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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 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 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 August 2014 Susan J. Ellis	Identifying Who Is and Is Not a "Volunteer" Here are ten time-tested volunteer recruitment tips that still work.
Energize March 2005 Susan J. Ellis	Recruitment Maxims Volunteer recruitment does not mean wheedling, arm twisting, or asking for a favor. The best approach is that you are sharing an opportunity with prospective volunteers that you don't want them to miss!
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 2014 Susan J. Ellis	Whom Don't We Ask to Volunteer? Consider where you recruit and what your expectations are of what applicants will look like. Don't limit your outreach and you'll be rewarded.
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 May 2007 Susan J. Ellis	Make New Friends, but Keep the Old... For volunteer organizations, it is important to find ways to revitalize the involvement of inactive members.
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 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 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.
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 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 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.
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 February 2010 Susan J. Ellis	Both Receiving and Giving Conspicuous by their absence, particularly in human service agencies, are volunteers with a direct, personal connection to the work of the organization
Energize February 2008 Susan J. Ellis	The Power of Difference For best success, look for volunteers that offer a different skill set than the paid staff.
Energize May 2010 Susan J. Ellis	The Self-Directed Volunteer The author discusses what is meant by the "self-directed" volunteer and what this means for philanthropic organizations.
Energize March 2013 Susan J. Ellis	Why Social Media Is Not the Cure-All for Building Volunteer Engagement You can become very successful at recruitment if you are able to brainstorm where you are most likely to find the right people -- not just people -- and where your message will not compete with thousands of others.
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.
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 June 2011 Paula J. Beugen	Is the Corporation for National and Community Service on the Right Track for Volunteerism? After energetically working alongside many others to advance the concepts for what became the National and Community Service Act of 1990, I am stunned by the current state of what is now the Corporation for National and Community Service
Energize October 2011 Susan J. Ellis	What Leaders of Volunteers Can Do To Gain Executive Attention This month, I am turning the spotlight 180 degrees to examine how leaders of volunteers contribute to the problem of not getting enough attention from higher-ups.
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?
Energize Susan J. Ellis	Volunteering and Employability: Cause or Effect? Most of us in volunteer management support the observation that volunteering builds resumes, provides career exploration, and demonstrates each volunteer's abilities, but can we make the case that volunteering directly affects employability? And is that the point?
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 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 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 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 July 2014 Susan J. Ellis	I Really Want to Know: What's Going on Out There? Here are a few of the ideas from the past few years that I really love as concepts. Have you (or someone you know) tried any of them?
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 January 2007 Susan J. Ellis	Should Volunteer Program Managers Be Volunteers, Too? There's never been a better time to volunteer for a volunteer management network - and that's true in a range of countries around the world, many of whom are nurturing embryo associations right now.
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.
AFP eWire August 4, 2008	Volunteering Up, Dropout Rate Still High Retaining donors is not the only challenge nonprofits face. A recent study shows that retention rates for volunteers are nearly as daunting.
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.
Job Journal November 6, 2005 Susan J. Ellis	Volunteer Work Can Give Your Job Search a Boost Whether you're looking into a first career or interested in switching professions, volunteering can be a marvelous way to explore your options.
Energize September 2004 Susan J. Ellis	Workplace Volunteerism: Have We Thought this Through? It should trouble us that most employee volunteer programs focus on the lowest level employee and do not encourage middle management and higher to participate as well.
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 July 2005 Susan J. Ellis	Save a Life, Win a Car! When Do Incentives to Volunteer Cross the Line? Perhaps the diehard volunteers who want to give back to someone that has helped them will continue without perks, but the casual or more transitory volunteer will be siphoned off.
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 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.