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.

Why qualified people get passed over for jobs

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image of a panel discussion

It is the number one question or topic of discussion on any online discussion group about looking for a job in the humanitarian sector: I keep applying for jobs that I believe I am perfect for and I keep getting rejected. Why?

I’m sure it’s a frequent self-question for many people looking for a job in any sector.

I have been a part of many committees and panels to review résumés or interview candidates for a variety of jobs, including at the United Nations. I have also been told a few times why I got passed over for a job. And all of the reasons I’ve heard first hand about why someone, including myself, aren’t going to be interviewed run counter so many things we hear regularly about job hunting, like It’s easier to get a job when you already have one (this has never been my experience) or you have to know someone at the UN to get a job there (all three of my jobs at the UN came without already knowing anyone at any of the agencies where I was hired). Yes, luck and good connections can have a lot to do with finding a job, and knowing someone at a company you want to work for can absolutely help you get a job. But don’t assume that that’s why most people get hired.

In many cases, an applicant that doesn’t make the cut for an interview actually isn’t perfectly qualified for what they are applying for. When I get a stack of CVs for a job, I can eliminate half of them at first glance just by comparing what the résumés say versus what the job asks for. I can eliminate even more by looking at them in more detail and quickly discovering that some very specific things asked for in the job description not represented in the person’s profile.

So before you complain about being perfectly qualified for jobs you are being passed up for, make certain your profile represents the exact skills and experience asked for in the job description – if the job says applicants must speak Spanish, for instance, part of your cover letter needs to be in Spanish. Your résumé must explicitly list the skills and experience asked for in a job description – not just inferred. And if the job asks that you have a certain number of experience in a certain field, and you don’t have it, you go into the rejection pile, period.

With that stack of résumés from qualified people that I glean, I then put them in the order that I think represents the very best candidate on down. That might be just 10 résumés. That might be 30. I then look for jobs on the résumés that are similar to what we are asking for, I look at the type of education they have and I look at the kinds of work they have done that are most like what we’re asking for. Then I look at the top 3 or 5 or 10, whatever we’ve decided is the number we’re going to interview, and I ask myself, “Self, are these really the top folks you most want to interview?” Indeed, some of the people who don’t make the cut are qualified for the job – but they get beat out for an interview by people who match the profile even more.

When I interview candidates on a panel, we always have the same questions to ask applicants, and we assign a score to each answer. Afterward, we compare scores. Usually, we all have the same top candidate – our number twos and threes might be different. Sometimes, we don’t all have the same top candidate. It only gets dicey and uncomfortable when our scores vary wildly and we stanchly disagree on high and low scores – and in more than 20 years of being on hiring panels, this has happened just twice.

With all of that said, yes, I have heard arbitrary reasons for not considering a qualified candidate for a position. Not everyone chooses candidates to interview like I do and not everyone chooses the person to hire the way I do, and it’s when the arbitrary reasons for not choosing someone creep in that the process becomes unfair or impossible to navigate, that is absolutely true.

What are the reasons that don’t have to do with a lack of qualifications or lack of experience asked for that exclude a candidate? Here are reasons I’ve heard, blatantly or implied/inferred, as to why qualified people are not going to be interviewed or considered for a job:

  • This person already has a job. I’m suspicious of why they want to leave it.
  • They have a post-graduate degree, which is what we asked for, but this other person has a Master’s!
  • We asked for people who at least have a Bachelor’s – this person is overqualified because they have a Master’s.
  • They have applied for other jobs here. I’m suspicious of why they want to work here so much.
  • They might not stay long if they get this job. This person has never been at a job longer than four years.
  • They might want to stay in this job too long. This person has had only two jobs, both longer than 10 years.
  • They seem ambitious and will want a promotion quickly if they get this job.
  • They don’t seem very ambitious.
  • They seem overly-confident, maybe even arrogant.
  • They don’t seem confident enough.
  • This CV is too long. It has too much detail.
  • This résumé is too short. It doesn’t have enough detail.
  • Wow, this person has worked at insert name of very well known organization here. Why in the world have they left that company/that profession? Why do they want to work here instead? I’m not impressed – I’m suspicious.
  • Too old (50 or older)
  • Too young (26 – this was by someone at the UN who didn’t believe anyone in their 20s was capable of working abroad)
  • They don’t seem healthy (said about candidates over 50 or candidates who might have a perceivable disability).
  • They have a family. They might be too distracted for this work.
  • They don’t have a family. When they start one, they’ll need lots of leave time.
  • They don’t have a family. That means they have no ties to our community.

What has hearing these arbitrary and unfair reasons for not hiring someone taught me? For one thing, it’s taught me that it’s impossible to come up with that perfect résumé or cover letter – what one person will love another person will hate. It’s also taught me that it’s impossible to give a perfect interview for any situation – what one group likes, another group won’t. It’s also taught me that many career coaches and career consultants really don’t know what they are talking about – their ideas may or may not work, and there is absolutely no magical formula, no matter what they say.

Here’s my advice, in a nutshell, when applying for jobs,

  • Be accurate, be specific, be honest and spell correctly in your application
  • Make sure your résumé clearly shows why you are perfectly, exactly qualified for the job you are applying for, as described by the employer.
  • If you get the opportunity to ask someone why you weren’t chosen for a job or an interview, absolutely take that opportunity – but take the advice with a grain of salt. If someone says you seemed too confident, is that really something you want to change? Wouldn’t you prefer finding an employer who likes your confidence?
  • Apply for a job with absolute commitment and determination, as though it’s the only job you are applying for, and after you hit “send,” forget about it and move on to the next application.
  • Stay busy during your job search and, to anyone who is watching you, in person or online, stay positive.

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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. 

Guidance on Virtual Volunteering – time tested!

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The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook: Fully Integrating Online Service Into Volunteer Involvement was published in early 2014. Now, six years later, is it still relevant? Oh, yes… I know because I’ve been testing all the principles offered in it over and over since it was published (as well as before it was published, when I was still writing it). My latest test: working with more than 150 online volunteers that participated in Knowbility’s 2019 Accessibility Internet Rally.

The book is the result of more than 20 years of research and practical experience by me, with heavy advice and observations by the book’s co-author, Susan Ellis. When we wrote the book, we wanted it to be timeless, like so many of Susan’s own books about various aspects of volunteer management. It’s not that I don’t still have things to learn about working with volunteers, online or off – I do! We all do. It’s that we believed strongly that certain principles would not change, and would be easily adapted no matter how the technology or even society evolved. These were principles that were explored in-depth at a variety of organizations when I managed the Virtual Volunteering Project at the University of Texas at Austin back in the 1990s, and they continue to be explored and tested – and proven.

For instance, I learned in the 1990s that the easier I made it for volunteers to sign up to volunteer, the larger the percentage of those volunteers that dropped out without even starting the assignment, let alone finishing it. But just putting in a simple second step that a candidate had to complete before they got to start on the assignment screened out the people who didn’t understand this was REAL volunteering and screened in the people who would take it seriously. It was true in 1998 and it’s true NOW, more than 20 years later.

I learned early on in studying virtual volunteering, a practice that’s been happening since the 1970s, and in working with online volunteers myself in the 1990s, that volunteers need to feel supported and valued or they won’t finish an assignment, or won’t finish it with the quality needed by an organization. In my role with Knowbility this time, I came on very late in the rally process, and because of that, trying to build trusting relationships with the volunteers that were already on board and get answers quickly to their questions proved quite difficult. The problems I have had with volunteers and that they had with their participation can almost all be traced back to that situation.

I learned early on, many years ago, that having expectations of volunteers in writing, online, both in role descriptions and in policies and procedures, was KEY to ensure both volunteers and managers are all on the same page as far as what’s happening and what’s needed, don’t get conflicting information, have a common place to look for guidance, etc. It greatly reduces conflict and misunderstandings, two factors which can lead to a lot of problems in volunteer engagement. Everyone isn’t going to read absolutely all of the support materials, but having it for referral is amazing in getting questions answered and conflicts resolved quickly. This lesson has been reinforced over and over over the years, including during this Knowbility event.

I’m thrilled to know my book is still relevant!

I have more than 100 hard copies of The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook in my possession and I would love for you to have one – or more! You can also order an electronic version. Yes, it’s available via Amazon, but let me be frank: I get far, far more money from the sale if you buy directly from me. Please consider doing so – buy one for yourself and for your favorite nonprofit!

Creating One-Time, Short-Term Group Volunteering Opportunities

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I was shocked when I looked to see what page on my web site got the most visits in 2019. I knew that the most popular pages would be from the section of my web site for volunteers themselves, a section I started because I got tired of writing the same answers over and over to Frequently Asked Questions on YahooAnswers, Quora, Reddit, etc. I knew these pages would be the most popular because I post links to them constantly on those and other online communities. But tucked away in those web site visitor stats was this page, for programs that host volunteers, or want to:

Creating One-Time, Short-Term Volunteering Opportunities for Groups.

I haven’t done anything special to promote this web page. I post a link to it a few times a year on my various social media channels, I post a link to it if someone asks for advice on how to do it, but that’s it. And, yet, there it is, a hugely popular page on my web site in 2019.

So MANY different kinds of groups want a group volunteering experience where they feel like they show up, they volunteer, they have fun together, they make a difference, they get great photos, and then they leave. But he reality is that, for most nonprofits and community programs, these group volunteers aren’t worth the trouble to involve. Most nonprofits and community programs do NOT have volunteering tasks laying around that could be done by a large group of untrained, one-time volunteers – or even an untrained individual volunteer. Most organizations also do not have the money, staff, time and other resources to create two-hour, half-day or one-day, one-time group volunteering activities, especially for teens and children.

This is really hard for group representatives to hear, especially from corporations. The reaction is what?! you don’t have something for my group of 15 people from our marketing and sales departments to do this Friday from 10 to 12:30? No. No, we don’t. And you don’t have something in your marketing or sales department for a group of 15 temps to do from 10 to 12:30 either, so don’t act surprised.

My page has a list of possible activities for groups, but I also note that all of these activities, and any other group volunteering activities that aren’t listed, take many hours by the organization to prepare the site for the group of volunteers to show up, engage in the activity, and leave after two-to-seven hours – and to leave the site in such a way that the organization or program isn’t left with even more work for staff. That includes hackathons and program consultations. That’s why I believe your group should MAKE A FINANCIAL DONATION TO THE ORGANIZATION where you want to have your group volunteering experience. Yup: you need to pay money to the organization you expect to host your volunteering group, to cover at least some of the many costs they incur by creating this experience for your group.

My formula: donate $50 per hour your group will be there per staff member the nonprofit or other hosting agency will have to provide for preparation and supervision – regardless of whether or not that staff member is a volunteer or a paid person at the host organization. So, if your company or group wants a two-hour experience, and the volunteer hosting organization will need to have two people supervising and supporting your group, that’s $200. If your group wants a four-hour experience, and it will take just one nonprofit staff member, that’s also $200 your group is going to donate to the nonprofit. And, no, “in-kind” donations don’t count: it needs to be actual money.

I’m glad my page about volunteering activities for groups has proven so popular. I just hope it’s not just nonprofits and other volunteer hosting organizations that are reading it.

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. 

My top blogs for 2019

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It’s the time of year when I have a look at what people read most on my blogs. It helps me to know what resonates and what I might need to do a better job of promoting. Blogs that get a lot of traffic are the result of people who post about them on their own social media, or refer to them in a workshop they are doing, so if that’s you, THANK YOU.

I was quite pleased to see a lot of my blogs that have to do with communications, with community relations and with ethics end up in my list of most popular blogs this year – usually, the list is dominated by blogs related to volunteer engagement, which is fine, but I pour just as much energy into those blogs about outreach, so it’s nice to see that, this year, that reached a good number of folks.

In case you are wondering, I promote my blog through my Twitter account, my Facebook account, my LinkedIn account, some Subreddits, and some LinkedIn groups. I’m a one-person shop and create and promote these resources entirely on my own – and it’s getting harder and harder to get my voice out there in a sea of noise.

The visitor numbers are great – but the emails and comments on resources are what really keep me going, so please keep them coming!

What did I write that got people’s attention in 2019? Here’s the list:

Here’s to 2020!

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. 

Before you recruit any volunteers

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As the year comes to an end and things slow down at your organization for a week or two, this is a good time to think about reviewing some of the basics your organization should have in place to ensure you are getting the most out of your volunteer engagement and that volunteers are properly supported at your organization and feel like their donated time is being properly valued.

In fact, before your program recruits any volunteers – before you post anything to your web site or social media or a third-party site like VolunteerMatch, there are three things that I believe you absolutely should have in place first, and if you don’t have them already, this is a good time to get that taken care of. Having these three things in place will help:

  • ensure volunteers are engaged and supported appropriately – and that helps prevent volunteer turnover, misunderstandings, conflict, etc.
  • ensure volunteers are onboarded quickly – and that helps prevent volunteer turnover AND sets a tone with new volunteers that these are serious, real commitments.
  • inappropriate volunteers self-screen themselves OUT of your program – dropping out before they’ve gotten far along in your process and started an assignment. That means fewer people who drop out and leave you with unfinished activities and a scramble to get things done.

I get a lot of pushback when I try to implement these three things at any organization where I’m working – lots of complaints about bureaucracy and increased work, etc. But I regularly encounter a range of problems at programs where these three things are NOT in place, and I see just how much more work comes with NOT having these things in place. And, so, I’m going to keep saying it.

Here are the three things:

  • Have a mission statement for your volunteer engagement
    (Saying WHY your organization or department involves volunteers)
    This is at the heart of everything I say and recommend regarding volunteer engagement. This idea is what I would like to be identified with even more than virtual volunteering: that, in addition to carefully crafting the way you talk about the value of volunteers, your organization creates a mission statement for your organization’s volunteer engagement, to guide employees in how they think about volunteers, to guide current volunteers in thinking about their role and value at the organization, and to show potential volunteers the kind of culture they can expect at your organization regarding volunteers.
  • Required Volunteer Information on Your Web Site
    To not have this basic information about volunteer engagement on your web site says that your organization or department takes volunteers for granted, does not value volunteers beyond money saved in salaries, or is not really ready to involve 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. 

United Nations site for people with disabilities is inaccessible

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The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) created a web site for the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) initiative called the UNDP-UNV Talent Programme for Young Professionals with Disabilities. It’s a program to recruit people with disabilities to serve as UN Volunteers. Its web site opens with this: 

UNDP and UNV commit to leaving no one behind. As part of this commitment, the Talent Programme promotes the inclusion of persons with disabilities into our workplace. The Talent Programme also aims to build a talent pipeline of highly qualified professionals with disabilities who can contribute to the development sector, and to attaining the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at national and global levels.

In addition to the grammar problem in the first sentence, the UNDP web site for this initiative leaves lots of people behind: the web site is not accessible for people with disabilities.
The web site does not meet even basic accessibility standards as outlined by numerous organizations, including the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). The UN General Assembly has designated the Department of Global Communications as the focal point for web accessibility in the United Nations, and this UN web site talks about the UN’s commitment to online accessibility – which, unfortunately, UNV and UNDP haven’t followed for their initiative specifically focused on people with disabilities.  How can an initiative that says it promotes the inclusion of persons with disabilities in the workplace exclude those same persons online? As someone who has worked for the UN, I know the answer to this question, but shall save that for another time…

Highly qualified professionals with disabilities absolutely can contribute to the development sector and to attaining the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at national and international levels. In fact, they do already – if you don’t know that, you truly are not paying attention.

I have worked with highly-skilled people with a variety of disabilities – as employees, consultants and volunteers, online and face-to-face serving as web masters, editors, researchers, designers and more. It’s not unusual for me to find out someone I’ve been working with for weeks or months is, in fact, legally blind, or deaf, or is a person with limited mobility. We meet regarding what they CAN do, not what they cannot, and I’ve benefitted greatly, personally and professionally, from their expertise and talent.

I emailed representatives of UNV and UNDP in early December, saying pretty much the same thing I’ve just blogged, and I tweeted to UNDP and UNV as well. In my post, I also recommend to UNV and UNDP the nonprofit organization Knowbility to help their web designers and developers to fix this dire accessibility issue on the web site. 

I got a reply via email on December 11th from “Erik on behalf of the UNDP-UNV Talent Programme for Young Professionals with Disabilities”:

Thank you very much for your feedback. We are aware of the limitations of the websites and currently have teams working on projects that are focused on making them user-friendly and compliant with accessibility standards. Since we launched this initiative, we have been able to reach a wide range of persons with disabilities as evidenced by increased numbers of candidates registered and of applications. We also provide the option to reach out to us in person in case specific assistance or concerns are needed in the application process. As we are a continuously learning organization, our goal is to strive for a fully inclusive working environment and take every opportunity to improve. We appreciate your patience and understanding. Please let us know if we can further assist you in navigating the site.

So, in other words, they mean to say: the site is working just fine, people are applying for this program, people who can’t navigate our website can just email us and we’ll help them with the process, and being a “continuously learning organization”, we can’t be faulted for not having an accessible web site for people with disabilities for a program designed especially for people with disabilities at the get-go. Don’t bother us.

I really hope that UNV and UNDP will realize how bad this makes the agency and this program look, and choose to RAPIDLY remedy this situation regarding the accessibility of their web site for a program meant to increase inclusion of professionals with disabilities. They made a mistake – no excuses. Let’s hope UNV and UNDP not only fix this web site, but make a future commitment to digital inclusion in all of their web sites – especially those that are supposed to cater specifically to people with disabilities.

If you would like to let UNV and UNDP know what you think of the site and their response, I urge you to email these four addresses:

  • Talent Programme <talent.programme@unv.org>
  • Anant Sharma <anant.sharma@undp.org>
  • Anjali Kwatra <anjali.kwatra@undp.org>
  • UNV Media <unv.media@unv.org>

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What should be on a corporation’s website re: CSR

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If your company has a corporate philanthropy program – it gives money to nonprofits, it supports nonprofit events by buying a table or other sponsorships, its employees volunteer as a part of a volunteer leave program or at events in partnership with the company – it should have at least a page on its website that offers an overview of these activities and your reasons for engaging in such.

Having corporate social responsibility information on a company’s web site not only helps communicate to people outside the company: it also helps a business’s employees to understand the company’s CSR activities and philosophy. Remember that ALL employees and consultants are potential messengers regarding a business’s CSR activities – they need to have a reliable reference point when friends, family and others ask them questions about their company. Having this information on the company web site ensures that there is a uniform message regarding CSR activities.

The link to a company’s CSR information can be on its home page, but most companies put the link on their “About Us” page. 

Here’s what absolutely needs to be on a company’s web site regarding its CSR activities:

  • A statement that provides an overview of the company’s CSR policy, especially with regards to its commitment to a particular cause or the community where employees work, send their children to school, etc.
  • An overview of what the company’s employees do as volunteers and how employee volunteering activities are structured (do they volunteer during company hours, as part of an official program or are employees encouraged to volunteer outside of work hours, but entirely independently? Is the company looking for volunteering opportunities that groups of employee volunteers can do together? Is the company looking for volunteering opportunities that groups of employee volunteers can do with their families?).
  • Information on how a nonprofit, non-governmental organization (NGO), school or other initiative can invite a company’s employees to volunteer with them.
  • An overview of how the company makes financial or in-kind donations, including sponsorships, and information on how a nonprofit, non-governmental organization (NGO), school or other initiative can apply for funds for financial and in-kind donations and sponsorships. If the company does not make financial or in-kind donations, nor purchase sponsorships, it should say so explicitly on its web site.
  • An overview of the financial contributions they company and employees make to the community – not just in donations, not just employee donation matching, but in tax payments to city, county, state and federal treasuries through tax payments.
  • Anything the company requires on the web sites of organizations it funds.

What can also be on a company’s web site regarding CSR activities:

  • An overview of what the company does to be a good to the environment. Does the company recycle materials that employees produce in the workplace? Does the company use recycled materials in its workplace? Does the company recycle all of its old computers, printers, smart phones and other electronics in an environmentally-appropriate way? Does the company have programs that encourage employees to carpool and use mass transit?
  • An overview of the company’s commitment to ethical business practices such as fair hiring, pay equality, safe working environments, adhering to fiduciary responsibilities, having an employee handbook with policies regarding harassment and discrimination, etc. If “corporations are people,” then this information is a must.
  • A statement of the company’s commitment to having an accessible web site, one that meets at least the basic guidelines for digital inclusion (videos are captions, people who have sight-impairments can navigate the web site because it’s been designed so that their assistive technology tools can navigate it, etc.).
  • Photos, videos and other updates about the company’s CSR activities.
  • Evaluations of the company’s CSR programs and their impact. What difference has employee volunteering made for nonprofits? Remember, that doesn’t mean a number of hours or a dollar value for those hours – it means how nonprofit clients or the community actually benefited from the time and talent.

It’s a good idea to invite representatives from nonprofits, charities and schools to provide feedback about a company’s online information about CSR activities. Can they find what they are looking for? Did they understand how to apply for funds – or understand that the company does not give financial donations? This can be done with a focus group or by simply offering a feedback form on the web site.

Look at the site’s web analytics regularly to make sure online CSR  information is being viewed and to see how web visitors are being directed to this information. Are they finding it using keywords in a search engine? From links from a certain page on the web site? Links from a nonprofit blog?

For more tips, see my list index of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) resources & advice for ethics, strategies & operations.

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. 

Call for papers on Marketing to Cultivate & Retain Donors, Members & Volunteers

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Call for papers: special issue of International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing on marketing to cultivate and retain donors, members and volunteers. Submission deadline: June 15, 2020.

From the marketing blurb:

Charities and other nonprofit organizations rely upon marketing to cultivate and maintain relationships with supporters, without which most nonprofit organizations would not have resources to fulfill their missions.  Given the mission-critical need for effective marketing strategies and tactics in order to attract and retain supporters such as donors, members, and volunteers; this special issue is especially timely. 

Manuscripts that further our knowledge on cultivating and retaining support from donors, members, and volunteers are encouraged.  A wide variety of related topics are desired beginning with identifying prospects to deepening the commitment of supporters.  Theoretical, empirical, and literature review articles (including meta-analyses) are welcome.

Manuscripts should be prepared following the normal guidelines for the journal and should be submitted through the journal’s online system.  Please be sure to submit your manuscript for this special issue when submitting through the online system.

The guest editor is Professor Walter Wymer, University of Lethbridge, Canada and he can be reached at walter.wymer@uleth.ca – for more information, refer to the journal’s website at https://www.springer.com/journal/12208

How long should text be to communicate effectively?

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  • How long should a web page be?
  • How long should text on a brochure page be?
  • How long should a press release be?
  • How long should a blog be?

I get these questions fairly often from nonprofits, NGOs, charities and small government offices.

Tweets have a text limit. Facebook posts have a limit on the amount of text you can post that will be seen in your timeline at a glance, without someone having to click “more.” But other communications products, in print and online, don’t have such strict character limits. So, how long should they be when it comes to their text?

A lot of communications professionals will tell you to make web page text, blogs, brochure text, etc., no longer than what would fit into a social media post. I am NOT one of those communications professionals.

I’m hearing people say, “People don’t read. Don’t write long bodies of text EVER, especially online.” I am NOT one of those people.

People have different learning styles: some prefer learning by engaging in an activity, some prefer learning by listening, some prefer to learn by watching, and some prefer to learn by reading.

People have different reading styles as well, even just online: some prefer reading short bits of text and seeing some short videos. But some do still like prefer – and WANT – to read comprehensive text, even if it’s “long.” What is great about a website is that your organization can easily cater to both of those groups: you can have a web page with introductory, summary, “catchy” text, or a video that’s just a minute long and gives the overview you think certain groups want, but that page or video can then link to the more in-depth information for all those many other people that want more information.

It’s worth noting that some people may want a bit of information today, but may come back later for more in-depth information. People rarely stay in exactly the same categories when it comes to how they want to access or consume information.

It’s also worth noting that by having in-depth information on your website, you create the messaging that everyone on your staff can refer back to, and that better ensures everyone is saying the same thing – that everyone is “staying on message.” It means your Executive Director, your receptionist, members of your board, volunteers – EVERYONE – can find the exact wording to describe absolutely everything about your program.

Catering to just one group of people when you are trying to communicate a message is a mistake. Don’t let any communications consultant or marketing manager pressure your organization into creating communications products only for the people that supposedly don’t like to read. Don’t be convinced that you can eliminate all of your long-form communications – you absolutely still need those.

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. 

Volunteer controversy in archeology

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graphic by Jayne Cravens representing volunteers

Volunteer engagement is controversial, and I do my best to keep up with the controversies, like movements opposed to volunteerism, or politicians that think volunteers are free. The most common conflict regarding volunteerism, at least in my opinion, arises regarding volunteer engagement as a way to replace paid worker, usually the result of statements by management and funders about how “volunteers save money” and what their dollar value is (something the Points of Light Foundation and others heavily promote). But there are other controversies, like the appropriateness of volunteers undertaking certain roles, or the ethics of volunteering at all, per the criticisms of people on both the far right and the far left of the political spectrum.

An example of several controversies regarding volunteering rolled into one conversation is a debate that recently broke out on Twitter about the ethics of involving volunteers in archeology (or archaeology, as the British spell it). I found out about it because I was doing my usual search of the word volunteer on Twitter, just to see what might come up. As a result, I found this thread from Open Access Archaeology (@OpenAccessArch), which said:

Myth dispelling time: “Volunteers take away jobs from professionals”. I hear this a lot from professional archaeologists and lets be real – they are full of shit.

The thread goes on to talk about all the reasons that volunteer engagement in archeology does NOT take paid work away from professionals, and I believe it does a good job. My only addition would be that, by involving volunteers, the field of archeology greatly expands the number of people who can talk from a place of first-hand experience about the importance of historical discovery and cultural preservation, thereby, potentially, cultivating and an even greater number of supporters for its cause. Volunteer engagement lets people who are NOT professionals into seeing work firsthand, and that can translate into donations and more public support.

Too often, people think involving volunteers means allowing anyone, with no training and no supervision, to do highly-specialized work or work on sensitive issues. It does NOT, anymore than you are required to hire a professional with no training and no supervision, to do highly-specialized work or work on sensitive issues. You still get to have standards! You still get to have a bar for participation and require volunteers to be able to clear that bar.

Coincidentally to all this, just two months ago, I found out that the Oregon Archaeological Society provides Archaeology Training for potential volunteers: OAS Basic Training, also known as Archaeology for the Curious, is an annual program taught by experienced regional professionals from organizations such as the U.S. Forest Service, BLM, and the University of Oregon. The sessions are typically held on six Saturdays starting in the early part of the year at a local university.

Topics for the first two sessions include archaeology basics as well as information on artifacts, laws and ethics, Northwest archaeology and rock art, site stewardship and volunteering. The four additional training sessions cover field excavation, laboratory methods, site mapping, cataloging and compass reading. The program is a great way to network with other archaeology lovers and to learn how you can get involved in the field.

So, that’s the bar for involving in archeology in Oregon: you have to take this class, you have to fulfill that training commitment, and only then can you apply to be a volunteer and be a part of digs. That means not anyone can come in and just start digging. That means people who might be careless or disrespectful are more likely to be screened out. Plus, imagine what this program cultivates: people from various professions, various communities, who get a greater appreciation for archeology and historical preservation in this state, and that appreciation has the potential to get translated into donations and pressure on government to support historic initiatives and, yes, research. It translates into people talking to friends and neighbors about NOT disturbing sites, not marking such with graffiti, not taking artifacts, and on and on, in a way that just a flyer or lecture may not. THAT is the power of volunteer engagement – not money supposedly saved.

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