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.

Don’t over-invest in one social media channel: Redux (Twitter)

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In November 2021, I wrote a blog that warned nonprofits, NGOs, community groups, etc. not to over-invest in one social media tool – specifically Facebook. I wrote that blog because, when Facebook went offline in October of that year for about six hours, many organizations panicked: Facebook was their primary, even only, way of sharing up-to-date information with clients, volunteers and the general public – the organizations had either abandoned their own web sites and weren’t updating such much anymore and they used no other social media tools. That blog was a companion to another I’d written in 2019 exploring whether or not nonprofits should delete their Facebook accounts per Facebook’s reprehensible data mining, selling of data and unfettered spreading of misinformation and hate speech.

With the news that an extremely rich man who spreads medical misinformation, eschews philanthropy and efforts to address poverty and inequity, doesn’t treat his factory workers well, etc., has bought Twitter and will make it a “free speech” zone, removing its current community standards and probably restoring suspended accounts, many are thinking of deleting their personal or company Twitter accounts. And many folks are reeling from losing Twitter as we know it now, because they rely hugely on Twitter to get the word out about their work, to engage with others doing similar work, to network for jobs, etc. I am one of those people: while Facebook has been relatively useless for me professionally, Twitter has helped me sell my book, gotten me consulting gigs, gotten me invitations to speak at conferences and introduced me to so many amazing people I now call professional colleagues. It’s been more helpful to me professionally than any onsite, traditional conference I have ever attended in terms of networking, job leads and professional development. It’s been way more fun than Facebook personally as well: I have loved the social media challenges among museums on Twitter, the spontaneous poetry-writing events, and more very fun trending topics than I can count.

What to do regarding the Twitter dilemma? To stay could be seen as supporting the new owner, something that makes me very uncomfortable – and I’m not alone in that sentiment. And the reality is that, if he follows through on his plans, Twitter just isn’t going to be of value to me anymore.

Here’s what I’m doing in response to the potential changes at Twitter:

  • I acknowledge that, right now, stopping my participation on Twitter would be disastrous for me professionally. While Facebook has been largely useless for me professionally, Twitter has been a hugely important tool, for the reasons I’ve already stated, so I’m going to continue to try to squeeze some benefit from it until the changes come.
  • If Twitter goes in the direction that everyone is predicting – longer messages, adding suspended accounts back onto the platform (accounts that have spread misinformation, harassed people, etc.), not having rules about content, being a complete “free speech” zone, etc. – I’ll have to stop participating. I’m not sure if I will delete my Twitter account or just freeze it (just a last post to say where to find me).
  • Over the last three years, I’ve been investing more time in my YouTube channel and Reddit, as well as following my own advice and making sure my web site is always up-to-date, so that no one social media is my only outlet. I’m active on several LinkedIn groups as well, like the virtual volunteering group (which I own, actually) and ALIVE (a national group for managers of volunteers). You can follow me on LinkedIn (but note that I link only to those that I know professionally, that I could say something about you and your work) and join me on any of those groups. So, I’m already diversified, and will continue to do so, and hope that one of those platforms, at last, proves even half as valuable to me as Twitter has.
  • I’m always exploring other social media platforms. However, so far, the audience I want to reach professionally isn’t on TikTok, SnapChat, Instagram, etc. I’m on Signal, WhatsApp and Telegram, but I use those mostly for one-to-one communications, especially with folks overseas – the one group I’m on, for a nonprofit I volunteer for, is overwhelming and I’m not at all liking it. MeWe has never caught on with my colleagues (but you are welcomed to friend/follow me there).
  • I have a blog, which you are reading now. That blog is on my own web site, not on someone else’s web site. Twitter has been the primary of driver of readers to this blog (I post to Facebook and LinkedIn too, but those bring very little traffic to my blog). I’ll need to look for new ways to drive subscribers. Before you recommend RSS feeds – I would say 90% of the people that are my professional audience have no idea what that is.
  • I’m redoubling efforts to make sure anyone who visits me on any online platform knows where else to find me. This blog is one part of that effort. I’ve put in links to all of my other sites on social media – please subscribe / follow / and like if you are there too.

I’ll be watching what the people that I follow on Twitter do, as well as the people and organizations on each of my many wonderful, informative Twitter lists do, as far as posting about their work other than Twitter. I rely on my Twitter lists more than anything else to know who is doing what in my professional worlds – I have yet to find anything that even comes close to a substitution for that (I’m NOT gonig to subscribe to hundreds of email newsletters!).

What about going back to traditional avenues for networking and outreach: writing one-to-one emails, attending onsite conferences, buying advertising, etc. I don’t have the financial resources to attend onsite conferences, and as I’ve mentioned earlier, attendance has rarely lead to a book sale or a new gig. I don’t have the financial resources to buy advertising – and quite honestly, I can’t figure out Google Ads. As for email, I barely read email I receive – I know that what I send also often doesn’t get read (if it makes it past a spam filter).

Am I disappointed about Twitter? Hugely. If the changes that the new owner has threatened do come to fruition, I am going to lose one of the most effective and easy-to-use outreach tools in my toolbox, and I’m going to lose touch with so many, many people and organizations whose viewpoints and resources I value in my work.

This tweet is very representative of how many of us feel about the potential of losing Twitter as we know it, from Lainey Feingold / @LFLegal:

News about the Twitter sale is hitting me hard. What’s going to happen to #a11y and #DisabilityTwitter communities? Or the committed team at @TwitterA11y? I always say accessibility is global and some of that is because of this platform. Plus @twitter pals and chats Cheer me up!

But I’ve been here before:

  • Back in the early part of the new millennium, when USENET newsgroups started becoming overwhelmed with off-topic advertising messages. Soc.org.nonprofit was an incredibly important outreach tool for me for almost a decade, and ALL of my professional successes since 1994 can be traced back to my participation in that online community. I hated losing it. In some ways, I feel like Twitter was a return to those wonderful, well-connected days.

I’ve been on America Online, MySpace, GooglePlus and GoogleWave – those are all gone, at least in the form I used them. I left each of those because something better came along. I should be used to this situation by now… but I also have to say that, other than YahooGroups, no platform has ever been the powerhouse for my professional work that Twitter has been. And nothing better seems to be coming along.

So, this is yet another cautionary tale about over-relying on a social media platform. While you cannot use everything out there, you absolutely need to use a diversity of outreach tools. And remember: there are people who are going to interact online with your initiative only via Facebook, or only via Twitter, or even only via email. None of those audiences are more important than another for your nonprofit, NGO, etc. Make sure all of your clients, volunteers, donors and others are reminded regularly of all of your various online communications channels, including your online communities – and your web address!

What are you or what is your organization doing about impending changes at Twitter? Please share in the comments below.

May 3 update: A tweet worth sharing:

screen capture of a tweet
Tweet from Eoghan Beecher: Elon Musk’s taking over twitter has serious ramifications for nonprofits who’s role is to challenge power. Not because he’s cozy with the establishment – they all are, but because he’s proven to be incredibly petty, and that is a huge threat to activist community.

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.

The delicate challenge of warning volunteers & others going abroad about racism or sexism they may experience.

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I have been uncomfortable for many years with the lack of guidance about the specific discrimination black volunteers and black professional humanitarian workers face when they go abroad. I’ve seen the discrimination, firsthand: at airports, in restaurants, in shops and even on the streets in countries all over the world without many black residents – including Germany and Afghanistan. And I’ve heard so many first-hand horror stories from humanitarian colleagues about what they’ve experienced. Yet, when I’ve tried to find guidance on how to be an ally or guidance for people experiencing discrimination, I’ve found nothing.

So I was impressed that the Peace Corps starkly and specifically acknowledged this situation and was frank about just how much harder it can be for black volunteers – specifically for Ukraine, but the reality is that this warning would be valid for a variety of countries where the Peace Corps has, or used to, place members, including Russia. The Peace Corps recommends that the Black volunteers react to racism in various ways depending on the situation, choosing to “remove themselves” from the situation for their own safety, get help from other volunteers or staff, or practice and explore self-care or coping strategies. It’s similar to the recommendations for women humanitarian workers – or women travelers: when you are in a country where you may not be respected, you’ve got to be prepared to deal with ugly comments and ugly situations and you won’t have the resources you have in the USA (not that law enforcement in my country always takes a woman’s safety concerns seriously, but I digress).

This article in the Atlanta Black Star says “Some have rebuked the Peace Corps for not doing more to protect Black volunteers.” One person tweeted that the Peace Corps shouldn’t send black Americans “to a place like this where you know they’ll be racially abused” and claimed that the Peace Corps was placing “the burden of educating racists” on the shoulders of Black members.

I think it would be a terrible shame if the Peace Corps didn’t send black Americans to Ukraine or anywhere in Eastern Europe or Asia or anywhere else where there is not a large black population, or if the United Nations didn’t send black African professional humanitarians to Afghanistan or elsewhere in Asia and on and on. Absolutely, people need to be safe, and there has to be a consideration for what specific challenges an African, a woman, a trans person, a person of a particular nationality, and others may face in various countries – and it may mean not sending a great candidate somewhere because the security situation is just too tenuous for the person, specifically. But while the Peace Corps’ primary mission is to empower communities in underserved parts of the work, the corps is also intended to promote mutual understanding between citizens of the USA and foreign peoples. Black Americans are a part of the rich fabric that makes up the USA. You cannot understand this country without experiencing its very specific forms of black culture.

I’m going to continue to do all I can, including abroad, to be an ally. I stumble, sometimes I flounder, often I misstep, but I’m going to keep trying. And I hope everyone else will too, not only for Black Americans but for any person who might be targeted for insults, harassment, abuse or violence.

I’m also going to continue to try to encourage people, especially women, to travel abroad, while also offering realistic safety recommendations (and I’ve been criticized for my recommendations by women travelers who say they have never experienced any problems and I’m being alarmist. Sigh.).

When your perceived race, sexual identity, religion or nationality can put you in danger in a region, you have every right to know of the specific dangers you might face, and you have every right to reconsider going to that region. And when you feel insulted anywhere, you have every right to choose how you are going to react, based on what you think is the appropriate thing to do.

I know if I made a list of everything that has been said to me by local people where I’m living or working, targeting me as a woman or as an American, I would scare a lot of folks from traveling abroad. Sometimes, I have pushed back: I’ve sometimes expressed anger, I’ve sometimes expressed hurt feelings, and I’ve sometimes just walked away – it depends on how safe I feel and what I think the consequences might be. It’s all my choice to make. I hope that my reactions have sometimes helped to change some local people’s minds – but I can only do so much.

What do you think of its advisory to applicants about racism they may face? Share your thoughts in the comments.

For those who think the Peace Corps, or any other volunteering abroad or humanitarian agency, should “do more” to “protect” black volunteers & humanitarian workers, what would that look like? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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.

The key to retaining volunteers

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Please, no more workshops called how to recruit and retain volunteers. Not unless each is about six hours long. Because to recruit volunteers is one function, but to retain volunteers – to keep volunteers beyond just a few days or weeks, to prevent sudden and frequent turnover – requires doing well in all aspects of effective volunteer engagement, and those aspects can’t be taught in an hour or two.

This graphic represents what I mean: if you have clear roles and tasks for volunteers, in writing, if you quickly onboard volunteers and ensure they are prepared for the role or task they will take on, and if you have excellent, appropriate support for volunteers during their service, you will retain volunteers:

And I believe that all of those functions frequently and regularly intersect – you cannot think of them as entirely separate activities.

If you aren’t retaining volunteers, if volunteers are leaving before they even start a task, or they are leaving soon after joining, the reasons probably lie in one of these three areas:

  1. they signed up to help but there was a big gap between that time and when you held your first meeting with them or got them started on a task,
  2. they did not have realistic expectations or understand what you expected because roles and tasks weren’t in writing, or
  3. they did not feel adequately supported or prepared for the volunteering role.

Another big reason for volunteers leaving is that they do not feel appreciated or that their service doesn’t seem to really be of value. I count that under support for volunteers, but you could certainly do an entire workshop just on that aspect of effective volunteer engagement (I certainly could).

Of course, the only way to know for sure is to ASK VOLUNTEERS WHO LEFT.

Also see diagnosing the causes of volunteer recruitment problems.

The principles of effective volunteer engagement, including identifying appropriate roles and putting them in writing, onboarding volunteers quickly and providing appropriate and regular support for volunteers are the basis for the recommendations detailed in The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook: Fully Integrating Online Service Into Volunteer Involvement. This is the most comprehensive resource anywhere on working with online volunteers, and on using the Internet to support ALL volunteers, including those you might not think of as “online” volunteers.

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.

Ending Orphanage Volunteering (Webinar presentation – about 7 minutes)

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Sinet Chan of Cambodia shared her lived experience in a Cambodian orphanage, where she was placed when she was 10 years old after her parents died of AIDS in a presentation, about 7 minutes, that was given as a part of the “Beyond Institutional Care: Rethinking How We Care for Vulnerable Children” conference addressing the issue of care reform.

While at the orphanage, she was “badly neglected.” The orphanage was set up to attract foreign volunteers and donations, but the children rarely benefitted from this – children were denied food, medical care and education. She and other children were forced to do manual labor, and she and other children were regularly raped.

Sinet Chan’s own words are so powerful:

During this time, we had many volunteers and donors coming and going. We would always entertain them, singing them a song, and playing games with them, to encourage them to donate money… the volunteers were nice people trying to help us, but now I realize it was a form of exploitation: using children to generate funding.”

All the other children in the orphanage – they all had parents who were alive and they missed their families… all the coming and going of the volunteers and visitors then compounded our feelings of loss and abandonment. The love and affection we feel from the visitor initially feels nice. Some visitors and volunteers would come for one day, some for a few weeks, and some for six months or more. It was always very traumatic when it was coming time for them to leave. We would be very (unintelligible) and cry a lot. I think it is a trigger memory of the loss and separation we have all suffered already. Having adults coming in and out of our lives feels like we were constantly being abandoned. They would always say they were coming back but, they never come back.

I think the uncomfortable truth behind the reason why white people feel like they need to participate in voluntourism is they have a white savior complex. The white savior complex is caused by the unconscious belief in the incompetence of the people they are trying to help. That belief justifies why they feel they must come and do it for us, like building our house, digging our wells, saving our children…

So, in order to combat voluntourism white people must examine their unconscious bias and learn how to be a white ally instead of a white savior.

You can hear her entire presentation on YouTube:

Also see:

How to connect & engage with volunteers remotely – even when those volunteers work onsite

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Well before the COVID-19 pandemic, nonprofits, NGOs and other organizations that involve volunteers were leveraging a variety of tools to communicate with those volunteers, and understood that ALL volunteers are, at some point, remote: even if all of their volunteering service is provided onsite, much of the communications with them happens when they are in their homes or work places. For organizations that were relying solely on onsite meetings, physical bulletin boards in the break room and paper letters and paper newsletters, the pandemic meant they had to quickly catch up and implement new ways of keeping volunteers informed (not to mention engaged) and to hear back from those volunteers regularly.

How do you effectively communicate with volunteers remotely? It takes much more than email – though email remains oh-so-important:

Have a web site that has all the info current volunteers need.
Absolutely, you need information on your web site to entice new volunteers and a way for candidates to express interest in volunteering via that web site, whether via an application they can submit online or an email address of your manager of volunteers. But current volunteers also need information from your web site: the list of current staff members, the profile of your executive director, the history of your organization, evaluations of your programs, the latest news about your organization, etc. Volunteers need to have that central place they can go to for reliable, complete information about the program they support.

Keep your social media up-to-date & encourage volunteers to follow your accounts
Your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and other accounts shouldn’t be focused on just encouraging people to donate money; your social media channels should have regularly-updated information about upcoming events, the results of events that just happened, breaking news about your organization, etc. Your social media audience includes your CURRENT volunteers, and they need to be kept up-to-date about what’s going on so they can properly represent your organization while they are volunteering. Your social media should also talk about the cause: a nonprofit theater should be posting about how students involved in performing do better in school, a nonprofit animal shelter should be posting about studies that show how a family’s health can improve if they have a dog, etc. Again, this helps volunteers become better advocates for your organization, including in casual conversations with friends and colleagues.

Online Discussion Groups & Channels for Volunteers
Group emails are one-way communications and can result in replies from volunteers filling up your email in-box, with the same questions asked over and over. “Reply all” conversations become tedious and unwieldy. By contrast, using a private online group can allow you to communicate with all vounteers quickly and allow everyone to see the answer to a question they may have as well. This can include using Whats App, Signal or Similar Direct Messaging Apps in Volunteer Support & Engagement.

Building a team culture among remote workers
Coming together face-to-face, in the same room, does not automatically create team cohesion and a strong sense of team. Yet, many people think having online meetings automatically means it’s difficult for staff to have a strong sense of team. People feel a part of a team if they feel heard and included, whether online or off. And they will attend meetings and pay attention to those meetings if they feel the meeting is relevant to their work – on or offline. This resource offers ideas for live events, asynchronous events & activities that can build a sense of team among remote workers.

Recognizing Online Volunteers & Using the Internet to Honor ALL Volunteers
Recognition helps volunteers stay committed to your organization, and gets the attention of potential volunteers — and donors — as well. With the Internet, the Cloud, cyberspace, whatever you want to call it, it’s never been easier to show volunteers — and the world — that volunteers are a key part of your organization’s successes. This resource provides a long list of suggestions for both honoring online volunteers and using the Internet to recognize ALL volunteers that contribute to your organization.

Also see:  How to Immediately Introduce Virtual Volunteering at Your Program and Helping online volunteers stay engaged & energized.

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

If you want to learn even more about how to leverage online tools to communicate with and support volunteers, whether those volunteers are mostly online (virtual volunteering) or they provide service mostly onsite at your organization, and to dig far deeper into the factors for success in supporting online volunteers and keeping virtual volunteering a worthwhile endeavor for everyone involved, you will not find a more detailed guide anywhere than The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook. It’s based on many years of experience, from a variety of organizations. It’s available both as a traditional print publication and as a digital book.

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

Before You Punish An Employee or Volunteer For a Mistake…

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a cartoonish drawing of a figure carving images into a rock.

One of the many, many things I loved about working at nonprofit theaters and at newspapers, before I started doing what I do now… whatever that is… was the constant striving in each of those environments for perfection with each production and each publication, along with the team ownership when mistakes happened. Our goal with every stage show or every newspaper was for it to be flawless – and it never was. But after every show or every publication, we made a list of everything that went wrong and looked for ways to prevent it in the future. And we bonded over that effort. In fact, we often bonded over mistakes.

The Drama and Comedy masks, representing theater.

Were angry words said? Did tempers flare? Absolutely. But there was, ultimately and in most of those places where I worked, a belief that everyone was doing their best and that we all needed to support each other to be successful. There was also a belief that, at some point, each and every one of us, from the star on the stage to a volunteer usher, from the executive editor to the typesetter, and everyone in between, would make a big mistake we would all have to address in some way. If you work with humans, that’s just how it is.

I’ve not worked in an environment like those in decades, I’m sad to say. Most of the workplaces I’ve worked in since have been focused on blame and shame, as though there is a way to avoid any misstep 100% of the time, and any mistake is because of a person’s recklessness or laziness.

I thought about this as I re-read Meridian Swift’s excellent blog from 2020, Thanks to the volunteers who lied, stole and created havoc. It’s a fantastic take on how to view mistakes by staff – and not just volunteers. But as I wrote in the comments section of her blog,

Sadly, when these things happen, senior management isn’t as “thankful”, and wants answers as to how this volunteer “got through” (even if they made you scale back the screening you wanted to do of new volunteers that might have set off some red flags had you been able to use it with all volunteers) and reprimands the manager of volunteers per a belief that all problems are 100% preventable.

And it’s not just a senior management approach regarding mistakes with volunteers – it’s one many also have regarding all employees and consultants.

When a mistake is made at your organization, here are some things to consider:

  • What did this mistake cost the organization, your clients, and/or any one staff member or group of staff? Was the cost in terms of money, time or public relations? How much time and money will it take to address the issue?
  • Was the mistake made by inexcusable negligence or inappropriate behavior, or was it one person’s or a team’s misjudgment, a misstep, or quick decision that the person or team wouldn’t have made had they given it more thought? Is the person primarily responsible overworked? Do they need better support?
  • Can the staff member, and the entire organization, learn from this mistake and prevent it in the future?

Explore and weigh the answers to all of those questions before you take action, so that your reaction is truly proportional to what’s happened and why. Always remember the human on the other end of your tirade, and that once something is said, it cannot be unsaid. Remember that people can improve with time and support – you yourself have, haven’t you?

Also see:

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. 

Not-Good Reasons to Volunteer Abroad

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I’ve made a list of the most common reasons I see for people wanting to volunteer abroad. And the most common reasons are NOT good reasons. And in this list, I note why they are not good reasons.

I also note that most of the reasons in that list are, in fact, appropriate reasons to volunteer locally, in your own community or region, and why that is.

I also address on this page the pushback comment I often get when I make such a list: “Oh, then volunteering abroad should be ONLY for the privileged?!?”

This list is within the section of my site that’s focused on people who volunteer, or want to volunteer, whether locally or abroad. People that want to volunteer are not my usual audience, but I am still not seeing clear, accurate information for this audience, including from organizations claiming to promote volunteerism.

Why am I doing this? Because

  • I’m tired of seeing volunteering, locally or abroad, that’s more focused on volunteers and their feelings and personal needs and ambitions than on the people and communities to be served.
  • I really do want volunteers to help, not hurt.  

There are lots of links on the page about how to approach volunteering abroad ethically, and where to find credible programs, as well as links to all of my posts against unethical voluntourism, vanity volunteering, etc.

And if you disagree with what I’ve written, by all means, comment below (but please read the ENTIRE page first), or write your own blog or web page and then contact me and let me know the link. I’d like to read your thoughts.

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.

Who needs a Volunteer Centre when we have the internet? (answer: we do)

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Rob Jackson is a volunteer engagement consultant based in the United Kingdom. Rob was a manager of volunteers himself for many years, and his training and writing is based in reality and practicality. We met online back in the 1990s when he started UKVPMs, an online community for managers of volunteers in the UK, and have been colleagues (and good friends) ever since.

Rob wrote this on his Facebook page, and with permission, I’m reprinting it here on my blog:

image of a panel discussion

It’s time for a new way to think about local volunteering infrastructure.

In recent months I’ve read stories of how lockdown volunteering was especially effective where local groups (formal and informal) were connected to their local volunteering infrastructure organisations (Volunteer Centres).

This comes as no surprise to me. For six years I worked closely with Volunteer Centres as part of the team at Volunteering England. I’ve been a trustee of two Volunteer Centres in my time. I know their value and importance.

Yet too often local infrastructure is seen as either an encumbrance or an irrelevance. Why fund a Volunteer Centre when people can volunteer without them? Surely technology can do the work of a Volunteer Centre better than a human? Who needs a Volunteer Centre when we have the internet?

These arguments miss a crucial point. Volunteering infrastructure isn’t a building or office, a snazzy website or matching software.

Volunteering infrastructure is people. It is connections. It is relationships.

Cuts to Volunteer Centres may realise a quick financial saving, but it’s far more expensive to have to rebuild them down the line.

Volunteering infrastructure is a valuable investment in the underlying and enabling fabric of a thriving, vibrant local community.

It’s time we saw it that way and supported it properly.

Perfectly said, Rob. And not just for the UK. You can comment here, but please also comment on Rob’s original post if you are on Facebook.

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 funding volunteer engagement looks like

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image of a panel discussion

A week ago was Valentine’s Day in the USA, and it’s not too late to talk about LOVE for the people at your program that support volunteers, and a great way to show them some love is to pay for what’s needed to fund effective volunteer engagement!

I talk a lot about funding volunteer engagement, how if communities – including corporations, foundations and governments – want for more people to volunteer, and want more nonprofits and community programs to involve volunteers, they are going to have to pay for it, in cash. What would funders be paying for to increase community engagement, to increase volunteerism?

  • Salaries for part-time or full-time managers of volunteers.
  • Training for ALL staff in effective volunteer engagement (not just the person in charge of volunteer engagement), like how to create meaningful, appropriate assignments, how to appropriately support vounteers, how to report safety and quality concerns, etc.
  • Training for the person in charge of volunteer engagement in skills that could help in better support and recruit volunteers, like basic video or audio editing skills, so they can produce simple YouTube videos, podcasts, etc., or classes in another language, such as Spanish, or classes in facilitation, conflict management, DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), etc.
  • Subscriptions to services that have the information and news they need, like Engage.
  • Books – yes, BOOKS. Like mine, The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook.
  • Volunteer management software, computers, smart phones, video conferencing software (free versions often don’t provide a manager of volunteers all they need to effectively work with volunteers), etc.
  • Registration fees and travel expenses for staff to attend conferences that provide speakers and learning experiences that can help improve volunteer engagement.
  • Renting meeting or event spaces for volunteer-related activities.
  • Funds for volunteer recognition: gift cards, swag, etc.

All of the above is the “overhead’ that too many corporations and foundations refuse to fund. When I say volunteers are NOT free, these are the expenses I mean. Let me say it once again: if communities, corporations, foundations and governments want more people to volunteer, and want more nonprofits and community programs to involve volunteers, they are going to have to pay for it, in cash.

Also see:

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. 

Facebook, Meta, Virtual Worlds – Benefits? Risks? Does Second Life offer lessons?

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a screen capture of a webinar that took place in Second Life, an avatar-based virtual world.

An online multimedia platform that allows people to create an avatar for themselves and “live” in an online virtual world. Avatars interact with places, objects and other avatars, exploring the virtual world, meeting other residents, socializing, having business meetings, hosting events, participating in group activities, building, creating, shopping, collaborating, even trading virtual property and services with one another.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse? No! I’m talking about Second Life, which launched back in 2003. The image at the top of this blog, and the image below, are of me, as an avatar, leading an event in Second Life for TechSoup back in 2014:

An image of Jayne Cravens as an avatar in front of a giant silde from her event within Second Life.

TechSoup was an early and passionate adopter of Second Life, hosting numerous online events there. If you do a search for Second Life on the TechSoup forum, you would find numerous references to the platform and TechSoup activities there over the years.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook (now Meta), said to much fanfare that he wanted to launch his own metaverse. The new virtual-reality app Horizon Worlds is Facebook’s first foray into the much-hyped “metaverse” for Facebook parent company Meta. Horizon Worlds, a beta version of which featured prominently in Zuckerberg’s announcement, launched Dec. 9 in the United States and Canada on the company’s Oculus virtual-reality platform and represents its first major attempt to deliver on his vision.

Were you on Second Life? Are you still on Second Life? Did you participate in TechSoup’s events on Second Life, or any other nonprofit-related activities? What do you think emerging virtual worlds, including Meta’s projects, can learn from Second Life? Comment below!

This article from The Duke Law Journal, The Development and Failure of Social Norms in Second Life, seems like something that the Meta folks should read. Its conclusion about Second Life:

Second Life is so thoroughly steeped in conditions that have impeded the development of successful social norms in other communities that any system of social norms in Second Life will ultimately fail. Because social norms will likely fail to successfully maximize resident welfare, regulatory schemes imposed both by the operators of the virtual world and by real-world governing institutions are needed to enhance the functioning of this particular alternative reality inhabited by millions.

Do you think Meta’s virtual world is addressing this issue? Do you think they need to plan for how to address such? And are you worried about safety at all with any online platforms? Comment below!

Nina Jane Patel was targeted with sexual harassment in Facebook/Meta’s platforms. “Within 60 seconds of joining — I was verbally & sexually harassed — 3–4 male avatars, with male voices, essentially, but virtually gang-raped my avatar & took photos…” The 43-year-old mother said it was such a “horrible experience that happened so fast” before she even had a chance to think about using “the safety barrier,” adding that she “froze.” She continued by confessing how both her “physiological and psychological” reaction was similar to it happening in real life. “Virtual reality has essentially been designed so the mind and body can’t differentiate virtual/digital experiences from real,” Patel wrote.

This is similar to assaults that happened in Second LIfe. Examples:

Horizon Worlds is supposed to be limited to adults 18 and older. In practice, however, very young kids appear to be among its earliest adopters. Some say the presence of children in Meta’s fledgling metaverse raises a grave concern: that by mixing children with adult strangers in a largely self-moderated virtual world, the company is inadvertently creating a hunting ground for sexual predators.

When new online forums arise that attract kids, sexual predators “are often among the first to arrive,” said Sarah Gardner, vice president of external affairs at Thorn, a tech nonprofit that focuses on protecting children from online sexual abuse. “They see an environment that is not well protected and does not have clear systems of reporting. They’ll go there first to take advantage of the fact that it is a safe ground for them to abuse or groom kids.”

More on safety for children in virtual worlds from the Washington Post.

Could nonprofits that engage in an online metaverse be putting their clients or others at risk by asking them to be there too? Comment below!

There’s one more consideration: accessibility. If you engage with people in a graphics-based environment, you are leaving out people who have sight-impairments. How will auditory displays work for graphics-based environments to address accessibility issues (I’m asking because I really don’t know)? Or is it a matter of ensuring you never limit your service delivery and volunteer engagement to only a graphics-based environment?

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

There is section devoted to virtual volunteering and avatar-based environments in The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook. The section offers some examples of nonprofits using Second Life to engage with clients and volunteers, and offers specific advice on how a nonprofit should get started using such environments, considerations to explore and pitfalls to avoid – all of which is relevant for any graphics-based virtual world. The rest of the book is easily adaptable to engaging with volunteers in graphics-based/avatar-based virtual worlds as well.

Looking forward to hearing your comments!

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