Category Archives: Community / Volunteer Engagement

Volunteering: not a black & white subject

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In the same day, I’ve been accused by a person of being unfairly opposed to all forms of voluntourism (paying to volunteer abroad) and accused by another of promoting voluntourism.

In the same week, I’ve been accused of pushing an agenda that makes volunteering too difficult for most people to access and also pushing an agenda that makes volunteer involvement too easy and puts clients at risk.

Some people have said I think people paid to do work are better than volunteers, and others have said I want to eliminate paid roles and replace such with unpaid volunteers.

Most people who bother to actually read what I write know exactly where I stand on voluntourism (I do think there is such a thing as ethical voluntourism, but I think such ethical experiences are rare), know exactly where I stand on volunteer engagement (I don’t trust any nonprofit that doesn’t involve volunteers while also believing that organizations have every right NOT to accept every offer to volunteer) and know that I don’t think volunteer engagement should be used as a way for job elimination (but that I DO think some roles are best done by volunteers).

Talks about volunteerism are, and should be, full of nuance. Volunteerism is a complex subject. If you want to see a fight break out, ask a room full of managers of volunteers to define the word volunteer. Which is right? In many ways, they ALL are. There’s nothing simple about this subject – that’s why it’s held my interest for a few decades.

And I do change my mind. Over many years, I went from being okay with voluntourism to being totally opposed to it to being back to being okay with it, with certain qualifications. I change my mind because I’m always reading opinions from other people, testimonials from volunteers and those that involve such, and most importantly, those served by volunteers. I hope you do the same.

But quit trying to put me in a box.

Updating my resource on volunteering abroad: your help needed

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

For many years, I’ve maintained a resource to help people understand the various types of volunteering abroad programs and to evaluate a program they might be interested in. I’ve also included two lists on that page:

  • one is a list of volunteering abroad programs where participants do NOT have to pay (these are all long-term volunteering gigs, like the Peace Corps, UNV, etc.), and
  • the other is a list of where participants DO pay but the programs also meet the criteria for an ethical volunTOURism company (they don’t take absolutely anyone so long as they can pay, they vet participants, the activities are designed by local people, no “white saviorism” type activities, no working with orphans or wildlife, etc.).

That resource is here.

But I’m sorry to say that COVID seems to have taken away a lot of programs, particularly on that second list. I just updated the page, removing those now defunct programs. But I’d like to add to the page, if there are additions out there.

If you know of a volunteering abroad program that you think meets the requirements to be listed on my page, either DM me or use this form to contact me. Please FIRST view my page and see if I already have it listed.

Do NOT use the comments to recommend a company – I’ll delete it as soon as I see it. I will accept ONLY DMs or recommendations on the contact form.

Breaking down online barriers for online volunteers with disabilities

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

Online volunteering – virtual volunteering – creates new avenues for people to be able to volunteer for causes they want to support, but online environments present challenges for people with disabilities.

Many adults with disabilities are excluded not just in onsite situations, but in the digital world as well, further limiting their ability to engage in paid work and voluntary service. But just as by removing onsite barriers and enhancing accessibility, we can foster environments where everyone feels welcome and empowered to contribute, we can do the same online.

The UK’s Bridging the Digital Divide: Challenges and Opportunities for Disabled Adults in Volunteering report from September 2023 uses data from NCVO’s Time Well Spent survey to explore these issues. It shares recommendations for both government and agencies that involve volunteers. You can read a summary of the recommendations here.

Also see my own resource, Make All Volunteering as Accessible as Possible: advantages for your program & how to do it.

And, of course, this topic was covered in detail in The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook: Fully Integrating Online Service Into Volunteer Involvement, available both as a traditional print book and as an e-book. 

Me participating in a volunTOURism activity? Yes, it’s happening!

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A drawing of Jayne, with wild hair, jogging while pulling a suitcase on wheels behind her.

I’m well known in many corners of the Interwebs for speaking out against unethical voluntourism, where people from North America, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand pay money to a company to go abroad for a week or two for a feel-good experience and lots of photos, doing things that can actually be harmful: interacting with orphans and refugees (who need long-term relationships and should never be used as Instagram props), interacting with wildlife (who should never be exposed to repeated human interactions, especially tourists), doing activities that local people want to do themselves and paid for (building a school, building a well), and undertaking activities that aren’t a priority for nor led by local people. Unethical voluntourism is vanity volunteering at it’s WORST.

But there is such a thing as ethical voluntourism: where local people define the activity and lead it. Where the focus is on educating the visitors so they can become advocates back in their own countries. Where the activity actually creates jobs for local people. Where short-term visitors are kept away from vulnerable people, like orphans, and view wildlife from afar, not interacting with them as though they are pets. Where intercultural learning really does happen. And, yes, volunteers might have fun and take lots of photos, but in an ethical matter: no photos of children without parental permission, for instance.

I’ve long promoted the idea of transire benefaciendo, “to travel along while doing good.” When I travel abroad, I try to eat at locally-run restaurants, eat locally-sourced food, drink locally-produced beer, book local guides, and stay in locally-run, small guest houses as much as possible. I try not to create a lot of waste. I refuse to have my photo taken with supposed “orphaned” or performing wildlife. I find an adult to ask permission of before taking a photo with a recognizable kid in it. As I say on my web site,

I think transire benefaciendo is also about traveling with purpose. It’s a trip, a journey, with the intention of learning, with an intention of local interaction. It’s travel that is mutually beneficial for both the traveler and the people in the place where the journey will take place. transire benefaciendo is purposeful travel, about widening a traveler’s understanding of the world rather than ticking something off a bucket list.

But I’ve never thought about a voluntourism trip for myself… until now.

In May 2025, if all goes as planned, I’m going to Paraguay with Habitat for Humanity. And if I know you – as in, we’re linked in LinkedIn or my personal Facebook page, or we have worked together, YOU CAN COME WITH ME.

Habitat for Humanity’s Global Village program was revamped during the COVID epidemic. I sat in on the official video call going through the program. Some things I learned:

  • From the beginning, volunteers participating in this program will learn about the need for adequate housing around the world, so they can become advocates regarding the cause and champions for equitable housing long after their trip has ended. 
  • Habitat wants to avoid, specifically, “voluntourism” and “white Saviorism.” International volunteers should be “partners”, not “saviors.” The program is moving away from the charity mindset to a community-partnership mindset. Community-centered volunteering focuses on local leadership and local impact. International volunteers should to enter a community with their own ideas of what needs to be done. Local people should be listened to. The “agenda of change” needs to be defined by and led by the local people being served, not the funder, not the outside volunteers coming into a community. 
  • Habitat Global Village projects are designed by local communities. Focus will be on local ownership and local sustainability. Local leaders will be identified and will be leaders in these Habitat projects. The goal of the builds will be to support existing projects in the country.
  • Local partners will be front and center in communications and marketing.   
  • Habitat wants to be involved in more than just the creation of a structure – it’s also the support for “development,” like better safety and security, children doing better in school, etc.
  • Volunteer activities will be focused on volunteers engaging in mutual learning and exchange with local people, rather than tourism activities.
  • A promotion of safeguarding will be much more emphasized throughout the experience.

I was thrilled as I sat through this presentation, especially when the research cited for these changes was from UN Volunteers (my former employer) and VSO (one of my former consulting clients). And I was even more thrilled when I got the invitation from the team leader to go to Paraguay!

So, what will it take for you to come with me?

  • You need to email me and say you are interested. If you know me, you have my email.
  • You need to read the information I send you. And if you decide you want to go, you let me know and I will connect you with the group leader.
  • You will have to fundraise a certain amount of money for Habitat, just as I had to (and I will help fundraise on your behalf), and you will to pay your own expenses (airline tickets) for your part of the trip, just as I have to. Habitat makes it SUPER easy to fundraise. I also made a video to help promote my trip and support for such. So, yes, this trip is going to cost you money. You will find out how much when you contact me.

Let’s go to Paraguay!

(but what if I do NOT know you & you want to go? Then you are going to have to do some very effective convincing for me to know you are a good, reliable, appropriate person to recommend for this trip).

Nonprofits & NGOs: your social media should focus on volunteering as much as possible.

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What the headline says.

Why?

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

If people aren’t coming into your organization regularly and seeing what your nonprofit does, first hand, and the difference it makes, the things it accomplishes, and why it is essential, they are not going to donate and they are not going to support any local, regional or national government funding your operations.

There are an extraordinary amount of outlandish beliefs about the work of nonprofits, how they operate and how they are funded. No amount of social media messaging and press releases is going to change that without a great deal of trust building, and volunteer engagement is an outstanding way to build trust in your nonprofit.

And who knows… maybe you might even build some bridges around a common cause between people who otherwise don’t care about each other very much.

Also see:

Volunteering & social cohesion in a post Brexit world

My Blogs re: social cohesion, building understanding

Note: because of a backlog of blog posts to publish, I’m going to be posting three times a month instead of just twice for a while.

Your nonprofit WILL be targeted with misinformation; prepare now.

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a primitive figure, like a petroglyph, shots through a megaphone

Watching misinformation and disinformation related to the fires in Los Angeles spread exactly like wildfire has been a reminder of just how bad things are regarding public relations and truth. Instead of an army of newspapers, local radio stations and TV stations and other credible media ready to debunk it, the media landscape is as decimated as the actual landscape of the area, and lies about government funding and action, spread by the owner of the site formerly known as Twitter and other people with a political agenda. And no amount of fact-based debunking seems to matter.

As someone that’s studyied misinformation and disinformation campaigns against governments and cause-based organizations since the 1990s, it’s been as horrifying to watch as people losing their homes. And as I’ve watched, I am reminded that nonprofits, no matter how small, no matter how beloved, need to be thinking about their strategy NOW for if and when they are targeted by misinformation. It doesn’t matter what your nonprofit’s mission or size: it can be a target for misinformation, on a local or even national level. And given the incoming Presidential administration, the power of misinformation should never be under-estimated.

I’ve used the example of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) before: it was a collection of community-based nonprofits and programs all over the USA that advocated for low- and moderate-income families and worked to address neighborhood safety, voter registration, health care, affordable housing and other social issues for low-income people. At its peak, ACORN had more than 1,200 neighborhood chapters in over 100 cities across the USA. But ACORN was targeted by conservative political activists who secretly recorded and released highly-edited videos of interactions with low-level ACORN personnel in several offices, portraying the staff as encouraging criminal behavior. Despite multiple investigations on the federal, state, and county level that found that the released tapes were selectively edited to portray ACORN as negatively as possible and that nothing in the videos warranted criminal charges, the organization was doomed: politicians pounced and the public relations fallout resulted in almost immediate loss of funding from government agencies and from private donors.

Public libraries are another good example of how misinformation campaigns can work: more books were challenged in public libraries and school libraries in 2024 than ever before, according to the American Library Association. The vast majority of that increase came from groups or individuals working on behalf of national efforts trying to censor dozens or hundreds of titles at a time, part of a push across the country by those supporting the incoming Presidential administration to ban certain books based on the unfounded claims that they are inappropriate for children, as well as to defund and close public libraries altogether.

Goodwill is a frequent target of misinformation regarding senior staff salaries – and from what I see on a local level, makes no effort to counter that misinformation, resulting in people choosing not to donate items to their thrift shops nor shop at such. Which is so sad, as Goodwill does amazing work regarding training people to enter or re-enter the workforce (which most people don’t know is their mission).

There are nonprofit theaters, including community theaters, that have mounted a production that has resulted in community protests and a loss of donors, and seemed utterly unprepared for the groundswell of controversy, a groundswell that’s often started by just one person spreading misinformation about the play, and the people protesting often haven’t actually read nor seen the play. But they are loud, organized and committed, and the theater is often left utterly unprepared for the negative attention.

I have an entire blog about how to train staff so that your organization doesn’t become a victim of GOTCHA media?, so I won’t repeat those tips here. But you need to have a plan for what to do when there is even a hint of misinformation starting about your organization.

Misinformation about nonprofits usually targets their budget, what they pay staff, how they have or haven’t helped someone, how they make their programming decisions, how they carry out their work and their plans for the future. Therefore:

  • Make sure your web site is up-to-date regarding all of the above.
  • Your social media needs to regularly updated the public about all of the above.
  • ALL staff, including volunteers, need to be regularly briefed (at least twice a year; once a quarter is better) on all of the above.
  • All staff, including volunteers, need to know what to do if they see or hear misinformation related to your organization.

Your entire staff, including volunteers, need to be on the lookout for misinformation: a post on an online community, a comment at a church meeting, a reference at a civic group, a comment from a new volunteer, even a comment at a family gathering. If they see it or hear it in a public setting, or from an elected official or community leader or influencer, they need to NOT respond themselves – they need to know who at your organization they need to tell (it’s probably the executive director, the communications manager or their immediate supervisor). If it wasn’t a public comment, there’s no need to say exactly who said it, but do say what was said.

When was the last time you told your entire staff what to do in case they see or hear misinformation? If you don’t have an answer, create a strategy NOW and meeting dates and times. If it was in the last six months or more, it’s overdue to do it again.

When you hear misinformation, the next step may not be to have a meeting next week to discuss what’s happening; it may be to start drafting responses IMMEDIATELY, to be shared online within hours, even minutes. Who is going to be involved in that? Just the Executive Director and communications person? The board president too? Do you have all the contact information you need for these people so this can happen quickly?

If you had a message that needed to spread quickly online, do you have that system ready to go: do you have a board member who will be in charge of calling all board members to tell them to share an urgent social media message? do you have a manager of volunteers or volunteer leaders who will be in charge of contacting certain volunteers to encourage them to share that urgent social media message? Do you have more than one person who knows how to update your web site, in case your communications manager is on vacation?

And here’s the reality: if you are just thinking about this for the first time, right now, as you read this blog, or if you haven’t done anything to prepare yet, then you are already behind schedule. Most of the recommendations above cannot be done quickly without many weeks, even months, of preparation and refreshers. This is an URGENT need your nonprofit needs to address now, no matter its focus.

One more thing: you need a photo of your executive director, and any other staff, with as many elected officials as possible: the mayor, at least one city council member, at least one county representative, your area’s state representative, your area’s state senator, your areas US Representative and, if possible, your US Senators. It makes it more difficult for an elected official to criticize an organization when there is a photo of that person smiling with your staff, particularly at one of your events. See more at Nonprofits: look at local election results & prepare to reach out.

Also see

How to handle online criticism.

Could your organization be deceived by GOTCHA media?

Growing misconceptions about the role of nonprofits in the USA.

Mission-Based Groups Need Use the Web to Show Accountability

Governments cracking down on nonprofits & NGOs.

Nonprofits: look at local election results & prepare to reach out

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image of a panel discussion or a presentation in front of people at a long desk

An election has happened in the USA and, by now, even tight local elections should have been resolved and winners named. And that means, nonprofits, that you have some relationship building and sustaining to do:

Update your lists of elected officials – city councils, county officials, your state legislative representatives and your US congressional representatives. They don’t take office until January, however, so don’t change the lists prematurely if you have information to send out before the end of the year.

Newly-elected officials should get at least a card of introduction from your nonprofit. An invitation to meet face-to-face would be even better. They need to know who you are and why you matter.

For officials who did not choose to run for re-election, or lost the election, especially if they ever attended any of your events or somehow showed support for your nonprofit. Thank them for their support and consider offering an invitation to continue to be involved with your nonprofit in some way – at least signing up to continue to receive your newsletter. 

Relationship building with elected officials has never been more critical for nonprofits’ to survive. You ignore doing all of the above at great risk to your nonprofits’ future.

Folks need post-election reassurances from your nonprofit – here’s what to say

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four people standing in a circle, holding hands.

Nonprofits in the USA: there are people among your clients, your donors, your volunteers and employees who are deeply worried right now, per the November 2024 election. You don’t have to get political, but you do need to demonstrate to those you work with and for that your organization has a commitment to respect and inclusion in its work. And your employees in particular need to know you have their back in case they need to start job hunting.

Start by reaffirming your organization’s mission, vision and code of conduct, all of which should be in writing, to employees and volunteers. All of your volunteers should be signing new liability waivers and photo releases at the start of each new year – so why not have an official re-orientation when volunteers arrive to renew their paperwork that reminds them of your organization’s mission, vision and code of conduct? If your organization has a written commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), that should be noted as well. Most of your staff will greatly appreciate the reminder and the demonstrated affirmation.

Post reminders to your organization’s social media about your organization’s mission, vision, code of conduct and commitment to DEI. Don’t just do one post for all of this: create a series of posts. A post once a week, or every other week, would make the point clear to your various audiences.

Make sure you have signage in break rooms and work sites that clients, paid staff and volunteers will see that reminds them of your organization’s mission, vision, code of conduct and commitment to DEI. If you are a part of a national network, your national HQ may have posters already made for this.

One caveat: you may lose a volunteer or some supporters because they disagree with your organization’s values – and never realized it fully until you reminded them of such. They may leave quietly or they may express their displeasure in “finding out” that your organization is so “woke.” The reality is that, if they have this reaction, you haven’t done a good job of making sure that everyone has buy-in to your organization and how it works. Do you really want people interacting with clients and potential clients who are not fully bought into your organization’s mission and culture?

Many of us work for nonprofits where our positions are funded in part, if not entirely, by federal funding that is being targeted for elimination starting July 2025. So, nonprofit executive directors: pay attention to staff morale, respect staff that have started job hunting. Be an enthusiastic and supportive reference for employees applying for other jobs.

Also see:

Nonprofits: be honest with yourself, your staff & the public about how the November 2024 elections may affect you

Governor Bevin & Donald Trump Are Wrong on Community Service Requirements (January 2018)

Trump wants to eliminate national service (February 2018)

Trump’s War on Volunteerism (July 2018)

Trump is trying to eliminate national service – again (March 2019)

time for USA nonprofits to be demanding (January 2018)

A plea to USA nonprofits for the next four years (& beyond) (January 2017)

No excuses: give employees & volunteers all the time they need to vote tomorrow

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A woman holds her ballot up proudly and is standing in front of the ballot drop box where she will drop it. She has a dog on a leash next to her.

Tomorrow, November 5, is election day in the USA. Millions of people have been able to vote early and have already submitted their ballot – as you see me doing in the photo at the right – but millions more could not do that, and the only way they are going to be able to vote is to go to a polling place on election day and probably stand in line for a very long time.

Please don’t limit your employees and volunteers to trying to vote before or after work, or over their lunch hour, if you are in a state requires voting at a polling place. Executive directors: tell your staff to let their managers know what three hour slot they will need for voting during the work day, and have managers tell YOU what three hour slot they will need.

Tell staff this is done on the honor system because OF COURSE you trust your staff to take only the amount of time they actually need to vote and to come back to work when they are finished – they won’t take three hours unless that’s what they actually need. Do NOT require things like a photo of them standing in line waiting to vote.

If your nonprofit won’t do this, if you refuse to do this, then let me be blunt: unfollow this blog, and unfollow me on social media. You don’t deserve my advice on anything.

The truth about working from home

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A truth bomb from a Facebook group I follow, for people that want to work from home:

I am amazed at the amount of people who believe that work from home means that they can: stay home with their kids, do things around the house, leave the house to run errands, go shopping, etc. My wfh job we got two 15 minutes breaks, no lunch, could only leave our desk around 2 feet - the length of my corded headset and my supervisor literally told us if we were taking more than a FIVE MINUTE bathroom break we were stealing from the company!!! The ones that think they can get away with having their kids screaming in the background are sadly mistaken because customers will call in and complain about you! And the calls are listened to by management at any given time!!

Most work-from-home jobs are customer service jobs, for insurance companies, airlines, subscription TV services, etc., and you don’t work when you want: you have a fixed, strict schedule. And these jobs don’t pay well. The trade-off is, of course, that you get to work from home, but if you think you are going to be doing child care at the same time, think again!

I work from home most of the time, and I don’t have a strict fixed schedule: I work in marketing and press relations for one nonprofit, I manage the online community for another, and I pick up marketing or volunteer management-related gigs here and there. I work from home 90% of the time, and I don’t have a strict schedule: I can walk my dog when I want, for the most part, I can take a break to watch a movie on TCM if I have time in the middle of the day, I can sleep late some days… but I have to work real hours most every day, and I can’t have distractions while I’m working. The deadlines are real. And I have to be available for phone calls and emails from clients. As flexible as my schedule is, there is NO room in it for child care.

The myths around working from home are important to me for three reasons:

There are so many work-from-home scams out there. I have a plate on my web site about What Work-At-Home / Remote Jobs Look Like and how to avoid scams because there are so many scams (and so many people falling for them).

There are so many desperate people in developing countries that believe the myths about working from home, that think it’s work you can do with just a smart phone and you can do whenever you might have some time, that you don’t need a computer or absolutely perfect and fast Internet access. They are among the prime targets for work-from-home scams.

The myths about working from home are similar to myths about virtual volunteering: that volunteering roles online don’t require a schedule (they do – extra time for online volunteering does not magically happen), that the deadlines aren’t strict (they are – if you don’t do an assignment, it often leaves the nonprofit scrambling to get something essential done that they were counting on you for), that you don’t need any skills (you do), etc. Here’s a list of myths about virtual volunteering, from the Virtual Volunteering Wiki.

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

There are a LOT of parallels between working online from home and volunteering online from home. My book The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook is focused primarily on people who want to engage online volunteers, and covers how to create online roles, and how to properly onboard and support online volunteers during their engagement. If you are a manager of online employees, you might find it helpful. It’s available both as a traditional print publication and as a digital book.

If you have benefited from any of my 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.