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.

Volunteers guide process for future park district decisions in Oregon

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image of a panel discussion

We hear a lot about volunteers just cleaning up a park.

What about volunteers leading in information gathering and guidance for the future of an entire park and recreation district?

The board of the Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District (THPRD) in Oregon solicited feedback to guide them in future decisions, and that information-gathering, as well the subsequent report, was done by volunteers:

A dedicated multigenerational, multiethnic, and multilingual volunteer group – the Visioning Task Force (VTF), was recruited to work together and with district staff to lead outreach efforts. Their task: lead and help create public involvement strategies to meet communities where they are. Throughout the summer of 2019, they captured the unique stories, experiences, and creative ideas of district residents.

Our volunteers represented the community well, reflecting a diversity in age, ethnicity, race, gender, and languages spoken. Their ability to connect with and advise the district on outreach strategies was impressive. Even more impressive was their commitment and dedication to leading the engagement efforts themselves and the hours they spent volunteering at events throughout the community to gather input.

The resulting Vision Action Plan was written by those community volunteers.

Here’s more about the effort.

Was this done because it was cheaper than hiring a consultant? I hope not. I hope the reason it was done was because volunteers were probably the best people for this task: they had no financial interest in telling the board what they might want to hear. Volunteers can often be more neutral, more questioning and more free-to-speak than paid consultants or employees. I would love to know more how these volunteers were chosen, supported and guided.

How is your organization involving volunteers in LEADERSHIP roles?

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. 

Virtual volunteering is more than “making cards for the sick/elderly”

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The proliferation of projects right now during the global pandemic where people write cards or postcards for elderly people, people in residential care facilities, patients in hospitals, people who are homebound, etc., is astounding. The number of schools and corporations proudly touting this as “virtual volunteering” is equally astounding.

Cards can be nice. When my grandmother turned 100, my sister and I coordinated with our friends so that she would get more than 100 birthday cards via postal mail for her birthday, and she did, and she was delighted. It was nice. I’m glad we did it.

But that thrill lasted a day or two.

What she enjoyed far more, on a weekly basis:

  • Learning to play Wii.
  • Learning to use a tablet to download free books.

I wish it had dawned on me to get her signed up on Facebook so we could have played Scrabble together. I wish I had figured out if we both got the same episode of Jeopardy at the same time, so we could have live-chatted during it on WhatsApp.

What I’m getting at is this: are these “let’s write and send cards for the homebound” something that the recipients REALLY want, or is much more substantial virtual volunteering and online collaboration what we should be shooting for?

What about remote programs where volunteers:

  • Ask for their stories about particular periods in history: Where were you when the first men landed on the moon? How did you know that happened? What was your life like during the civil rights movement? Tell me about September 11, 2001? What was it like to go to grade school when you were a kid – did you walk to school? What did you wear? What if those sessions were recorded and made available via the local library or the local historical society, or spliced together into a video to share on YouTube, or edited into weekly or monthly podcasts?
  • Cook together with the person they are visiting remotely: each comes up with a relatively simple recipe, tells the other all the ingredients that might be needed, and one dish is cooked one week and another dish is cooked a week or two later?
  • Teach a person how to use Wikipedia, or even how to edit Wikipedia. What if they worked together on improving a Wikipedia article about local history?
  • Play free online word games together, like Scrabble? Or play even more advanced, free games together? Don’t be surprised to find out a lot of seniors are already engaged in online gaming.
  • Make something together while you are online together: origami, paper hats, lightsabers from toilet paper rolls (you don’t think seniors are Star Wars fans?!?), some other simple, crafty thing made from things you both can easily get your hands on… Again, record the session, splice all the sessions into something fun and share on YouTube.
  • Have an online book club, where seniors and teens all read the same book and then talk about it together online.

In short, volunteers and corporate social responsibility program managers: quit thinking you know what seniors want and what will make them happy, based on what’s most convenient for YOU. Don’t think of seniors and people in residential homes sitting there passively waiting for your uplifting message. Think about ENGAGEMENT. Think about INTERACTION. Think about what the seniors or patients might want, not primarily what you THINK they want. Have you asked them? That might be a great place to start.

Here’s a very long list of virtual volunteering roles and activities. Writing cards isn’t on it, by the way.

And here’s a seven-minute video where I say most of the things I’ve just said in this blog – and more!

August 3, 2021 update: An example of a high quality digital volunteering/friendly visitor program born out of COVID: It was oh-sorefreshing to learn about the Digital Buddies initiative in Scotland, which started during the Covid 19 pandemic to enable older people in the Scottish Borders to connect digitally with friends, family, groups & the wider world. Digital Buddies teamed the older people up with a digital buddy, often a family member, friend or neighbor, and they did not do it simply by creating a web site and giving people each other’s Skype IDs and hoping for the best. The volunteer buddy supports the person with whatever they wish to learn to do at their own pace, with the aid of SEVERAL step-by-step picture instructions and the assistance of staff. We also provide a tablet and access to the internet to those who do not have access to technology. There are just 15 older people in the Borders participating in Digital Buddies. Many were apprehensive at the beginning, as they worried they might not remember or manage. With the help from their buddies they are now regularly using their digital device to video call with friends and family, join local groups, meetings or classes that have moved online in Covid19, attend virtual religious services, do their shopping, and much more. Resources provided to participants include how to access the accessibility settings on the tablet devices used, how to charge the devices and use them to listen to podcasts, access email, etc., as well as digital inclusion tips.

My favorite part of the program is this:

When we were looking for buddies we weren’t looking for IT specialists, we were looking for people who:

  • Had a little spare time.
  • Were patient.
  • Were comfortable explaining in non jargon terms.
  • Knew how to do the basics on touch screen devices – we try to match people who have knowledge of similar devices.
  • Could commit to supporting someone for at least 6 months.

Yes, six months. Not just a few weeks. And not a few-minutes-a-week commitment: volunteers were expected to engage in something meaningful and impactful.

See Setting up a Digital Buddies project – What we Learned for more.

It’s the sign of a quality virtual volunteering program that when an initiative produces such a report, talking about what’s worked and what hasn’t and what comes next.

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

For much more detailed advice on creating assignments for online volunteers, for working with online volunteers, for using the Internet to support and involve ALL volunteers, including volunteers that provide service onsite, and for ensuring success in virtual volunteering, check out The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook. Tools come and go – but certain community engagement principles never change. You will not find a more detailed guide anywhere for working with online volunteers and using the Internet to support and involve all volunteers – even after home quarantines are over and volunteers start coming back onsite to your workspace. It’s available both as a traditional paperback and as an online book. It’s co-written by myself and Susan Ellis.

On a similar themes:

Vanity Volunteering: All About the Volunteer.

*Another* Afghanistan Handicraft program? Really?

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. 

Volunteering during the holidays during a pandemic

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graphic by Jayne Cravens representing volunteers

The question will be coming soon, at least in North America: how can I, or my entire family, volunteer to help others during the holidays – Thanksgiving and Christmas – during this pandemic?

First, know that nonprofits, even when there is not a pandemic, are deluged with people looking for a feel-good, heart-warming, short-term volunteering experience that makes them feel like they are helping others, that they can bring along their kids, maybe take some selfies… and some nonprofits are willing to create these opportunities because programs can use them to educate the volunteers about hunger, homelessness, etc. and get some financial donations. But these holiday opportunities fill up QUICKLY. In non-pandemic times, I advise potential volunteers to look for holiday volunteering opportunities in the summer because these roles fill up so quickly.

What’s the landscape like during the pandemic for holiday volunteering, especially with a family? Even smaller, in terms of opportunities.

If you want to volunteer during the holidays, onsite rather than online, your best bet is to focus on local Meals on Wheels programs and food banks, and to be flexible with many different days and times you are available in November and December. Look into requirements to volunteer NOW – the web sites of various programs should have complete details. If you can volunteer for more than one day, all the better – it’s a lot of investment to train and screen volunteers, and it’s much easier to involve volunteers who will come a few times, not just once.

You can also start taking inventory of your own immediate neighborhood. Do you know who your neighbors are? Do you know their Thanksgiving plans? In talking to your neighbors (socially-distanced and with a mask, of course), do you find any that will be alone for Thanksgiving? Would they be open to your bringing them a Thanksgiving Day meal, or a meal on some other day? What about making five chicken pot pies or some other thing that can be homemade and frozen and giving them to neighbors to use/eat whenever they want to? Or some bags of groceries (including toilet paper)? People who are far from family, who live alone – some are elderly, some are foreign students, and on and on – are probably all around you.

Is there a church, temple or mosque nearby, and would they be able to match you with a family or a single person in need that would welcome a meal or bags of groceries? This will probably be done anonymously – you probably won’t get to meet the family unless you are already a member of that community of faith.

What about neighbors that have dogs – are there any that have trouble walking their dog and would welcome you and your family walking their dogs some days over the holidays?

Do you have neighbors who are homebound – elderly, people living in a home for people with disabilities, etc. – who would enjoy chalk art drawings on the sidewalks outside their homes?

I’m really good at creating volunteering opportunities that are skills-based and project-based, that are about more sustainable results, not so much charity. But charity is what most volunteers want to do over the holidays. So, the above are my ideas. What are yours? What are you planning to do over the holidays to volunteer safely during the pandemic? Please offer ideas in the comments below.

More: Volunteering in the time of the novel coronavirus/COVID-19

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. 

Milestone: more than 100 virtual volunteering research articles

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As of October 2020, a milestone has been reached regarding virtual volunteering: I’ve found more than 100 research articles, dating back to 1997 and most with a university association, related to virtual volunteering. These are all listed here at the Virtual Volunteering Wiki.

I started tracking published research regarding virtual volunteering – using the internet to engage and support volunteers – when I directed the Virtual Volunteering Project at the University of Texas at Austin. I began heading the project in December 1996 and within several months of looking, I not only had found about 100 programs, most at nonprofits, a few at schools, that were involving online volunteers, I also realized that the practice was at least a couple of decades old, first starting at the Project Gutenberg, a volunteer effort that began in 1971 to digitize, archive and distribute the full texts of public domain books, such as works by Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Mark Twain. But what I had trouble finding was academic research on the subject. I had found a fair amount by the time The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook was published, but even so, it seemed still to be rather on the lean side for a practice that was so well-established.

I had no funding to research and write The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook, and I’ve had no funding to continue maintaining the Virtual Volunteering Wiki, which tracks news and research regarding using the Internet to engage and support volunteers. But, indeed, I’ve maintained the wiki all these years, focusing on things that I deemed newsworthy and, especially, academic research. When I realized that there are now more than 100 research articles, dating back to 1997 and most with a university association, related to virtual volunteering, I felt it was worth celebrating. And this is just the English-language material: I bet there is a fair amount in Spanish, given Spain’s leadership in virtual volunteering for a couple of decades now.

Note that sometimes research articles do not call the unpaid contributors or unpaid virtual team members “volunteers.” For instance, any research paper on Wikipedia contributors could be considered research on virtual volunteering, as Wikipedia contributors – Wikipedians – are unpaid by Wikimedia for those contributions.

Also note that many of the papers make the mistake of talking about virtual volunteering as new, ignoring or overlooking its more than three-decade history. When I read that this is a “new” practice in an academic paper recently published, especially a thesis or dissertation, it makes it very hard for me to take the rest of the research seriously. I wish more university professors would catch that inaccurate point of view early on in a PhD student’s exploration of the subject.

It’s so wonderful to see that virtual volunteering now has a rich research history to go along with its rich history of practice, and I love reading perspectives about virtual volunteering by people who ARE NOT ME. Look, it’s been fun to be the world’s expert regarding virtual volunteering, but I’m so hungry to read perspectives by other people, particularly regarding what works best in supporting online volunteers, particularly different demographics of such volunteers – is it different to involve teen online volunteers in India versus tech-savy senior volunteers in Germany? Is there something that works well supporting online volunteers in South Africa that is different than what’s done in Spain? Is engaging and supporting rural online volunteers different from engaging and supporting urban or suburban online volunteers, even in the same country? I’d love to see such comparative studies!

What’s not needed? Research on the motivations of people who volunteer online. Good grief, people, ENOUGH!

I would also love beyond words if a university would step forward and be willing to take over management of the Virtual Volunteering Wiki. Having university students and faculty maintaining this would make it a much more rich and valuable resource. Any takers?

Let me be frank: I’m going to eventually retire. I’ll always be interested in virtual volunteering, and I’ll be an online volunteer myself for, I hope, decades to come (in between my extensive motorcycle riding). But just as there is no one Queen or King of All Things Volunteer Management, there shouldn’t be just one person, or always the same person, keeping track of news and research regarding virtual volunteering and distilling the key points of such. It’s overdue for new leaders, and a diversity of new leaders, to emerge in this field. I stand ready to support those new leaders (or, at least, figuratively – I can’t stand as long as I used to).

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. 

Addressing anger in the workplace (including online)

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Mental Illness Awareness Week 2020, October 4-10, is winding down, and it’s a good time to remind ourselves that we are ALL all under a tremendous amount of stress now per so many, many things associated with the global pandemic (at least if we’re among those taking it seriously). And some of us are also dealing with enormous amounts of anger from customers, clients and others.

I wrote a series of tweets, published Wednesday, to talk about dealing with intense anger from co-workers, clients, customers and others. The first was an introduction tweet that had much of the same content of the opening paragraph. Here is the content of the rest of the tweets:

Anger isn’t automatically a bad thing. Anger fuels social justice movements, human rights movements & important changes in societies & systems. Anger can even be an effective motivator of volunteerism. But anger can also hijack a person’s life in negative, even dangerous ways. [2/17]

Intense anger can affect reasoning and self-control, which can be further weakened by substance use &/or mental illness, ranging from depression to delusional thinking. That kind of intense anger can affect, even destroy, your work and relationships. [3/17]

If you are seen as a perpetually and irrational angry or vindictive person, it can affect your employability, your ability to keep employees and volunteers at your nonprofit – & even the funding of your nonprofit, NGO or charity. [4/17]

If you are online a lot, you see intense, irrational anger among trolls, those people whose primary purpose online seems to be to hurt others. Many aren’t anonymous: they don’t care that their barrage of insults hurts their professional reputation. [5/17]

That kind of intense, irrational anger and aggression are closely tied to several mental health conditions, including major depression, bipolar, irritability, Oppositional defiant behavior, Narcissistic personality, and PTSD https://www.goodtherapy.org/learn-about-therapy/issues/anger [6/17]

Program managers at nonprofits, NGOs & charities, as well as managers of volunteers, need to support staff in dealing with angry customers, clients, volunteers, donors and others. Dealing with intensely angry people is draining and people need to feel supported in this work. [7/17]

It’s not just your social media manager: even if your nonprofit, NGO or charity staff are all working from home, they may be dealing with intensely, even irrationally angry customers, clients, volunteers, donors and others. [8/17]

And your staff may be dealing with situations such that they are quite angry themselves and it may be affecting their work. Senior managers need to assume that both of these scenarios might be happening and take steps to help. [9/17]

Remind staff that you know things are tough now & that tensions can be running high among staff & volunteers, as well as those they’re dealing with. Talk openly about anger: how to deal with it ourselves & with it among customers, clients, volunteers, donors & others. [10/18]

Emphasize SAFETY. People should feel safe in doing their work. Talk about what harassment looks like. Give staff safe ways to report harassment from colleagues, customers and the public and to talk openly about the difficulty in dealing with it. [11/18]

Make sure staff know when harassment becomes something potentially illegal and even dangerous. Know when to call police. These resources regarding online harassment, defamation & libel can help: http://www.coyotebroad.com/work/harass.shtml [12/18]

Circulate mental health support resources among all employees, volunteers and consultants, including those focused specifically on dealing with anger, like Anger management: 10 tips to tame your temper from the Mayo Clinic:
https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/in-depth/anger-management/art-20045434 [13/18]

Psychologists can help people recognize and avoid the triggers that make them angry. They can also provide ways to help people manage the inevitable anger that sometimes flares without warning.
https://www.apa.org/topics/understanding-anger [14/18]

Is your temper hijacking your life? Tips and techniques can help you get anger under control and express your feelings in healthier ways.
https://www.helpguide.org/articles/relationships-communication/anger-management.htm [15/18]

Here are Anger Management Treatment Program Options
https://www.psychguides.com/anger-management/treatment/
[16/18]

Here is advice on What To Do When You Have Anger Issues
https://www.betterhelp.com/advice/anger/what-to-do-when-you-have-anger-issues/ [17/18]

& the best for last: NAMI is the National Alliance on Mental Illness. The NAMI HelpLine can be reached Monday through Friday, 10 am–6 pm, ET. 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) or info@nami.org [18/18]

Twice this year, I have dealt with intensely angry and irrational people in my work. In both cases, it’s been utterly exhausting. In one case, heartbreaking, because it is related to dementia to someone I respect a great deal, and in another case, it’s terrifying, because I fear it could turn violent. And as an independent consultant, with no staff – it’s just me – I don’t have a supervisor to check in on me, I don’t have a staff to delegate some responsibilities too, and I can’t follow a lot of the advice I’ve just offered above. Coupled with the global pandemic and a very intense political situation, these are particularly difficult times for independent consultants. So I want to give a specific shout out to such consultants who are in a similar position. Reach out to me if you need to talk.

In addition, the same day, I tweeted about domestic violence and the importance of any workplace having a domestic violence policy and training staff, including volunteers, on how to recognize domestic violence and where to find guidance and resources for themselves or co-workers – because all that is also a mental health issue and is most definitely, and sadly, related to helping someone navigate, and protect themselves from, someone else’s anger. I won’t re-create those tweets here, but here’s the start of that much shorter series.

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. 

how not to treat volunteers: another saga

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graphic by Jayne Cravens representing volunteers

I get inspiration for a lot of my blogs from stories that my friends tell me about their own volunteering experiences, from comments on my blogs from volunteers, and from my own attempts at volunteering.

Here’s a comment I got recently from a neighbor who is volunteering to send postcards to registered voters regarding the upcoming elections here in the USA. Through an advocacy group, volunteers like her handwrite messages on the postcards encouraging the recipient to vote. It’s very important that the postcards be handwritten and personalized – recipients are more likely to read the postcards because they are handwritten and because they are coming from a volunteer, specifically – not a paid campaign worker. Here’s her message to me about her frustration:

Jayne, here’s a suggestion for a blog post: please do not simply assume your volunteers will do more than they have committed to. I committed to write 30 postcards this week. For me, this was a stretch as far as my time goes. My contact at this organization brought me *60* postcards and a list of where to send them, plus a request for three postcards written in Spanish (but not providing me with a Spanish-language script). She said, “Can you just ask somebody else to write the rest if you don’t want to?” Now that I am actually looking at the instructions for writing this postcard, I see that they asked me to fit far more text into the postcard that is possible to fit. So they didn’t test their idea. Grrrr. This makes me amazingly cranky and demotivates me to write her damn postcards. Also, I am cranky these days anyway.

This person is one of the most dedicated campaign volunteers I have ever seen: I’ve seen her at demonstrations of all kinds, she has a sign in her front yard for a campaign she supports (and offered them to others in the neighborhood), she shares advocacy messages on her Facebook page, and I see her a day or two every week walking down to our nearby post office with a stack of postcards she has personally addressed. She feels a great sense of urgency regarding the upcoming election, just like so many volunteers do about the nonprofit they are supporting. That commitment and that sense of urgency are easy to take advantage of when an organization needs additional help. At first, a volunteer might not say no: they feel needed, they feel valued, and they feel like they are really helping out in a dire time of need. But if this keeps happening, volunteers QUIT. And they send messages to me about how frustrated they are, and I get to write a blog about it!

Don’t put volunteers in an awkward situation when you need more work done than they have agreed to do. Tell them your need for additional hours or for an additional task to be done and say, “if this is too much for you, please say so – we don’t want to overwhelm you, we value your service.” And mean that. If the volunteer says no, respect the no.

What’s your alternative? Surely you have an online community of all of your local volunteers, and you can just post to that community, let people know you have extra work to be done, and ask who could do it – right?

Weeks ago, this particular advocacy group should have made a list of assistive independent living centers, where residents live on their own in their own apartments with minimal assistance – where they still prepare their own food, still live largely independently, still drive, etc. Because of the global pandemic, many of these senior citizens are stuck in their homes without much to do, and they would have LOVED to have volunteered for an initiative like this (and if they are anything like my maternal grandmother, they have BEAUTIFUL cursive, legible handwriting – I always recognized my grandmother’s letters, which she wrote to me until she died at almost 102). Instead, they kept going back to the same well – and the well is running dry.

Other blogs about frustrated volunteers:

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 Monitoring in the Age of COVID-19

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Humanitarian Advisory Group (HAG) and GLOW collaborated on Remote Monitoring in the Age of COVID-19 as part of HAG’s Humanitarian Horizons research program. HAG and GLOW have partnered on third-party monitoring and evaluation (M&E) assignments for a variety of aid and humanitarian donors, including the Department for International Development (DFID, UK) and DFAT, international NGOs (including Concern World and International Rescue Committee) and research institutes (including the Overseas Development Institute).

This guidance note can be used to:

  • plan remote monitoring approaches
  • raise awareness of remote monitoring best practices
  • advocate with donors for supporting remote monitoring requirements

From the intro to the guide, Remote Monitoring in the Age of COVID-19:

Strong monitoring systems are important for effective program delivery in humanitarian contexts. During a global pandemic, there is a vital need for real-time data and evidence to inform responses to rapidly changing environments. However, collecting and using monitoring data to inform programming is often challenging. During COVID-19, this challenge is compounded by access, safety and travel restrictions.

In addition to implementing remote management and programming, humanitarian actors are initiating or scaling up remote monitoring. Agencies are re-evaluating their existing monitoring design and data collection processes, and recognising that new methods will require changes in staffing, working with partners and resourcing…

This note is intended to guide international and national operational actors on how to adapt and think about remote monitoring in the context of COVID-19. It provides a snapshot of key takeaways from previous research, and draws together emerging learning and guidance.

Update Oct 4, 2020:

War Child Canada has produced a guidance note on remote monitoring and management of gender-based violence programming during the global pandemic. The note goes into detail on integrating community based monitoring approaches and good practice in establishing community focal points, as well as recommending which of these methods should be adopted as a long-term permanent approach rather than a temporary fix.

A helpful guidance note by USAID on remote monitoring approaches outlines a series of factors to consider before implementing remote monitoring. It also highlights which technological solutions to remote monitoring to use in different contexts.

Study measures interest in volunteering in May 2020

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graphic by Jayne Cravens representing volunteers

Points of Light commissioned a research study to understand the state of American civic engagement – in all its facets – as of May 2020, and to explore the path forward for catalyzing deeper and broader civic participation. Researchers surveyed 1,441 adults in May for the report, which says it has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.

The study found that the pandemic and other catastrophes prompted a surge in interest in volunteering in May: While only 36 percent of American adults say they volunteered within the last year, 60 percent said they are interested in doing so in May, and 73 percent said volunteering is more important than ever. According to the survey, Gen Z already demonstrates higher rates of civic engagement than older generations.

The study also found that 75 percent of Americans said in May that donating to nonprofits is more important than ever because of the Covid-19 crisis, while 54 percent reported giving to charity a year ago.

Note that by civic engagement, the survey did not just mean volunteering. Activities measured included:

  • Donated money to a nonprofit
  • Signed a petition
  • Purchase decisions based on company’s social responsibility
  • Participated in volunteer activities
  • Posted or started group/campaign for issue on social media
  • Contacted elected official about issue
  • Considered applying/taking job because of company’s social responsibility
  • Attended demonstration or rally for issue
  • Public service thru military, elected office, nonprofit board
  • Voted in every/almost every election in past few years

Volunteer Preferences and the percentages of people that selected such:

  • Focus on global issues impacting our world: 18%
  • Not interact directly with people benefiting: 24%
  • Volunteer directly or with friends/ neighbors, not through organization: 28%
  • Participate at home/online: 30%
  • Activities where I help someone one-on-one: 27%
  • One-time activities: 29%

A much bigger group selected these “opposite” options of each of the bulleted items above:

  • Focus on issues directly impacting my community +37 —> 55%
  • Interact directly with people who are benefiting +22 —> 46%
  • Volunteer through an organization +15 —> 43%
  • Participate in person +12 —> 42%
  • Activities where I help groups of people +14 —> 41%
  • Activities that I can do on a regular basis +10 —> 39%

I hope that the way this was presented wasn’t done to imply that volunteering from home, online (virtual volunteering) doesn’t allow for volunteering activities that many people preferred: interacting with someone one-on-one, interacting directly with people benefitting, and focusing on issues directly impacting a volunteer’s community. All of these things are possible in virtual volunteering and have been the preferred activities of online volunteers, at least according to all of the research I’ve done since the late 1990s – indeed, when I’ve said that a greater portion of online volunteers want a more substantial experience than a few minutes of microvolunteering, a lot of tech bros – people with corporate backgrounds and tech backgrounds, not volunteerism backgrounds – have really pushed back. Yet, once again, the latest research shows it’s true.

According to the survey, the top barriers to volunteering (among those interested in volunteering who have not done so) are the following – the same things those of us in the volunteer management field have heard year after year:

  • Unsure how to get involved or where to find opportunities 44%
  • Cannot find opportunities near me 44%
  • Not sure what I can do that would be helpful 43%
  • Busy, don’t have time to volunteer 42%
  • Haven’t found a group of volunteers with whom I fit 41%
  • Haven’t found opportunities matching my skills, abilities 41% ‘
  • Rather do other things when I have free time 34%
  • Uncomfortable volunteering with people I don’t know 33%
  • Don’t believe my efforts will make a difference 26%

From the volunteer perspective, a worthwhile experience is:

  • discoverable. Can be easily found online.
  • local. Addresses an issue important to my community.
  • credible. Delivered by an organization with local/issue expertise.
  • social. Allows me to invite my friends and family.
  • authentic. Explains why my actions will matter, upfront.
  • personal. Allows me to engage with beneficiaries.
  • impactful. Shows me the outcomes of my actions.
  • repeatable. Provides an avenue for me to reengage.

This part was my favorite part of the study, in fact – what makes a worthwhile experience. How many managers of volunteer programs are going to use this to improve their own volunteer engagement schemes? And, again, this supports everything I’ve said about micro volunteering – it’s nice, it’s worth exploring, but it’s NOT what most volunteers are looking for.

Here’s the full research study. It would be fascinating to compare this to now – in May, the country was experiencing a pandemic “surge”, where people were feeling optimistic and community-minded. Now, it’s almost October, and we’re most definitely in pandemic “fatigue” where people are feeling anxious, even negative, and rebellious.

Also see:

The Nonprofit & NGO Guide to Using Reddit

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A new resource from me: The Nonprofit & NGO Guide to Using Reddit

As of July 2019, Reddit ranked as the No. 5 most visited web site in the USA and No. 13 in the world. Reddit is a community of communities, and its communities are called subreddits. Statistics suggest that 74% of Reddit users are male. Users tend to be significantly younger than other online communities like Facebook with less than 1% of users being 65 or over.

If you want to reach a younger demographic regarding your volunteering opportunities, your awareness messages, your data that shows your value to the community and more, you need to build posts to Reddit into your marketing strategy, no matter what your nonprofit’s size or focus. This resource tells you how to do it. It covers how to find subreddits to join or read regularly based on your nonprofit or NGO mission, how to choose a user name, how to guide staff who may already have a Reddit user account, whether or not you should create your own subreddit and more.

And note: manging your Reddit presence and monitoring Reddit for discussions about your organization or program is a terrific role for an online volunteer!

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. 

One-ish Day Activities for Volunteering Using IT (Hacks4Good, for instance)

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UPDATED: One-ish Day Activities for IT Volunteers or Volunteering Using IT (Hacks4Good, for instance)

image of a panel discussion

For a couple of decades now, volunteers have been getting together for intense, one-day events, or events of just a few days, to build web pages, to write code (hackathons, apps4good, etc.), to edit Wikipedia pages, to transcribe historical documents and more. These have usually been, in the past, gatherings of onsite volunteers, where everyone is in one location, together, but even before the global pandemic, these activities were involving or mobilizing remote volunteers – online volunteers helping from wherever they were in the world.

This resource has been revised to take into consideration more virtual volunteering / remote volunteering, rather than everyone being in the same room. The revision, with greater emphasis on remote volunteers, was prompted by probably half a dozen inquiries to me in the last four months saying something along these lines:

We have all these corporations / businesses calling us because nonprofits have suspended their onsite volunteering. These companies want to engage in group online volunteering, but don’t know what that would really look like.

In addition to updating One-ish Day Activities for IT Volunteers or Volunteering Using IT (Hacks4Good, for instance), these folks should also view these ideas for high-impact virtual volunteering projects.

But with all that said, businesses/corporations also need to keep in mind that nonprofits are under terrific financial strain right now. They need to consider this recent blog by Jerome Tennille, which says in part:

Many companies are seeking to pivot successfully from in-person employee engagement to forms that allow for social distancing whether virtually or remote. In their quest to achieve this some companies have sought to place that burden on their non-profit partners in the communities they serve. Unfortunately, by placing this responsibility on the non-profit organizations…

Remember: Volunteers are not free for the nonprofit or community group expected to involve them. If you ask an agency to create volunteering opportunities specifically for your employees, you are asking them to spend money and resources they may not be able to afford – so be ready to make an appropriate financial – CASH – donation to a nonprofit or school if you want a customized volunteering gig for your employees at that nonprofit or school. Here’s more advice on how to create successful and appropriate volunteering activities for employees.

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

For much more detailed advice on creating assignments for online volunteers, for working with online volunteers, for using the Internet to support and involve ALL volunteers, including volunteers that provide service onsite, and for ensuring success in virtual volunteering, check out The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook. Tools come and go – but certain community engagement principles never change. You will not find a more detailed guide anywhere for working with online volunteers and using the Internet to support and involve all volunteers – even after home quarantines are over and volunteers start coming back onsite to your workspace. It’s available both as a traditional paperback and as an online book. It’s co-written by myself and Susan Ellis.

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.