My Opinion-Pieces & Observations About Volunteerism & Volunteer Engagement

• Learning From The 'Not-So-Nice' Volunteers: we have a lot to learn from the "not-so-nice volunteers", the people who are putting their time and energy into defending human rights, addressing social ills, and battling institutions who they feel are attacking their quality of life or an element of their community that they treasure. And we have a lot to learn from the people who manage such volunteers.
   
  
• Volunteering, by itself, isn't enough to save the world
  I believe passionately in the importance of volunteer engagement. I think it needs to be funded and encouraged and otherwise supported. But it is not, nor will it ever be, all that's needed to address the world's most critical issues.
   
  
• Why Should the Poor Volunteer? It's Time To Re-Think the Answer
  Editorial: When volunteering is so often presented just one way -- as a state-sanctioned free labor activity -- reluctance and even hostility by the unemployed, the cash-strapped and the disenfranchised are completely justified. If governments and donors want volunteerism campaigns in poor communities to lead to more volunteering, they must radically update their message.
   
  
• Nine plus four emerging volunteer engagement trends (a VERY different list than you will read elsewhere)
  One of the most popular blogs I've ever written, this January 2022 blog looks at what trends are affecting volunteerism, what trends are happening regarding volunteerism, and what's on the horizon. This is a very different list than you will read elsewhere, because it's from the perspective of actually observing volunteers and organizations involving them, not from a corporate view of what volunteerism should be. 
   
  
• Trends in & New Models of Volunteering & Volunteer Management
  This is from 2013 - but it's amazing how much is still happening (and even growing).
   
  
• COMMENTARY:The Growing Digital Divide Among Nonprofit Organizations /
  Civil Society in the USA (and maybe it's not just digital)
  I'm seeing a disturbing trend: a gap between those organizations who are using the Internet in a myriad of ways to support their missions, and those who are still largely on the sidelines and not using network technologies in working with their volunteers. The question is, are these sidelined nonprofits there because of lack of access to resources, of lack of will to embrace them?
   
  
• NetSquared and the New Wave of Online Volunteering
  (and maybe all volunteering)
  Tiny nonprofit organizations with very little staff are doing extraordinary things with volunteers, and making their volunteers feel included and energized, not with pins and t-shirts but through greater and more-meaningful involvement. This conference provided endless examples of such, and I summarize them here.
   
  
• Being an Online Mentor: A Real Relationship, A Real Commitment
  (What I've Learned as an Online Mentor)
  In addition to researching and compiling information online mentoring for many years, and helping to create online mentor programs, I have also had the pleasure of serving as an online volunteer mentor on several occasions. Mentoring someone online takes real time and commitment. The work required for online mentoring doesn't happen only at the most convenient time for the volunteer. I have learned a lot by being a part of these online mentoring programs and share my experiences and advice for online mentoring here.
   
  
• Please, No More Volunteer-Matching Web Sites
  Please, NO MORE new volunteer matching sites for North America. There are plenty already. In fact, in my opinion, there are too many. If you insist on launching yet another volunteer recruitment platform online, I offer this advice.
   
  
• Tim Berners-Lee: World Wide Web is "creation of (online) volunteers"
  This is the text of a news release by the United Nations Volunteers programme, from 2001, when its online volunteering initiative was still a part of NetAid. In this press release, Tim Berners-Lee, the British scientist credited for inventing the Web in 1989, says the World Wide Web is a collaborative venture and a "creation of volunteers". Sharon Capeling-Alakija, then Executive Coordinator of the United Nations Volunteers programme (UNV), referred to Mr. Berners-Lee as the "number one volunteer in cyberspace, because of the enormous gift he gave the world in the World Wide Web". In response to an email question from me, Mr. Berners-Lee said he was pleased to hear that people were volunteering from their homes to assist development efforts around the world. "It is music to my ears to hear that this is happening," he said.
  

View all of my blogs here.

Kofi Annan and Online Volunteering
(I made the UN Secretary General laugh)
A personal commentary about my encounter with Mr. Annan at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in 2003.

Here's how to order
(includes table of contents and reviews).

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