Outside the US?

Energize is a United States-based company and all our writing is in American English.  But our horizons and interests extend way beyond our home country.  Spend any time browsing this site and you’ll quickly see that we share information about and by colleagues throughout the world.  We actively:

1. Seek out books, research, Web sites, and any quality information about volunteer management from any credible source.  The Online Bookstore sells titles from three continents.
2. Welcome responses to the monthly Hot Topic and other postings to the site from colleagues around the world, as well as list information by country throughout the Referral Network area.  
3. Publish e-Volunteerism:  The Electronic Journal of the Volunteer Community to be a forum for practitioners everywhere.  Our subscribers are international, the editorial team is from three countries, and contributors so far have come from more than 20 different countries (you can even search by country in the Archive index).  We maintain the spelling and punctuation of the country-of-origin of all articles.

Our president, Susan Ellis travels outside of the United States frequently, speaking to conferences large and small.  She has helped colleagues across the USA and Canada, and in Latin America (2 countries), Europe (9 countries), Asia (3 countries), and Australasia (2 countries) to create or strengthen their volunteer corps.  It is this face-to-face international exchange that keeps Energize on the cutting edge of trends affecting the entire field.

But is the information universal?

Of course many cultural differences exist and someone who has not lived in a country cannot speak authoritatively about its needs, resources, or challenges.  But the basic principles underlying effective volunteer management are truly universal because they are about human behavior.  The institutions, laws, relationship to government, sources of funding, and the causes themselves may all be different, but success with volunteers always depends on such fundamentals as:

• Belief in the value of volunteer engagement, both to the organization and for the volunteer.
• A vision of community resources that is inclusive and creative.
• Clear definition of roles and what we want volunteers to do.
• The best volunteering is an exchange through which the giver benefits as well as the recipient.
• Recognition that volunteering of some sort is part of the tradition of all cultures, both genders, all races and religions, all income levels – although the vocabulary may need to vary with each audience.
• Offering a range of choices that match prospective volunteers’ needs, talents, and characteristics.
• Paying attention to how paid staff and volunteers interact.
• Treating volunteers with courtesy, respect, and a sense of humor.
• The need for adequate resources to support volunteers, including funds, tools, and time.
• The power of a genuine thank-you.