Smarter Impact Starts Here
Mythbusting 101: Day 3
Every day, volunteers help organizations achieve their mission – delivering meals, entering data, providing pro bono consulting, mentoring youth – and more. While organizational leaders usually recognize that volunteers provide valuable support and services, many...
Mythbusting 101: Day 2
Every day, volunteers help organizations achieve their mission – delivering meals, entering data, providing pro bono consulting, mentoring youth – and more. While organizational leaders usually recognize that volunteers provide valuable support and services, many...
Mythbusting 101: Day 1
Every day, volunteers help organizations achieve their mission – delivering meals, entering data, providing pro bono consulting, mentoring youth – and more. While organizational leaders usually recognize that volunteers provide valuable support and services, many...
Memorable Moments: Points of Light 2023
Engagement professionals invest a lot of time and resources in training volunteers, developing volunteer leaders, and coaching colleagues in how to work effectively with volunteers. If only we invested as much time, energy, and resources into developing ourselves as...
What is Strategic Volunteer Engagement?
What is strategic volunteer engagement - and why does it matter? Driven by the power of volunteer energy and grounded in comprehensive research, the Initiative for Strategic Volunteer Engagement launched to answer this exact question. By providing practical...
Dear VQ… How can I inspire our team to plan for volunteers?
This morning, an email arrived from a volunteer manager I've known for many years, and she shared this request: I'm reaching out to see if you have any simple resources that I can use during a team meeting to do a little training/informational session on working with...
Drumroll, please! Landmark Research on Volunteer Engagement & Funding
Today was a longtime coming. After years of meetings, dialogue, presentations, advocacy, (and yes, maybe even some proverbial hair-pulling in frustration), today was the launch of the Initiative for Strategic Volunteer Engagement and the release of landmark research...
Introducing our Book Group Facilitation Guide!
When we first conceived of the book, Transforming Disruption to Impact, our goal was to spark conversation about the innovations and adaptations that have been vital to sustaining the power of volunteers despite the many disruptions we have all experienced in recent...
Rethinking Service Days – Join our Conversation
MLK Jr. Day of Service 2023 is right around the corner, with all its potential and promise. Yet, are you stuck trying to recreate a model of service from 2019 or earlier? If so, I encourage you to rethink and reimagine. In a January, 2021 VQ blog post, I shared shared...
Mattering: The Growing Volunteer Motivator
The sticky note on the side of my desk reads, "Making a difference is a way to know you matter." Uncharacteristically (and regrettably!), I didn’t write down which colleague or friend said that while on a conference call, but I know that, as soon as I heard it, I...
