Volunteer Managers Blog

Volunteer Managers wear at least twenty hats and probably more. Among your many roles, you are human resource specialists, marketers, facilitators, systems experts, and data analysts. That’s a broad list of skills to master, and we receive little formal training to bring us up to speed.

This blog is my contribution to the skill-building piece. If you search through these pages, you will find over 150 posts covering practices in just about every area of volunteer engagement. Here’s to doing your important work with more confidence and ease.

Are your volunteer roles a barrier to equity and inclusion?

Are your volunteer roles a barrier to equity and inclusion?

by | Jul 14, 2020

Thoughts on where to start to diversity your volunteer program There is a well-known expression in the organizational management world, 'Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.' I keep returning to that quote when I read Lisa Joyslin’s post on...

Why it’s ok for volunteer managers to move on

Why it’s ok for volunteer managers to move on

by | Mar 10, 2020

Volunteer manager turnover is not a problem — it's something to plan for and even support. When I first began working in nonprofits, I was lucky to report to a CEO with some very clear policies. One was the “Oops” policy, meaning that that errors are natural and not to be punished. What a relief to own your mistakes without fear of reprisal.
Want to start a staff volunteer program? Here’s your how-to

Want to start a staff volunteer program? Here’s your how-to

by | Dec 10, 2019

What it looks like when your co-workers do the volunteering. Here’s one thing I’ve learned from my five years of blogging: A volunteer manager who does one thing well does many things well. When we excel at leading volunteers, it expresses itself in all kinds of innovations.