Tag Archives: volunteering

FREE books on management of volunteers

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Wow. The Ellis Archive has released a bunch of volunteer management books for FREE. These are books that Susan Ellis sold for years through her company, Energize, Inc.

If you don’t know: Susan was the world’s expert on the effective management of volunteers, and her company, Energize, was the world’s largest publisher of books on volunteer management. I was her disciple when it came to volunteer management, one of many. And she was the first promoters of virtual volunteering. We wrote The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook together (it’s not free, however).  

If you are a person that works with volunteers, or wants to, all of these books are worth your time to read (don’t just download them!)

Funded by the Susan J. Ellis Foundation, the Ellis Archive primarily consists of digitized documents from Susan J. Ellis‘ personal resource library. The Ellis Archive is searchable by title, source, year, author, and keyword topic. Special tags also exist for Research, Non-US/International, and AVA history items.Items in the archive are organized into 32 keyword topics, with some cross-referencing. These topics also represent a broad range of mission-focused areas, such as the arts, criminal justice, social services, the environment, healthcare, government, education, etc. Most content originates from 1970 through 2004. However, there are seminal works dated as early as 1947, and a few documents as recent as 2010. Also included are numerous items from the private libraries of two pioneer volunteer leaders – Harriet Naylor and Ivan Scheier, prodigious writers and highly respected mentors to Susan. Much of Scheier’s work was originally digitized by Regis University and now continues to be accessible as part of this Archive. In addition, the Minnesota Office of Volunteer Services Resource Library gave a few of its publications to Susan when that office closed in 2002; these publications are now a part of this Archive. The Archive also includes historical items documenting some of the history of the Association for Volunteer Administration (AVA).

National Service Has Presidential Support Again!

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The previous presidential administration tried repeatedly to eliminate national service.

By contrast, the current administration, headed by President Joe Biden, has designated $1 billion in the Fiscal Year 2021 Reconciliation Bill, known as the American Rescue Plan, for the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). The investment will help to stabilize existing national service programs, increase the benefits for those who serve, and deploy additional full and part-time members to support their communities’ response to COVID-19.

In a statement, AnnMaura Connolly, President of Voices for National Service, said:

Since the coronavirus outbreak, members of AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps Seniors have acted quickly and creatively to address gaps in services and persistent inequities that have only been worsened by the pandemic… The additional funding provides a triple bottom line: the opportunity to engage more Americans in pandemic relief efforts, such as helping schools safely reopen and tackling the growing hunger crisis; an important accelerator for increasing equity in national service; and a proven pathway help prepare young people prepare for future jobs, particularly for populations hardest hit by the pandemic.

And I am being contacted by state AmeriCorps programs again, at long last, regarding training in volunteer support and management. In fact, one program bought 26 copies from me of the Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook: Fully Integrating Online Service Into Volunteer Involvement for each AmeriCorps member of various public health initiatives.

Make no mistake: this funding from Congress, lead by the President is, in part, because of vocal activism by nonprofits and others to their US Representatives and Senators. It’s long overdue for nonprofits to speak out on these and so many other issues. You ARE allowed to do this if you have nonprofit status!

I am a huge fan of AmeriCorps, particularly VISTA and NCCC. I wish more young people knew about these opportunities. I wish these had been options for me when I was in my 20s. And the help from AmeriCorps isn’t just within the bounds of a service site: there are so many fantastic resources out there because of these national service programs, like this Toolkit for Working with Rural Volunteers. I have the honor to work with AmeriCorps members many times, first back in the 1990s, when I helped put together a handbook for AmeriCorpsVISTAs in charge of managing school-based volunteers for Sanchez Elementary School in Austin, Texas, written by various AmeriCorps members over the years in the program. I also have frequently trained AmeriCorps members on volunteer management 101, and I have a page especially for AmeriCorps members that curates the volunteer management resources I reference in my workshops.

FYI, Voices for National Service was founded in 2003 and is a coalition of national service programs, state service commissions and individual champions, who work to ensure Americans of all ages and backgrounds have the opportunity to serve and volunteer in their community.

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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. 

Helping online volunteers stay engaged & energized

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In pre-pandemic times, an online meeting felt like a luxury, a welcomed relief from driving to a site or taking mass transit. Now, because of COVID-19. when the only way to safely work together is online or via the phone, we’re all burned out by online meetings, and there’s nothing virtual about our fatigue.

In addition, volunteering onsite is a way to be a different person than we are at our paid work or in a classroom or even with our families. It’s a way to feel like we’re making a difference in the world. It can be a refreshing change from other parts of our life. For people that live alone, volunteering onsite can provide a much needed social life. While I think online volunteering can be wonderfully personal, I also know that virtual meetings, virtually all the time, is not the world most of us want to live in.

Volunteers are exhausted. Many that still have jobs and struggling to do those and assume new family care obligations – children are in virtual school and some older relatives have moved back in with younger family members. Many are having to look over their finances every day. Most everyone is scared of for their own health as well as everyone else in their household. And many people, especially living alone, are oh-so-lonely. Volunteering these days doesn’t offer the time out it did in pre-pandemic times – it can just feel like another online meeting.

But nonprofits still need volunteers, and volunteers still need volunteering. I know so many nonprofits, NGOs, charities and other groups have a huge amount on their plate these days and far more stresses than usual, but we all need to take a deep breath and spare some thoughts for both our current volunteers and those we want to recruit.

How to Recruit & Engage Volunteers in a Time of Virtual Fatigue, an article is by WBT Systems, which produces TopClass LMS, a learning management system for membership-based associations, has great advice for any program involving volunteers. It starts with some basics from quality volunteer engagement we should all know and apply even in non-pandemic times, like creating realistic roles for volunteers and emphasizing why the task matters to the program and the difference it will make. But then it gets into more specific advice that relates to current remote working challenges, which I’ve reframed and expanded below.

For instance, we all need to better commit to SHORT meetings that have a definite purpose and a definite start and end time. Don’t have a general, open group volunteer meeting; have a here’s-what-everyone’s-doing meeting, devoted exclusively to elevator speeches from each volunteer. Or have a celebrate-one-accomplishment meeting, devoted solely to quick updates. Whatever the meeting, be able to answer these questions: what do I want to happen as a result of this meeting? Why does this meeting matter? Why can’t you ask for this info via email?

I like to prepare my meetings as though it’s a stage performance: I like start and end on time and know exactly what I want to say, but also be ready for a spontaneous improv moment! I also am ready to facilitate: to frankly, politely tell a person who is going too long that we are going to have to table that discussion until later, for instance, because we need to hear from everyone.

Also regarding meetings, the article suggests telling volunteers you will open up an online meeting 15 minutes before the start and leave it open 15 minutes after so they have a chance for chatting, if they wish. I have REALLY enjoyed this in meetings and webinars.

I sometimes encourage people I’m meeting with to have the meeting in a different room than they are in usually – and I do the same. The same rules apply: you should be in a well-lit room that does not have lots of distractions, if at all possible (people walking through the space, intrusive sound, etc.). Otherwise, you might be surprised at how refreshing it feels to have a meeting in a different room, or even just in a different place in the usual room.

In addition, I like when I don’t have to have a full meeting to get a question resolved or check-in with everyone – I like having a Slack channel just for volunteers I’m working with, so they can check-in or ask a question of me, any time. It’s a virtual way of dropping by my office. And it keeps messages out of my email in-box.

The WBT Systems article suggests that you “Invite someone to Zoombomb the end of the meeting, perhaps the CEO, board chair or another leader who thanks the volunteers for giving their time and talent.” I LOVE this idea.

I’m somewhat tepid on the idea of things like encouraging everyone to wear a hat, or having everyone bring a toy to a meeting, etc. – the article doesn’t suggest this, but I’ve seen it elsewhere. I’m not big on ice breakers before every onsite meeting – I do not like having my time wasted, especially when I’ve schlepped across town or had to juggle to carve out time for a meeting, and everyone going around the room talking about who their favorite superhero is (Wonder Woman in the DC universe, Jane as Thor in Marvel). Online, I can find meeting games even more annoying. I want to feel like my time is valued and what’s most needed is getting done. In the end, you have to know your audience, you have to experiment and be observant, you have to be open to what is NOT working, and you have to work towards balance.

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

Don’t assume staff working with volunteers, or even volunteers themselves, understand how to lead and manage virtually. Yes, I’m going to yet again recommend The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook, which emphasizes support for volunteers more than any other topic. Also, if you have time, look for videos and articles that could help others, and if you don’t have time, recruit a volunteer to curate such for you to review and share.

When Susan Ellis and I wrote The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook, we never envisioned a global pandemic creating this massive, sudden shift to virtual volunteering for so many agencies. I’m glad to be able to recommend this detailed resource for ensuring success in virtual volunteering, with far more information than a blog or webinar ever could.

Also see:

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

how not to treat volunteers: another saga

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graphic by Jayne Cravens representing volunteers

I get inspiration for a lot of my blogs from stories that my friends tell me about their own volunteering experiences, from comments on my blogs from volunteers, and from my own attempts at volunteering.

Here’s a comment I got recently from a neighbor who is volunteering to send postcards to registered voters regarding the upcoming elections here in the USA. Through an advocacy group, volunteers like her handwrite messages on the postcards encouraging the recipient to vote. It’s very important that the postcards be handwritten and personalized – recipients are more likely to read the postcards because they are handwritten and because they are coming from a volunteer, specifically – not a paid campaign worker. Here’s her message to me about her frustration:

Jayne, here’s a suggestion for a blog post: please do not simply assume your volunteers will do more than they have committed to. I committed to write 30 postcards this week. For me, this was a stretch as far as my time goes. My contact at this organization brought me *60* postcards and a list of where to send them, plus a request for three postcards written in Spanish (but not providing me with a Spanish-language script). She said, “Can you just ask somebody else to write the rest if you don’t want to?” Now that I am actually looking at the instructions for writing this postcard, I see that they asked me to fit far more text into the postcard that is possible to fit. So they didn’t test their idea. Grrrr. This makes me amazingly cranky and demotivates me to write her damn postcards. Also, I am cranky these days anyway.

This person is one of the most dedicated campaign volunteers I have ever seen: I’ve seen her at demonstrations of all kinds, she has a sign in her front yard for a campaign she supports (and offered them to others in the neighborhood), she shares advocacy messages on her Facebook page, and I see her a day or two every week walking down to our nearby post office with a stack of postcards she has personally addressed. She feels a great sense of urgency regarding the upcoming election, just like so many volunteers do about the nonprofit they are supporting. That commitment and that sense of urgency are easy to take advantage of when an organization needs additional help. At first, a volunteer might not say no: they feel needed, they feel valued, and they feel like they are really helping out in a dire time of need. But if this keeps happening, volunteers QUIT. And they send messages to me about how frustrated they are, and I get to write a blog about it!

Don’t put volunteers in an awkward situation when you need more work done than they have agreed to do. Tell them your need for additional hours or for an additional task to be done and say, “if this is too much for you, please say so – we don’t want to overwhelm you, we value your service.” And mean that. If the volunteer says no, respect the no.

What’s your alternative? Surely you have an online community of all of your local volunteers, and you can just post to that community, let people know you have extra work to be done, and ask who could do it – right?

Weeks ago, this particular advocacy group should have made a list of assistive independent living centers, where residents live on their own in their own apartments with minimal assistance – where they still prepare their own food, still live largely independently, still drive, etc. Because of the global pandemic, many of these senior citizens are stuck in their homes without much to do, and they would have LOVED to have volunteered for an initiative like this (and if they are anything like my maternal grandmother, they have BEAUTIFUL cursive, legible handwriting – I always recognized my grandmother’s letters, which she wrote to me until she died at almost 102). Instead, they kept going back to the same well – and the well is running dry.

Other blogs about frustrated volunteers:

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. 

20 years ago, when everything changed for me

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20 years ago this week, an incredible opportunity came my way, out of the blue: I was invited to Germany by a program of the United Nations, to be a part of a group exploring how information communications technologies – ICTs, computers, PDAs, and the Internet – were transforming communities all over the world and the role volunteers played in supporting and expanding the use of ICTs to support a whole range of activities: health education, agriculture, governance, small business development and more (ICT4D).

This is from the original United Nations communications about this event:

Close to 30 experts in development and information and communication technologies (ICTs) met for a workshop from 21 to 23 August at the headquarters of the United Nations Volunteers programme (UNV) in Bonn, Germany, to discuss ways how volunteers can assist developing countries in the application of ICT to human development. Representing a wide range of organizations from all over the world, the workshop participants focused their discussions on how to launch operations of the United Nations Information Technology Service (UNITeS), a volunteer initiative to help bridge the digital divide. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan asked UNV to take the lead in bringing together a coalition of partners to launch the new initiative, which was announced in April.

I was invited to participate because I was directing the Virtual Volunteering Project at the University of Texas at Austin, and was frequently posting to various online communities about working with online volunteers and how volunteers were participating in various community technology initiatives. A UNV staff member saw my posts on a group called CYBERVPM and some other online communities, passed on my information to another staff member looking for advice, and the rest is history.

The role volunteers have played in helping people use online technologies cannot be under-estimated. Volunteers were the primary staffing for most community technology centers and nonprofit Internet cafés, helping people to get their first email address, surf the web and find essential information. The Community Technology Network, ctcnet.org, compiled best practices from community tech centers all over the world, sharing these on their web site for anyone to access – you can see these resources yourself by going to The Internet Wayback Machine and looking for www.ctcnet.org yourself.

Because of this invitation, my life changed forever: at the end of the event, held at the headquarters of the United Nations Volunteers program, I was invited to apply for a new position that was being created at UNV to manage the online volunteering part of NetAid, which I later successfully moved entirely to UNV and it became the Online Volunteering Service, I also co-managed the United Nations Technology Information Service (UNITeS), the Secretary General’s ICT4D initiative born out of this meeting – it was a global initiative to help bridge the digital divide that both supported volunteers applying information and communications technologies for development (ICT4D) and promoted volunteerism as a fundamental element of successful ICT4D initiatives.

And from there began my work in international humanitarian and development work: I stayed at UNV for four years, got my MSc in Development Management in December 2005, worked in Afghanistan and Ukraine with UNDP, stayed based in Germany for eight years, and continued to work internationally even after moving back to the USA in 2009.

20 years. It’s just so hard to wrap my head around it being two decades since this happened. I will always be grateful for the circumstances and people that earned me the invitation to this meeting. I will always be grateful to have had these 20 years since.

I’m the girl in the peachy/pink shirt in the middle of this photo, by the way… if you are in the photo, please comment below!

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What can you do in a gap year during a pandemic

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I am seeing questions on Quora and Reddit about what to do in a gap year from university during the pandemic, from people who seem to think that there’s a safe place to go, and a safe way to get there, without contracting nor spreading the novel coronavirus. It’s so frustrating – the reality is that no one should travel now unless it’s essential travel, and certainly not for a year: situations within countries, at borders and on airlines change dramatically from month to month, which can strand you somewhere abroad, with hotels or homestays closed, plus, you could contribute to the spreading of the virus, even if you never contract it yourself.

So, what ARE the options for a student who decides not to start a new semester or entire study year at a university in the Fall or Spring?

You could, in a gap year, or gap semester, stay in your community and:

The more you volunteer, the more you will be transformed by the experience, the more you will learn, and the more you should see leadership opportunities you might want to initiate or undertake. You may end up leading your own virtual project at a program you have worked with and established trust with.

You can also:

  • Trace your family tree, scan family photos, upload those photos online and record family members on video calls talking about family memories. There will never be a better time to work with family members online to get your family names and dates and places and stories recorded.
     
  • Study another language. Duolingo and Babbel are two great resources.
     
  • Take classes that are NOT offered at the university you will attend. Some good resources for free courses are Open University’s Open Learn and MIT’s Open Courseware.

The key to any of the above working is that you need a SCHEDULE and a COMMITMENT. Create a workspace where you will do these things. Carve out a regular time of day and days of the week you will do these activities. Create deadlines. Track your progress. Celebrate your accomplishments and results. Learn from your mistakes and challenges. Document your experiences with a journal or a blog or YouTube videos. And if you do this, then at the end of a year, you will have something much more substantial to show for it than Instagram photos that say, “Hey, look at me!” You will have something much more substantial than vanity volunteering. In fact, you will have proven you can work remotely, something employers very much like to see.

Also see:

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. 

You do not need to meet via video conference with every potential volunteer

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Most virtual volunteering assignments are text-based or designed-based: translating text from one language to another, transcribing podcasts, captioning videos, managing an online discussion group, designing a database, designing a graphic, and on and on. And one of the reasons I have really loved virtual volunteering is that, when it’s also limited to text-based communications with volunteers, potential volunteers can’t be judged regarding how they look or sound. Instead, volunteers in virtual volunteering, at least until recently, are judged by the quality of the character they show through their words and work. I don’t like to think of myself as prejudiced, but I have often wondered if I have been reluctant to involve a volunteer onsite because of unconscious bias on my part upon meeting a volunteer candidate face-to-face.

Virtual volunteering encounters in previous years have hidden the weight, ethnicity, hair color, age, accents, and other physical traits of online volunteers from the person onboarding that volunteer, and vice versa. But now, video conferencing is all the rage, and many programs are requiring that volunteer applicants participate in a live online meeting before they can volunteer online. As Susan Ellis and I note in our book, The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook:

Today’s preference to actually see and hear each other online is a double-edged sword: it can make electronic communication more personal and personable, but it can also inject offline prejudices evoked by how someone looks.

As a result of this rush to online video, are online volunteering candidates being turned away from programs because of possible but unacknowledged biases on the part of the manager of volunteers or whoever is initially screening applicants?

Are people that want to volunteer online hesitating to apply because they do not like how they look on video, don’t feel confident regarding their speaking voice or presentation skills, or are uncomfortable with welcoming someone “into” their home, even virtually?

Do people that would be interested in volunteering with you online on a text-based assignment decide not to apply because their Internet access isn’t fast enough for live video conferencing?

Are there people that would be interested in volunteering with you online that aren’t in your same time zone or who work or have home care duties that prevent them from being available at all the times you want to have a live video chat?

Think carefully before you make a meeting by video with potential volunteers mandatory. Is such a video meeting really necessary for the assignment the volunteer will do? Absolutely, certain tasks and roles require you to know if the volunteer is well-spoken, understands how to present themselves in a reputable, credible, clear manner, etc. But if it’s not required, per the role the volunteer is applying for, then consider how to balance your need for something personal with the volunteer’s desire for privacy. Consider how freeing it can be for a volunteer to be judged by the excellent web site they build for you rather than the physical disability people see immediately upon meeting them (not that people with disabilities EVER want to hide!). Consider how good it can feel for a person who is uncomfortable with his or her weight to be valued because of the excellent moderation skills and dynamic personality they show on your online community (again, not that any person, regardless of their weight, should EVER want to hide!).

vvbooklittle

For a lot more about screening and orienting online volunteers, as well as designing tasks, providing support for volunteers using online tools, evaluating virtual volunteering, designing an online mentoring program and much more, check out The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook, available for purchase as a traditional print book or as a digital book. The book is an oh-so-much-cheaper way to get intense consulting regarding every aspect virtual volunteering, including more high-impact digital engagement schemes, than to hire me. You will not find a more detailed guide anywhere for working with online volunteers and using the Internet to support and involve all volunteers. It’s available both as a traditional paperback and as an online book. I also think it would be a great resource for anyone doing research regarding virtual volunteering as well.

Also see:

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. 

Setting up an online mentoring program

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I have certain keywords in my Google Alerts notifications via email, so I know about news articles, blogs and public online discussions that mention virtual volunteering, among various other topics. As you can imagine, with the current pandemic, my daily Google Alert emails are very long these days (before the pandemic, I would go many days with no updates at all).

One thing I’m seeing regularly in these updates are articles about schools that are scrambling to set up online mentoring programs, where adults will mentor or tutor students, like this article out of Florida:
Leon County Schools considers virtual volunteering opportunities in reopening plan.

I’ve been researching and training on virtual volunteering, including online mentoring programs, since the 1990s, and for all of the various school districts and individual school districts out there, I wanted to let you know about some free resources I have that can help you in setting up an online mentoring or online tutoring program:

  • Five free on-demand videos that, altogether, are less than an hour & take you through the fundamentals of virtual volunteering, of engaging volunteers online (policies, creating assignments, safety, confidentiality, support, much more).
cover of Virtual Volunteering book with hands raising up various Internet connected devices

There’s also my book, co-written with Susan Ellis, which isn’t free, but does go into a great deal of detail on how to set up an online mentoring program: The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook: Fully Integrating Online Service Into Volunteer Involvement. One of the most important bits of advice from the book regarding online mentoring or online tutoring, something I learned from two decades of looking at various such programs: don’t try to launch online versions of these programs unless you have been doing ONSITE versions of these programs. If your school had an onsite mentoring program before the pandemic, or you have staff that has experience with onsite mentoring elsewhere, by all means, pursue setting up an online program. But if your school didn’t have an onsite mentoring program already, if your school wasn’t already involving ONSITE volunteers, you need to give online mentoring or tutoring a LOT more thought and I can guarantee that you are NOT ready to start a program in the Fall of 2020!

If you are a volunteer at a school or a concerned parent of a student at a school and you know that school might be considering online mentoring or online tutoring, I hope you will consider buying The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook and giving it to the volunteer coordinator at the school, who may not have the budget for such.

July 9, 2020 update: For those of you wanting to start an online mentoring or online tutoring program, please AT LEAST read the standards for screening participants for an online mentoring program (both volunteers and mentees), from E-MENTORING SUPPLEMENT TO THE ELEMENTS OF EFFECTIVE PRACTICE FOR MENTORING, December 2019, a publication of MENTOR (formerly the National Mentoring Partnership). On a related note, in the UK, SWGfL has issued Safeguarding considerations and guidance when appointing online tutors for Schools in England, that includes a Recruitment Checklist, an Expectations Checklist, and Induction Checklist, and several links to other resources that should be applied to both online mentoring and online tutoring. If you are starting an online mentoring program in the UK, you need to read through at least this web site and what it links to and make sure your program adheres to the guidelines from experts in mentoring. If you are outside of the USA and the UK, both of these resources are still essential reading, in order to keep all participants safe.

How will SARS-CoV-2 & COVID-19 affect volunteering abroad?

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SARS-CoV-2, the infectious disease which causes Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), will change volunteering abroad – and all international humanitarian response.

This change won’t be just for the next two years – it could be forever. I have been thinking a lot about that lately, and was going to write about it – but this editorial analysis by Ali Al Mokdad at DevEx says everything I’ve been thinking – and more.

Mokdad notes that the ongoing pandemic means that many international non-governmental organizations “will finally pay extra attention to the importance of nationalizing and localizing interventions, and that “community-based interventions and empowering local staff will be among the main themes of the new cultural and operational shift that the pandemic is causing.” It notes that “we are going to see more local staff as program managers, site managers, coordinators, and senior members in leadership positions within INGOs” and that, as INGOs reduce their rate of direct implementation – putting international staff into the field – their staff profiles could shift from that of operational expertise to fundraising, technical support, analysis, advocacy, and strategic leadership positions.

This shift is also going to greatly affect volunteering abroad programs. Mokdad notes the criticisms of voluntourism (as have I) and adds:

The economic situation and safety considerations after COVID-19 will not provide a chance for people interested in unpaid internships to go abroad to support country mission programs. INGOs will not be able to afford the risk of offering such opportunities, and people will not be able to afford working without pay. Unpaid internships and voluntary work will only increase at the local and national level, but voluntourism will slowly disappear.

I will add one more thing: I see a big demand coming for high-responsibility, high-impact remote volunteering – virtual volunteering in support of locally-based NGOs in the developing world. I see it as both a substitution for many short-term volunteering abroad programs for the next two years, and a permanent option even beyond that. And I may be getting funding to explore the idea. Stay tuned.

What do you think?

Here’s all of my many blogs about voluntourism.

And here is something I am soft launching: Ideas for High Impact Virtual Volunteering Activities: This resource is for people seeking ideas for an online project that will mobilize online volunteers in activities that lead to a sustainable, lasting benefit to a community or cause, particularly for a community or audience that is at-risk or under-served. I created it especially for programs looking for ways to engage online volunteers in high-responsibility, high-impact tasks focused on communities in the developing world, because onsite volunteering abroad is not an option – which is the reality in 2020, and probably 2021, because of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). These ideas absolutely can be adapted for remote volunteering within the same country where the online volunteers live as well – “remote” could mean across town rather than around the world.

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. 

Creating One-Time, Short-Term Group Volunteering Opportunities

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I was shocked when I looked to see what page on my web site got the most visits in 2019. I knew that the most popular pages would be from the section of my web site for volunteers themselves, a section I started because I got tired of writing the same answers over and over to Frequently Asked Questions on YahooAnswers, Quora, Reddit, etc. I knew these pages would be the most popular because I post links to them constantly on those and other online communities. But tucked away in those web site visitor stats was this page, for programs that host volunteers, or want to:

Creating One-Time, Short-Term Volunteering Opportunities for Groups.

I haven’t done anything special to promote this web page. I post a link to it a few times a year on my various social media channels, I post a link to it if someone asks for advice on how to do it, but that’s it. And, yet, there it is, a hugely popular page on my web site in 2019.

So MANY different kinds of groups want a group volunteering experience where they feel like they show up, they volunteer, they have fun together, they make a difference, they get great photos, and then they leave. But he reality is that, for most nonprofits and community programs, these group volunteers aren’t worth the trouble to involve. Most nonprofits and community programs do NOT have volunteering tasks laying around that could be done by a large group of untrained, one-time volunteers – or even an untrained individual volunteer. Most organizations also do not have the money, staff, time and other resources to create two-hour, half-day or one-day, one-time group volunteering activities, especially for teens and children.

This is really hard for group representatives to hear, especially from corporations. The reaction is what?! you don’t have something for my group of 15 people from our marketing and sales departments to do this Friday from 10 to 12:30? No. No, we don’t. And you don’t have something in your marketing or sales department for a group of 15 temps to do from 10 to 12:30 either, so don’t act surprised.

My page has a list of possible activities for groups, but I also note that all of these activities, and any other group volunteering activities that aren’t listed, take many hours by the organization to prepare the site for the group of volunteers to show up, engage in the activity, and leave after two-to-seven hours – and to leave the site in such a way that the organization or program isn’t left with even more work for staff. That includes hackathons and program consultations. That’s why I believe your group should MAKE A FINANCIAL DONATION TO THE ORGANIZATION where you want to have your group volunteering experience. Yup: you need to pay money to the organization you expect to host your volunteering group, to cover at least some of the many costs they incur by creating this experience for your group.

My formula: donate $50 per hour your group will be there per staff member the nonprofit or other hosting agency will have to provide for preparation and supervision – regardless of whether or not that staff member is a volunteer or a paid person at the host organization. So, if your company or group wants a two-hour experience, and the volunteer hosting organization will need to have two people supervising and supporting your group, that’s $200. If your group wants a four-hour experience, and it will take just one nonprofit staff member, that’s also $200 your group is going to donate to the nonprofit. And, no, “in-kind” donations don’t count: it needs to be actual money.

I’m glad my page about volunteering activities for groups has proven so popular. I just hope it’s not just nonprofits and other volunteer hosting organizations that are reading it.

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