Profession of Volunteer Management

CNIB (Canadian Institute for the Blind) shares an array of excellent resources to foster a culture of volunteerism within your organization. Under a Government of Ontario grant, CNIB developed a series of resources identifying best practices for partnering with volunteers. The documents – manuals, toolkits, training guides and templates – are posted on the CNIB Ontario website. One goal was to share these resources and best practices with other not-for-profit organizations, and to assist them with their inclusion goals. While these documents have been created with CNIB examples, you can adapt these Word versions for your own purposes. Some of the materials focus on working with volunteers who have vision disabilities.

Advances the profession and practice of volunteer resource management by certifying individuals who demonstrate knowledge and competence in the leadership of volunteers. Certified in Volunteer Administration (CVA) is an international credential awarded to practitioners with at least 3 years of experience who successfully complete an exam and written portfolio process. Originally developed by the Association for Volunteer Administration (AVA) several decades ago, the credentialing program is now sponsored by the Council for Certification in Volunteer Administration. See their Web site for details on dates throughout the year for new groups and qualifications.

By Patrick Daniels, UK-based volunteer and international activist. The blog's tag line: "Notes on thinking and research about the development of volunteering."

Compiled by Carter McNamara, a long selection of articles throughout the Web on volunteer management.

Jayne Cravens has been collecting information for years on initiatives opposed to some or all volunteering (unpaid work), or ALL kinds of volunteering, including unpaid internships at nonprofit organizations/charities. It is also a list of online and print articles about or addressing controversies regarding volunteers replacing paid staff. Most of the links are to initiatives or actions in Europe or the USA. She keeps it updated, too.

This list has been compiled to help researchers regarding volunteerism, as well as for policy makers and volunteerism advocates who want to avoid these kinds of controversies at nonprofit organizations and government agencies. This list is also compiled to refute those who believe that there are no such controversies (believe it or not, those people DO exist).

From JFFixler Group, consultants in volunteer engagement and board developement

"The UK quality standard for good practice in volunteer management." Detailed and comprehensive set of occupation standards for the role of volunteer program manager and benchmarks for organizations.

One of the field's first blogs run by Jayne Cravens, expert in online volunteering, that offers great information and insight on volunteerism as well as nonprofit, development, and women's issues.

Blog from Kathleen McCleskey.

By Sue Hine in New Zealand, with the tag line: "Great volunteer programmes do not fall out of the sky: it is good management practice that makes them even better."

Read the informed musings of UK colleague Rob Jackson on volunteer management and trends in the field. Also read his monthly "Voice of Volunteering" posting to the Third Sector (UK) site.

Colleague DJ Cronin in Australia challenges the volunteer management community to get engaged in debate to strengthen the profession.

Elisa Kosarin says she "created Twenty Hats as a place for volunteer managers, development directors, and other nonprofit pros to find practical, skill-building information that they need and that they can use on the job right away. My blog posts, tools, webinars, and courses give you practical, useful information to help you master the skills you never learned in school."

Blog written by members of the Association of Volunteer Managers (AVM) in the UK- "a voice, a resource and a network in volunteer management."

"Dialogue on Strategic Service Engagement" from Reed Dewey, now a consultant, who has worked at various American national volunteerism organizations.

Action Without Borders/Idealist.org, partnering with Energize, launched the Volunteer Resource Management Center in 2007 as a comprehensive site focusing on the role of the volunteer program manager .

Free downloadable publications, checklists, and tools for volunteer management from this Northern Ireland peak body.

"About the challenges we face as volunteer managers." Meridian Swift hosts this "place to blow off steam, commiserate with one another, laugh, shake our heads and realize that we are not alone in this profession."

Nancy Macduff’s Web site with monthly current material and links for volunteer resources managers.

Range of articles (PDFs) on various aspects of volunteer management.

Web area explaining what volunteer centers do and how they are critical in supporting volunteering.

For volunteers and volunteer managers looking for advice and information about how to support volunteering -- find articles, information sheets, case studies and links to other helpful guidance or external websites

Articles and insights from this speaker, trainer and Certified Volunteer Administrator with over 25 years of experience.

Created by Australian Wendy Moore "to support, encourage and inspire people in the field of volunteer management, through sharing information and ideas to take our sector and boldly go where no one has gone before."