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Energize October 2012 Susan J. Ellis	Practicing What We Preach: Volunteers Helping Us, Too One of the enduring mysteries of the volunteer management field is how often those who lead volunteer efforts do not build a team of volunteers to help them in their important work.
Energize November 2011 Susan J. Ellis	Part-time Volunteer Management Means Equally Limited Volunteer Involvement, It is hardly news that the majority of people who lead volunteer involvement are expected to do so part-time.
Energize November 2005 Susan J. Ellis	Strength in Numbers: Engaging Volunteers as Partners in Program Development There is a specific form of volunteer involvement that has great potential as a tool for internal advocacy: activating a visible team of volunteer representatives.
Energize September 2013 Susan J. Ellis	What Volunteer Resources Managers Can Teach Human Resources Managers Volunteer resources managers are constantly being told what we can learn from professionals in personnel or human resources. Maybe it's time we tell HR what they can learn from us.
Energize August 2011 Susan J. Ellis	I'll Never Understand Why Executives Still Don't Understand Here is the most succinct set of arguments for not ignoring volunteer involvement.
Energize December 2014 Susan J. Ellis	What Did You and Volunteers Do Well this Year? 2014 is rapidly coming to an end. Before you consider making any resolutions for the new year, use December as an opportunity to reflect on the past 12 months.
Energize December 2012 Susan J. Ellis	End-of-Year Reports Can Illuminate Volunteer Achievements The invisibility of volunteers in many agency reports is matched only by the presentation of generally useless information about volunteers in other reports.
Energize September 2006 Susan J. Ellis	What’s in a Name…or a Title? What's the best title for the person who is designated as the leader of volunteers?
Energize July 2013 Susan J. Ellis	Breaking through the Glass Ceiling for Volunteers Fully capable people may already be serving in your existing volunteer corps and ready to be promoted to a higher level of volunteering for the organization (only if they want to).
Energize May 2008 Susan J. Ellis	It's Volunteers and Money We need to see the issue of resource allocation for volunteers as integral to our work and develop the skills to "make the case" for spending money on volunteers.
Energize June 2013 Susan J. Ellis	Stop Volunteers from Being Their Own Worst Enemies Maybe we need to educate volunteers about who they are and how they fit into our organizations. If we wrongly assume that volunteers "get it," we open ourselves to potential problems of various sorts.
Energize April 2011 Susan J. Ellis	Celebrate Collective Accomplishments, Not Volunteered Time Volunteer recognition is a powerful tool for leaders of volunteers that remains largely underutilized.
Energize November 2010 Susan J. Ellis	When Volunteers Resist Change Always remember that volunteers bring their own perspectives and stereotypes about volunteerism to their service. Here are some ways of thinking that reflect a lack of training or understanding.
Energize October 2006 Susan J. Ellis	The Middle Management Barrier Middle managers are vital to how effective the organization's volunteer engagement will be.
Energize December 2009 Susan J. Ellis	When the Ax Falls: Budget Cutting and Volunteers Can an organization turn to volunteers to fill gaps when budgets are cut and employees laid off?
Energize February 2013 Susan J. Ellis	The Treasure Trove of Knowledge Philanthropists This month our colleagues at Vantage Point in Vancouver, BC, Canada are releasing a new book, The Abundant Not-for-Profit by Colleen Kelly and Lynda Gerty. Inspirational and practical, the book argues for a transformation in thinking about volunteers.
Energize February 2006 Susan J. Ellis	The Fair Labor Standards Act and Other Obstacles to Progress As advocates for volunteer engagement, we need to approach specialized counselors as equal team members, remembering that we, too, have expertise to offer.
Energize June 2012 Susan J. Ellis	Why Do We Love Volunteer Satisfaction Surveys? How did we arrive at this particular method of assessing success with volunteers? Do such surveys reveal anything meaningful about the value of volunteer contributions?
AFP eWire July 31, 2006	Online Volunteering: Factors for Success A new study examines the potential benefits of cultivating online volunteers and the necessary infrastructure and capacity organizations need to effectively employ these volunteers.
Energize May 2013 Susan J. Ellis	Strategic Volunteer Management: Expanding Your Organization's Brain The problem in volunteer management is not that our organizations are without strategies of various sorts; it's that volunteers are not naturally integrated into those strategies even as an operational tactic.
Energize March 2009 Susan J. Ellis	The Difference between Needing and Wanting Volunteers A few measures of true willingness to find the full range of resources to help meet your organization's mission and serve the most people in the best ways.
Energize April 2009 Susan J. Ellis	Confidentiality and Other Objections to Volunteers It's easy for staff in our organizations to stop any creative idea involving volunteers from going forward. They just have to raise one of the following objections:
Energize January 2010 Susan J. Ellis	Differentiating Volunteering and Working for Pay The distinctions between the two groups are vital because we need both for different reasons.
Energize April 2013 Susan J. Ellis	Revisiting the Seven Deadly Sins of Directing Volunteers In the early 1980s, Energize produced a mini-poster with the dramatic title of "The Seven Deadly Sins of Directing Volunteers," which proved extremely popular. We are reappraising them for 2013.
Energize July 2006 Susan J. Ellis	"I Don't Have Time" It's still possible to engage people in more intensive volunteer service, if we pay attention to their needs.
Energize December 2006 Susan J. Ellis	Together We Stand: Volunteers and Volunteer Resource Managers Connected Frontline volunteers and boardroom volunteers are more alike than different, and the principles of effective volunteer administration apply to each group.
Energize November 2014 Susan J. Ellis	Pulling the Rug Out from Under Volunteer Involvement: Sudden Staff Changes How are major changes communicated to volunteers in your organization? Is there a plan in place for continuity should you leave your job, whether by choice or not?
Energize Susan J. Ellis	Volunteers and the Quest for Innovation Are we inventing bigger and better Band-Aids for the symptoms rather than eliminating the root causes of seemingly intractable problems?
Energize June 2006 Susan J. Ellis	Wouldn't It Be Nice to Really Know.... Trends in volunteering are reported largely based on observation and anecdotes rather than on hard data.
Energize April 2012 Susan J. Ellis	Common Sense and Volunteer Involvement I am very interested in what you have to share as your examples of lack of common sense when it comes to decisions affecting volunteers.
AFP eWire March 1, 2004	Many Nonprofits Using Volunteers Ineffectively A joint study by the UPS Foundation, the Corporation for National and Community Service and the USA Freedom Corps has revealed that 80 percent of nonprofits rely on volunteers for critical activities, but admit they do not have the resources or knowledge to manage them as they might like.
Energize August 2014 Susan J. Ellis	Identifying Who Is and Is Not a "Volunteer" I suspect that every reader has engaged in this sort of discussion/debate/argument more than once.
Energize September 2009 Susan J. Ellis	Making Ongoing Volunteering Valued and Visible During the amazing and celebratory opening session of the National Conference on Volunteering and Service held this June in San Francisco, First Lady Michelle Obama and at least four of the other famous speakers proposed a future scenario for volunteering.
Energize November 2004 Susan J. Ellis	Interns: The "Acceptable" Volunteers? All too often interns are elevated above mere volunteers unjustifiably and/or the "internship program" is separated administratively from the volunteer resources office, to the detriment of both groups.
Energize February 2014 Susan J. Ellis	It's Time to Discuss the Complex Relationship of Volunteering and Money We constantly fight the attitude that "volunteers are free," but money is connected to volunteering in complex ways.
Energize March 2010 Susan J. Ellis	AmeriCorps and Senior Corps Targeting Volunteer Management The most popular capacity building option among both charities and congregations with social service outreach activities is the addition of a one-year, full-time volunteer with a living stipend (like an AmeriCorps member), with responsibility for volunteer recruitment and management.
Energize September 2008 Susan J. Ellis	Replacing Volunteers with Paid Staff When and how is it legitimate to place employees into roles traditionally held by volunteers? This is an emerging trend that deserves attention.
Energize May 2006 Susan J. Ellis	Online Spying Can Improve Your Volunteer Management Skills Use the Internet to be a quiet explorer, observing carefully what other non-profit organizations are doing. Educate yourself about approaches and models that you might follow, adapt, or even avoid.
Energize December 2011 Susan J. Ellis	My Personal "State of the World's Volunteering" Report On December 5th, International Volunteer Day, United Nations Volunteers is set to issue its State of the World's Volunteering Report, officially bringing to a close the 2011 International Year of Volunteers + 10.
Energize May 2005 Susan J. Ellis	Why Be Boring When You Can Celebrate in So Many Ways? It's your chance to enlighten, amaze, surprise, and educate everyone. Remember that only the volunteer program manager sees the full cumulative effect of volunteer involvement for the past year. Paid staff, volunteers, and administrators only see their small part of the larger picture.
Energize January 2012 Susan J. Ellis	What Would the Perfect Volunteer Involving Organization Look Like? Here is what I think an organization would look like if it practiced everything we preach about creative, welcoming, and effective volunteer management, led by a skilled director of volunteer involvement.
Energize June 2005 Susan J. Ellis	Mobile Volunteers - `Tis the Season In the past, one simply wished vacationing volunteers a good time and hoped they'd return in a few months. But if the person is going to have access to a computer and the Internet while away, consider a virtual assignment.
Energize July 2010 Susan J. Ellis	The Correlation between Time Donors and Money Donors All research shows that people who volunteer tend to give more money to charity than people who do not. This often-quoted finding only tells part of the philanthropy story.
AFP eWire January 25, 2011 Brydon M. DeWitt	The Power of the Volunteer Working with volunteers is not easy. With the right support, however, volunteers can do more than any number of staff can do -- it's just a matter of harnessing their potential.
Energize Susan J. Ellis	Prospective Volunteers Are Closer than You Think Ask yourself what you have done in the last year to make sure that you are really issuing an invitation to become a volunteer to the people in greatest proximity to you.
Energize November 2013 Susan J. Ellis	Education through Celebration on International Volunteer Managers Day It is important to let professional volunteer managers know that the spirit of volunteerism is enhanced and enabled by them -- and it is important to thank them.
Energize August 2012 Susan J. Ellis	Let's Be Honest about Nonprofit Boards of Directors (or, Lessons to Be Learned from Penn State) The scandal at Penn State may have begun as a horrifying case of unstopped pedophilia, but ultimately it has become an example of very poor governance.
Energize Susan J. Ellis	Should We Cap the Number of Hours a Volunteer May Serve Each Week? New volunteers may start off gung-ho and promise many hours before they know what they will experience. So I like the practice of setting an initial limit of maximum time until the situation evolves and looks to be successful.
Energize October 2007 Susan J. Ellis	The Moral Obligation of Volunteer Recruitment Promises Recruiting volunteers to contribute their time and effort to your organization puts you in the middle of an implied promise.
Energize July 2011 Susan J. Ellis	Needed: A Multi-level Approach to Credentialing Volunteer Management Volunteer management has been an "emerging profession" ever since I've been in the field -- which is now 40 years.