Virtual Volunteering Wiki
Online resources regarding volunteer management

Understanding the basics of volunteer management is essential to success with online volunteers. That's why The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook repeatedly emphasizes the importance of learning and applying the fundamentals of traditional volunteer management to successfully engage online volunteers. The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook provides detailed information on how to create and manage all kinds of online volunteers - high-responsibility online volunteers, volunteers undertaking micro tasks (microvolunteering), virtual teams and more.

As a supplement to this book, the virtual volunteering wiki provides links to some of the best resources on traditional volunteer management. It is broken into three categories:

Web sites (not interactive)

Coyote Communications Volunteerism Resources
Author Jayne Cravens' own frequently-updated Web site with information about supporting and engaging volunteers, among other subjects that are a focus of her work. The site includes an extensive list of research that has been done by various people and institutions regarding online volunteering, a comprehensive list of volunteer management software, and links to her blog, Facebook account, Twitter feed, and whatever new online tool she thinks looks promising.

Energize, Inc.
Author Susan Ellis is president and founder of Energize, Inc., which offers the largest Web site in the world focused exclusively on information for leaders of volunteers in any setting. With over 1200 free site pages, it provides an extensive online library and annotated lists of links, directories of volunteer-related resources around the globe, visitor-contributed quotes and stories, and much more. There is also an Online Bookstore with dozens of titles, most available as e-books. Subscribe to the free monthly Update and follow the company on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
National Service Resource Center

nationalserviceresources.org/
Site created for USA national service programs (Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, VISTA, etc.) but with resources that can be helpful to any service/volunteering initiative. There is an extensive online library of sample forms and policies, as well as articles, profiles of suggested practices, and lists of conferences, online discussion groups, print materials and other related Web sites.

Nonprofit Risk Management Center
The Center offers: books on volunteer risk-related subjects; free online tutorials, including a volunteer risk management self-assessment tool; an e-newsletter; and answers risk and insurance questions.

ServiceLeader.org
A project of the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs of the University of Texas at Austin. ServiceLeader.org offers a range of practical and research information about volunteer management and keeps the original Virtual Volunteering Project archives available for access.

Volunteer Canada
volunteer.ca
Though produced for Canadians, Volunteer Canada’s Web site is currently the most useful source of good volunteer management information of any of the world’s national “peak body” sites—and is available in French as well as English.
VolunteerMatch

www.volunteermatch.org
One of the most established and largest online registries of volunteer opportunities in the United States, VolunteerMatch also offers many free webinars and other training resources to agencies and individual volunteers alike in its Learning Center. Under its original name of Impact Online, the organization pioneered the Virtual Volunteering Project in the early 1990s and remains the only volunteer matching site to offer listings and searches for virtual volunteer positions alongside onsite opportunities.

MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership
www.mentoring.org
Includes extensive information regarding the elements of effective practice for a mentoring program, all of which are appropriate and necessary for online mentoring programs.

Blogs (interactive web sites)

Blogs concerning volunteer issues are proliferating. Energize maintains an updated listing of the field’s blogs

Online Discussion Groups for Leaders of Volunteers

Leaders of volunteers can easily interact online in wonderful ways, no matter their type of setting or where it is located. Energize maintains a list of these online discussions on its web site.


Virtual Volunteering Wiki Footer

Detailed information about how to use the Internet to support and involve volunteers - virtual volunteering - can be found in The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook. This wiki is a supplement to the book - but no substitution for it. 

Join our virtual volunteering LinkedIn group (you must be a member of LinkedIn to join this group; membership is free) to know when the Virtual Volunteering Wiki is updated.

If you tweet about The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook please use the tag #vvbook

Please note: this wiki project is entirely unfunded - and I'm struggling to keep it going. If you would like to see this page continue to be updated, support my work here's how to support this work.


wiki home & index of resources | about this wiki | virtual volunteering definition | virtual volunteering examples | virtual volunteering myths | virtual volunteering research | virtual volunteering news


Want to know more about using the Internet to engage and support volunteers? See:


The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook
by Jayne Cravens and Susan J. Ellis


The most comprehensive guide available on virtual volunteering, including online mentoring, micro-volunteeirng, virtual teams, high-responsibility roles, crowd sourcing to benefit nonprofits and other mission-based organizations, and much more.


Published January 2014, based on more than 30 years of research.  Available as both a print book and an ebook.