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.

Cartoonish images that show people helping people, and the images are on cartoon images of a computer and tablet

A new online community: Tech4Causes

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Since the early 1990s, I have been researching and discussing how information communications technologies (ICTs) help nonprofits and cause-based initiatives do their work. I was intensely involved the early days of the USENET group soc.org.nonprofit and I had one of the first web sites focused on the subject (and my web site still has a section focused on this topic).

Online communities that have focused on this and related subject have come and gone over the years, and one that I’ve used for years has recently started to sunset. As that last online community winds down, I no longer have an outlet for my “ICT for good” discussions.

So I decided to start a group on Reddit (such groups are called subreddits) called Tech4Causes so that others interested in this subject can participate. I debated a lot about the name, and decided that one would be best (and also because Tech4Good was already taken as a subreddit, and focused on something else).

The Tech4Causes subreddit is a place to discuss examples resources and ideas for applying apps and online tools to activities supporting causes that help humans and the environment. It’s a place to discuss hackathons / hacks4good, apps4good, community tech centers, ICT4D, ethics regarding such, etc. It’s a place to discuss how a nonprofit, NGO or community program YOU work or volunteer with leveraging ICT to do its work.

Tech4Causes is to discuss specific scenarios, like how Information ICTs can help and have helped prevent or mitigate problems arising from disasters – fire, earthquake, floods, storms or other severe weather, catastrophic power or structural failures, or violent conflict. Or how can or has ICT improved food stability in a community, or helped domestic violence victims, or facilitated pet adoptions and reduced shelter populations, or helped seniors be more mentally active, or helped young people participate in community arts projects?

It’s also to discuss how ICTs have helped support and engage volunteers supporting a cause and what policies a nonprofit, NGO or government community project needs to leverage ICTs as a part of its program or administration. I’d like for people to also talk about what ethical issues might need to be addressed in using tech for good. Examples of artificial intelligence being a force for good and a negative influence on the work of nonprofits, NGOs, community projects and community, arts, environmental or other causes are welcomed.

I’m the founder of the group and, right now, the sole moderator, but I’d like to have a lot more moderators as the months past. I have no desire to make this all mine; I would like to have shared ownership of the group with others. I’ll be identifying new moderators based on who consistently posts quality content.

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

The most in-depth exploration I’ve ever done regarding “Tech4Good” is The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook, which I co-wrote with Susan Ellis. It has the most comprehensive and detailed guidance regarding using the Internet to engage and support volunteers (and some sci fi references, per the authors both being geek girls). It’s for organizations that want to get started with virtual volunteering or to expand a program they already have, as well as those researching virtual volunteering. The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook is based on many years of experience, from a variety of organizations. It’s like having me do an in-depth analysis of your program, or me helping you set up your own program, but without having to pay my hourly rate as a consultant. It’s also better than any AI. It’s available both as a traditional print publication and as a digital book.

Also see

Reddit4Good: subreddits focused on some aspect of volunteerism, community service or philanthropy

The Nonprofit & NGO Guide to Using Reddit

Your nonprofit or government program should check out Reddit

Why aren’t you reaching out to young people via Reddit?

Reddit controversy is a lesson in working with volunteers

Social media is losing its influence for nonprofits – what to do?

Should you leave Twitter & Facebook for the fediverse?

a hand is receiving money

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site or my YouTube videos 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.

UNV 2023 Annual report

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Highlights from the United Nations Volunteers 2023 annual report:

United Nations Volunteers mobilized a record-breaking number of 12,840 UN Volunteers, marking a four percent increase from 2022.

Of the total number of UN Volunteers, 11,339 or 88 per cent were from the Global South. Of these, 8,027 served as national UN Volunteers in their countries of origin, while 3,350 served as international UN Volunteers in other countries of the Global South. This demonstrated the commitment of UN partners and UNV to engaging local volunteer talent in peace and development worldwide, as well as to South-South cooperation.

In 2023, the average age of a UN Volunteer was 35, and the overall age range was from 18 to 78 years. There were 167 UN Volunteers aged 60 and above. There were 2,012 UN Youth Volunteers between 18 and 26 years of age.

The largest number of UN Volunteers served in sub-Saharan Africa (5,299). Latin America and the Caribbean had the next-largest contingent (2,762), followed by Asia and the Pacific (1,931), the Arab States region (1,649), and Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (1,224).

UNV achieved gender balance in the international professional category, while men were underrepresented in the national officer and general staff categories. Exceeding the target, 73 per cent of the UNV staff came from the Global South.

The proportion of women UN Volunteers increased to 57 per cent (2 per cent growth from 2022). Notably, in 2023, 49.8 per cent of UN Volunteers on the African continent were women, whereas this was 48 per cent in 2022.

SPOTLIGHT ON ONLINE VOLUNTEERING

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) relied on the talents of 100 Online Volunteers in Niger to run social media campaigns in French and English to raise awareness regarding the rights of refugees, most of whom are from <span>Burkina Faso, Mali and Nigeria. UNFPA marshalled 586 Online Volunteers to highlight women’s reproductive rights in Guinea and Niger and another 552 in Niger to combat fake news against the backdrop of political instability. Niger was also where 125 Online Volunteers assisted WHO in raising awareness of breast cancer and 105 Online Volunteers teamed with UN Women in championing women’s rights. Responding to the floods in Libya and the earthquake in Morocco, 95 Online Volunteers designed social media posts, mapped volunteering initiatives and managed information flows. As well, 18 Online Volunteers supported all UN entities in responding to the crisis in the State of Palestine and neighbouring countries – Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon. The assignments focused on media monitoring, need-based analyses, response mapping and translation.

To raise awareness about the 54 Faces of Africa Campaign and the Youth Connekt Summit in Nairobi in 2023, UNDP called upon 102 Online Volunteers. Another 77 analysed development plans and budget priorities for the UNDP Ethiopia Country Office. Online Volunteers with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) contributed to research on climate, nature and pollution, while for the Government of Zambia, they created content for the Africa Music, Art and Cultural Exhibition 2023.

The talents of 257 Online Volunteers were applied in support of UNDP’s work on youth empowerment in the Asia-Pacific region, while with UNFPA, 151 UN Volunteers supported the #EveryGirlCounts digital campaign. Additionally, 134 Online Volunteers supported Thailand’s Social Development Ministry by contributing to International Volunteer Day activities and creating social media content. As well, 56 Online Volunteers assisted the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) in an AI-generated platform on gender equality. UNV in China and UNDP launched #HerDigitalFuture with the support of 185 Online Volunteers to highlight opportunities and potential educational pathways in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) for teenage girls.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, 647 Online Volunteers served with the World Food Programme (WFP) in Peru to provide information to refugees and migrants, with a primary focus on those from Venezuela. In Bolivia, another 72 served in Online Volunteering assignments that helped inform people about accessing public information.

Emergency response in Ukraine was supported by 392 Online Volunteers who mapped, translated and provided important research to UN entities. Another 30 supported the UNDP Accelerator Lab initiative creating chatbots for public information. The Gender Equality and Women Empowerment programme was assisted by 60 Online Volunteers with UN Women in Kazakhstan, Moldova, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, with assignments ranging from research to data management, women entrepreneurship, peace and security. A vital role was played by 17 Online Volunteers, who contributed to the Türkiye earthquake response through psychosocial support, translation and social media content.

Here’s the full report.

https://www.unv.org/Annual-report/Annual-Report-2023

Arts Organizations Have Always Been Masters of Customer Relations & Data Management

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Earlier this month, I talked about how working at nonprofits that produced live theater taught me oh-so-much about effective management and internal communications and continuous improvement. In this blog, I’m going to focus on what that experience taught me about managing and leveraging customer data.

Back in the 1980s, professional nonprofit theaters had already mastered customer data management: such was fundamental to their cultivating recognition and value in their communities, support that translated regularly into donations. And regular donations mean an organization is sustainable – it means it’s not completely reliant on an angel donor, which is fine until that angel donor dies or gets bought out by a company with no interest being an angel donor.

Most of these nonprofits used a program called ArtSoft to manage data regarding their audience, both program attendees and donors. ArtSoft dominated the market for managing customer and donor data at nonprofits that were focused on live performance. Back then, it felt like every theater, every dance company, every performing arts center used it. It’s sad that it doesn’t have even a Wikipedia entry – it deserves such.

But it wasn’t the software that mattered: it was the human protocols and processes in place to ensure audience member information was regularly gathered and updated. At any theater I worked in the 80s or 90s, there were protocols in place so that every single ticket buyer, every season ticket buyer, every special event attendee, every class participant, every donor and every volunteer went immediately into the master database system, ArtSoft or not, at the moment they paid money or signed up for any activities. And each person – each entry – was tracked regarding their relationship with the organization and their activities from then on.

The goal of this data tracking? To communicate with the people in the database such that:

  • season ticket buyers came back year after year,
  • single ticket buyers either became season ticket buyers or kept coming back as single ticket buyers
  • that people that purchased tickets to events or classes were encouraged to buy tickets to stage shows
  • that everyone was encouraged to donate financially, annually, to the organization
  • that volunteers were encouraged to do any of the above, and that any of these audiences were encouraged to volunteer

35 years ago, these arts organizations were already experienced in target marketing in a way that I feel like so many nonprofits now, particularly those started by corporate folks, are still learning.

Those arts organizations had a relationship with every person in that database, everyone of a few thousand people. The organizations could target market to single ticket buyers based on the kinds of shows they liked in the past. We could target market events based on ages. We could engage in highly-targeted correspondence and phone calls that built relationships such that individual donors came back year after year after year. At one theater, we decided to stop trying to convert single ticket buyers to season ticket holders because, reviewing our data, we felt like we had “enough” of the latter, and wanted to still have an avenue to cultivate new customers. These arts organizations were regularly engaged in highly successful, annual crowdfunding – but they didn’t call it that.

These organizations were successful because of the relationship they built and sustained with individual donors, and it was individual donors, not large grants, that provided MOST of their funding.

That was all before “big data.” Those relationships happened because every person that touched that database understood that the people in it were humans, many of whom had emotional moments when they came to performances. They weren’t just a record number – they were real people, and they felt an emotional connection to the theater.

Not because of the software we used, but because of the protocols that were in place, everything about every program participant ended up almost immediately in our master database. How did we do that?! This way: at nonprofit theaters, absolutely everyone in every audience and every program came through the box office staff or the fundraising staff. That’s easier for nonprofits built around attendance to one primary series of events than an organization that has a range of programs each managed by different people. In addition, there was one person whose primary responsibility was to oversee all of the correspondence to everyone in that database, with the goal of either encouraging participation (including buying tickets) or donating money, and that messaging followed a strategy – it wasn’t haphazard.

Absolutely, individual staff sometimes exported certain data and worked with that data on their own. A staff member might have his own volunteer management database with very specific information to track about volunteers, information that should be kept confidential for the rest of the staff. Another staff member might have a database of media contacts with information separate from the main database. But the main database was the MAIN database, a precious asset as important as anything that went on the stage.

One of the many things I learned in working with these databases: you didn’t delete anyone from them. Duplicates, yes, but if someone called and requested to not be on the database anymore, or died, the recorded got marked as such, but not entirely removed, at least not for a certain number of years. Why? Because the data from the precious engagement was still needed for at least five years on, or because of the very real possibility that someone would re-input that person if they weren’t there already, not knowing the person had requested to be removed or had died.

It’s just yet another example of how arts organizations are often so far ahead of supposedly more tech-savvy nonprofits. And how there are lessons from 35 years are still oh-so-relevant.

This experience was the basis of one of the first web pages I created for my new web site back in the 1990s, about how to manage customer databases. And I can still see the influence in these pages on my site:

Keeping Volunteer Information Up-to-Date.

Advice on Choosing Volunteer Management Software.

Basic Customer Database Principles (an updated version of that first advice page on my web site).

Customer Database Regular Maintenance .

Has working in arts-related organizations affected how you work in other environments? Please share how below in the comments.

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. 

what theatre taught me about management & internal communications

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Working at nonprofits in the 1980s and 1990s, nonprofits that produced live theatre, deeply affected me in terms of how I work in management, communications, customer service, team support and client data management in organizations that have nothing to do with the arts. The things accomplished in producing live theater that I had the privilege of being a part of – with few or no computers, and no Internet – seems astounding now. Back then, it was just business as usual.

How theatres approach project management offer great lessons for any nonprofit and their staff.

I started writing a blog about this long ago, but realized it’s really two blogs. This is part one of two on the subject of how working in nonprofit live theater back in the 1980s still affects how I work to this day, and how your nonprofit or company that is NOT focused on the arts can learn from such:

  • Everyone at the organization, whether full-time employee or short-time contractor or volunteer, whether on stage or back stage or up in the administrative offices, was committed to the success of the stage production and would do just about anything within their role to make sure it was a success. The executive director, the marketing director, the actors, the designers, the stagehands, the box office manager, the volunteer ushers, the intermission bartenders – EVERYONE wanted the production to be successful and cared deeply about it happening as close to the vision as possible. Everyone had each other’s backs – yes, I have jumped behind the bar to clean glasses when I realized intermission staff was overwhelmed, and I was the marketing manager.
  • Deadlines are absolute when producing stage productions at a theater that sells season tickets. Dress rehearsal happened on the date on which it was announced to happen. Opening night happened on the date on which it was announced to happen. Delays were oh-so-rare and, on the rare occassion they happened, deeply shameful. To miss that date gave the impression that the team was a poor planner and, perhaps, lacking in basic competence. It’s because of my background in theater management that I have laughed at web designers or tech developers who feel deadlines should be fluid or that say that what is being asked for is impossible or too much. They wouldn’t last a day in most professional nonprofit theater companies I’ve worked in, where a deadline is real, it’s non-negotiable. In my 15 years in live theater, we made every opening night. There might not be working light cues, there might have been an understudy in a role, but the audience saw a show the night we said there would be a show to see.
  • Meeting all the deadlines associated with dress rehearsal and opening night – for the play program to be printed, the volunteers recruited and scheduled, the press contacted and their seats booked, the costumes and props and sets fully constructed and operational, etc. – required frequent, continuous communication among various staff and departments, with all staff feeling empowered to communicate with absolutely anyone across hierarchies and departments. We didn’t have email – we still visited each other’s offices and still put things on paper. And at the weekly staff meeting, we were focused on exactly what needed to be done and WHO would be responsible. The house manager would a short report after EVERY performance noting ANY issues AT ALL, from a cell phone going off during the second act to late patrons not being seated until the first scene change. The stage manager wrote a short report EVERY performance noting ANY issues AT ALL during the performance. A senior staff member read that report EVERY morning and was not surprised when a patron called with a complaint about something they were angry about, or when an item showed up in the press noting a mistake in a performance, because they already knew about it. No one claimed they didn’t have time to write those reports or read them. I have stared dumbfounded at senior managers at non-arts-related nonprofits who want to focus on how they first heard about a program problem – the messenger – rather than the problem itself.
  • Hierarchies existed, but not when it came to communications about the quality of the “final product.” If the marketing assistant attended a rehearsal and sat in a seat and realized the staging would keep certain audience members from seeing a critical moment, that marketing assistant woud be welcomed to tell either the stage manager or even the director, directly – that assistant didn’t to have to go to the marketing director, who would then go to the executive director, who would then go to the artistic director, who will then go to the stage director.
  • Absolutely, we were happy with full houses and sold-out shows, but we were just as thrilled looking out and seeing a half-filled but completely diverse audience, with people of ethnicities or ages we didn’t usually have in those seats. We also were thrilled when we put on a show that was challenging in terms of its theme or how it was presented, and it connected with the audience, even if we weren’t playing to full houses. I’ve never been able to relate to corporate folks that want nonprofits to focus exclusively on numbers instead of other factors, like the diversity of the audience and feedback from that audience, when judging marketing success.
  • EVERYONE took part in celebrating the success: on opening night, the box office assistant manager was as delighted as the show’s director that the play – the project – was off and running successfully, and they were side-by-side celebrating at some point.

I miss that environment so, so much. I’ve kept those lessons in my work, much to the frustration of some managers. I still think it’s a great way to operate.

Next week, I’ll share blog number two on how working in nonprofit theater taught me so much about customer relations and data management.

If you feel that your work or volunteering at any arts-related nonprofit has positively affected your work at other nonprofits, or even in the corporate sector, please comment below!

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. 

graphic representing volunteers at work

Mandatory community service can be amazing for the “voluntolds”

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One of the things I have really disliked in working with people who manage volunteers is those that turn their noses up at people who have to do mandatory community service. “They aren’t volunteers, they are volunTOLDS”, they smirk. They will go so far as not inviting people doing community service to volunteer recognition events, not inviting them to follow them on social media, even not giving them the t-shirts, pins and other swag they give to “real” volunteers.

People volunteer at nonprofits for a variety of reasons and MOST of those reasons are NOT selfless: people volunteer to explore careers, to meet people, to have experience to add to their résumé, to meet a class requirement, because their religion tells them to, because they are skeptical about something and want to see first hand what the work is about, and a whole host of reasons that aren’t at all “selfless.”

I am an advocate for treating community service folks as VOLUNTEERS, just like everyone else. I have the same high bar of participation for them as I do any volunteer: they have to fill out the same paperwork, they have to go through the same screening and orientation, they have to adhere to the same policies, etc. Not all of them make the cut – just like other people who want to volunteer. But if they do, then I treat them just like all the other volunteers. And the result is that EVERY person who has done mandated community service with me has volunteered for MORE hours than the court or their class required.

This brings me to a recent experience: a friend who works at a nonprofit has a son who did something reckless and stupid and illegal, and ended up having to do mandated community service as a part of his sentence. She was at all of his various meetings with law enforcement and other officials in the restorative justice process, along with the friends who had been with him, and she talked about how he and his friends stared down at the ground, looked as humiliated as all the officials wanted them to, mumbled through answers, etc. She organized the community service hours he and his friends had to do at the nonprofit where she works – they worked alongside teens from a church to clean out the yard of an elderly, disabled homeowner. It was an all-day, very physically strenuous task. Had you been there, as I was, you could not have told which teens were from the church and which were the ones mandated by a court to be there. Days afterward, the teens had their follow-up meeting with officials, and did their usual mumbling and shame-staring, until… it was time to talk about the community service experience.

My friend said that the teens lit up, shoulders and heads straight, talking all at once about what they had done, seeing how much this homeowner had needed helped, how after a few hours they could see that they were changing her life for the better. One of them said, “I think I want to do this as my job – I want to help people like this!” They wanted to know if this was “real” volunteering and if they should put it on job applications.

Community service doesn’t always result in something like this. Volunteering doesn’t always result in something like this. But when it does – wow.

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.

No foolin’: Things to do now so you don’t leave your best work behind when you leave an employer

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I had meant to post this blog in December, because the following is a terrific activity for the days between Christmas and New Year’s Day, at least in the USA, when business at most nonprofits is usually at its slowest. But this activity is something you need to do twice a year anyway, and you are the best judge on when it’s best to do it:

Make digital copies of reports, proposals, project designs, graphic designs & other work you are particularly proud of at your current employer, that you think are the best examples of your work or that you might want to use elsewhere (and the company are working for hasn’t copyrighted it or patented it) and get those copies on your own computer at home.

Why?

You will want all this for your professional portfolio to show potential employers (changing all information to maintain confidentiality, of course), as well as to have it as a resource to draw on at other employers in the future.

If you are laid off or dismissed or your employer folds, you will be SO happy you did this.

I once created a template in Basecamp for managing the volunteers at a nonprofit employer. It was gorgeous, from a volunteer manager’s perspective: I populated it with policies, to-do lists (and ways for everyone to show their progress on whatever they were working on), standard responses to all sorts of various questions and situations, role descriptions, links to essential videos, and so much more. It had a shared calendar and a shared chat space. It was a place new volunteers could get up-to-speed/on-boarded quickly, current volunteers could find answers to questions before they asked me, volunteers could chat in-the-moment and keep our email boxes from filling up, and we could all know what everyone was working on. Its potential as a knowledge base would grow every week it was used. It was a masterpiece, from an intranet perspective. And just as I launched it and volunteers started using it, I separated from the nonprofit. It was a sudden departure, and the executive director not only immediately removed my access to online systems, but also, in a moment of anger and irrationality, she deleted the Basecamp project entirely – I couldn’t even ask a volunteer to screen capture the work for me.

I tried for weeks to recall and recreate so many of those materials. I had some success, but there are a couple of resources I have never been able to reconstruct.

Luckily, much of the other material I had created for this client was created at my home, on my own computer, and then transferred to work, so I still had copies of it for my portfolio and to use when creating something for new employers. But I still think about that intranet…

Don’t let this be you!

Also, don’t rely on the Wayback Machine at the Internet Archive to always have the backup of the web site materials you will need. I love the Internet Archive beyond measure, I use it for my work at least once a week, and I donate a bit every year to show my appreciation. But I know that nothing is forever and, a few times, an old version of a web site I have looked up many times there is suddenly gone, without explanation.

Also, please note that I’m not encouraging you to steal from your employer. But look through my blog and my web site: well more than half of the material was born out of work I was doing for an employer. I’m proud that my blog and web site advice are based on real-world examples and, often, my own, specific experiences and first-hand observations. It means that most of my advice, including The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook, isn’t something I’ve only thought of: I’ve also tested it, or I’ve seen it tested firsthand.

Adhere to legal agreements, of course, but remember that what you create is yours, and you may need it down the road.

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

How to avoid scams in volunteering

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Images, in the style of petroglyphs, of people doing various activities, like writing or construction.

It’s a sad reality that there are people that use nonprofits and charities to try to make money for themselves, and that recruit volunteers to “help”.

Here are some red flags to look for when signing up to volunteer, so that you can avoid being financially exploited – or worse:

  • The organization wants a large fee for you to volunteer. Involving volunteers is not free, and it’s not unusual for organizations to ask volunteers to pay a small fee to cover some costs – up to, say, $50 – but most organizations will offer to waive a fee for any applicant that says the fee will be cost prohibitive to volunteer. If an organization is asking for a fee, but doesn’t say what that fee pays for, ask.
  • The organization has volunteers working with children or other vulnerable people, but does no screening of volunteers, has no policies regarding behavior and grounds for dismissal, etc. Even if the work is done online, if children or other vulnerable people are involved, screening and policies need to be in place. If they aren’t on the web site, ask for such.
  • The organization doesn’t have its board of directors listed on the web site. This is always a red flag. A one-person nonprofit – a web site that has lots about the founder but not about other volunteers or the board – or that doesn’t list any board members or staff, is a nonprofit to steer clear of.
  • The organization talks a lot about “We can give hours!” That doesn’t mean anything. It’s a completely meaningless statement. If you are volunteering to meet a high school graduation requirement, any volunteering for a nonprofit organization should qualify. If you are volunteering to meet a court order, you have to clear the volunteering with the court contact BEFORE you volunteer. If you are volunteering in hopes of getting admitted to a university or to get a scholarship, the number of hours does NOT matter – what you did, what you learned, what you accomplished, the leadership you exhibited, etc. are what matter.
  • The organization’s web site is awash with photos from photo-sharing sites, rather than photos of their own actual volunteers, staff and clients.
  • The organization never says why volunteers are in these roles it is recruiting for, or just says, “We can’t pay people, so we recruit volunteers.” The organization should have a reason it reserves certain roles for volunteers, and the web site should give this reason.
  • The organization emphasizes repeatedly that you can use the volunteering to fulfill a court order, in exchange for a fee. There are nonprofits that have been sued for this practice by State Attorneys General.

And in addition to these, for volunteering abroad (in a country different from your own), look for these red flags:

  • The organization wants short-term volunteers, for just a few weeks, and no specialized skills are necessary. There are zero credible organizations in other countries that need foreign volunteers with no specialized skills to come to their site and do something that local people are perfectly capable of doing themselves. If you encounter such, you will find that they are asking for a great deal of money for you to come and do this “volunteering.” That’s a vacation, not volunteering.
  • The organization has no local people on its board or leadership team.
  • The organization wants these short-term, unskilled volunteers to do something highly unethical, like interact with children, work in an orphanage or interact with wildlife.
  • The organization does no screening at all, doesn’t check references, etc. – you pay a fee and you get to “volunteer.”

Please be cautious before signing up to volunteer. Look at the web site carefully. Ask questions. Ask to speak with a current or previous volunteer. Type the name of the organization into Google or Duck Duck Go along with words like ripoff or scam or beware and see if anything comes up.

Here are all of my blogs about some aspect of court-ordered community service.

Here are my voluntourism-related & ethics-related blogs.

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.

Are you using your own smartphone or other devices in your work or volunteering activities? Is your employer aware?

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images meant to look like cave drawings, one of a woman using a smartphone and one at a desktop computer.

Do you use your own, personal smartphone in your work activities for your employer? Does your company reimburse you for this? Does your company have a policy in writing about this use? Are you facing any challenges in using your own tech resources for your work, tech that you pay for and maintain yourself and use for your personal life as well?

I started a thread on the TechSoup forum a while back about this and a lot of folks have some strong feelings about this issue. There are also some companies that reimburse staff for use of their own personal devices.

What about your company? And for nonprofit organizations – do you realize what the cost is for your staff and volunteers when you require them to use their smartphones and other personal devices in their work for you? Had you even thought about it before?

You can weight in on the comments below, but please also weigh in on the original TechSoup forum.

a hand is receiving money

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site or my YouTube videos 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.

I’m back from Washington, DC!

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A group of women, all wearing matching, colorful scarves, pose with Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon).

During the first full week of February, I was in Washington, DC, as part of the advocacy efforts of Habitat for Humanity, training to talk to the staff of congressional representatives and then doing that actual talking! It was an amazing experience. Habitat branded its efforts #HabitatOnTheHill.

I’ve worked in communications related to causes since the mid-1980s, before I had graduated from university, and I’ve certainly done a lot of elevator speeches, usually while tabling for an organization that’s registering voters or trying to educate people about issues related to reproductive rights. But I’ve never talked directly to legislators and their staff to advocate for affordable housing. It was an invigorating, intense experience – these folks are all super busy and we had to make every second count. It also was easier for our group than others, since the legislators my group approached each support legislation and funding to improve the availability of affordable housing and believe everyone, especially those working full-time, should get a chance to buy a house.

In the photo, that’s the Oregon contingent with Senator Jeff Merkley, a staunch advocate for housing. I’m standing on the viewer’s far right, in my Habitat-blue dress.

Some things Habitat International did that other organizations could learn from:

  • They held two highly-informative webinars for participants, crash-courses in the specific legislation we needed to advocate for and in other preparations we needed to make before the trip.
  • They had well-established relationships with most legislators; therefore, when they contacted the offices of members of Congress to say we were coming, most representatives and senators cared we were coming and wanted to meet with us.
  • They gave us all those matching scarves. As a result, on Capitol Hill that day, it looked like Habitat representatives were EVERYWHERE. Representatives of some tribal groups that were also there to advocate for their issues told my group they would absolutely be doing something similar next year.
  • All participants had an app on their phone that provided us with the names of all speakers we heard from in the days prior to the actual advocacy day, that provided profiles of our legislators, and that provided us with regularly-updated information on our meetings with legislative staff, info that changed minute-to-minute the day of.
  • They fed us. Always feed your advocates.

If you are going to meet with city, county, state or federal officials about a cause, make sure you:

  • know what you are going to say. REHEARSE IT. And if you will be in a group, know who is going to say what, who is going to “open” the talk, etc,
  • know exactly what you want from them: the name of the legislation you want them to support, for instance.
  • have a one-pager about your cause or nonprofit to leave behind.
  • thank the officials both after the meetings, in writing, and via email every time you read that they have supported your cause in some way.
a hand is receiving money

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site or my YouTube videos 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.

I’m in Washington, DC this week

Leave a reply

I’m in Washington, DC this week for a work-related conference. I’ll be here all week. If you would like to meet face-to-face while I’m here, email me at the email address you have for me, or text me at the phone number you have for me, or comment below and send me your email and I’ll get in touch!