Category Archives: Community / Volunteer Engagement

Corporation for National and Community Service needs a makeover?

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Paula Beugen was a part of the movement that lead to the National and Community Service Act of 1990 and the Corporation for National and Community Service. But she is now one of many that is not happy about where the Corporation is today:

In sharp contrast to the excitement that I felt when the Act of 1990 first got the ball rolling to create the Corporation and its programs, I now find myself greatly concerned with the Corporation’s lack of impact on volunteer infrastructure and volunteering. Today, the Corporation is struggling for survival – but does it need a serious makeover no matter what funding level Congress approves for it? 

Of particular concern to her – and to many others, including myself – is the recent emphasis the Corporation has placed on deploying AmeriCorps members as “mobilizers of community volunteers.” As Paula notes:

I have observed a dearth of positions for professional managers of volunteer programs in recent years at the same time the Corporation has been promoting and placing AmeriCorps members as volunteer coordinators. There is an important role for AmeriCorps volunteer coordinators to augment the work of volunteer resources managers within organizations but not to take their place.

Little has been done to educate policymakers that there is more to volunteer resources management than “coordinating” volunteers. This works great in the short run, but the long-term sustainability of results-driven volunteer programs requires substantive investment in volunteer resources management infrastructure… AmeriCorps members can be of enormous help to volunteer-involving organizations, but they cannot substitute for experienced volunteer resources leaders with ongoing commitment to best practices in the volunteer resources management profession.  

These quotes are from Paula’s guest turn for the Energize June Hot Topic. It is very much worth your time to read.

I’ve had my own complaints about the Corporation. I complained repeatedly when their “Reimaging Service” report equated volunteer management with human resources management, and became a drive to apply private sector human resources practices to nonprofit organizations: “there’s a lot of work to be done; let’s get people we don’t have to pay to do it!” They ultimately backed off saying this, though it’s obvious from their actions that they still think it. I hesitate to participate in their invitations to voluntarily consult, because not only will my concerns probably not be addressed, they might use my participation to say, “Look, see, this strategy is the result of a consultive process – and look at all these people who contributed to our final strategy!” with no mention of the criticisms I and others have brought up. (in international development, this is called being World Banked).

I hope you will blog about this issue as well. Online pressure is as vital as face-to-face, offline pressure to keep the Corporation on track!

What is impressive, what is not

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Things I’m not impressed by:

  • How many Facebook “likes” or “friends” your organization has
  • How many times your organization “tweets” or your tweet has been retweeted
  • That your organization received an “award” from one of your VENDORS
  • That you “gave up” a corporate career to work in the nonprofit sector
  • How many hours your volunteers contributed last year
  • How many hours of overtime your organization’s employees work most weeks
  • That you are hiring a Rock Star-anything (Rock Star Membership Coordinator, Rock Star Social Media Manager) unless you are PAYING a Rock Star salary and providing Rock Star benefits.
  • Your web site’s use of stock photos
  • That your new web site is coming soon and all your descriptions of how great it’s going to be.

Things I am impressed by:

  • Online activities leading to offline action
  • How your organization handles negative comments on your Facebook page
  • That your organization was recognized by your Governor’s volunteering awards
  • That your tweet last week resulted in a $5000 donation (or more) than you wouldn’t have gotten otherwise
  • What your volunteers accomplished last year, in terms of tangible results (literacy among your clients increased, trees planted, perceptions changed, legislation passed, etc.)
  • Volunteers in leadership positions at your organization (leading a project, serving on an advisory board regarding marketing and outreach, producing a publication or online video, etc.)
  • Happy employees that love going to work and supporting each other, that love collaborating internally and sharing information and resources with each other
  • A competitive salary and benefits package for employees
  • Photos of your own organization’s actual volunteers or clients, however out-of-focus such may be
  • That your new web site is launched, on time, that it’s easy to navigate, that I can quickly find what I’m looking for without having to sit through a video or shut down your blaring audio that starts up automatically, that it works with any browser, and that you obviously incorporated the suggestions of others into the new design.

 

Recruiting board members with LinkedIn?

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On LinkedIn, in the Answers section for nonprofits, someone asked:

How can a non-profit recruit board members through LinkedIn?

Recruiting board members successfully comes from a lot of ongoing cultivation. Using LinkedIn or any other online networking tool to recruit board members has to be a part of a comprehensive, ongoing strategy that involves a lot of different activities, IMO.

It not only doesn’t work to just post somewhere and say, “Hey, we need some board members!”, it also makes it sound like you don’t treat board membership seriously.

The following suggested activities to recruit board members will show that you are a competent, credible, transparent organization, and will give candidates an idea of how seriously you take your organization’s work and how well you support your board members. It also shows you aren’t looking for just anyone. Board membership is an honor, a leadership volunteering opportunity, and should be treated as such in your recruitment!

Start with your web site:

  • Have a full description of what board members do, what weekly or monthly time requirements a board member is committing to (onsite meetings once a month? online meetings once a week?) and for how long (a year? two years?), if attendance to a certain number of meetings is mandatory (IMO, you should always have such a requirement if you want board members to take attenance seriously), if board members are expected to give or raise a certain amount of money each year (you don’t need to say how much on your web site; you can leave that to an interview later), etc.
  • Note on your web site how many board members you are looking for. Two? Three to six?
  • Have photos of your board in action, and a list of all current board members with short bios about each – not just what companies and constiuencies they represent, but also, a personal statement from each about why they volunteer for your organization, why they think such is important, etc.
  • Have complete details on how someone could nominate themselves as a board member, or how they could suggest someone for possible nomination. Make this process super easy.

This information on your organization’s web site is not an afterthought. They are super-important steps that they show how much your organizaton values board members. This information will wow a potential candidate. It will also screen out people who don’t understand the very real commitment of board membership.

Then talk to your current board and map exactly what will happen when a nomination comes in:

  • What research will be done on a candidate, and who will do that research? How and when will a candidate be interviewed, and who will do that interview?
  • What questions will be asked in that interview?
  • What will be the reasons to turn a nominee away, and how will this rejection be communicated?
  • If you turn away a board member, will you encourage that person to volunteer in other ways? (advisory board? volunteer project leader? special events volunteer?)

And once you have done all of these steps, you are ready to:

  • post this leadership volunteering opportunity (that’s what board membership is!) to BoardNetUSA, VolunteerMatch, etc., pointing back to your web site with complete details about what board membership really looks like
  • post something about the opportunity on your own, individual LinkedIn status update for your network (you may want to do this more than once)
  • ask each of your existing board members to do the same on their status updates on LinkedIn, to reach their network
    if it’s appropriate 
  • ask all of your volunteers to post about the opportunity to their LinkedIn status updates as well, if they feel comfortable doing such
  • do the same on Facebook, if it’s appropriate – but note that Facebook is a social networking site, and many people don’t like mixing their business or volunteering with their social activities.

If you have a Come learn about our organization event/open house, list it on the events function of LinkedIn as well, and make sure all staff, board members and other volunteers that will attend RSVP on LinkedIn, so that all of their connections see the attendance, and ask all board members and staff to mention the event in their status updates as well.

Also, look for LinkedIn groups that are regionally-focused on your geographic area; these can be focused on business, on a particular issue, on on someone else’s group, etc. Some of these LinkedIn groups may be appropriate for posting about your board opportunities (most won’t be, but it’s worth it to look). You can also troll those groups and look for people that you think would be great board members based on the quality and content of their posts, and the ask your board member, your staff, your other volunteers and your own professional network if anyone knows a person you’ve identified as a potential candidate and if anyone in your network would be willing to make the initial invitation to an open house or event so that person can get to know your organization.

After three-six months, evaluate your efforts. How many inquiries did you receive? How many formal nominations did you receive? How many new board members have joined or are in process? If people dropped out of the process after expressing interest or being nominated, why did they? If people were rejected, why were they rejected? In answering these questions, you will know what adjustments you need to make in your board recruitment – on LinkedIn and otherwise!

And one final thought: what a great volunteering opportunity it would be for someone to be in charge of this board recruitment process! You could recruit a volunteer just to do all of the above for six months. Designate one staff member to be the primary contact and support person for such a volunteer, and start recruiting just for this position first! There are so many university students studying nonprofit management, business management, HR management, or any number of other subjects, as well as people who are job-hunting, who would love to be able to put on their résumé: instituted and managed a successfully recruitment campaign for such-and-such organization, resulting in three new board members.

Governor’s Volunteer Awards Coming Soon

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In many states in the USA, the governor of that state has an annual event to recognize outstanding volunteer efforts. There are lots of categories of recognition for these award programs: for an outstanding senior volunteer, a youth group of volunteers, an individual youth volunteer, a corporate volunteering program, a life-time volunteer, and more. And in many of these states, like Oregon, applications are being accepted NOW.

(I just wish these award programs all also recognized outstanding volunteer managers – those who recruit, support and supervise volunteers, and make volunteer engagement possible!)

Some of these governor’s award programs also award people and groups on the regional level. And many of these award programs have trouble getting enough nominees to give an award in every category.

To find out if your state has such an award’s program, go to Google and use these searches:

  • yourstatename governor volunteer award (such as Kentucky Governor Volunteer Award)
  • yourstatename volunteer award (such as Oregon Volunteer Award)
  • yourstatename community service volunteer award (such as Iowa Governor Volunteer Award)

If your state never comes up in the search of any of those phrases, your state probably doesn’t have a state award for volunteers (and maybe you should start a petition so they do!).

I served as a judging panelist for the Governor’s Volunteer Awards in Texas in 1999; my category was group volunteering. I was also a judge for the National Volunteer Awards by Women in Community Service (WICS) (part of JobCorps) in 1998 and a member of the 1995-96 San Jose (California) Festival, Parade and Celebration Grant Review Committee. Having read so many applications for these awards – as well as reviewing more grant applications over the years than I care to say – I know what things that you need to include in a nomination form to make sure your effort gets considered for a governor’s award:

  1. Follow the nomination form guidelines precisely. Read the directions carefully and provide every piece of information asked for.
  2. Don’t just focus on number of hours done. What difference did this volunteer effort make? What is different now because of this volunteer effort? Answer this question in detail: So what? If you can include any hard data that proves you made a difference – changed minds and perceptions, a reduction in crime or pollution or hunger, an increase in something good like people people able to read or dogs being adopted – that better ensures your nomination form will go somewhere.

And don’t think this is a wasted effort if your nomination doesn’t get recognized; for students, you now have great information to use on scholarship and university applications. Nonprofits, you now have great information to feature on your web site and in funding proposals. You also have some fantastic information to blog about!

All this comes to mind because the Oregon Governor’s Volunteer Awards are now accepting nominations. A cash award of up to $500 will be given by presenting sponsor Wells Fargo to a non-profit of choice for each state and regional volunteer award recipient.

And unlike other governor’s award ceremonies I’ve been to, the Oregon awards ceremony is focused ON THE VOLUNTEERS. There are no high-profile guests, no long speeches by politicans – it’s all about hearing about the difference the award winners have made (are you listening California? Or Texas?).

Helping Southern states in the USA

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Disaster is striking in the American Southeast. Recent tornadoes and current flooding have brought devastation and heartache to many parts of the South, and messages are everywhere on various online communities, asking how to help. There is an incredible amount of misinformation being posted about how to help as well.

If you want to help the states affected by recent tornadoes and current flooding in the USA, you can:

  • Watch the news, and when you hear a county name for a state that is being affected, or a city name, look up the American Red Cross chapter, or the local Humane Society/ASPCA/animal welfare organization serving that area on Google. Most of these will have a web site that allows you do donate directly to the organization. The Red Cross provides emergency housing and various other emergency services to local people, but usually doesn’t allow pets in their emergency shelters; local animal shelters are struggling with abandoned pets and pets that aren’t allowed into emergency shelters. Your donations provide desperately needed funds to help both food and animals! The Red Cross estimates that it will spend as much as $31 million responding to these recent disasters; you can donate to the national chapter, but many feel better donating directly to chapters serving an affected area.
  • If you want to volunteer in a disaster-affected area, you need to be entirely self-funded and self-sufficient, formally affiliated with a credible organization, and have full approval of that organization to go to the area and serve as a volunteer. People affected by these disasters need to be protected from unscrupulous people who may use this situation to take advantage of others (it’s already happening), and people affected by these disasters deserve trained people who won’t end up having to be cared for themselves because they are woefully unprepared (yes, it happens). Here’s much more about the realities of volunteering to help after major disasters.
  • Unless you have read on a web site by an organization in the affected area that they are accepting donations of food and clothing, do NOT start gathering food and clothing for the affected area. It’s often much cheaper – and much safer – for a relief organization to buy food and ship it to an area, knowing they are buying exactly what’s needed, knowing the food is not spoiled, knowing it’s appropriate, etc., than to ask for donations and have to spend endless hours figuring out what food is usable, what is not, and trying to put together meals based on what is donated. If you are determined to donate items for an affected area, then call the local Red Cross and local communities of faith in the affected area and ask if they will accept what you are gathering to donate. And be prepared to drive to the area yourself – no one is going to come pick them up from you, as they are much too busy dealing with disaster victims. Also, note that organizations are saying they CANNOT handle any more used toys or cast-off clothing (they would prefer cleaning supplies and diapers!). More on donating things instead of cash or time (in-kind contributions).
  • You can also look at the web sites of high schools serving these affected areas; if they are in need of something (prom dresses, school supplies, etc.), they will say so directly on their web site.

Obviously, donating financially is the way to go if you really want to help. Even just $10 will help – and, yes, you can afford $10 (don’t buy coffee shop coffee for a few days, make your lunch for a few days, don’t eat from any restaurants all week, reduce your cable package subscription to the most basic for a month or two, etc.).

Use this as an incentive to call your local American Red Cross, right now, and start getting training for disaster in your own area. Why not at least call and attend the next volunteer orientation? There’s no obligation to volunteer just for attending the orientation!

Tags: nonprofit, NGO, not-for-profit, outreach, disaster, volunteer, tornado, flood, earthquake, tsunami, volunteers, donations, donate, canned goods, clothing, clothes

With Volunteers, See No Evil?

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There are a lot of people out there who are offended at the idea of standards or policies for volunteers – like asking a candidate for volunteering to go through a screening interview or to make a work plan to show how many hours a new volunteer will commit each week or month. Or requiring volunteers to submit a progress report each week or month. Or having rules for volunteers and suspending volunteers who violate those rules.

But you should accept anyone who wants to help! they tell me in my workshops or on online message boards. I’m a volunteer & you should just be GRATEFUL I’m here!

Or they say something along the lines of this that I heard from someone I asked about how safety is maintained at their community computer center: Our patrons are all members-of-a-certain-religion-I-won’t-name-here, so we can trust them and there is no need to worry they will do something inappropriate. Yeah, because members of a religion are super-trustworthy, especially around children…

One volunteer manager told me that she would never have standards for the volunteers at her agency: our volunteers would be offended and leave if you gave them rules to follow – and really, they are working for free, shouldn’t that be enough?

Volunteers are not super-human. They are not automatically good, without any bad intentions or temptations. They may, indeed, have wonderful hearts and want to help people – and they may also be really tempted by that cash box you leave open on the bottom shelf. Volunteers are merely human, no matter what their age, no matter what their professed value system, and therefore, volunteers come with all the usual human short-comings.

If you involve volunteers, you owe it to your nonprofit organization, your NGO, your agency, your program — whatever — as well as your clients and your fellow staff members, to ensure that everyone is focused on the mission of your organization and that you have procedures in place to keep everyone safe and resources in place. Should your organization or program — and your clients — settle for anything less?!

I was reminded of this while listening to an episode of This American Life this weekend: it’s called See No Evil, and you can listen to it for free on the This American Life web site. The description for the episode says,

When things are awkward or uncomfortable or distressing, a lot of times it’s easier to not think about it. This week we have stories of people pretending that everything is okay and ignoring the awful stuff that’s staring them straight in the face. Including a story of deceit and intrigue involving commemorative spoons from the Kennedy Center.

The story that got my attention in particular was Act Three: “I Worked at the Kennedy Center and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt.” The description says:

In the 1970s, Dave Kestenbaum’s cousin Dan Weiss got promoted from stocker to gift shop manager at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC. It was a good job… except for the fact that the place was bleeding cash because of apparent embezzlement. The gift shop staff? Almost all senior citizen volunteers.

Listen to the story, and then offer comments below here on my blog. And, no, I’m not singling out senior citizen volunteers, and I’ll delete any comment that implies or says that I am. Those volunteers could have been ANY age and the results would have been the same.

Improving Lives in Rural Communities with ICTs?

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May 17 will mark World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD). To celebrate, NetSquared is using this year’s theme, “Better Life in Rural Communities with ICTs,” to guide the Net2 Think Tank question for May!

NetSquared (Net2) is gathering examples of and ideas for communications technologies – phones, smart phones, computers, Internet, etc. – improving lives in rural communities. Entries will get pulled together for the next Net2 Think Tank Round-Up.

How is your initiative bridging the information divide and what are your tips for others? What are your tactics and best practices for helping rural communities using computer, Internet and mobile technology? And which projects are already doing this well? Share your projects and ideas with the NetSquared Community! Deadline: Saturday, May 21, 2001.

How to contribute:

The roundup of contributions will be posted on the NetSquared blog on Monday, May 23rd.

Net2 Think Tank is an initiative of TechSoup Global. It is a monthly blogging/social networking event open to anyone and is a great way to participate in an exchange of ideas. Net2 posts a question or topic to the NetSquared community and participants submit responses either on their own blogs, the NetSquared Community Blog, or using social media.  Tag your post with “net2thinktank” and email a link to Net2 to be included. At the end of the month, the entries get pulled together in the Net2 Think Tank Round-Up.

Some things I’ve written related to the subject of phones, smart phones, computers, Internet, etc. – improving lives in rural communities:

Tags: ICT4D, net2thinktank, NetSquared, access

How to help Alabama & surrounding areas

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This is the address of the Alabama Red Cross serving the areas hardest hit by the tornado, including Tuscaloosa. Donate directly to them if you want help to get quickly to those in most need. The Red Cross provides food, shelter, vital information and connections to the government and health resources local people are in desperate need of right now – and will continue to do so in the weeks to come.

The Humane Society of West Alabama is in need of financial help – they’ve suffered some serious damage and can’t take in all the abandoned and lost animals in need. The Greater Birmingham Humane Society will also need help with the influx of lost and abandoned pets. Making a donation will help buy food and pay for medical services. Adopting a pet from this or any nearby shelter will free up space for other animals.

For other areas, simply look up the state and county’s American Red Cross chapter or Humane Society or animal shelter on Google.

Unless you have extensive medical, engineering, logistics, health care or emergency management experience in post-disaster zones, and unless you are *already* affiliated with an emergency response agency (American Red Cross), and you are fully self-sufficient (you have a place to stay, you have transportation and fuel, etc.), DO NOT GO. If you do, you will be in the way and you will be a drain on resources (food, gas, etc.).

If you enjoyed the Royal Wedding today, why not make a donation to any of the above in honor of such? Or in honor of anyone you love? In honor of your own pets?

Also see:
Volunteering To Help After Major Disasters
(earthquake, hurricane, tropical storm, flood, tsunami, oil spill, etc.)

Please call your local American Red Cross and get training NOW for disasters LATER. They have training specifically for disaster response!

Volunteer with your local animal shelter NOW and build up your skills and your credibility so that you will be in a place to provide critically-need help in the future.

 

 

Ongoing conversations re: social media & volunteers

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There are some terrific conversations going on over on the TechSoup Community Forum regarding nonprofits using social media, setting policies for online activities, and more. Go ask your questions for your own nonprofit, NGO, government agency, etc. to get your own questions crowd-sourced – and offer your own advice/commentary!

Here are followup questions and discussions to the recent webinar on using social media to recruit and support volunteers:

“How does one find a “great trusted social media volunteer?”
Lots of tips already in answer to this question – offer your own!

Volunteers updating your organization’s blog – appropriate?
What editorial guidelines do you need for this?

When do you delete Facebook posts?

When do you remove posts on your organization’s Facebook fan page? What do you deem to be ‘offensive’ posts—versus those that might be odd, semi-coherent or off-topic? And do you have a formal policy

how do I set up a facebook page for my organization without locking it permanently to a particular person
Very detailed answers already!

What are the best tags for nonprofits to use in their social media activities?
How to get the right people viewing your activities!

Did you miss the live webinar last week on Using Social Media to Support, Involve and Recruit Volunteers? Then enjoy this recording of the event (slides and audio).

More questions on TechSoup you might want to answer or view:

Is it a worthwhile organization for a nonprofit to document what software they have

      , what software everyone is using, etc., and to share this information in a deliberate, obvious way throughout the organization, so that everyone can know what resources the organization has?

 

Sending text messages to 50 non-smart phones

    “Anyone have a great, cheap or free resource for sending text messages to 10-50 cell phones at once from a web site or special application on a computer (not a smart phone)? I work with three different volunteer groups that want this ability, but each group is a mix of smart phone and cell phone users.”

Photos of Online Volunteers Wanted

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Camping and surfing in North DakotaI’m looking for photos of people who help nonprofit organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), grassroots organizations, schools, or other civil society organizations (CSOs) via a computer at their homes, their work, a computer cafe, a cell phone/smart phone — as a volunteer (that means unpaid, NOT as a paid staff member or paid consultant).

You know: online volunteers. Virtual volunteering. Online mentoring. Cyber service. Microvolunteering. Crowd-sourcing. Clowd computing volunteering. Whatever the hot new term is.

I need photos of people who research information, design web sites, databases or graphics, prepare proposals, edit documents, translate text, offer professional advice, moderate online discussion groups, contact the press write newsletter articles, manage web sites, manage Flickr accounts, edit podcasts or online videos, or any other activities to help organizations that support causes those people believe in – but these people perform their service as a volunteer (unpaid!) from a remote site.

Why? I want to feature them at this Flickr Group, “Online Volunteers.”

These don’t have to be volunteers who help ONLY via the computer; most online volunteers also help onsite as well. So if the volunteer helps only half the time, or a quarter of the time, online, that’s fine! It still counts!

Photos or video of online volunteers should be taken either via your webcam or with the computer or other Internet device you use somehow visible in the photo, to give it that “Internet” feel. ALSO, describe what you do as an online volunteer, including either the name or a description of the organization(s) you support. If you really can’t work a computer into the photo, then at least make the description ultra-obvious about why you are submitting the photo.

ALSO, please tag your photo “online volunteer.”

Submit the photos directly to the Flickr group for online volunteers– which means you will need a Yahoo ID. If you don’t already have such, and don’t want one, you can send ONE photo to me, via email, however, please clearly note in your email who you are, why you are sending the photo, etc.; blank emails, or those with sketchy descriptions, will be discarded without viewing (to protect myself from computer viruses). Photos that don’t clearly represent online volunteers will be rejected.

Please forward this message to volunteers you work with, or anyone you think might be interested.

Goal: to show the diversity of online volunteers out there. The practice of online volunteering is more than 30 years old. I want to show just what a HUGE group of people volunteer online, and have been doing so for a long while now!