Education
2010 Volunteering In America Report
Check out this website to review the most current report
www.volunteeringinamerica.gov/
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Strategic Volunteer Engagement: A Guide for Nonprofit and Public Sector Leaders
During the summer of 2010, you may download this e-Book at no charge in exchange for answering 10 brief questions about your work with volunteers by going to www.serviceleader.org. While you're on the ServiceLeader website, check out other resources for managers and instructors - it's the home of the original virtual volunteering research conducted by Jayne Cravens in the 1990s.
What do executive directors and leaders in public sector organizations really think about volunteers? That was the question that propelled The Volunteer Champions Initiative, a collaborative research project funded by The Volunteer Impact Fund with assistance from the OneStar Foundation and conducted by Sarah Jane Rehnborg, Ph.D. from the University of Texas' RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service.
The research study report,
Strategic Volunteer Engagement: A Guide for Nonprofit and Public Sector Leaders, offers a framework and guidance for executive directors interested in engaging volunteers to reach strategic goals in their organizations. In 40 concise pages, this e-book explains common organizational myths about volunteer engagement, a step-by-step guide to planning for volunteer involvement, and an overview of management considerations based on the type and nature of volunteer engagement.Rehnborg drew on the experience of research collaborators Susan J. Ellis of Energize Inc., Betty Stallings of Building Better Skills, Jane Justis of the Leighty Foundation, and Jackie Norris (retired) of Metro Volunteers in Denver in conceiving the project, and then ran focus groups of executive directors in Austin, Texas and Denver, Colorado. These sessions found that organization leaders are not so much "negative" about volunteers as they are exceptionally busy individuals juggling multiple responsibilities with insufficient information about volunteer engagement. Strategic Volunteer Engagement captures concerns raised by these leaders and provides a framework for thinking about volunteer involvement.
