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2009 National Volunteer Toolkit
2009 National Volunteer Week Banner
National Volunteer Week, 2010 the school competition begins!!
Los Angeles plans to be the city that leads the world at people helping people! We, The World has contacted the Guiness World Records and informed that we plan to perform 1,000,000 (one million) acts of kindness in the LAUSD schools during National Volunteer Week, 2010. It is our intention that individual schools, school districts, cities, counties, states and regions will also participate during this week every year. For more information go to www.thinkkindness.org.
Volunteers deserve our appreciation all year long but National Volunteer Week, April 19-25, 2009, is another opportunity to acknowledge and thank them. For plenty of ideas on how to get them, how to keep them, how to support them and how to show them you love them scroll down this page. If you just found out about NVW and don't have time to put a volunteer recognition party together, how about sending free "thank-you" e-cards? Here's a complete accounting guide to how to track volunteer time to boost your bottom line. Be sure to check this chart for your state's dollar value of a volunteer hour. Here are some ideas for ways to recognize volunteers. For a free monthly "tip" on volunteer recognition, register here.
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Could you use free help from an expert accountant? Web designer? Whose help do you need? These folks match volunteer experts in areas, literally from A to W, to non-profits who need them. It's worth checking them out to see if they can take some of the burden out of your budget and off your shoulders. And these folks tell you now is the time to find such help and how to find them.
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IF YOU’RE GOING TO KISS BUTT, LET IT BE A VOLUNTEER’S
Volunteer Recognition
We all know the importance of volunteers and how we couldn’t live without them. There’s always going to be one of those people who mean well but make you crazy. Take it in stride.
If you’re one of those people who believe that “if you want it done right, do it yourself,”
breathe in the good air; breathe out the bad air and let it go! Your agency should not be a one-person show. There are so many amazing volunteers out there. Let them help. And when they do, let them know how much you appreciate them.
Volunteers give up their personal time to assist you, so it is important to thank them for choosing to do so and to recognize them for their efforts. You can acknowledge their specific contributions when you thank them personally, or with a handwritten note or email. They can also be publicly recognized, as appropriate, at a special event in front of their peers.
For ongoing and informal ways to say thank you, check this out.
- Obama called for “new era of responsibility.” He has inspired millions of Americans – young and old – to serve to help “remake the country.” You need to use this time and this momentum to recruit volunteers for your organization. Quote his words. Reach out. Don’t miss this opportunity. Get inspired reading this article.
- If you are not already registered at volunteermatch.org, we encourage you to do so. Not only can you list your needs for volunteers and have people respond who may never have heard about you before, but they’ve just connected with Google who created Google Earth. You can check out a video demonstration here. Anybody can click onto the earth to find volunteer opportunities, but they won’t find your agency unless you are registered with volunteermatch.org. It’s free. We promise.
- Volunteer Screening
Holey Mackinoley! According to a recent report from The Atlantic Journal Constitution, many nonprofits lack volunteer screening. And ChoicePoint, which provides background-screening services for nonprofits, says at least 144 people with criminal backgrounds seek nonprofit employment or volunteer work daily. You’d better read this article and then find your agency someone who will do pro bono background checks for you.
Before you recruit volunteers, make sure your agency is ready for them.
Recruiting Volunteers - Three Approaches
Volunteer management tips re: surveys
Here is 14 steps to developing a top notch volunteer program. This is quite comprehensive and may be the only thing you need to get it together!
How to perform background checks
Screening for background checks
Safety Net's Manual on Screening Mentors, includes application form
Performing background checks on potential mentors
Criteria for mentor selection
You need to be up to date on laws associated with "upaid" interns.
Volunteer policies to "borrow from."
More Volunteer policies to "borrow from."
Additional Volunteer policies to "borrow from."
Organizing your volunteer program for the fall.
Recruiting minority volunteers - a discussion.
Go Boomers! The results of a recent survey show that Boomers will continue to volunteer & why they don't if they don't.
How to start an internship program.
Here’s a really helpful article on how to recruit volunteers in hard times.
10 ways to make volunteers happy!
Have a family volunteering day at your org. Here's how to do it.
The GIVE Act (Giving Incentives for Volunteers Everywhere) is in the makings now (S3429). The bill would raise the volunteer standard deduction rate from the current 14 cents per mile to 70 percent of the standard business deduction rate. This would set the rate at 41 cents/mile and the rate would be adjusted annually. In addition, the bill would exempt charities from taxable income reimbursements for mileage traveled by a volunteer up to the business rate (currently 58.5 cents/mile). Read more about it and keep your fingers crossed!
Providing volunteers a start and end date will make it seem like retention isn't such a problem.
Study shows that people can learn new skills if they volunteer.
Volunteering - what's in it for me?
Resources for volunteer managers
How to fire a volunteer.
Volunteer Position Description.
Sources to post volunteer positions.
Coordinating your volunteer's time.
How to develop a volunteer program.
Volunteer Classifieds.
Volunteers are community treasures
There are few better ways to start a new week than with gratitude. Today we say thanks to what are likely thousands of people in our part of the Upstate and northeast Georgia as National Volunteer Week begins. The 2009 theme is Celebrating People in Action.
Volunteers are certainly active. We are sometimes amazed at what can be accomplished by people who receive no pay and have no benefits — except what they derive from doing something good for their fellow man and their community.
But we have to admit that we like the 2005 theme a bit better: Inspire by Example. For that’s what volunteers do. They rack up hundreds of hours in local hospitals, help with after-school programs, populate our civic clubs, volunteer for schools or recreation sports or their churches. They not only demonstrate what joy can be derived from helping improve their communities, they quietly and by example encourage others to do their part.
Even slow economic times don’t stop volunteers — and contributions — to good causes. Network for Good (www.networkforgood.org) reports that giving through its site to more than 50,000 charities was up 30 percent in 2008. While the average dollar amount may have been lower, more people were sharing a portion of what they had.
Perhaps it is when we are in financial difficulties ourselves that we nonetheless realize just how lucky we are — and act accordingly toward those who aren’t so fortunate.
Independent Sector (IS), a nonprofit, nonpartisan coalition of charities, foundations and corporate philanthropy programs, reports that in 2008, the value of a volunteer hour was $20.25. IS says the work volunteers do nationwide would equal more than 9 million fulltime employees with a payroll of $239 billion. Imagine how much we would have to pay (if the money were even there to spend) for people to deliver Meals on Wheels or staff the library’s book store or encourage Special Olympics athletes?
Volunteering may save money, but it’s not about money for those who see something that needs doing and make the effort to do it. From serving food to serving as a surrogate grandparent, from building houses to helping rebuild lives, from reading to a child or teaching an adult to read, volunteers are a reminder of how much value they add to our lives and our communities. And they remind us how much there is to be done.
They are teenagers who mentor younger students and others who give their time to the other end of the age spectrum, visiting seniors in nursing homes so people who may have outlived their family and friends know they are not forgotten. They are mothers always prepared to drive for a class field trip, fathers who coach, grandparents who find helping a child with homework isn’t as hard as they remember it being. Maybe they see doing for other children as an expression of gratitude for their own healthy and happy children. The parents and grandparents are also helping create a new generation of people who care, for volunteering is often a family tradition.
People who volunteer will give any number of reasons for the effort. Compassion for others in need is likely the most frequently cited response. But we think gaining a new perspective must be running a close second, a new look not just at the lives of those around us but at what we might take for granted in our own lives.
If you are a volunteer, we offer our thanks, not just this week but every week of the year.
And if you are not a volunteer, we offer our hope that you will consider finding even an hour a week to make your community stronger. We each have the power to do so much with such a small amount of time.
Each of us — and the community we call home — will get so much in return
Popular Domain Names For Online Community Service
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