Commentary, resources & discussion re: nonprofits/ngos, communications, community engagement, volunteerism, effective humanitarian aid & development, ethics, women's empowerment & management ethics. Posts at least twice a month, usually on Tuesdays.
Category Archives: Community / Volunteer Engagement
Some organizations want to evaluate ROI (return on investment) regarding volunteer engagement by comparing the cost to the organization for a particular volunteer activity (staff time to support the activity, materials, etc.) versus how much that volunteer activity brings in in terms of financial donations or revenue generation.
I don’t think that’s a good evaluation method, in part because you do NOT know, for sure, which volunteer activities have resulted in donations. For instance, there may be no way to prove that, as a result of a group of employees from the local Amazon warehouse volunteering at an event, the nonprofit that was supported received a donation from Amazon two months later. There may be no way to prove that, as a result of regularly seeing social media posts featuring photos of volunteers engaged in activities to support a nonprofit that a person decided to donate financially to that nonprofit.
If you use this matrix at your organization, let me know in the comments or contact me! Let me know how it worked out and what you had to change to make it work for your organization. And if you think there’s anything I should add, or clarify, also let me know!
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.
The hype regarding Artificial Intelligence (AI) is out of control, including regarding mission-based organizations. There are blogs, webinars, YouTube videos and more, all singing the praises of AI for nonprofits and NGOs. Various companies, nonprofits and consultants are falling over themselves to say that AI can do ANYTHING a nonprofit or NGO needs done: raise funds, manage volunteers, talk with clients, administer programs, manage all incoming calls, all with little or no human involvement.
Yet, these promoters are rarely specific. “You can use AI to research grants!” Okay, how? Tell me exactly what that looks like and how it’s different than just typing in keywords to an online search engine?
“You can use AI to screen volunteers!” Great. How? Tell me exactly what that looks like and how it’s different than just requiring certain fields in a volunteer application to be filled out or require a certain number of characters in that field? And is the goal to eliminate all human interaction until the volunteer shows up for the scheduled volunteering gig, because it’s that personal, human interaction that often seals the deal for a volunteer to show up at all.
So many of you are breathless about your use of AI, but you aren’t being specific about what that REALLY looks like. Specifics and obvious, real-world benefits are what lead to tech adoption.
Back in the 1990s, when the Internet started going mainstream, I started my own web site as a place to be specific about how the Internet could be used by nonprofit staff, specifically those responsible for outreach and those responsible for recruiting and engaging volunteers. Lots of makers of software and computers were making claims about what these tech tools could do for nonprofits, but they offered no specifics and no detailed guides, probably because they were talking in theory, not actual practice. As a result, a lot of nonprofits were dragging their feet about switching from index cards to track contacts to software that would manage clients and donors – they relished their personal relationships and saw tech eliminating something fundamental to their fundraising, outreach and program management success. A lot of nonprofits balked at the idea of creating a web site when they weren’t using any web site themselves: if a web site wasn’t the primary way they got info, why should they care? Of course, the reluctance of government and corporate donors to fund tech equipment, Internet subscriptions and training for staff also had something to do with many nonprofits not adopting computers and the Internet for so long.
I was one of the first people to start talking online and in workshops, in low-tech PLAIN language, about practical, real-world applications of online and computer tech for nonprofits. I could see the digital divide emerging between nonprofits that were adopting tech, especially online tools, and doing so much more with less, and those that still hoped the Internet was the CB Radio of the 1990s. But those latter nonprofits were providing critical services, and I did not want to see them die due to lack of understanding about emerging tech tools. In my work, I emphasized not only the practical applications and the specifics of tech use, but also that I would never propose the Internet or software as tools to replace humans; I always emphasized the application of tech tools with the goal of increasing meaningful human interactions, to increase support and help for humans, both clients and volunteers, and to free up time for staff so that they could spend more time in real-time work with clients, donors, the press, potential partners, other staff, etc.
In all of this work, I also never stopped emphasizing the human aspect: when I talked about online mentoring, I noted that success was NEVER about the tech tools, but about the HUMANS involved and how well they were trained and supported.
As a result of my approach, via my web site and via workshops, I regularly got comments like, “This is the first time I’ve ever understood why I should care about the Internet at my job” and “I finally know what questions to ask software salespeople.”
To all of you promoting AI for nonprofits: you have to be as specific as I was. For instance, be clear about why using AI would be preferable to just a web search on Google or Duck Duck Go. In fact, in my opnion: it’s not AT ALL preferable, and if you use AI to make suggestions about small-budget fundraising events for an animal shelter, you should still go to the search engine of your choice and look for fundraising events for an animal shelter, because you will find even more ideas. YOU should know the full range out there, and no AI tool provides that.
And also to all of you promoting AI for nonprofits: you need to be clear in warning nonprofits NEVER to take an AI-produced product, whether it’s a graphic, a press release or a social media strategy, and use it as is. AI makes mistakes (link goes to one that was very personal for me and would have been traumatizing). AI hallucinates and FREQUENTLY puts incorrect info into the written text it produces. AI not only claimed Ananda Valenzuela was speaking at an upcoming conference, it doubled-down when she tried to correct it. AI also doesn’t adhere to standards of accessible or even GOOD design: you can use an AI tool like Canva to produce your event flyer, but a HUMAN still has to make sure it adheres to standards of good design (like appropriate color contrast).
One final note to all of you promoting AI to nonprofits: the energy needs of AI are threatening to overwhelm the power grid. They are increasing our need for electricity at a time when we need to be DECREASING that need and RAISING energy prices for regular folks. You had better acknowledge this, full disclosure, when talking to nonprofits, many of whom are trying to adopt greener ways of doing business (and some of whom are focused on addressing global climate change specifically).
Yes, I use AI. One cannot use anything is on a network of any kind, or even a stand alone new computer, without using some form of AI. My spell checker and grammar checker tool is considered an AI tool, because, supposedly, this tool “learns” from me. I use Canva sometimes. I was once charged with writing a poem that might be a part of a fundraising campaign, and after I wrote my poem, I then asked AI to write a poem, giving it the same parameters that I was given, just to see how it compared. The AI poem actually wasn’t horrible. Mine was better, of course, but if all I had had to work with was that AI poem, with some tweaking, it would have been okay. But just okay. But I never trust the AI summary at the top of an online search – I always go looking for the source. WIkipedia remains a far superior resource for explanations and summaries, IMO.
Think of AI-produced material as something that a new employee from the corporate world or volunteer fresh out of high school, someone who might be able to use the latest computer tech to play video games and watch TikTok videos but does not understand that not everyone has the latest tech tools, not everyone has great eyesight, not everyone uses their hands to navigate web pages, not everyone speaks English as a first language, not everyone understands your soon-to-be dated jargon, etc. You are always going to have to correct and refine the material AI produces, just like you would that new employee or volunteer.
Why am I not taking up the challenge myself and researching and compiling real-world, practical examples of specific ways nonprofits and NGOs are using AI?
I do not have the finances to do yet another mostly-unfunded project. I was paid when I managed the Virtual Volunteering Project. I have not been paid for any of the research and resources I’ve produced for my own web site, nor for the Virtual Volunteering Guidebook (when it comes to the book, which I paid to publish, I barely broke even).
I think it should be NOT ME. It’s overdue for someone else to take up this let’s-talk-plain-language-about-tech challenge.
I am much older now and would like to focus on other things.
I really hope someone out there is reading this and will take up the challenge.
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.
Instead, r/Volunteerism is a place to discuss volunteerism philosophies, ethics &, debates, discuss support for volunteers & all aspects of volunteer engagement/management.
Want to recommend your book or blog on volunteer management? Go for it! Want to promote volunteerism – as in “I think volunteerism is necessary for a prosperous society”? Yes. Want to criticize volunteerism, as in “I think volunteerism is a scam and exists primarily so governments and corporations don’t have to pay people for necessary work and here’s why I think that…”? Yes. Testimonials regarding volunteer experience are also welcomed on r/Volunteerism, but not for the primary purpose of recruiting volunteers for one organization.
NO RECRUITING VOLUNTEERS &
NO “WHERE DO I FIND VOLUNTEERING”.
Reddit4Good is a list I made more than 10 years ago and have updated regularly, of subreddits focused on some aspect of volunteerism, community service, philanthropy or doing good for a cause. It includes a list of places on reddit that allow you to recruit volunteers or to ask “Where can I volunteer?” As you will see when you look at it, there are PLENTY of places to on Reddit to recruit volunteers or ask where to find volunteering.
But there is – or was – no where on Reddit that has a focus like r/Volunteerism. And there needs to be.
You may recall that, for many years, I moderated another subreddit, r/volunteer, and that I rebuilt that subreddit over more than a decade into one of the most popular online communities on Reddit. I noted in this blog all of the effort I undertook to turn the community into something of value, particularly for young people who wanted to volunteer and, no matter how many volunteer matching platforms and apps get launched, still need a great deal of guidance about volunteering. I think that via that online community I’ve finally gotten through in a big way to lots more people regarding why trying to be a volunteer can be so hard (because most organizations have zero volunteer management training, don’t have a person dedicated to volunteer engagement, and can’t get funding for such because foundations and corporations refuse to fund “overhead”). But, sadly, a small, angry, vocal group of new members on that subreddit wanted the community to have minimal rules and minimal rules enforcement – never mind that it was that strict moderation that vastly improved the quality of the content over the years and made the subreddit so popular. I wrote why I decided to walk away as moderator from that subreddit without a fight. And I have no regrets that I quit a project that I had made so, so popular.
But I am still on Reddit. Reddit is MUCH more than one community. After having left the other subreddit for about two months, I went back to have a look at how things were going. And it was so sad: the same “where do I volunteer” posts over and over and over. Unvetted organizations with questionable credentials recruiting international “volunteers.” And worst of all: no more posts or debates about volunteerism ethics, voluntourism ethics, volunteerism trends, volunteer management policies and tools, safety, and on and on. It’s now a subreddit just like the more than 20 others that are focused somehow on volunteering – nothing special about it all, and very little of value.
Well, it’s now just like all those other subreddits except one: a silent group called r/Volunteerism. I had put this subreddit on an early version of Reddit4Good, and had described it as an “anything goes” subreddit, just like most other volunteerism-related groups. And then I didn’t look at it for years. When I did, as 2025 ended, I realized that it hadn’t had a new post in seven years and that it didn’t have a moderator listed. After a week of thinking about it, I followed the steps to claim the subreddit and, voilá, the group is mine. Well, moderation is mine. It belongs to Reddit. But I claimed it for one specific purpose: to restore a place on Reddit to discuss volunteerism beyond the FAQs.
Another reason I wanted there to be a place to discuss volunteerism, not just “Where do I volunteer?”: I have been hired three times as a consultant, twice with a mega large, well known social media company, because of my participation on Reddit, specifically because of how I moderated and facilitated r/volunteer. Not going to lie: I would love for it to happen again.
And so, all of you volunteer management researchers and consultants out there, all you leaders of volunteer management associations, all you program managers at the volunteerism-promoting organizations like Points of Light and the Corporation for National Service, here is your chance at redemption. You ignored r/volunteer, probably the largest community focused on volunteering, for years, and now I’m not sure your posts would be welcomed there, given its new focus. But you could post your press releases and event announcements and conference results to r/Volunteerism. Not much of an audience there now, but give me time… I’m awesome at growing Reddit audiences.
It’s controversial to say, but here it is: I believe that creating volunteering roles is NOT the primary responsibility of the manager of volunteers and that most volunteers should not be working just the manager of volunteers.
And working from this premise, it’s impossible for the manager of volunteers to create most of the roles for volunteers; it takes program staff and even administration staff, a mix of employees and leadership volunteers, to be the primary generators of volunteer roles.
Consider a community theater that produces live performances: a manager of volunteers at such a nonprofit wouldn’t recruit volunteers to help build sets without first talking to the person in charge of set building and that person defining what volunteers will do. Such a manager at a nonprofit animal shelter wouldn’t recruit volunteers to show up to walk dogs without first talking to the shelter manager and working out what training needs to happen, as well as a schedule.
And if these other staff members, whether employees or volunteers, don’t want to involve volunteers, the work of the manager of volunteers is, quite frankly, doomed to failure.
Now, here’s the kicker: how do you encourage, or even require, staff to involve volunteers in their work?
In more than 25 years of working with volunteers and researching volunteerism, I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t. I finally decided to write it all down – and now I have updated the resource on my web site about how to create volunteering roles to include advice on what it takes to get staff to involve volunteers in their work. Have a look and, if you have more advice, offer it in the comments on this blog or email me directly.
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.
America250, the official nonpartisan organization established by Congress to lead the USA’s 250th anniversary commemoration, launched America Gives, a nationwide initiative designed to make 2026 the largest year of volunteerism in U.S. history.
America Gives challenges businesses, nonprofits, schools, youth groups, faith-based networks, and organizations of all kinds to commit to increasing their volunteer efforts and measurable impact.
The initiative aims to build a movement of sustained impact — helping nonprofits expand their volunteer bases and inspiring individuals to continue giving back long after the fireworks fade.
America250’s National Co-Chairs are former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush.
Americans can take the Year of Service pledge and log their volunteer hours at America250.org/America-Gives. A live national counter on the site will track participation in real time, showcasing the collective hours of service across all 50 states, 5 territories, and Washington, D.C.
Participants can easily record their hours by entering their volunteer activity details directly into the America Gives portal. They can also upload stories and photos to inspire others and explore opportunities to get involved.
Americans can also visit the America250 website at America250.org/America-Gives to find service opportunities near them and based on their interests. America250’s National Resource Partner, Points of Light, will help join interested volunteers with the right organization.
2026 is also the 2026 the International Year of Volunteers for Sustainable Development. I’ve created a IYV2026 resource on my site that notes the origins of the year, highlights the accomplishments and resources of the first International Year of Volunteers in 2001, and links to the growing number of official resources. I hope it can be used both to help organizations prepare for IYV2026 and to compare resources now and then, to see how far we’ve come and how much more we need to do.
January 21, 2026 edit: turns out that there is ANOTHER initiative as well: well-financed, privately funded initiative called the “Be The People” campaign. It’s funded by a mix of 50 philanthropic foundations and individual donors. According to this article on the PBS News site, “Be The People,” will not incorporate as a new nonprofit, but act more like a banner for groups to organize under and use to connect to resources.
Are you an officer of a US court, a law enforcement officer, a police officer, a probation officer, or any official charged with overseeing people who have been assigned community service by a court, and part of your role is to verify their community service hours? Then you need to be aware that there are companies that, for a fee, which they call a “donation”, will give a person assigned community service by a court a letter claiming they did those volunteering hours.
These companies are registered nonprofits, and their web sites are carefully worded to imply that they help connect people assigned with community service, or who need volunteering hours done FAST, with online volunteering opportunities, also known as virtual volunteering. But these nonprofits’ web sites list no board of directors, list no staff members, and list no activities being undertaken by that nonprofit. They will say things like “our programs are developed and reviewed by a team of trusted professionals – including doctors, clinicians, professors, licensed psychotherapists, clinical psychologists, and certified behavioral health coaches.” But then never name even one of these experts on their “team.” And as you dig deeper, you discover that the “virtual volunteering” isn’t volunteering at all: it’s writing essays to say how you felt about watching a video (which you don’t really have to watch) or reading someone else’s essay. Or developing a “personal growth” plan. One company says its volunteering is “self-guided, growth-oriented activities focused on personal development and rehabilitation” and the process is like “group therapy.” And, of course, they say that you can volunteer for them by posting about their wonderful program to other social media platforms, Craigslist, etc., bringing them more paying customers.
And if you dig even deeper, you discover that the nonprofit will give a person a letter saying they volunteered for a certain number of hours, and they will base those number of hours on how much the volunteer “fundraises” for the nonprofit. “you can begin your community service now and pay later with a $20 registration plus an access fee of $1 per work-hour (based on the time you complete.)” So for 300 hours, a customer pays $320. They claim this is to cover fees to administer the program – yet, where’s the list of staff they pay? Where’s the financial annual report saying what their fees are?
Virtual volunteering is real. In fact, I have researched, documented and engaged the practice since the 1990s. I wrote a book – many call it THE book – on virtual volunteering. I have a wiki that details what virtual volunteering actually looks like – and it’s not writing personal growth plans or watching videos and then reflecting on how they make the viewer feel. Many thousands of nonprofits and NGOs and government agencies have been involving volunteers to develop web pages, translate texts, transcribe videos, transcribe historical documents, design graphics, add keywords to photos, and on and on – LEGITIMATE online volunteering tasks.
That’s one of the reasons I’m so angry at these companies that associate their selling of community service with virtual volunteering. It’s a subject I care about deeply, and I hate to see it maligned. And some courts now no longer accept virtual volunteering at all for community service because of these unethical nonprofits.
I have a list of these companies that are engaged in this practice of selling letters saying someone has completed community service. I won’t post the list online because I know it will be used by people desperate to get community service done – it will turn out to be wonderfully promotional for these companies. But I will give the list to any person who contacts me from an email address that is associated with a court or law enforcement agency. I’ll be looking for .gov at the end of email requests and I’ll be double checking names at the agencies web sites to make sure you really work there. But once verified, I’ll be happy to send you my list, which I update frequently. My hope is that you will use this list to tell those you are working with, “No, you may not use these companies for your community service hours.” And that over time, they will be driven out of business. Or even better, that your state attorney general will investigate them, as other states have done, and shut them down.
And if you want to recommend LEGITIMATE virtual volunteering to court-ordered folks, here’s a list of credible organizations, like the Library of Congress, where such can be found.
Here are all of the blogs I’ve written to date on this subject. You will see accounts there of courts shutting down nonprofits that engage in this practice, and some courts refusing to accept virtual volunteering at all because of the practice of selling letters that say someone did community service hours.
Please note that I have had some great experiences with community service folks as volunteers – most that I’ve worked with have ended up volunteering long past their required hours, because they enjoyed the experience. I don’t want to further punish them – but I do want them to not get ripped off, and to not further engage in unethical, and possibly illegal behavior.
For many years, I’ve moderated one of the most popular online communities on Reddit. Such communities are called subreddits, and the very popular subreddit I moderated for many years (but not the only one) is r/volunteer. The description, which has a character limit, reads:
Share volunteering experiences or attempts to volunteer (unpaid work for a CAUSE, like helping foster kids). Share vol opportunities for others or a paid or unpaid role for a manager of vols, or a resource for such. Ask questions or for advice on recruiting, engaging & supporting vols, or about policies or safety for vols & those they serve. Discuss volunteerism ethics.
The description also notes: This sub is a highly moderated.
I’ve been a moderator and facilitator of online communities and discussion boards in association with events since the 1990s. My first gig was on the soc.org.nonprofit newsgroup (remember USENET?). I’ve done these moderating and facilitating gigs mostly as a volunteer (unpaid). Why? Because I enjoy networking with others in my professional areas, from volunteer engagement to humanitarian response to nonprofit management to communications for development and on and on. I’ve been a part of even more online communities as just a member – asking questions, answering questions, debating, and lurking. Online communities have always been what I loved most about the Internet, far more than the World Wide Web or any streaming service. Participation in online communities has landed me short-term paid gigs and full-time paid jobs, including with the United Nations. Participation has also given me some wonderful learning experiences and terrific professional colleagues.
I’m VERY proud of my many years moderating and facilitating the volunteer subreddit in particular. It has taken several hours a week to moderate and facilitate the group. It’s a group that has always been very popular on Reddit, but once I took over, membership exploded, and it got even more popular. It also had more on-topic posts, more on-topic comments and more viewers. What did I do so that the subreddit got more members, more viewers and much higher quality content?
One thing I noticed early on was a complete lack of quality control regarding posts on the subreddit. Misinformation about volunteering was everywhere, as were posts from very dodgy groups wanting foreign volunteers to pay a great deal of money to “help” in some developing country somewhere, and “nonprofits” that would give a person a letter, in exchange for a “donation,” saying they had completed online community service for the court. There were people recruiting volunteers but offering no information on who was behind the initiative, something I feel strongly puts people at risk for harm. There were also people asking for volunteers to engage in initiatives that many groups were begging people NOT to do, like create holiday cards for people in assisted living or children in hospitals. There were teens with no experience wanting to create mental health crisis lines – which could, of course, put more teens at risk and lead to teens being harmed. And on and on.
There were also frequently asked questions that were easily answered: how do I volunteer? How do I volunteer to explore a career? How do I volunteer to help animals? How do I volunteer to make me look good for a scholarship? Etc.
My goal in becoming the moderator of the group – and I was the only one, no one else wanted the role – was to get rules in place, get quality content posted regularly that addressed the FAQs, and counter all the misinformation.
Since I began moderating the group so many years ago, it has taken hours of my time every week:
reading every post,
writing and rewriting and rewriting the group rules as the group and the content evolves,
always giving a reason for deleting a post or comment,
welcoming someone who reposts because they’ve rewritten their message so that it fits the rules, complimenting good content,
creating meaningful content tags to that content is easier to find,
creating automated rules (such as requiring that the word “volunteer” appear somewhere in every post and comment),
addressing FAQs with detailed responses (and that sometimes means pointing people to previous responses),
regularly posting what I hope will be thread starters,
promptly banning trolls, people who won’t follow the rules, those trying to sell community service, etc.
trying to answer the many questions and comments that come in via modmail.
posting links to questions and comments to other social media, trying to get more people to respond with quality content or to raise awareness about an issue that I thought more volunteer management experts and consultants and volunteerism-focused organizations should know about.
I’ve always tried to be strategic and thoughtful in the writing and re-writing of every group rule, of every group structure, even of using the automod function. I created standard content tags for the group that I shadow tested for weeks, going back through years of posts and thinking, “which tag would this have if tags had been a thing then?” I never made a group change impulsively and I can justify every post deletion and every ban.
I think it speaks volumes that there are so many other subreddits that are focused on volunteering but have few or no rules regarding transparency, safety programs when vulnerable populations are involved, no prohibitions anywhere near what r/volunteer had – and those subreddits have never taken off. And I even linked to them on r/volunteer, so that people knew, if they didn’t like the rules, there were plenty of other places on reddit that had the “anything goes” vibe they claimed to be looking for.
I loved the experience of moderating r/volunteer in that I’ve gotten to help people volunteer and I think I’ve finally gotten through in a big way regarding why trying to be a volunteer can be so hard (because most organizations have zero volunteer management training, don’t have a person dedicated to volunteer engagement, and can’t get funding for such because foundations and corporations refuse to fund “overhead”). I’ve also really enjoyed seeing for myself just how much people under 40 really, REALLY want to give back to their communities and do good in the world. It’s why, when networking with volunteer management professionals elsewhere, I’ve been able to say, with confidence, that claims that “no one wants to volunteer” are not true. So much of my interactions on the subreddit have affirmed everything I’ve said for years about how to recruit volunteers and engage them effectively. The vindication has been wonderful.
But moderating has also meant a LOT of abuse and personal, nasty insults. I have kept those private from the members of the subreddit, because I see no reason to amplify that hate. I’m not talking about people who are criticizing my points of view; I’m talking about people who say vile things, things meant to terrify. I’ve also regularly been threatened with the filing of lawsuits (such has never been filed, BTW). Two different angry people called me at home – a consequence of me being transparent on Reddit about who I am, rather than hiding behind a cyber pseudonym.
But just as bad, and maybe worse, are the people who parachute in to the group for a few days and demand my credentials and demand that I prove I really am an expert regarding volunteer engagement; these are requests from people who won’t share their own credentials and are unaware that there were any global standards regarding volunteer management, unaware that there are global gatherings on the subject, etc.
Those constant demands for me to prove I am an expert, and the repeated “Why aren’t you doing it THIS way?” messages from people who rarely provide meaningful content has finally gotten too much.
And so, my time moderating the volunteer subreddit is at an end. Not ending how I wanted it to – I kept trying to recruit new moderators, so I could just be a regular member, but no one ever even tried to meet the criteria. But I’m done – as moderator and member.
And one last note: I’ll always be frustrated with all of the volunteer management researchers and consultants out there, all of the leaders of volunteer management associations, all the volunteerism-promoting organizations like Points of Light and the Corporation for National Service, who would not even read the volunteer subreddit, let alone participate in it. For those consultants, researchers, nonprofits and associations to ignore what is probably the largest community focused on volunteerism is shameful.
Effective November 1, veterans, the homeless, recent foster care youth and adults ages 54-64 in the USA are no longer exempt from work requirements to receive food benefits for themselves and their families through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). This is a result of the “big, beautiful bill.”
People in these groups are now going to have to work for pay or volunteer with a credible nonprofit for 80 hours a month in order to receive their SNAP benefits (once they start being funded again).
It’s likely many USA nonprofits are going to see an increase in requests to volunteer as a result. One of the challenges is that you are going to get people who show up on Monday of the last week of the month and say, “I need to get 80 hours of volunteering this week.” That’s impossible.
Nonprofits: make sure you have information on your web site that notes your LIMITS on volunteering in terms of hours per week. How far in advance does a person need to apply with you to arrange 80 hours of volunteering in a month? And make sure staff know how to diplomatically, compassionately, respond to people desperate for volunteering hours that simply cannot be done in the amount of time requested at your nonprofit.
But please also think about ways you can accommodate at least a few people needing up to 80 hours of volunteering over an entire month.
You should talk to staff about this potential influx of volunteers and what it means for them in terms of supervising volunteers, filling out paperwork, etc.
These folks are going to be people who urgently need these hours and are completely stressed out about it. They need compassion, even if you can’t accommodate them – and especially if you can.
A great idea I heard from the Habitat ReStore in Beaverton, Oregon: put up a white board that says, “Tasks for the Day” and have staff write things that need to be done. A volunteer writes his or her name next to the task they are going to do, and then they go do it. Then they come back to the board when they are done and mark it “done” and move on to the next task.
Of course, the challenge is that staff have to come up with tasks. And be available to provide guidance for those tasks.
One more thing: if your nonprofit DOES accommodate people required to do community service, whether because of SNAP or the courts or classroom requirements, track how many volunteers you are involving as a result of these programs and find a way to define how much it is COSTING your organization to engage and support these volunteers. And make sure that cost is reported to your board, to your local elected officials and to your donors. Make sure they know that volunteers are never, ever cost free.
Read more about these SNAP requirements from the Kentucky Lantern and from the USDA.
Verboort is an unincorporated community in Washington County, Oregon. It has less than 500 residents. It also has a very large Catholic Church and an adjacent, small Catholic School.
Back in 1934, the church and school started the Verboort Sausage and Sauerkraut Festival, with proceeds going for the upkeep of the school. It was small and attended by residents, families, and some people from surrounding villages.
Now, the one-day festival attracts about 10,000 people a year. The line for purchasing bulk sausage and sauerkraut starts forming four or five hours before sunrise. The cars that want to pick up ready-made dinners line up five hours before serving begins. The venue where dinner is served (rather than take aways) is continually packed from the moment it opens until it closes in the evening.
I’m just back, rain-soaked from standing in line for a take away meal, and covered in mud from the trek to and from the car parked in a farm field. And I’ve been wondering why this fundraising event is so amazingly successful.
Here’s what I think makes it successful year after year, even during COVID:
They’ve kept the festival simple in terms of what it serves. It’s pretty much the exact same meals, every year (pork sausages, sauerkraut, mashed potatoes, green beans, apple sauce, coleslaw, a roll and a piece of pie). No variation. They have the formula down – really hearty comfort food you want to eat in November – and they stick with it.
The food is incredible. I have never had mass-prepared meals that are this scrumptious. The sauerkraut is to die for – which is why they also sell it by the tub the day of.
The community was founded by six Dutch Catholic families, and the festival plays up the Dutch connection HUGELY. Actually, they get a little mixed up and play German Oktoberfest music too, but most people don’t know. The point is, this isn’t like any other festival anywhere else in Oregon. It makes it more than food – it’s an experience.
They grew slowly. What started off as maybe 100 people coming to a community feed has slowly blossomed. They didn’t immediately try to do something beyond their resources. People who enjoyed it returned – and told their friends. Then they started putting a sign out on the highway in farmer’s fields. Simple sign, name of the festival, “First Saturday in November.” SO easy to remember. Now, they will have TV crews come out to see the kraut-making process – and the local TV news always comes.
They know how to manage the crowd. This is a TINY town with ONE paved street going through it (not kidding). Yet, unless you are in line for a ready-to-take-away meal, you will rarely be in a traffic jam. You get directed to parking and you park quickly, no fuss, no muss. And that’s because…
Most of the festival is staffed by volunteers, and plenty of them. They are directing traffic, they are helping people park, they are taking orders, they are helping people find the right line, they are putting the meal trays together, etc. Some are students of the school, some are parents, some are residents, some are church parishioners from Verboort, some are parishioners from elsewhere, and some are people that just love this event and love being a part of it. SO MANY VOLUNTEERS.
I really cannot emphasize enough how well organized this event is. The volunteers are juggling orders and food and parking and cars like nothing I’ve ever seen. It’s a well oiled machine.
Altogether, it feels like something you just have to go to if you live here. It feels like an event, a happening. It feels unique. You go even in crap weather. And I’m not Catholic and I don’t eat pork, but there I am, every year (the secret is that you park in the farm field and bring a wagon or a lot of bags, and you stand in line for the ready made meals – you can be there just 60 minutes before it opens and get all the food you want).
People come from Portland and Salem to this.
And many know it’s a fundraiser, but don’t know for what! I’ve done some informal polling, and people will say they like to support it because it’s a fundraiser, and when I ask for what, they’ll say, “for some school or something?” All that is important to them is that, in addition to the good food and unique experience they are supporting a “good cause” – even if they don’t know what it is.
There is a lot that smaller fundraising events could learn from this festival.
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.
Reddit was founded in 2005 is a community platform categorized around different interests. As of January 2025, Reddit had over 500 million people registered as users. 110.4 million daily active users and 416.4 million weekly active users, 44% of US Redditors were aged 18 to 29 years old and around 2 in 3Reddit users were male. Redditors tend to be significantly younger than other online communities like Facebook, with less than 3% of users being 65 or over.
These community members use the platform for highly targeted content, via whatever community, or subreddit, they subscribe to. And that, together with the demographics of the platform, are why I find Reddit so valuable for outreach: I can reach a group that’s hard for me to reach otherwise (people under 35, as well as young men) and I can target specific groups, like just the users that live in the town where I live (because there’s a subreddit for that), women that ride motorcycles.
If you have struggled to connect with young, male audiences regarding your nonprofit’s work, or if you want to get a handle on what young people say regarding nonprofits, volunteering, civic engagement, etc., Reddit is a great place to get to know.
Reddit has not only given me amazing insights into how young adults think about volunteering. It has also:
Helped a nonprofit I support FINALLY land a group of volunteers from a very, very large and well known company in our area that we had been trying to reach for a couple of years, with no success. I posted info about a one-day volunteering event on a subreddit for a large city near us and one of the employees stuck it on the employee intranet and, boom, we got volunteers from that corporation at long, long last – and later, a donation of $5,000.
I’ve been hired twice by another very large, well-known company for consulting work because of my activities on Reddit – on r/volunteer in particular.
Of course, your mileage may vary…
I hear a lot of people say they have no idea where to get started on Reddit. If you work for nonprofits, here’s what I recommend:
Look at my Reddit profile and see what subreddits I’m a part of and what I’ve been posting (you can also follow me on Reddit).
Then look at Reddit4Good, a massive list of Reddit communities that relate somehow to doing good. It has a list of:
Subreddits focused on areas related to nonprofit work, like biology, agriculture, etc.
Subreddits for formally established programs (CASA, AmeriCorps, Red Cross, Peace Corps, Habitat for Humanity, etc.).
Regional-based subreddits focused on volunteering (the UK, Brazil, Oregon, etc.).
ONE BIG CAUTION: change your settings so that you do not get a notification every time a new post or comment is made to any of the subreddits you join. Trust me on this – you do not want that many notifications in your life.
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.
