12:50, 12 November 2009
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Cell phones aren't just nice to have in developing countries --
cell phones play an essential role in delivering health care information, mobile banking capabilities, advocacy and awareness messages, commodity prices and weather reports to people who might never receive the information otherwise. As well, cell phone allow people an opportunity to gather and immediately share information to help in logistics, coordination, evaluation and reporting activities that are essential for various community and organizational programs and local quality of life.
See
this list of service delivery via mobile phones in the developing world. for an excellent list of examples.
You can also see "
Handheld computer technologies in community service/volunteering/advocacy", a pioneering article written in 2001 that offers even more examples of cell phone use in the developing world and as a part of NGO service delivery (note that this article has moved; if you linked to the article previously online, please adjust your links accordingly).
14:40, 10 November 2009
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Being able to report results is
vital for any nonprofit organization, NGO, or other mission-based organization (schools, government agencies, etc.). You must be able to show -- to the general public, to program partners, to supporters, to potential supporters, to the media -- that your organization or program is making a real difference.
Need resources on performance measurement and reporting results?
This excellent online database of evaluation resources is written in plain English and includes slide presentations with audio, written text and worksheets. It was developed for
AmeriCorps members (part of the
USA's national service program). If you need to report about your program's progress -- and it doesn't have to have anything to with AmeriCorps -- you will find these resources helpful.
Also see
Questions to Ask for a Major Report from the Developing World, which, while created for use in-the-field in the developing world, might also be helpful for any nonprofit or mission-based organization needing to report on program results.
11:25, 6 November 2009
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The scramble is
already underway for individuals and groups to
find volunteering opportunities for the holidays, and it will get more intense with each day as we get closer to the holidays. If you aren't starting
right now to find volunteering activities for the holidays, you probably won't find any once Thanksgiving, Christmas, or whatever holiday it is you want to spend volunteering rolls around.
Many nonprofits are already turning people away who want to volunteer during the holidays. Some soup kitchens have volunteers reserving to serve food on Thanksgiving six months or even a year in advance!
Start looking now if you want to volunteer during the holidays. In the USA, you have a plethora of online places to choose from:
Also,
think about creating your own holiday volunteering activity for yourself or your group. You could:
- arrange to do a blood donation drive with the American Red Cross at your workplace, community of faith, civic group, sports facility, or central site in your neighborhood (note that you can't arrange for them to come tomorrow; give them plenty of notice).
- arrange to do a canned food drive to benefit your nearest food pantry at your workplace, community of faith, civic group, sports facility, or central site in your neighborhood.
- arrange to have a book drive for the local library at your workplace, community of faith, civic group, sports facility, or central site in your neighborhood (however, call the library first, to make sure they accept book donations, and make sure donors understand that their books will probably be sold and the money used to benefit the library, rather than their books becoming a part of the collection)
- contact local nonprofit organizations in your area (stopping by in person is better than calling) and find out what activities you, as an individual, or the group you represent, might be able to do (paint a room? put together book shelves for an on-site library? clean up the exterior and do light yard work at a site?). Be prepared to pay for all items (paint, brushes, tools, shelves, furniture, etc.) yourself or to use your own materials -- nonprofits don't have the budget to pay for those items for your one-day, feel good holiday volunteering experience.
- contact your local chapter of the Salvation Army, Meals on Wheels and the United Way, as well as any hospice organizations or AIDS services organizations in your area, to see if they need food deliverers near or during the holidays.
- Like to sing? Get a group together to serenade volunteers serving food at the local homeless shelter, or people coming in to pick up deliveries for Meals on Wheels, or volunteers at a Habitat for Humanity site. Get permission from the associated nonprofit well in advance -- do NOT just show up. And take no for an answer -- if you are going to be in the way, or your going to delay work too much, your offer may be turned down. You can, ofcourse, also look for opportunities to sing for recipients of service (people in hospice care, people receiving meals at home, etc.) but, again, get permission from the associated nonprofit well in advance -- do NOT just show up.
Nonprofits may require you as an individual or all members of your volunteering group to go through an orientation about the organization. They may require that the names and home addresses of all volunteers be supplied to them (as they would with any volunteers). They may require volunteers to undergo criminal background checks. Don't be offended; respect the policies and procedures of nonprofit organizations regarding volunteer involvement, some of which may be required by law, just as you expect employees to adhere to policies and procedures at your workplace.
08:43, 5 November 2009
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The bombing of the guest house in Afghanistan that housed so many United Nations staff has, ofcourse, been very much on my mind. I'm not surprised that the UN is pulling much of its international staff out of Afghanistan or into more secure compounds following last week's deadly attack.
These events are a tragedy for those who lost their lives and even those who survived the attack, but altogether, they are also a tragedy for Afghanistan, as noted
this blog by Sarah Bailey: "The ultimate tragedy is that the cost of keeping aid works safe may be the well-being or even the survival of those who rely on their assistance."
UN workers were already incredibly restricted in their movements in the country and interactions with everyday Afghans before this latest attack. When I was there in 2007, I felt like I would go out of my mind being able to walk only within the boundaries of my guest house and my work place, for the most part, except for a handful of acceptable restaurants (and good luck finding a UN driver on your one day off to go to such, especially if you are a woman aid worker in Afghanistan). But since the first attack on the Serena Hotel in Kabul in January 2008 (which killed American aid worker
Thor Hesla, among others), international aid workers are even more restricted in their movements. For most international aid workers -- at least most aid workers worth their salt -- it's interactions with locals and experiencing the country on a personal level that fuels the drive to be there, to give up family and friends for such long periods in order to serve the region. As safety precautions cut aid workers further off from every day life in the country, Afghans themselves suffer - it's harder to get them the resources they need, as communications channels become so severely limited.
But my greatest fear now is for local aid workers in Afghanistan; most of the people I worked with
when I was in Afghanistan were Afghans themselves. My fellow aid workers from Afghanistan provided most of my window into Afghan culture. Their work makes them a target. Some families have stopped allowing women family members out of the house, forcing them to quit their jobs.
It's hard to believe that, in 2007, Afghanistan was so much safer than Iraq (which was why, when offered a job in both places at the same time, I chose the former). Now, almost three years later after that original job offer, things have changed so dramatically. And tragically.
My Afghan women colleagues say that for as bad things have gotten, life is still better for them than it was under the Taliban or under the Afghanistan warlords -- but
Afghan women's gains are not holding. Please write your US Representative and your Senators to remind them that
the safety and freedom of Afghan women needs to be a priority; every decision made in Afghanistan needs to have their concerns at the forefront.
Thomas, stay safe.
10:38, 4 November 2009
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Gender Evaluation Methodology (GEM) for Internet and ICTs is a guide to integrating a gender analysis into evaluations of initiatives that use information and communication technologies (ICTs) for social change. GEM provides a means for
determining whether ICTs are really improving women's lives and gender relations as well as promoting positive change at the individual, institutional, community, and broader social levels. The guide provides users with an overview of the 4 elements of the evaluation process and outlines suggested strategies and methodologies for incorporating a gender analysis throughout the evaluation process. "GEM is not simply an evaluation tool. It can also be used to ensure that a gender concerns are integrated into a project planning process."
You can read a summary here: And
you can see the guide itself here (but this URL may be changing soon; the web site is currently in transition).
If you do anything regarding information and communication technologies, please read these materials.
You don't have to be a gender specialist to be an advocate for women in development activities.
Also see
women-only hours at community Internet centers? why?
13:47, 3 November 2009
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Susan Ellis once again hits the nail on the head, this time calling out
the Entertainment Industry Foundation’s (EIF) recent attempt to mention volunteering in all types of media. From
her blog on the subject: "Despite the announced list of over 50 television shows planning to incorporate either a public service ad or a story line about service during the week of October 19-25, the media blitz was more of a bust. The messages were all over the map in type, length, and meaning. It took conscious effort to find the teeny, tiny mentions of service and, if it was hard to catch our eyes, why think the general public was aware of anything?"
Read Susan's entire blog for November.
And here's what I wrote to a media consultant working on behalf of EIF who asked me what I thought of the effort:
There are thousands and thousands of people who want to volunteer but are consistently turned away from nonprofits, schools, fire stations, etc., because those organizations lack the funding and other resources necessary to involve volunteers effectively. This campaign -- like other volunteer promotion campaigns that are launched regularly -- will create even more people who want to volunteer but will be turned away. And, sadly, they will not have very nice things to say about volunteering, based on their own experiences.
I hope that, some day soon, you and others will sit down with volunteer managers -- those who work with volunteers -- and ask them what it is they need to be able to involve even more volunteers. It's a conversation that's long overdue.
10:29, 2 November 2009
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I've been advocating for nonprofits to use the Internet to network
since 1994. It's been nice to see people and the media now talking about the Internet the way I and others were
talking about it back then: as a place to connect with people and ideas, and to interact whenever you want with almost anyone you want without being limited by geography and hierarchies.
But many of the people promoting the current "hot" online networking tools like
LinkedIn,
FaceBook and
MySpace seem to think that
everyone, or at least
most people, are reachable via those tools. They forget that
these networking sites exclude entire populations -- millions and millions of people. These online communities represent a highlyly selected, limited group, relatively speaking. For instance, according to the latest data from
Quantcast, only 5 percent of LinkedIn users are black and only 2 percent are Hispanic. In addition, the limited number of people reached by FaceBook and MySpace are divided into different demographics; choosing just one of these platforms could be seen as
leaving out certain groups.
And then there's the identifiers that have appeared again with social networking sites, identifiers that disappeared when the only online tools we used was email, USENET and web sites: identifiers like appearance, religion, pregnancy, age, sexual orientation and political views --
things that can easily be used by someone, consciously or unconsciously, to discriminate against potential staff, volunteers, clients and supporters.
I'm going to keep advocating that nonprofits use the Internet to network with current and potential donors, volunteers, clients, staff and the general public, and that includes using online social networks. But I'm also going to keep advocating that
nonprofits should think about diversity, and plan strategically to reach a varied audience. If a nonprofit limits itself to only the current "hot" online networking tools to recruit new volunteers, staff and others, it's going to end up with a very homogenous workforce and community of supporters.
More information at this article:
Discriminatory Twist in Networking Sites Puts Recruiters in Peril.
16:48, 28 October 2009
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Involving volunteers shouldn't be about a nonprofit or other organization having things to do and needing someone to do them -- that's OLD SCHOOL.
Involving volunteers should be about wanting to create a community of supports, about creating an avenue for community members to see first hand what your organization is doing, and reaching out to those you may not be reaching otherwise, among other MODERN reasons.
Some organizations are using volunteering to involve people with disabilities as volunteers (rather than their being mere
recipients of volunteer service).
Tarjan Center Service Inclusion Project has launched a Service Inclusion Success Story Library featuring in-depth interviews (including pictures) with volunteer programs and disability organizations that have conducted innovative, high quality, inclusive service activities, as well as with outstanding volunteers with disabilities. The interviews delve into the root causes of success. How did these programs make inclusive service a reality? What barriers did they encounter and how did they overcome them? What are the best techniques they’ve learned from their experience? All stories can be downloaded in either PDF or WORD and shared with your colleagues, volunteers, friends and family. Additional interviews and stories will be posted in the coming months.
17:29, 22 October 2009
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Applications are open through November 15, 2009 for the
2010 NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing. Sponsored by Bank of America, the
NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing recognizes
young women at the high-school level in the USA for their computing-related achievements and interests. Awardees are selected for their demonstrated, outstanding aptitude and interest in information technology/computing; solid leadership ability; good academic history; and plans for post-secondary education.
All US high school young women (grades 9-12) are invited to apply.
A
Spanish language version of the Award promotional materials is available.
Through a generous grant from the Motorola Foundation, there will be additional Affiliate Award programs in Texas, Illinois & Florida. The application period is the same and students who apply from these states will be entered into both the local and national competitions. Affiliate award prize packages will vary by location.
"By generating visibility for these young women in their local communities, the NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing encourages their continued interest in computing, attracts the attention and support of educational and corporate institutions, and emphasizes at a personal level the importance of women's participation."
Each qualified national awardee will receive:
- $500 in cash
- a laptop computer, provided by Bank of America
- a trip to attend the Bank of America Technology Showcase and Awards Ceremony, March 27, 2010, held in Charlotte, North Carolina
- an engraved award for both the student and the student's school
Past winners are not eligible to apply, however, previous applicants (including Semi Finalists) are encouraged to apply.
11:20, 19 October 2009
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While
I was in Afghanistan, I was notorious for kicking-back field reports that stated "the community was consulted" about this or that project, but that never said if the decision-making included any women. Sadly, the report writers often came back to me with a scowl and lots of excuses about why women weren't included when "the community was consulted."
When you work in humanitarian and development efforts, you must always be aware that talking to the official leadership of a community, a region, whatever, does
not mean you are hearing about the needs of all citizens, such as minority populations or even majority populations -- women. There
are ways to seek out and include women in even socially-conservative areas so that they can be a part of decision-making.
A good example of this is an intervention in Egypt which used Egyptian women to reach other women regarding eye care, highlighted in
a brief article by the Community Eye Health Journal. The successful strategy they employed was this:
- The team undertaking the intervention held various meetings and presentations to establish a trusting relationship with local policy makers, local health authorities, local community leaders, local non-government organizations (NGOs), etc.
- The team used this network to explain that women weren't receiving eye care at the same rate as men, and that saving or restoring women's sight benefits the whole family.
- The team used this network to identify local women with previous experience in community development projects who could be trained to reach female community members in the intervention villages, as they would be able to enter homes and meet with women without coming into conflict with local cultural practices.
- 42 women were trained over three days, and 30 were selected. as "health visitors,"
- The health visitors then visited 90 per cent of the population in the two intervention villages from March to December 2007.
- During each visit, health visitors explained to women that saving or restoring their own sight would benefit the whole family. Each family received a variety of educational materials, including a calendar with illustrations relating to eye care and information on the importance of seeking eye care for the women in the household.
The result was a huge surge in the number of women receiving eye care as part of this intervention. And maybe something more: a change in the way the community viewed the value of its women? That wasn't measured, unfortunately.
Ofcourse, Egypt isn't Afghanistan. Every country presents special challenges when it comes to reaching women regarding development interventions. But there's
always a way! Regardless of your role in humanitarian or development efforts,
always make reaching women a priority.
See also:
Folklore, Rumors (or Rumours) and Urban Myths Interfering with Development and Aid/Relief Efforts, and Government Initiatives (and how these are overcome)
and
Building Staff Capacities to Communicate and Present (materials developed for Afghanistan).
10:49, 14 October 2009
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Center for Global Development research fellow David Roodman set the philanthropy world and the humanitarian world abuzz last week when he wrote that
Kiva does not work the way many lenders might think it does. Roodman details how "the person-to-person donor-to-borrower connections created by Kiva are partly fictional." His criticisms of Kiva have been reblogged and caused quite a stir, and a number of knee-jerk reactions. Yet, his comments and supporting details that "
What Kiva does behind the scenes is what it should do" and that
"technically" Kiva isn't hiding anything aren't being referred to as well.
Before you decide to blog about this subject yourself, or to offer a summary of what's going on, please read
Roodman's entire post. Read the ENTIRE post. Many of the people blogging about this obviously haven't.
Kiva Co-Founder and CEO Matt Flannery
wrote a detailed response to Roodman's blog, featured on Roodman's blog itself. And it's a good response, one that people interested in crisis communication should read.
Flannery's response on Roodman's blog is not going to be enough, ofcourse; there are
too many bloggers out there reposting tiny snippets of Roodman's original blog and glossing over the details in order to create a firestorm of criticism against Kiva. Best of luck to Flannery
and Roodman to try to bring the discussion back to the facts. Flannery is going to have to get busy posting replies to a lot more blogs, as it's unlikely they will post links to his reply. In those replies, he should
- quote liberally from Roodman's original blog, as Roodman anticipated a lot of the criticism with several of his original comments,
- point out what Kiva will be doing differently because of Roodman's post and the resulting firestorm,
- defend the practices that Kiva won't be changing because the changes would hurt those Kiva is trying to serve, and
- reiterate that the most important people in the Kiva equation are those that benefit from loans, not the donors.
Kiva needs to be ready to lose some donors, but also to
work to change the way remaining donors and new donors think about effective financial aid to the developing world, because that's at the root of this firestorm, IMO.
I'm a Kiva donor, and I'll continue to be one.
13:22, 8 October 2009
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Improving the health of adolescent girls in the developing world is the key to improving maternal and child health, reducing the impact of HIV, and accelerating social and economic development. KEY.
The new report,
Start with a Girl: A New Agenda for Global Health sheds light on the realities of girls' health and well-being in developing countries, on the links between the health of girls and the prospects for their families, and on the specific actions that will improve health prospects for millions. This report, free to download, describes the most prevalent and serious health problems adolescent girls face in developing countries, linking them to a combination of specific public-health risks and social determinants of health. It highlights the diverse ways in which governments and non-governmental organizations have sought—often successfully, albeit on small scale—to break vicious cycles of ill health. Finally, and most importantly, the report lays out an ambitious yet feasible agenda for governments, donors, the private sector, and civil society organizations—complete with estimates of indicative costs.
My favorite organizations addressing the health and prosperity of women and girls?
Support even just one of these organizations, and you are supporting women and girls, thereby making a difference for
everyone.
You can find more resources about addressing the needs of women and girls in developing countries at the
Aid Workers Network.
10:08, 6 October 2009
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Wikimedia, with its centerpiece program,
Wikipedia, is, probably, the world's largest
online volunteering endeavor, as the vast majority of its content is produced and edited by volunteers. In addition, when you do an online search on a topic, the first page that comes up in a search tool such as
Google is often
Wikipedia. And many people go straight to
Wikipedia to get a briefing about a particular topic before they look for more detailed information.
So those are three reasons that I created the
Wikipedia entry for Virtual Volunteering. But more needs to be done, and other online volunteers are needed to help! Here are
three ways you can help improve the profile of online volunteering on Wikipedia:
- The Wikipedia entry for itself never mentions online volunteering and doesn't link to the Wikipedia entry for virtual volunteering, even though, as I already said, Wikipedia is the world's largest online volunteering endeavor anywhere. The page is protected so that, unlike most other pages, anyone can't edit the page. So if you have a Wikipedia account, please go to the talk page for the Wikipedia entry and note that you think there should be a link from the page to the Wikipedia entry for virtual volunteering.
- There needs to be more links on the Wikipedia entry for virtual volunteering to examples of online volunteering. After the last example on the page, "managing other online volunteers", you will see three footnotes. There needs to be more footnotes, linking to even more examples. You can add links yourself (preferred, as Wikipedia doesn't like that I'm the primary contributor to the page), or, email me with the URL of the web page with examples of online volunteering, and I will add it.
- More links to the Wikipedia entry for virtual volunteering on Wikipedia are also needed. You can see on the page what entries already link to it, but what others should? You can add links yourself (preferred, as Wikipedia doesn't like that I'm the primary contributor to the page), or, email me with the name of the Wikipedia entry you think should link to the virtual volunteering page, and I'll add it.
This is also a great opportunity for you to become more comfortable using a
wiki and with collaborating online with others -- two skills that are very important in today's work place!
12:42, 5 October 2009
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Last week, I issued a two part challenge regarding the question,
How easy is it to volunteer at your organization? For
part one of the challenge, I asked you to go online and
see how easy it is to find information that your organization involves volunteers, information on how to express interest in such, and information on how a person can get started volunteering with your organization (screening and training requirements and schedules, etc.).
Part two of the challenge offered advice on
how to investigate what really happens when someone calls your organization, emails your organization, or stops by your organization and says, "I want to volunteer".
These activities may lead to a very harsh reality staff may be reluctant to face:
you may find out that your organization is regularly turning away people who want to volunteer.
In reading those two blog entries, you were probably assuming that I was thinking the volunteer coordinator would undertake this investigation, but that may not be the case for all these steps; the Executive Director or an outside consultant may be that person instead. But what if that Executive Director, consultant or other person discovers that
the problem is the volunteer coordinator herself/himself? What if you discover that the volunteer coordinator is getting information in a timely manner regarding people who want to volunteer with your organization, but isn't following up quickly or properly, or isn't exhibiting an enthusiastic, encouraging attitude with potential volunteers?
If YOU are the volunteer coordinator and you have undertaken this investigation and discovered that you need to improve some of your own practices, good for you! What a great staff person you are, to identify ways to improve the quality of your work! Bring up your investigation and your action plan for improvement to your supervisor, and discuss what support you need from the organization to make these improvements happen.
If you are NOT the volunteer coordinator, however, and you have undertaken this investigation, then you are in a trickier situation. No one likes to be told they aren't doing a good job.
Before you begin your investigation, the volunteer coordinator should be fully informed of what you are going to do. Yes, that might skew some of the results, with the coordinator and maybe others trying to improve performance so that you get positive results (very natural response to being evaluated!), but many of the changes that would need to be made to improve the experience for potential volunteers won't be possible on such short notice.
Once the investigation is complete, sit down with the volunteer coordinator, one-on-one, to let that person know what you have discovered. Emphasize that your goal isn't just to say what's wrong, but to also talk about how each concern could be addressed -- and that could mean
- moving a volunteer coordinator from part-time to full time (with the appropriate salary increase),
- hiring an assistant for the coordinator,
- putting the volunteer coordinator into a volunteer management workshop, or several workshops, to help him or her improve their skills,
Let that volunteer coordinator vent as needed. Comments like "I've been really busy with current volunteers" or "I'm doing the best I can with the time and resources I have!" or "I've got another job at this organization that takes precedent over coordinating potential volunteers" are legitimate defenses. Can you really fault, say, a volunteer fire chief who is trained in fighting fighters but not in the basics of volunteer recruitment and management?
Let the volunteer coordinator address every obstacle to more effectively directing potential volunteers, and come up with a plan, together, on how each of those obstacles will be addressed, and how improvements will be tracked, Emphasize again and again that this is about improving the volunteer experience at your organization and giving the volunteer coordinator the resources he or she needs to make this improvement happen, not a blame game. And when you see an improvement, acknowledge it in ever appropriate way, including in the employee's annual performance review.
It's imperative that you check regularly to see if volunteer recruitment is improving, to make this investigation from
part one and
part two of the challenge worthwhile. The volunteer coordinator should be providing regularly reports (at least quarterly) on:
- how many people are calling, emailing or stopping by each month to inquiry about volunteering versus how many of these people filled out a volunteer application
- how many people are filling out a volunteer application versus how many are attending the first volunteer orientation/meeting
- how many people are attending the volunteer orientation/meeting versus how many actually engage in an assignment
- how many people start an assignment versus how many finish the assignment
- what volunteers say regarding why they stay, why they go, or why they never get started in the first place
What are good statistics to have? That's something your organization will have to determine. For instance, a high number of inquiries about volunteering, versus a low number of people who actually fill out the volunteer application isn't necessarily a bad thing: it could mean that your staff is doing a good job of helping inappropriate people to screen themselves out of the volunteer process, as these people realize that they wouldn't be appropriate candidates to volunteer with your organization (due to lack of enough time, for instance).
11:18, 2 October 2009
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The day before yesterday, I issued part one of a challenge to you regarding the question,
How easy is it to volunteer at your organization?. For part one of the challenge, I asked you to pretend to be a potential volunteer and to go online and see:
- how easy it is to find out that your organization involves volunteers,
- how to express interest in such, and
- how a person can get started volunteering with your organization (screening and training requirements and schedules, etc.)
Now, here's part 2 of the challenge:
what really happens when someone calls, emails or stops by your organization and says, "I want to volunteer!"? Maybe you know what should happen in theory, but
what's the reality?
When I've consulted with organizations -- both nonprofits and schools -- regarding this challenge, the results are always a shock: it turns out that
many volunteers are turned away, because the message from the potential candidate rarely gets forwarded to the right person, because the information given to the potential volunteer is incomplete, uninspiring or even incorrect, or because followup with the volunteer doesn't happen quickly or at all.
How to find out what's happening at your organization with potential volunteers? Here are some ideas;
- Sit down with each and every person who answers the phone and have a checklist they must go through for every person who calls, emails or stops by to express interest in volunteering (be sure to get approval from that person's supervisor before you do this). An example of the checklist could be:
- The person who talks with the potential volunteering fills out a log sheet with the candidate's name, phone number, email address and the date of their call, email or site visit. This log sheet should be reviewed regularly by the volunteer coordinator or other manager to see what has happened with each of these people in terms of communication by the organization regarding how to volunteer.
- The person who interacts with the potential volunteer on the phone, via email or in-person gives that candidate the volunteer coordinator's name, phone number and email.
- The person who interacts with the candidate directs the person to the organization's web site to download and complete an application
Just these three very simple steps -- none of which are any significant burden on the person answering the phone or the organization's email or greeting people at the front desk -- are enough for you to find out what's happening to people who inquire about volunteering with your organization: How many people inquire about volunteering versus how many people come to the first volunteer training? Is there too much time between a person's inquiry or application and when they get to come to a first meeting or get placed in an assignment? This checklist, particularly the log sheet, will tell you, as will calling people on the login sheet later to survey them about their experience.
- Have five friends or colleagues from outside your organization call or email your organization on different days, at different times, to inquire about volunteering, and afterwards, interview them about their experiences. Also look at the log-in sheet to make sure their inquiries were recorded. What are they consistently told by your organization? What are they not told but should have been? Were they logged in properly by the person they talked with? Do they walk away with a feeling of, "We really want you involved with us!" or "We're really busy and we don't know when we will get back to you"?
- Survey all people who have applied to volunteer in the last three-six months. How do their rate the experience of when they asked to volunteer? What do they remembering being told? Did they walk away from that initial inquiry with a feeling of, "We really want you involved with us!" or "We're really busy and we don't know when we will get back to you"? What do they think could be improved about the experience?
These activities may lead to a very harsh reality staff may be reluctant to face:
you may find out that your organization is regularly turning away people who want to volunteer. Talking about this with staff can be a challenge: people may become defensive about their actions, or lack their of ("I was really busy that day" or "I'm doing the best I can!").
With those answering the phone or the organization's email or greeting people at the front desk, emphasize that none of the checklist activities are any significant time burden; you may even want to do a skit to show just how quickly the activities can be undertaken. Make sure their supervisor's agree that this is an appropriate and necessary use of their time.
The harder part will be to convince staff that
everyone has a responsibility to make potential volunteers feel energized about the organization. Do you believe this yourself? If so, talk with senior management individually to get each of them on board with this idea and ask them to bring it up with their own direct reports. Also, talk about it when you meet with individual staff in formal meetings and informal settings, and present on the topic formally in staff trainings. If you
aren't convinced of this yourself... I think that's something I'll have to address in a different blog.
For trainings for staff on dealing with potential volunteers, skits can
really help. For instance, present one as a worst-case scenario, in a humorous way, of someone asking about volunteering and being turned away with lack of enthusiasm, and then present another to show how easy it is to make a potential volunteer feel excited and welcomed. These can each be just a couple of minutes. The more outrageous or extreme these skits are, the more fun they will be and the more likely that staff will remember the lessons and take them to heart.
In reading this and
the earlier blog entry about this challenge, you were probably assuming that I was thinking the volunteer coordinator would undertake all of the above investigation activities. But that may not be the case for all these steps; the Executive Director or an outside consultant may be that person instead. If you are that executive or consultant, what if you discover that the problem regarding volunteer recruitment is the volunteer coordinator herself/himself? What if you discover that the volunteer coordinator is not getting information in a timely manner regarding people who want to volunteer with your organization, or isn't exhibiting an enthusiastic, encouraging attitude with potential volunteers?
I'll address that in a blog next week....
18:31, 30 September 2009
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Here is a challenge for organizations that involve volunteers, or want to involve volunteers:
pretend you want to volunteer. You are someone that might be interested in volunteering with your organization, or interested in volunteering regarding the cause your organization is focused on, or volunteering in your geographic area.
Go online, and see how easy it is to find out that your organization involves volunteers, how to express interest in such, and how a person can get started volunteering with your organization (screening and training requirements and schedules, etc.):
- Go to a web site, such as All For Good and Network for Good, that aggregates volunteer listings from various other web sites, like VolunteerMatch or Idealist. Search for volunteering opportunities in your geographic area, or in a mission-focus related to your organization (environment, arts, children, women, community safety, etc.). Are volunteering opportunities with your organization listed? Are they easy to find? Do they compare well with other organization's listings? If not, enter or edit your volunteering opportunities on VolunteerMatch or Idealist so that they will show up on the aggregator sites as well and get the attention of potential volunteers.
- Check your organization's web site. Is there a direct link from the home page to volunteering information? Does any reference that says "help us" or "get involved" link to only donation information, or does it also link to volunteering information? If your web site has a search function, and you type in "volunteer", what happens? Potential volunteers that don't find information quickly move on to another web site and a different organization.
- Go to Google and type in
- the name of your organization and the word volunteer.
- the name of your city and the word volunteer.
- the name of your state or city and a phrase that describes your organizations work, like help children or support the arts, and the word volunteer
Is your organization and its volunteering information in the first five listings that result from your search? If not, you need to edit your organization's web site to include all the necessary text so that the information will show up more readily.
Finding volunteering information online about your organization should be simple simple simple. You can be selective about candidates, ofcourse, requiring those who contact you to undergo training or screening. But
anyone and
everyone should be able to easily, immediately find complete information online about volunteering with your organization - NO EXCUSES!
If you want to reach even more people, have information posted on
Facebook,
MySpace,
Change.org,
Craigslist and other social networking sites as well that link to your web site information about volunteering.
Information on your web site and on volunteer web sites like
VolunteerMatch or
Idealist should include:
- what tasks volunteers undertake, or could undertake, for your organization
- all of the activities a potential volunteer must undertake to become an active volunteer (training, screening, etc., and these can vary depending on different volunteer roles, ofcourse)
- an application a candidate could download and complete at home, and then snail mail or email in to your organization
- what commitment you require volunteers to make, in terms of hours every week or month and length of service (and these can vary depending on different tasks, ofcourse)
Photos of volunteers in action, profiles of active volunteers, blogs by volunteers, and testimonials by volunteers are also helpful in getting people interested and excited about volunteering with your organization.
But what if you recruit huge numbers of potential volunteers? Are you ready for that influx? Are you ready to place people quickly so that you don't lose candidates, and even turn people off of volunteering with your organization? With that in mind, tomorrow, I'll have a second challenge for you...
14:10, 24 September 2009
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A group I'm assisting with online communications is frustrated with one of its volunteers, because she doesn't have an email address. Every volunteer has an email account except her. There is a computer in her home, with Internet access, used by her family, so access isn't a problem. Per her professional work, we know she's perfectly capable of using email. Her family and others have tried several times to get her to register for a
gmail or
Yahoomail address, but she refuses -- politely but firmly. And that means that all messages that are sent out to volunteers via email or
their online group have to be snail mailed to this volunteer.
Before you roll your eyes, talk about what an inconvenience she is to the group and how much more work she's creating because she refuses to drag herself into the 21st century, consider this: is she any more burdensome than that one volunteer telling you he wants you to send
micro-blogs (tweets) to his cell phone instead of email? Or the volunteers that want you to switch from
YahooGroups to
FaceBook for volunteer communications, because that's what they prefer, even though a majority of your volunteers, and you, like the current online platform?
The necessity of online communications has been a reality for me since the mid-1990s, professionally as well as personally;
for other nonprofits and those that support such, that necessity came even earlier, believe it or not. It's hard to argue that having an email address isn't an absolute requirement for volunteering in the USA in 2009, and has been for many years. But that said: because this volunteer is someone who has proven herself
essential again and again to the success of the group, and because the group would suffer if they lost her, I suggested they keep accommodating her. She gets left out of the online conversations, but she still gets event flyers and major announcements by snail mail, and invitations to meetings by phone call. In short, her worth as a volunteer seems to far outweigh the inconvenience and cost of sending her snail mail.
But THAT said, had she not been so very essential, I would have suggested that they tell her she had to get an email address or not longer be a part of the group.
The vast majority of nonprofits cannot use
every communication avenue out there to get messages out to current and potential volunteers, donors and clients, and cannot accommodate the preferred communications avenues of
every volunteer, donor or client. How do you pick which tools to use? Know the people you want to reach. What works best with them? What are they telling you? What are your surveys and observations of them telling you? Also think about the staying power of certain online tools: FaceBook is popular now, but as I
noted in my earlier blog, America Online used to be the online social networking site, and a few years ago, it seemed everyone had to have a
MySpace account. By contrast, email and web sites have shown significant staying power, so investing in their use now won't be an investment wasted in a year or two.
Can you exclude a volunteer because he or she refuses to use an online tool you deem
essential to working with volunteers? Yes, if you determine that it would be too huge of a time and/or cost burden to you and the organization to print out every email message to volunteers and send it via snail mail to just one person or a handful of people, or to reduce every message down to 140 characters and tweet it, or to duplicate every posting to your
Googlegroup to post also on a Facebook group, etc. Or, if it's
absolutely essential to a volunteer's service with your organization that he or she be available via their cell phone because of the nature of your organization's mission, you can make cell phone access a requirement. If your online group is on FaceBook, and the communications to volunteers on it is essential to their service, you can require volunteers to use Facebook. But note the word
essential that I keep using; you have to be able to prove that an online tool is
essential in order to make your case for it being a requirement to volunteer service.
Yes, that means sometimes leaving people out. But you probably do this regularly: can your organization accommodate volunteers who are only available third shift? Or does your organization require volunteers to undergo a certain number of hours of training before they can become involved? Volunteer requirements of any kind
always leave some people out, and that's okay -- provided that those requirements are valid in relation to the volunteers' tasks and the organization's resources. (for the record,
online volunteering not only leaves out people who don't have access to the Internet -- so far, it also excludes people who can't read).
And with THAT said, it's probably a good time to remind you to think about where you fall in the
Stages of Maturity in Nonprofit Organizations' Use of Online Technologies. Are you a Basic user of online tech? Intermediate? Advanced? Trail-Blazing? Have a look at where you are now, and think about where you would like to be.
09:51, 23 September 2009
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If you are of a certain age, then you remember when you got an email address for the first time. What a giddy time! In thinking about it, I'm struck with how much the experience mirrors all the media and trainer/consultant excitement about
FaceBook or whatever the flavor of the day is regarding online social networking:
My first email address was on America Online, which was
the social networking site of its day; it had all its own subgroups, exclusive for AOL members, and often mirroring what was available out on the Internet for the "masses" -- why talk on a
Star Wars USENET newsgroup when AOL's
Star Wars group was sooooooooo much more exclusive?! Some things that happened on AOL even made the news!
And remember when you got your first email address and thought, gee, who else has email? For me, that was in in 1994: I made labels on my printer announcing my email address and attached each to a postcard, then mailed them out to all my friends. I think my first email was from
Todd Turner, a friend from university and now the chief writer and editor of
Dirt on Dirt. So began my reconnecting with many former classmates and associates. What are you doing now? Here's what I'm doing now! Maybe you transferred some photos back and forth. Or even a short MPEG movie! Maybe you even had your own web address to share! By the following year, I based my online value by how many emails I got every day and how many people were in my email address book. The sound of "You've got mail" almost made me squeal. By 1996, I based my value on how many hits my web site got.
But those conversations with long lost friends never lasted long, for the most part. There wasn't much to talk about past the "catching up" phase. I got tired of friends and former colleagues forwarding chain letters and
obviously fake offers from Disneyland and warnings about some product and email hugs and email prayers and what not. Email became my primary way of talking with friends and colleagues, but eventually, I didn't get excited about it anymore than I do when the phone rings. And web site views? We all realized those were as valuable as the number of people driving by a road sign.
So pardon me if I remain underwhelmed by all the excitement about
FaceBook or
MySpace (yes, there are still several million people using that) or whatever. Because it just seems like the same song by a cover band.
But it's not just the parallels between Facebook and the introduction for most of us to email and the Web back in the 1990s: I remember getting breathless myself back in the 1990s talking about how people shared essays on their web sites (now we call that
blogging) or debates and information-sharing on online discussion groups (now we call that
networking) or how you could post a question or need regarding info or tech to an online discussion group and a few, maybe even a dozen, people you never knew would write back with the answer or would do whatever it was you needed (now we call that
micro-volunteering). Has anything really changed? Is there anything really revolutionary going on? Sorry, but I just don't see it.
Not saying you shouldn't use at least some of these new tools coming out. Not saying that at all. You absolutely need to be thinking about how to strategically use "old" and "new" online tools -- the
web,
blogging,
online groups for networking,
online groups for client and volunteer interaction,
instant messaging, and even
networking platforms. But don't think there's anything new about it --
nonprofits have been leveraging online tools since the 1980s. The Internet was built to allow people and organizations to network with each other - to share ideas and comments, and to collaborate. All of its tools were built to be interactive and dynamic from day one. While their names change, the tools pretty much remain the same.
What I am saying is that, if all it takes to get the media excited is to take something that's been around for several years and give it a snazzy new name and new packaging, then I guess it's time to start working on Web. 3.0 names for everything.
(and I still think
First Class Client communities of the 1990s were better than FaceBook, but that's another essay)
18:03, 22 September 2009
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I've just updated my free guidebook,
Basic Fund-Raising for Small NGOs/Civil Society in the Developing World. The document is meant to provide very basic guidelines for
small NGOs in the developing world regarding fund-raising and adhering to the basic principles of good governance, and to point to other helpful resources regarding fund-raising.
By small non-government organizations and small civil society organizations (CSOs), I mean organizations that may have only one paid staff member, or are run entirely by volunteers (unpaid staff); and may or may not have official recognition by the government. Such organizations are extremely limited in their resources, and are often in unstable environments and/or serving profoundly poor populations.
This document is not written for nonprofits serving the "developed" world -- organizations serving communities in North America, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand or Japan would probably not find this document particularly helpful, as it has been prepared to make recommendations relevant for small nonprofits serving in a
developing country.
THIS DOCUMENT IS NOT A LIST OF FUNDERS/DONORS.
Let me repeat that: THIS DOCUMENT IS NOT A LIST OF FUNDERS/DONORS.
It is, instead, a set of guidelines on how to prepare an organization to be attractive to donors, how to search for potential donors that support organizations in the developing world and how to approach such potential donors.
When I originally drafted this document, back in 2005, it was 15 pages long; now, it is 27 pages. It is a PDF file. To request it, please email me with:
- Your full name
- The name of the NGO you represent
- The city and country where the NGO you represent is located
- The region your NGO serves (if different than its location)
- Details on how you found out about my blog (what you are reading now)
- A statement saying you will not forward this document to anyone outside your organization, and you will not post it to your web site nor to an online discussion group (I frequently update the document, and want to ensure people are getting the most recent version).
You contact details will not be sold, traded or given to any other organization.
15:33, 21 September 2009
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Wikipedia, probably the world's largest online volunteering endeavor, is starting a year-long process to develop a strategic plan for the Wikimedia movement. Specifically, Wikimedia is trying to understand where it is now, where it wants to be in five years, and how Wikimedia could get there from here.
(Wikipedia is the highest profile activity of Wikimedia, but not the only one. Have a look at all the Wikimedia projects to learn more.)
Here are five ways you can participate in this endeavor:
- Join a Wikimedia task force. These task forces will explore different topics and produce a set of recommendations related to them. Apply to participate, or form your own ad-hoc groups.
- If you are an expert in one of the subjects Wikimedia is dealing with, add yourself to the Wikimedia expert database. This will allow task forces and other volunteers to reach you with questions, and you can respond when you have time.
- Publish your ideas. Write a proposal on the strategy wiki, and help organize and improve the proposals that are already there. Post ideas on your blog, on mailing lists, and on social networks. Tag those posts with #wikimedia or link to them on the strategy wiki so that others can see them.
- Host conversations about strategy. In order to develop good plans, Wikimedia needs broad participation. There is no way that the task forces can talk to everyone who has ideas about Wikimedia's future. This is where you can help: host your own conversations about strategy, in person or online, and publish the results on the strategy wiki. There are templates and tools for hosting strategy sessions on the strategy wiki.
- Talk to Wikimedia. Give feedback to the strategy team. Tell them your ideas, your hopes, your fears, your goals for the projects. Add feedback to the strategy wiki, or send an email to strategy@wikimedia.org.
If you work with volunteers, its worth your while to follow this effort; this is a great example of an organization involving volunteers -- online volunteers, even! -- in strategic planning. It's something your nonprofit organization, however large or small, may want to undertake yourself.
