Category Archives: Community Relations/Outreach

Vetting panelists, guest speakers, bloggers, conference organizers & press requests

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image of a panel discussion

Back in the late 1990s, I was invited to speak and train at what I was told was a state PTA conference in a state different from where I was living. The list of other invited speakers was shared with me by the organizer and I was deeply impressed and honored to be a part of such a lineup. I wasn’t paid by the organizer for the work, but that was fine – I saw it as a part of what I was already being paid for in my job directing the Virtual Volunteering Project. All of my travel and hotel expenses were to be paid.

The date arrived, I flew to the location, I picked up my rental car and I drove to my hotel. The next day, I drove to the location of the conference, and as soon as I walked in, I realized things were not what they had seemed via email and phone calls from the organizer: this was not, in fact, an official PTA conference: a representative from the state PTA approached me to say that they didn’t know about the conference being organized in their name by this local member until the last minute. The organizer was putting all of the expenses on her credit card, expecting the state PTA to reimburse her, and she had no signed contract with them for anything. The conference was in an un-airconditioned junior high school in the middle of summer, in a state notorious for its heat and humidity, the seating was for children, not adults, and there was an un-airconditioned school bus for taking attendees around to the city’s sights that afternoon. The organizer showed signs of serious emotional instability that I won’t list here. After the first day, most of the speakers and half of the attendees had left, many of them asking me if I was going to stay or flee. I stuck it out over two days and nights, fulfilling my commitment to deliver workshops to the few that stayed and wanted to hear me. I left and never heard from the organizer again.

Misrepresentation and deliberate fraud in the nonprofit sector aren’t unusual. Sometimes, the person perpetuating the misrepresentation isn’t really aware that what they are claiming is unethical, inappropriate, or maybe even illegal – I think that was the case with the aforementioned conference manager. I’ve been contacted by people saying they work for a certain large, well-known newspaper who, in fact, have never had anything published in that newspaper or any other credible daily, but they felt like they could with the story they wanted to do with my help, that the newspaper knew nothing about – I am not sure that’s deliberate fraud as much as someone not understanding the appropriateness of claiming to represent a publication. I’ve heard from people who say they are doing a documentary film and want to interview someone at my organization, but when I do a little research, I find out that they haven’t produced any films before and people they have interviewed already for this project are a little afraid of them now after their encounters. I’ve seen web sites of people claiming to be operating a nonprofit that partners with various corporations and very well known nonprofits, but upon contacting people I know at said “partners”, they’ve never heard of the organization. And since that conference fiasco, I have been contacted by a few people putting together a conference or event that have never done so before, but think getting participation is just a matter of asking for such. In all of these cases, the people engaging in what I would call misrepresentation don’t think they are doing so: they are sincere in their belief that they are a legitimate, credible press representative, documentary filmmaker, nonprofit manager or event coordinator, and if they can get enough people to say yes to their request to meet or participate, they are going to be all that they claim to be. Take this Charity Fashion Show in San Francisco in 2010 – I think organizers probably really believed they were going to raise enough money to donate to charity, and had no idea just how expensive a fundraising event can be.

And then there are the ones who ARE aware they are perpetuating something unethical, like Community Service Help and the Caffeine Help Network and other like them, selling letters for people to use with courts that sentence them to a certain number of community service hours – thankfully, state attornies general are cracking down on such. Or people claiming to be putting on a fundraising event, looking for donations and sponsorships, but most of the money goes to “expenses” – like the We Build The Wall effort or the Trump Foundation.

No matter the focus of your nonprofit, non-governmental organization (NGO), charity or consulting business focused on such, you need to do at least a bit of vetting on any press person or documentary filmmaker who wants to interview someone from your program, or any person you are thinking of inviting to speak as part of a panel or conference, or any community group asking to partner with you, etc.

  • If the person lists conferences where they have spoken or organizations they’ve have consulted for, ask to talk to a representative from at least one of those entities to confirm that really happened, look at old versions of web sites on archive.org to make sure the person is listed in the lineup, or ask for a link to an online video showing the speaker addressing the audience.
  • If the person says they are a writer, ask for samples of their published work. If they say they are a filmmaker, ask for links to their work online. Do they have a YouTube or Vimeo channel you can review?
  • If the person claims to have managed events, ask for photos of the event, scans of published material that publicized the event, a blog about the event written by an attendee, event participation surveys, etc. For their most recent events, they should be able to provide dates, number of participants, measures of success, etc. – for instance, if the person says their initiative organizes teen hackathons, what were the dates of those hackathons, how many teens participated in each, where were they and where is the list of apps that were developed?
  • Type the person’s name into Google or Duck Duck Go and see what comes up. If you start to feel suspicious, type in additional words, like scam or investigation or complaint and see if any blogs or articles come up. But be careful if something does come up – it’s harder and harder to find a person or company who HASN’T had a complaint lodged against them.
  • Even the newest nonprofit or NGO should have a web site that lists its board of directors, staff members (and their credentials), and either their most recent yearly financials/annual reports or their proposed budget for the first year.

With all that said, people do have to start somewhere if they are an aspiring nonprofit founder, an aspiring filmmaker, aspiring podcaster, aspiring designer, etc. Someone with not much of a track record at doing what they say they want to do might not automatically mean that someone is trying to do something nefarious, or that the person is someone with a mental illness. But if someone says they are a blogger, there should be a blog to read. Someone starting an event management business should have amateur experience managing some kind of events – weddings, reunions, small nonprofit events, etc. – and references to affirm their abilities. Someone who says they do video production will have at least a few videos online you can view. And while I have managed many high-profile events where it would have been inappropriate to let anyone but credentialed press representatives inside to cover such, I’ve also managed community events where an aspiring, unaffiliated journalist or university journalism student would have been welcomed to come in and observe and write about it as they like.

In short: don’t automatically take someone’s word for their credibility, or that of the program they claim to represent. Never automatically accept any proposed speaker, journalist, committee member, program partner, panelist, trainer or advisor without at least a little bit of research. Get used to saying, “Thanks for your information / inquiry / proposal / email. First I need a few days to check your web site OR do you have a web site I could review? OR could you let me know the name of your contact at the such-and-such foundation, so I could confirm your affiliation?” And make sure all staff, including volunteers, know how to route emails and calls about donations, partnerships and conferences and calls from the press.

Also see these related resources:

  • The Information About & For Volunteers You Should Have on Your Web Site: If your program involves volunteers, or wants to involve volunteers, there are certain things your organization or department must have on its web site. To not have this information 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.

How to create partnerships for virtual volunteering

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Volunteers have always been the drivers of virtual volunteering, much more than programs that host volunteers. And it’s still true now, in 2020.

Back in the 1990s, when Impact Online (now VolunteerMatch) launched one of the first volunteer-matching services online, there were FAR more people visiting the web site that wanted to volunteer than there were organizations posting assignments, and those assignments were supposed to be all ONSITE, but volunteers kept asking Impact Online staff for things they could do ONLINE. That’s why Impact Online launched the Virtual Volunteering Project in 1996: to promote the idea of involving online volunteers to host organizations and train them on how to do it. When I began directing the UN’s Online Volunteering service in February 2001, I stopped all outreach to potential volunteers and turned all attention to outreach to and support for potential host organizations, because this global service had the same issue: far more volunteers wanting to serve online than there were things for them to do.

Here we are decades later, with a global pandemic and thousands and thousands of volunteers wanting to engage online, but not able to find enough opportunities. I see it all over the Internet, particularly on the Reddit community – the subreddit – dedicated to discussions about and resources regarding volunteering, r/volunteer: young people, with no experience in mentoring, tutoring or counseling, are trying to launch their own virtual volunteering initiatives, recruiting plenty of volunteers but then not being able to find schools or programs to work with.

I’m doing my best to help schools, nonprofits, NGOs, charities and government agencies quickly launch roles and activities for online volunteers, with

But I cannot do this alone. Those of you who want to volunteer online have to help. You are going to have to help schools, nonprofits, NGOs, charities and others that you want to help online to create online roles and activities and to learn about the benefits of virtual volunteering. Otherwise, you are going to continue to be frustrated.

First, do NOT write an organization and say “We want to partner with you!” Words like “partner” and “partnership” are too big, too daunting, for most programs to think about. It sounds like lots of work with no funding. It’s not a message schools, nonprofits, etc. want to hear.

Instead, your first outreach should be something like this:

Hello! We are a group of five students / employees from name of school / company, and…

  • we saw that you have 10 videos on YouTube about your program, but they are not closed-captioned / they are not captioned correctly. We would like to volunteer to fix that for you over the next two weeks…
  • we would like to help make your web site be more accessible for people with disabilities. We could spend 10 hours for one week next month adding alt text to all of the photos and graphics on your site and changing all of your “read more” and “click here” links to descriptive links that would make sense for those with a sight-impairments…
  • we would like to translate all of the text from your last newsletter to Spanish…
  • we would like to help create a monthly podcast for your program for the next four months. Each month, we would interview a staff member or a recipient of your program’s service and adapt that recording to a 15-minute podcast format, with intro and exit music, appropriate edits and full text transcription. We would help you post this to…
  • We think the work our local historical society is so important, and we would like to work with you to improve these listings on Wikipedia regarding our local history…

And adding:

We want whatever we do for your program as online volunteers, entirely unpaid, to be something your program wants and needs, something that will be meaningful and beneficial to your organization, not just something we can do. Could we meet by video conference sometime next week to explore these ideas?

In other words, you need to be specific about the project or activity you want to do with them as online volunteers, and to make it clear that your are offering as volunteers and do not expect any payment whatsoever. You need to make it sound like a great idea that isn’t going to cost the organization anything and isn’t going to create more work for them and isn’t going to require a long-term investment. Your outreach needs to prompt a program to say, “We need and want this!” Remember: most nonprofits, NGOs, schools and other community groups are overwhelmed with work, severely under-staffed and facing massive budget cuts. They don’t have time for any more work whatsoever. They will be open to ideas for projects that will immediately have benefits to their organization, especially in terms of attracting more financial support.

Your goal with that initial project is to provide such a great experience that the nonprofit, charity, school or NGO is open to further collaborations – and perhaps much more advanced activities, like from this list of high impact virtual volunteering projects. But first, you have to give them a simple, worthwhile experience that creates a solid, trusting relationship.

Do not write a program and suggest a big, ambitious project that they do not have a great deal of experience doing OFFLINE already. That means you don’t write a senior residence facility and say, “We want to start an online friendly visitor program with your residents!” Who will screen your volunteers to ensure they are appropriate for coming in contact with this vulnerable population? Who will train volunteers regarding appropriate and inappropriate topics of conversation, how to get started with a first conversation, etc.? What will your safety standards be? How will you set boundaries – what if a resident starts calling and texting a volunteer frequently throughout the week and this is beyond what the volunteer wants to be involved with? In other words, a lot of virtual volunteering projects require way more than just a platform for interactions.

Also see:

vvbooklittle

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

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

Delivering arts programming online & helping arts nonprofits survive COVID-19

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Let’s get right to this list of resources for nonprofit theaters, dance groups, music groups and other performance groups regarding program delivery and community engagement during COVID-19 (a curated list):

How Theater Companies are Innovating During the COVID-19 crisis

Dance Magazine checks in with three artistic directors to see how they’re handling life in the age of coronavirus. Apr 09, 2020

Coronavirus pushes L.A. dance companies toward the inevitable: Going virtual

Gibney Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center COVID-19 RESOURCE LIST

Theatre community rallies, adapts during COVID-19 pandemic

COVID-19 Theatre Resources from the SETC

Resources for Choral Leaders/Managers During the Pandemic

Genuine engagement through Zoom calls: a post on the TechSoup community from someone who says she “learned a lot about hosting fun and effective video sessions, including music circles with up to 100 participants from up to seven countries.”

21 simple things to do while your programs are on hold during COVID-19 quarantines   

Your nonprofit is still relevant during COVID19 – SHOW HOW 

What we will need for live theatre to continue: a call to political action

Update: Arts Groups Hold Pittsburgh’s First Virtual, Collective Fundraiser.

Update: Washington Ballet “virtual” gala spreads COVID-19 among artists and volunteers.

Update: Example of a virtual art therapy session.

if you have additional online resources that can help nonprofit theaters, dance groups, music groups and other performance groups regarding program delivery and community engagement during COVID-19, please comment below.

Why do I care? Theatre and live music performances have been a hugely important part of my life for as long as I can remember. They were my joy in grade school and my sanctuary on more occasions I could list. I believe the arts, including non-performance, like museums, play a fundamentally-important role in a community’s health.

I got my start in nonprofit management via nonprofit theatre organizations. I wrote my master’s degree thesis on the non-artistic elements necessary for theatre, dance and music to be used as a tool for public health and other community development initiatives. Months ago, I had written a blog about how arts organizations – performing arts centers, theaters, museums – have always been masters of customer relations and data management, how masterful the best of them, no matter how small, are at customer relations and customer loyalty, and turning event attendees into long term financial supporters. I consider my early professional experience at places like the Capitol Arts Center in Bowling Green, Kentucky, Hartford Stage in Connecticut and the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts to have been pivotal in building my skilIs in data management, project management, customer relations and so much more, skills I’ve applied in every job I have ever had, including international development work in Afghanistan – yes, really. It was a blog meant to celebrate arts organizations for having oh-so-much to teach other nonprofits – and government programs and for-profit companies as well. I kept delaying the publishing of that blog. First by a week, then two weeks, then a few weeks, because things came up that seemed more urgent. I figured that I would publish it right after I got back from my epic Baja, California, Mexico motorcycle adventure.

Well, when I got back from that epic adventure, I returned to a country being ravaged by Covid-19, an inbox full of emails asking me urgently for my consulting rates regarding virtual volunteering, and GoogleAlerts filled with news of newly-launched virtual volunteering schemes (many done with no regard to safety). So that blog got pushed farther and farther on the publishing calendar.

And now, I read the draft, and I want to cry. Because live theater, live dance, onsite museum tours, live music… none of that is happening. And none of that may happen for the rest of 2020. And many nonprofits that produce these events and exhibits aren’t going to survive the year. I have so many friends that still worked in the arts in some way, or some aspect of event management, and their jobs are gone.

Sports will come back. People will watch sports on TV even with no audiences. But the arts… can they survive this? I enjoy watching filmed versions of stage productions, but so many people loathe it, and it’s true: it’s no substitute at all for seeing a performance live. Maybe I’m comfortable with viewing televised productions because, growing up in a small town In Henderson, Kentucky, things like Great Performances on PBS were my only way of seeing Broadway shows or the opera. I go back to that grateful persona, starving for access when I watch Frankenstein presented by the UK’s National Theatre Live, or the Donmar Warehouse all-female production of Julius Caesar directed Phyllida Lloyd and shown on Great Performances. So often, such televised productions of stage shows are all I have access to – and that’s true for so many others.

But I long to sit in a dark hall and watch people act on a stage. Or to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with others while hearing amazing live music. Or wander through an art museum, not thinking about being two meters away from each other person. And it looks like none of us can do that safely for the rest of 2020. And maybe through 2021. And maybe longer. And the nonprofits, and even for-profit companies, that have brought us these experiences, may not survive. And that sends me into an emotional tailspin.

And not one national political leader is talking about what to do about this.

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. 

Recruiting board members in the time of social distancing

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I don’t believe COVID-19 is going away this month, June, the month that marks the easing of lockdowns all over the USA. That’s why a lot of people – myself included – are going to continue to avoid large groups, even if they are outside, and avoid going inside for any meeting whatsoever, until further notice, regardless of what governments say. It’s very likely lockdown measures will be re-introduced in many places in the Fall, when there is a resurgence in the virus transmission. And all that presents a myriad of problems for nonprofit organizations. And one of those many problems is recruiting board members.

Board members are recruited from cultivating personal contacts, from building relationships with people over time, and this is best done in person – and I say this as an expert in virtual volunteering. Absolutely, you can work with board members online. You can have board meetings online. You can get a LOT done with a board online (and the Virtual Volunteering Guidebook can help). But identifying and recruiting board members entirely online is really difficult. Still, yes, it can be done.

If you are looking for the best place to post online about your board member needs – this isn’t the advice for you, because just posting “We need board members” is not how you get board members.

Instead, first, make sure your web site is rich in information on what your program has accomplished. You want a web site that inspires, not that begs. You want a web site that shows your staff’s credibility and expertise and capabilities for doing the work that needs to be done – not just “We have a good heart.”

If you haven’t established your organization formally yet – your program isn’t yet a nonprofit because, in part, you haven’t recruited a board of directors – then you still start a blog or web site, right now, about the organization you want to start, what it is you want it to achieve, the data that proves it is needed, and profiles of the people currently involved. Your goal is a content-rich site that says, “This is an idea worth supporting,” not “I’m one person, I’m really passionate and I want to do this” or “I’m really desperate for money and support!”

You should have an associated Twitter account and Facebook page for your web site or blog. Use keywords appropriate to your mission and regional focus. Also post links to appropriate Subreddits – communities on Reddit (if your proposed nonprofit is focused on children’s welfare, for instance, find subreddits focused on that. If it’s focused on a specific region, find a subreddit focused on that). Also post to appropriate LinkedIn groups – if your group is focused on protecting wetlands, for instance, try to find LinkedIn groups focused on environmental causes.

Your goal is to create an online presence that either shows you are an established, credible, accomplished organization worth supporting, or, that you are well on your way to having the people and resources in place to make that happen. Here are blogs specifically that can help you further – and to avoid pitfalls in launching a nonprofit or in nonprofit management.

Think about what you want out of new board members. Fundraisers? If you expect board members to raise funds, put that in your board role descriptions. Be upfront about how much you expect board members to raise or to give annually. Note how long you expect a board member to make a commitment to serve – a year? Two? Also state the status of your board liability insurance and the responsibility of the board to keep it current. There are plenty of places online to find sample board member role descriptions. Have the board member roles description on your web site and a way someone could express interest in perhaps being a board member – filling out a volunteer application, sending an email, etc.

By having this clear, robust information online, you will start to attract followers on social media – and, perhaps, online volunteers to help you with further web site development, research, social media management, etc. Invite all local officials – mayor, city council members, county officials, your US Representative, police chief, fire chief, city manager, etc. – to follow you on Twitter and Facebook. If local officials are mostly white men, look for nonprofits and cultural organizations that are focused on women, Black Americans, Latinos, Asians, and any group that represents communities not represented by the culture and ethnicities of elected officials, follow them on social media, comment supportively on what they are doing and ask questions, and make sure they know you care about THEIR work. Look for online events where anyone you might want on your board, or that you want to know about your organization, will be presenting and attend those online. Get all of these people used to hearing from you as an active, involved member of your local community.

Once you have done all of the above – and all of the above takes months – consider having a Zoom, WebEx, Microsoft Teams, Google Talk or whatever online open house, a “ask me anything,” where you and your team are available on a specific day and time, for one hour, to give a brief, inspiring pitch about your program and then you invite questions from the audience. Promote this event via your social media channels, your email newsletter, etc.

Only then are you ready to start your direct board recruitment process: look at the LinkedIn profiles or web sites of people that comment on your posts, that ask you questions, that attend your online open houses and that volunteer – they have shown they are interested in your work. They are your best prospects for board members. Are there people among this group with profiles that make you think they might be a good board member? If so, you can absolutely reach out to such a person personally: an email that says you would like to talk to them about possibly joining the board, a link to the description of what a board member does, and an invitation to a no-obligation talk.

Can you also post to sites like VolunteerMatch to recruit board members? Yes, but you are unlikely to find such that way, especially if you haven’t done all of the above. Again, effective, committed board members come from cultivation, not just an advertisement that you need such.

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. 

Systemic Exclusion in Volunteer Engagement

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graphic by Jayne Cravens representing volunteers

You would have to be living under a rock to have not heard the term systemic racism or institutional racism. It refers to how ideas of white superiority are embedded at a systemic or institutional level all over the USA (and, indeed, all over the world): the standards of beauty promoted in ads and magazines and movies almost always being a white woman. Black Americans incarcerated at greater rates than white Americans, despite there NOT being a difference in the level of crime committed. The combination of deep mistrust of banks and targeting black Americans by for-profit paycheck advance companies and rent-to-own companies that keep a disproportionate number of black Americans crushed under debt. A Harvard study found job candidates were more likely to get an interview when they “whitened” their name. It’s the tendency of people in stores – of a variety of ethnicities – to follow someone who is black or Hispanic around the shop, but not a white woman. It’s a white woman calling the police on a black man in a public park who is bird watching.

I was so impressed with the Audubon Society immediately commenting on that last infamous incident with a series of tweets that began with this one on May 26:

“Black Americans often face terrible daily dangers in outdoor spaces, where they are subjected to unwarranted suspicion, confrontation, and violence. The outdoors – and the joy of birds – should be safe and welcoming for all people.”

In cooperation with other groups, like Outdoor Afro, they also promoted #BlackBirdersWeek and #BlackInNature on Twitter, featuring wonderful photos of black people and black families enjoying nature and talking about their love of bird watching.

I am sure there are people who said, “The Audubon Society is about birds, not politics, and I don’t like this.” I am so glad the Audubon Society ignored them. If the society lost donors over it, I’m so sorry – I hope they gained far more.

I hope every nonprofit, no matter their focus, no matter the mission, will make a similar public statement, if they haven’t already, about racism and exclusion. This is a cross-cutting issue. Animal shelters, environmental groups, nonprofit theaters, dance companies, museums, historical societies, and on and on – they all need to make a statement, right now, about what is happening and how it relates to their work and their communities.

Which brings me to you. And to me. People focused on recruiting and supporting volunteers, creating assignments for volunteers, consulting about aspects of volunteer engagement, and on and on. What are we doing about systemic racism in nonprofits, particularly volunteer engagement, particularly among managers of volunteers? I am sure that the vast majority of managers of volunteers absolutely abhor deliberate acts of racism and that they want to be more inclusive. And since they don’t engage in deliberate acts of racism, they often shut down at the term “systemic racism.” So, if they can’t say that volunteer engagement at most nonprofits is embedded with systemic racism, can we AT LEAST admit to systemic exclusion?

Take an organization that has decided to exclude anyone as a volunteer who has ever been convicted of a crime, no matter what the crime is, no matter how long ago that crime occurred. That policy automatically excludes a disproportionate number of black Americans as volunteers, because African Americans are incarcerated at more than 5 times the rate of whites. In public schools in particular, the “no convictions” prohibition has the consequence of excluding black people, particularly black men, as volunteers – and schools that have a low number of parental vounteers have students that, overall, don’t do nearly as well academically as in schools where the number is high. Is the policy REALLY about safety, or is it laziness? Let’s just exclude everyone with a conviction rather than to have to think about it too much.

When I read an article about service clubs – nonprofit organizations where members meet regularly to volunteer for charitable works either by direct hands-on efforts or by raising money for other organizations – the list is almost always the same: Lions, Rotary International, Civitan International, Kiwanis, Optimist International, the Junior League, etc. What gets left out? Service clubs specifically representing black residents, Latino residents or Asian residents. Yes, all of the usual clubs are supposed to be open to everyone, and there are some chapters that are wonderfully diverse – but most chapters aren’t diverse, and to focus just on them leaves oh-so-many out – and leaves specific communities out. When I read about an organization’s volunteer recruitment outreach to “communities of faith”, I see a listing of churches with, primarily, white congregations – and all Christian.

When I lived in Austin, Texas, I was charged with increasing the number of people attending a local associations meeting. I emailed groups this association had never contacted before, and at our next meeting, for the first time, attendees represented a variety of ethnicities, neighborhoods, ages and economic backgrounds – but the presentation, on recognizing volunteer contributions, was so white-centric, so middle-class centric, and so women-centric, most of those new attendees never returned.

Those are three examples of systemic racism in volunteer engagement. I don’t think most of the people involved in those three examples are racists, by definition, and had any intention to exclude people of a particular race. But that’s what has happened, and we are perpetuating the practices that perpetuate it.

And then there are organizations that proudly tout their work in digital inclusion, addressing digital redlining, digital literacy, economic factors that keep communities in poverty and out of digital access, many of whom are focused specifically on black communities, but then balk at the idea that their online spaces should be accessible for people with disabilities. That’s systemic exclusion, and it’s something people with disabilities experience regularly from groups that are oh-so-proud of their diversity.

Can systemic racism show up in virtual volunteering engagement? Absolutely. As soon as online volunteer roles cross into the realm of warranting the knowing full names, hearing voices, seeing the faces of volunteers, implicit bias can creep into how those volunteers are (or are not) engaged.

I have tried to have conversations about diversity over the years at organizations where I’ve worked, in my workshops and in various consultancies. It is, by far, the most contentious topic I try to address as a consultant, and not just regarding race: I still get a shiver down my spine when I think of the angry, hostile people that made up the majority of an audience at a Corporation for National Service conference where I talked about recruiting the “new” seniors – Baby Boomers – in SeniorCorps programs. I get a bit of that hostility, though not nearly as overt, when I talk to groups about how to recruit specifically to increase diversity among volunteers. It’s not easy and I know I’ve lost some consulting gigs because I have asked some tough questions, but I’m going to keep doing so, of others – and myself.

I’m on an ongoing journey to look for ways I exclude without intending to, in my consulting, in my volunteer engagement, in my communications strategies, in my language, and on and on. I would like for you to do so as well.

New UN Initiative seeks “Information Volunteers”

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Verified is a United Nations initiative to encourage people to check the validity of news, advice and information before sharing it. Verified is looking for “Information Volunteers” to sign up to receive a daily Verified briefing and then to share the fact-based advice and information with their networks.

You’re engaging right now in the biggest project of social collaboration the world has seen. Bigger than the moon landing, than the Olympics, than the building of the tallest skyscraper or longest bridge. Billions of people are working together – the doctor on the other side of the country. The parent homeschooling their child. The scientist working on the vaccine. The nurse working around the clock. You, reading this. Working towards one common goal: to look after each other.

In this crisis, sharing trusted and verified information will help keep everyone safe, while misinformation can put lives in danger. If you want to make sure the content you’re sharing helps the world, sign up to receive Verified content, and always look out for the Verified tick.

We’re doing this for each other – for everyone on the biggest team the world has ever seen.

The initiative is available in a variety of languages:

This is in addition to the UN’s main virtual volunteering initiative, the UN’s Online Volunteering Service.

Yup, I’ve signed up!

Also see:

You have an obligation to be truthful online

21 simple things to do while your programs are on hold during COVID-19 quarantines

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WIth movement limited, public gatherings banned and so many people on home quarantine, many nonprofits, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), charities, government programs and other programs focused on helping or enhancing our communities or the environment are on hold. Some offices are closed entirely.

But there are LOTS of simple ways to use this “down” time that will benefit your program and make your program even stronger when physical distancing is no longer required. Many of these activities will help in fundraising efforts later.

Here are 21 ideas. Please add more in the comments:

  1. Make a list of your city, county, regional, state and national elected representatives and their contact info, if you don’t have it handy already. Going forward, you are going to always email these people about public events when your program starts having them again, and you are going to better advocate for your programs and all nonprofits, NGOs and charities as a result. An online volunteer could help you compile this info if you don’t have time.
  2. Make a list of all the off-site places your organization has held events, including meetings, classes and workshops, in the last few years. Put this list on a GoogleDoc or other shared space and ask staff and volunteers to comment on them in terms of what they liked about them, what they didn’t, etc. As a result, you have a robust database of event and meeting sites for the future.
  3. Make an archive of data you have always wanted to have handy: a list of every Executive Director your organization has ever had, or a list of every board member that has ever served, a list of every winner of a Volunteer-of-the-Year award you have given, a list of every major grant your program has ever had, etc. You can use past versions of your web site archived at the Internet Wayback Machine to access past info to the late 1990s (or ask a volunteer to do it). Such archives are great resources for institutional memory, to renew old contacts, to show your credibility, etc.
  4. Look over old versions of your web site at the Internet Wayback Machine and think about pages and resources your program has gotten rid of over the years that might need to be brought back and updated. This is a project multiple people can work on, including online volunteers.
  5. Find out the most-visited page on your web site, other than your home page. And what’s the second most-visited page? The third? What pages aren’t visited much, but should be? What can you do to make sure under-visited pages get noticed? Or should some pages be deleted per lack of interest, because they are so outdated, etc.? Compile this info and work with your web master or a volunteer to improve your site.
  6. Are your policies and procedures up-to-date regarding confidentiality, safety and sexual harassment, including in terms of online activities? Research the policies of similar programs (most will be happy to share them with you if they aren’t online already). Online volunteers can help with research.
  7. Define or revisit your organization or program’s Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and their answers. Documenting this helps new employees and volunteers and helps guide our web site design and communications strategies. The best person to define your program’s FAQs is the person who answers the phone and your main email account the most. Ask that person the top 10 – 20 reasons people call or stop by your organization or email your organization. Also ask this person to whom he or she transfers the most calls, and then talk to that person/persons as well, asking him/her/them what the top 10 reasons are that people call or email them.
  8. Do you have all of the information you should have on your web site for potential volunteers and for current volunteers? This is a great time to get your policies and procedures uploaded, an electronic version of your volunteer application posted (a volunteer can help you), photos of volunteers in action on the site, etc.
  9. Research Facebook groups and Reddit communities (subreddits) focused on your geographic area and think about how you could better leverage them in the future to promote your events, share new volunteering opportunities, share any messages meant to influence the public about an issue, etc.
  10. Create an online survey, or more than one: a survey to find out about the level of satisfaction of current volunteers (before lockdowns began) and where things can be improved, a survey of event attendees about what they would like to see in the future offered by your organization, etc.
  11. Create an online discussion group for your current volunteers. You can use GoogleGroups or https://groups.io/ for free. If you already have such an online discussion group, create a question or discussion of the week: How could our web site be better to represent what volunteers do at our organization? What’s the most challenging thing you’ve faced as a volunteer and how did you address that challenge? What’s a skill or talent you have that most people don’t know you have? Share a photo of you “in action” as a volunteer.
  12. Ask volunteers and clients to take a video of themselves on their smartphones or computers, something under one-minute, saying what your program has meant to them, why they think it’s valuable, etc. Tell them you will be using clips from these videos for a compilation video you will post on YouTube. Once you get enough footage, recruit a volunteer to knit these together, adding a title page, fade ins and outs, music, etc.
  13. Get your Twitter lists in order.
  14. Do you have raw footage of videos of events or training that aren’t shared with the public – but you wish you could do something with them? You could recruit volunteers to do things with such: make a one-minute or three-minute video with copyright-free music that offers program highlights, or to edit a video down to something that could be shared with the public.
  15. Add robust descriptions to your YouTube videos: name of the video, a summary of what it is, the full name of your organization, names of people featured in the video, a web address for more information, keywords/tags, etc. This will vastly improve the findability of these videos.
  16. Ask volunteers to caption your videos on YouTube so that people with hearing impairments and people who are in an environment where they cannot listen to them can experience them (YouTube will caption these automatically and then a volunteer can fix them).
  17. Ask volunteers to transcribe your program podcasts so people can read them (not everyone wants to listen to them).
  18. Ask volunteers to add alt text on all of your photos and graphics on your web site, making the site more accessible for people with sight impairments.
  19. Get rid of all “read more” and “click here” links on a web site, replacing them with descriptive links, so that the web site is more accessible for people with disabilities (you can ask a volunteer to do it if you don’t have time).
  20. Add appropriate titles in the title HTML for every page on your web site. This will improve Search Engine Optimization, improve accessibility for people with sight impairments, and means when someone types the URL (web address) of a web page into something like Quora, the correct title of the page will automatically show up.
  21. Take a deep dive into expanding virtual volunteering, exploring how to use the Internet to support ALL of your volunteers, including your traditional, onsite volunteers, is via The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook, which I wrote with Susan Ellis. It is the most comprehensive, detailed resource available regarding virtual volunteering, and a copy of my book is far cheaper than hiring me to do a workshop!

And a reminder that there has never been a better time for your organization to launch immediate activities and roles for online volunteers. How they could help you with the aforementioned activities should be obvious. Here are even more ideas, from my last blog.

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

Remote tools: what do I (Jayne) use?

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It’s become a frequently asked question of me, since I have worked remotely, from home, for so many, many years, and because I work with so many colleagues, including volunteers, who are also working from home:

What do you use to work remotely with others?

Here’s how I do it – but note that everyone has different preferences and you may find that yours are quite different:

Google Docs / Google Drive has been a fantastic way for me to work with others on word processing documents, slide shows and spreadsheets. This way, it doesn’t matter what software we use for these functions (Microsoft, LibreOffice, whatever). Also, it’s free.

I have used WebEx, Go to Meeting and lots of other video-conferencing platforms – I’ll use whatever the client is paying for – but I love Zoom most: it is super easy for meetings. I like it because it’s so easy to share my screen or for another participants to do so. I can use it on my laptop AND my phone (in case I need to have a meeting when I won’t be at my laptop, which never leaves my house). No matter what you use, keep in mind:

  • meetings should have an agenda (and you stick to it)
  • meetings absolutely start and end on time
  • encourage everyone to keep their video on and to be “present”
  • do as much as you can to keep it lively and focused – treat participants as an audience
  • always use a password for access to meetings, so you don’t get “zoom bombed.”

If someone else is paying for access (I can’t afford it otherwise on my own), I love Slack for quick updates and conversations – I think of it as someone stopping by my office and saying, “Got a sec? I have a question.” If I have access to it, leave it on during the workday so people can reach me anytime, but use the “in a meeting” when I need to not be disturbed. I haven’t found a good alternative to Slack, now that YahooIM and AOL Messenger are gone. I refuse to use Facebook messenger – that company already knows way, way too much about me. WhatsApp is owned by Facebook.

If someone else is paying for it (again, I can’t afford it otherwise on my own), I also love Basecamp – Basecamp has been absolutely essential for me to manage large projects, like a recent one where I managed more than 15 projects, each with 3 – 5 volunteers, plus the overall program for these projects, with about 50 different people working on it. There are places to share files, or to link to files shared elsewhere, to group those files into categories, to do chats, and on and on. So much easier to find things there than to go looking for attachments to emails. I wish I could afford it to use all the time on every project I’m working on with others. It’s password-protected. Groups are private (you have to be invited by the owner of the group to join).

For those that can’t afford Basecamp, I recommend Groups.io. I’m experimenting with it myself, as an online discussion group, but it could also be an online collaboration space, including a place to share files – so much easier to find things there than to go looking for attachments to emails. I wish I could afford it to use all the time on every project I’m working on with others. Groups can be private and invite-only.

If I don’t care about security, I use DropBox to share large files with people that I don’t want to attach via email.

I have two Google calendars, one private and one public. I have my calendar set to send me email reminders 24 hours before especially important meetings, and 4 hours and 1 hour before other meetings. It also sends me an on-screen reminder on my laptop 30 minutes before a meeting and an update on my phone. I also use the alarm function on my phone – not affiliated with Google – to remind me of particularly important meetings.

In the last year, I have found short videos to be a really easy way to orient or pitch something to remote staff or potential clients. I use Quicktime to record the video (it’s already on my computer, comes for free with a Mac) to record the video and iMovie to edit it (also free on my laptop). I had no training in either – I taught myself. In 2018, I did a video to encourage about 20 nonprofits I was working with to make a simple, short video of their own for a project I was working on, and it went over WAY better than an email! I got 100% participation, and I think it was because I showed them exactly what I wanted, instead of telling them. Since then, I’ve created several quick online videos, including three specifically because of the onslaught of interest in virtual volunteering because of COVID-19 home quarantines:

NOTE: Don’t be afraid to use video – to train new volunteers, to remind current volunteers of something they need to keep in mind, to talk about anything, really, that can be summarized in a compelling little speech of around 5 minutes. Your sound is as important as the image – you need to be CLEAR and as interesting to someone who would just be listening to the video as also watching it. And, absolutely, close-caption your video (YouTube does this automatically, for free – then you go in and fix what it got wrong).

As for safety and security: I do not like to share any document online that has my social security and/or birthday on it. But sometimes, I just have no choice. In such cases, I prefer to scan the document as a PDF or JPG and send it as an attachment via email. If I have to sign something, I have a printed and I print it out, sign it, then scan it again and send that as a JPG or PDF.

I subscribe to a VPN – a tool that creates a “virtual private network.” A VPN ensures that the information traveling between a connected device (computer, smartphone, tablet) and the VPN’s server is encrypted, making it more secure from hackers, cybercriminals, and data thieves. It’s a great tool if you ever use a public wi-fi network – at a coffee shop, the airport, the library, etc. As an added bonus, usig a VPN, you can also access restricted websites and apps from anywhere in the world – great to get around blocks on a website when you are outside your country (no more “not available in your country” messages). I recommend Hot Spot Shield (the free version has a lot of ads – it’s worth the monthly subscription fee not to have these).

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. 

your nonprofit is still relevant during COVID19 – SHOW HOW

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If you are a nonprofit focused on helping the homeless, addressing hunger or nutrition, helping people with a chronic illness or children or seniors, helping people with addiction issues, your services are still hugely in demand and it’s easy for people to see how your nonprofit is relevant during COVID19 and all that it’s bringing to individuals and the community-at-large, like unemployment, social isolation and being homebound without onsite visits. I’ve noticed many nonprofits trying to address domestic violence have done an excellent job at messaging these days, noting that the requirements to stay at home have created a very dangerous scenario for those they try to serve and what they are trying to do to address that. If you represent such a nonprofit, you may even have seen a spike in donations as a result.

But if you are a nonprofit focused on live theater, artwork, dance, history, recycling or some other thing that isn’t directly, obviously related to the consequences of COVID19, it can feel like you are being lost amid all the calls for continuing to support nonprofits and addressing this pandemic.

ALL NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS MATTER to SOMEONE, at the very least. If a nonprofit doesn’t matter, it shouldn’t exist.

This is not the time to pause your nonprofit’s communications, wait for things to get better and hope people will remember your nonprofit when we’re through this, or to think that relaunching your public activities once public gatherings can happen again will immediately bring people back to engaging with your program and supporting it financially. Instead, your nonprofit, no matter its focus, needs to be thinking about what messages it can send out on its blog and social media channels, linked from its web site, about its work that will be relevant in these times. It needs to strategize about how to get those messages out and how to invite digital engagement on them as well.

Here are some ideas:

  • Historical societies and history museums need to be posting about what the culture or community they are focused on did in the past regarding an epidemic, a pandemic or other widespread hardship, with photos, any first-person stories they have on file or accounts by others. Did your city experience the so-called Spanish Flu and, if so, what happened in that time? Share stories of hope, courage, sorry, and with each message, remind people what your organization does to preserve local culture. This doesn’t have to be one major online publication – you can publish just one thing once a week, even twice a week. Always invite feedback on such – some people may have photos and diaries they would like to share with you from that time.
  • Historical societies should be finding free broadcasts of history-related topics (such as on public television) and encouraging home-based live-watch parties, and for everyone in their own community that’s watching to share thoughts as they watch on a Facebook thread or Tweet chat designed for them to share such. At least some of these quotes will demonstrate the power of learning about history and be great in a grant proposal.
  • History societies and groups focused on specific ethnic cultures should be sharing how people can get started on their own family history and ancestry projects: how to ask for info from family members, how to record that information (scanning, how to use a smart phone to record, etc.,), options for sharing that information with just family, or with the public, etc.
  • Community theaters should be posting stories about places and pieces related to any discussion of disease, or noting the ways past epidemics or pandemics have affected live theater in the past. Share these stories with the intent to say, “And live theater SURVIVED!” A group of online volunteers, recruited from your current home-bound volunteers or newly recruited, could help you compile enough information to share something every week – even twice a week. Maybe even every day.
  • There are art museums that are having a field day with social media during this crisis, such as the Getty, which has asked people to recreate famous painting scenes using whatever they can find in their own house. Check out a few of the Getty’s picks on its Instagram, and don’t forget to take a peek this hashtag. It’s a campaign that’s not only gone viral, it’s reminded people of just how images from art influence our lives and kept that museum relevant.
  • Operas could post people performing songs in operas, like La Traviata or La bohème, where a character is singing while dying and talk about how the performing arts have never flinched from portraying human suffering, and how that art can help people handle the horrors around them.
  • All performing arts groups – theaters, operas, dance companies, choirs, etc. – should be finding free broadcasts of performances by ANY group related to whatever art they themselves produce and encouraging home-based live-watch parties, and for everyone in their own community that’s watching to share thoughts as they watch on a Facebook thread or Tweet chat designed for them to share such. At least some of these quotes will demonstrate the power of performing art and be great in a grant proposal.
  • All arts groups should be posting messages regularly now about the links between producing art and experiencing art and the positive effects on such regarding mental health.
  • A nonprofit that produces a farmer’s market or artisan market should ask its clients to make short videos about what they are doing now – both challenges they are facing and what they are still producing and ways people might be able to order it online or pay for it in a safe exchange that involves a lot of physical distancing and no close contact whatsoever.
  • Many animal shelters and rescue agencies have done a brilliant job promoting now as a great time to foster an animal from the shelter, since families and individuals are homebound anyway, and it’s resulted in a windfall of great foster families for many shelters.
  • If your nonprofit promotes sports, the outdoors or an outdoor activity, this is a time to be interviewing people online who have benefited from your programs over the years, and sharing those stories online, to say, “This is why sports / this activity matters. This is how we have impact.” If you don’t need to do fundraising for activities, you could fundraise for equipment you will use once your operations resume. You could also be sharing with people how to clean and repair whatever equipment is associated with the sport or outdoor activity, or an at-home exercise that could help build strength or balance to help in engaging in that sport or outdoor activity.

Your volunteers would love to come up with their own ideas about what your nonprofit should be saying and doing to stay relevant now. You can bring them all together in a conference call or put one volunteer in charge of gathering their ideas, calling and emailing each one. Emailing is great – but calling someone is even better, in most scenarios. This doesn’t have to be a one-time ask: they should be given multiple opportunities to share their ideas with you, and opportunities to help bring those ideas to fruition.

Always invite feedback on what you are sharing, and track this feedback. You can use this to show the impact of your COVID19-related activities to potential funders.

And a reminder that there has never been a better time for your organization to launch activities and roles for online volunteers. How they could help you with the aforementioned activities should be obvious. Here are even more ideas, from my last blog.

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. 

Too much text on the web? Bollocks

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I have always believed content drives design for any communications product, from a paper brochure to a website. What good is a supposedly “well designed” or “eye-catching” poster, billboard, flyer, manual or website if it doesn’t get the result you want – and the result is not just people looking at it and saying, “Oh, what a lovely design,” but what they DO and how they THINK after experiencing that product.

I will never forget being handed a company brochure at a nonprofit where I had just started and being told, “It won a design award!” I looked it over and said, “The text is too small for someone who needs glasses to read and dark green text on a light green background makes it really hard for ME to read as well.” I didn’t last long at that job…

Then there was the designer who so proudly presented me with his design for an upcoming event, and it was beautiful, but it was missing the date, the time and the location of the event, and it implied the event would be something that it wasn’t. But, hey, it was pretty! He was crushed when I told him he had to add the necessary info. “But… it ruins the design…” he sighed…

And then there was the nonprofit that decided it wanted to delete at least half the text off of its web site. It did so, resulting in an onslaught of email from people asking for more information, and me having to constantly cut and paste, over and over, the information that used to be on the web site.

My attitude about text – about the importance of clarity and completeness over just brevity for brevity’s sake – puts me at odds with many a designer. But it recently put me at odds with people who believe “too much text intimidates young people” and, therefore, you should cut down on the number of pages on your web site.

Bollocks.

Yes, I get it – most people don’t read everything on a web site. That has ALWAYS been true. I have always known people don’t go to a website and read it like a book – they go to a website, read the home page, and if they are enticed, or in need of certain information, they click on something and read more.

What’s great about the web is that you can create a site that appeals to BOTH of those groups of information consumers, those who just need a bit of info, and those who want to dive deeper.

Also, people often go to a web site not as a fresh, new visitor who need something shiny waved at them to be intrigued – there are those that go to a web site looking for specific details. They may be a current volunteer who wants to get clarification regarding the purpose of your organization’s community engagement. They may be someone who wants to understand more about why the issue your nonprofit addresses exists at all. They may be someone who is doing a reference check on someone claiming to be on your board. It may be a CURRENT STAFF MEMBER who wants to stay on brand/message, and to do that, needs to know what the official wording is regarding some program or practice.

How many times have I joined an organization as a new employee or consultant and my only source for vital historical information I need is the organization’s web site? And how many times has the organization not had that vital information on their new, shiny, modern, streamlined website, so I have to go find it on an old version of their site on the Internet Wayback Machine?

Absolutely, when someone opens a web page, they shouldn’t feel overwhelmed. Some are overwhelmed by lots of text. I’m overwhelmed by lots of photos – because I rarely go to a web site for photos, I go for information, and I feel like I’m lost in a sea of images and I search for real, actual information I need.

The philosophy is to put JUST enough information on a web page to get people to sign up for an event, put JUST enough to get people to buy a ticket. I get that. And, certainly, for landing pages, it’s a good philosophy. But there are many users who are going to need more information. So why not have a link to more information so people like me, who are NOT going to buy that ticket or sign up to volunteer based on just a paragraph or two, can dive deeper? Believe me, there is PLENTY of room on your web site for that additional information. There is plenty of room on the web for more web pages.

One last note: I have once again been in a position to create tasks for volunteers and then to recruit and involve volunteers in those positions. I tried the less-is-more for role descriptions – and ended up with an endless number of questions from volunteers, asking for all those details I was leaving out of my pithy recruitment posts. Lesson learned: I went back to long-form.

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.