonn, Germany, to revamp NetAid, the UN’s online volunteering matching service, and to help manage a new initiative, the United Nations Information Technology Service (UNITeS). The Virtual Volunteering Project folded soon after – there just wasn’t interest anymore in funding it.

If you were a volunteer with the Virtual Volunteering Project, or attended a workshop on VV back in the 90s, or just talked with me back in those days, I hope you will comment below and talk about how virtual volunteering has been a part of your life.

cover of Virtual Volunteering book with hands raising up various Internet connected devices

If you want to learn about virtual volunteering in-depth – how to create a range of assignments to appeal to many different people, from micro volunteering to online mentoring, how to use online tools to support and engage ALL volunteers, including those that provide onsite service, and to dig far deeper into the factors for success in keeping virtual volunteering a worthwhile endeavor for everyone involved – you will not find a more detailed guide anywhere than The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook. It’s available both as a traditional print publication and as a digital book.

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.

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Recruit a volunteer or two to initially screen & help onboard new volunteers (volunteer screeners)

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One of the biggest complaints by people that want to volunteer is this: when they express interest in volunteering with a nonprofit, NGO, school, or any community initiative, whether they submit an email, submit an online application, use something like VolunteerMatch or call, they may never get a response, or by the time they do get a response, many weeks or months later, they aren’t available anymore.

On the other side of the equation, lots of people would like to volunteer in a more substantial role than a micro task: they want to really feel like they are making a difference, and they are ready to commit a regular amount of time each week to do that. But they would like to do that from home (virtual volunteering).

A great way to both better serve people that want to volunteer with you and to appeal to those folks looking for a way to volunteer online/remotely in a substantial role is to create a volunteer screening role for a volunteer – or a team of volunteers.

Volunteer screeners:

  • Respond to all applicants immediately, to each person who sends an email or an application to express interest. The volunteer screener responds to that email within 48 hours (two business days), asking the person to fill out the application (if the potential volunteers hasn’t already), and asking for additional information, if needed; asking a few follow-up questions via email is a great way to screen out people who aren’t ready to volunteer with you – if they don’t reply, it means they weren’t ready to volunteer.

Screeners can ask simple questions to an applicant, via a phone call, an email or a video meeting that helps the screeners gauge if those applicants really understand what the organization is all about, the basic requirements of all volunteer roles, the variety of volunteer roles, etc. The organization can give the screener the final say on whether or not the applicant goes to the next step (the orientation, which can be online, or the training for a particular role) or, the organization can give that power solely to the manager of volunteers, who reads through the profile/evaluation written by the screener and makes the decision (but that manager has to move FAST – lack of response, or a slow response, will result in the volunteer applicant moving on – and feeling like their time so far was wasted).

Screening volunteers should:

  • Have a solid understanding of the organization and its opportunities for volunteering, and be able to answer the question, “Why does this organization involve volunteers?”
  • Be enthusiastic about the programs of the nonprofit.
  • Be able to promptly, immediately input information in a database of volunteer applicant inforamation, even if that database is just a shared spreadsheet.
  • Have excellent written communication skills – ability to express ideas and facts clearly – and, perhaps, to also be able to have excellent speaking skills. They may also need excellent online speaking/presentation skills as well.
  • Comfortable promptly emailing with, texting with and making phone calls or video calls to applicants.

To get your screeners to that point, you should have a training and a mock interview or screening session, where they get to try out their skills and have a feeling for what interactions with volunteers can be like. And, absolutely, that training can be entirely online.

The organization always needs to know where any volunteer applicant is in the process, the date of that person’s application, the date the applicant was initially screened, etc., so they can know if volunteer applicants are being onboarded quickly. Having applicant information inputted into a shared database is crucial. I’m a board member and in charge of onboarding new applications, and I use a spreadsheet on Google Drive, with the names of every applicant, the date they applied, the date of their interview, if they were going forward after the interview or withdrawing, if they suddenly went incommunicado, etc., and share it with all the other board members, who can view it at any time.

Did you notice that I just described a virtual volunteering role?

cover of Virtual Volunteering book with hands raising up various Internet connected devices

And if you want to learn how to avoid the common pitfalls in virtual volunteering and to dig far deeper into the factors for success in creating assignments for online volunteers, supporting online volunteers, and keeping virtual volunteering a worthwhile endeavor for everyone involved, you will not find a more detailed guide anywhere than The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook. It’s based on many years of experience, from a variety of organizations. It’s available both as a traditional print publication and as a digital book.

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.

List volunteering on your job history? Maybe, maybe not.

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graphic by Jayne Cravens representing volunteers

I hear a lot of consultants and organizations that promote volunteerism and volunteer engagement say that you absolutely should put volunteering experience on your résumé, period. But consider this: a 2007 study found that a job applicant that noted she was a “PTA coordinator” on her resume – a volunteer – was 79% less likely to be recommended for hire compared to an equally qualified woman without children. I found this statistic via “Getting a Job: Is There a Motherhood Penalty?,” Shelley J. Correll, Stephen Bernard, and In Paik, in the American Journal of Sociology 112, no. 5 (2007): 1297-1339.

Someone who has been a coordinator of a parent-teacher association very likely:

  • Knows how to manage large amounts of email.
  • Has experience managing a team online and onsite, including identifying tasks, delegating tasks, managing various individual team members, accommodating different learning and work styles, etc.
  • Has a great deal of experience in conflict management and customer service.
  • Knows how to juggle priorities.
  • Knows how to negotiate.
  • Probably has a lot of event management experience.
  • And if they did this during the pandemic, knows how to coordinate online meetings.

Yet, all some employers will see is: she has kids and she makes her kids a priority and that might mean she’s distracted on the job or absent. And I bet it’s not the same for a man who puts this on his CV – I bet for him, it’s: wow, what a caring multi-tasker!

Then there’s my own experience: some of my best marketing and public relations experience has been as a volunteer. I have had some substantial accomplishments regarding my outreach activities for a couple of nonprofits in particular. I list these experiences right alongside my paid work – why shouldn’t I? It’s exactly the same work, but some roles were paid, others weren’t. I had one interview become shocked and even outraged when, during our interview, she realized I had treated these unpaid roles with the same importance as unpaid roles, and said, “Wait, these just volunteer roles?” Needless to say, I didn’t get that job. By contrast, in interviewing for my very first job with the United Nations, one of the things the interview panel was particularly impressed with was my volunteering regarding marketing and public relations for the California Abortion Rights Action League – they liked the work experience AND they liked that I had done it as a community volunteer. That volunteering role was crucial to me getting that first UN job, no question.

For the most part, I do believe in sharing volunteering experience on your résumé if such demonstrates skills you think make you, potentially, a more attractive candidate for employment. Experience working with communities different from your own, or experience leading a team, or volunteering that’s given you training to handle stressful or emergency situations are all things that will get a potential employer’s attention. When I’m a hiring manager, I give as much weight to such volunteering as I give to paid work – I don’t care if you got paid to be in a leadership position as much as your having been in that leadership position.

But volunteering experience can also show your age – like volunteering activities with a group dominated by or exclusively for people over 55. I say this as someone both in her 50s and who has heard it from co-workers for decades: people over 45, especially in the USA, are discriminated against for employment because of their age. Be careful in showing it.

If you are a woman, you have to think carefully about what volunteering you share and how you frame it when looking for paid work. I, personally, would see being a Girl Scout leader as a HUGE plus, knowing just how much financial management, conflict resolution, excellent communications skills and customer service is required in dealing with both the girls and their parents. Others might see it as, “Oh, she’s a mom, her kids are going to interfere with her job.” I’m not at all saying not to put it on your résumé, but think carefully how to frame it – show how it makes you a more attractive candidate.

Always note in a role you undertook as a volunteer if it was, in whole or in part, virtual volunteering – where you did some or all of your service online. Note what you did and what you accomplished and, absolutely, use that phrase: virtual volunteering. I have heard it over and over from various folks: in a job interview, at some point, someone on the interview panel says, “Tell me more about this virtual volunteering stuff.” They use that exact phrase, virtual volunteering, when speaking to candidates, and are intrigued by it. It got the employer’s attention, and it made them have a closer look at that candidate’s professional qualifications. Also note what software tools you used as a part of that virtual volunteering role – being a Zoom video conference aficionado will get you far these days!

Have you ever gotten an interview in part because of your volunteering experience? Do you think you have been passed over as a candidate because of a volunteering experience you listed on your application? Do you completely disagree with this blog? Share your thoughts below.

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.