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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 January 2006 Susan J. Ellis |
The Implications of History Volunteering lessons gleaned from the newest edition of By the People: A History of Americans as Volunteers. |
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 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 May 2012 |
Three Things Volunteer Managers Can Learn from the Social Media Revolution Quick Tip: Recruit what Susan Ellis calls `cyber deputies.' These are volunteers who perhaps have more knowledge or comfort with social media than you. |
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 February 2009 Susan J. Ellis |
"A New Era of Responsibility": An Open Letter to President Obama A call for the President to remember the professional field of volunteer resource management during his presidency. |
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 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 2006 Susan J. Ellis |
Encouraging Entrepreneurial Volunteering Whether we are dealing in social entrepreneurship, civic engagement, donated professional services, pro bono work, or volunteering, our mission is to mobilize as wide a spectrum of community members as possible to meet real needs. |
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 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 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 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 August 2005 Susan J. Ellis |
Still Tilting at Windmills While there have been huge and exciting developments in volunteerism in the past 30 years, many of the challenges are still looming windmills to fight. Also, the most stimulating activities right now are occurring far outside the United States, while here it is harder to find innovators or leaders. |
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 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 March 2012 Susan J. Ellis |
How Serving the Volunteer Field Has Changed after 35 Years -- Or Not? Associations and infrastructure organizations can come and go, but the real action is on the ground, in each and every action volunteers take to improve the world. |
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 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 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 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 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 May 2014 Susan J. Ellis |
Branding National Volunteer Week: Who Wins and Who Loses? National Volunteer Week last month was its usual non-event in the United States -- despite its 40 th anniversary -- with precious little media attention. This year, however, that might well have been a good thing. |
Energize June 2009 Susan J. Ellis |
Days, Hours and Minutes of Service - Enough Is Enough For over a decade it's been a clear, universal trend that new volunteers are seeking short-term assignments with a visible beginning, middle and end. |
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 1, 2007 Susan J. Ellis |
The Big Merger: Many Unanswered Questions The merger between the Points of Light Foundation and Hands On Network has the potential for a positive impact on volunteerism. But, there are more questions than answers about the new entity. |
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 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 2011 Susan J. Ellis |
Addressing Volunteerism Issues in the Blogosphere The following blogs are listed randomly with no particular hierarchy, but they are all written by authors who are willing -- in fact, determined -- to address philosophy, ethics, and the "big questions" facing the volunteer field. |
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 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 August 2008 Susan J. Ellis |
The Yin and Yang of China's Olympic Volunteers Volunteerism Beijing 2008 style is managed rigorously by the state and for the state. |
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 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 June 2007 Susan J. Ellis |
Technology Acceleration: Grab Hold and Hang On We are never going back to pre-Web days. What does this all mean to the volunteer world right now? Well, it may be frenetic and strange, but the explosion of new technologies is an enormous opportunity. Make the most of it! |
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 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 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 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 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 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. |
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 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 March 2008 Susan J. Ellis |
California Governor "Pumps Up" Volunteering California elevates volunteer management to a state cabinet position. |
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 October 2006 Susan J. Ellis |
The Middle Management Barrier Middle managers are vital to how effective the organization's volunteer engagement will be. |
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 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. |