by Jayne Cravens

What's Interesting To Me Lately.

There has never been enough hours in the day for me to follow every trend, cause and issue in which I'm interested professionally (as well as personally). Also, I often have to limit myself to what I'm paid to do: I'm an independent consultant, and that means I usually don't have a steady income, so I have to go where the money is and, very often, have to drop or pause some project I'm exploring on my own when a paid gig comes along.

Still, I try to keep up with certain topics and causes. But the list is getting shorter and shorter each year.

Below is a list of my current independent professional priorities -- issues and trends that I'm actively researching, reading and writing about. With more time and funding, I would love to engage in any of these areas even more fully.in

I'm sharing this because it might lead to collaboration, it might lead to paid work, and it clarifies why I do what I do. Or perhaps there's someone out there that would like to fund some part of this work.

This list changes about once a year. And to keep up to date with what's interesting to me, you can follow me on social media:

What I'd Like to Work On:

Community radio as a way to reconnect people with essential information and each other. Most locally-based newspapers are gone and nothing has replaced them as a source of reliable news sources. Same for locally based radio - it's mostly gone. As a trained journalist who got her start in print journalism, I care deeply about the demise of locally-based newspapers. But I'm not sure they will ever be viable or desired again. Local radio, on the other hand, seems like it deserves a resurgence. People's love of podcasts doesn't seem to be waning (despite my predictions otherwise - wrong again!). So community-based radio seems like a perfect candidate for renewed popularity. And the world has never needed more than now tools to bring local communities together. Imagine local radio stations that do what they used to do: recap the headlines, read the local obituaries, broadcast live from local sports events, have a noon-time public affairs show with interviews featuring the mayor or the sheriff or the director of an upcoming school play, announcements of local events, live broadcasts from communities of faith, and more. A great example of this is WSON in Henderson, Kentucky. Yes, there are public radio stations, and I appreciate them beyond measure - I support the one in Oregon as a donor myself (just $5 a month is all I can afford, but I've done so for years). But they are focused on the entire state - there's no radio for where I live in Oregon. I would love to help with an effort to create more community-focused radio stations across the USA (and in other parts of the world).
Community / Regional Nonprofit News Organizations. As I said earlier, most locally-based newspapers are gone and nothing has replaced them as a source of reliable news sources. I don't think print newspapers are going to come back. But it's so obvious that credible sources of news are desperately needed across the USA (and around the world), to publish regularly on the web and social media, to counter the massive amounts of misinformation and rage-posting going on. There are some excellent nonprofit efforts here and there to meet the needs of people where local newspapers have disappeared: The Kentucky Lantern, the Mississippi Free Press and, of course, the Texas Observer are three excellent state-wide examples. The Hendersonian, serving Henderson, Kentucky, is another great example. I think the not-for-profit model is the way to go for such news organizations. I'd love to support these efforts more. One problem is that there are FOUR different national initiatives trying to address this - which to support? There's Rebuild Local News, the American Journalism Project, the National Trust for Local News (NTLN), and Report for America.
Volunteering as a way to reconnect people with essential information and each other. Did I mention that the world has never needed more than now tools to bring local communities together? And a great way to bring people together is through volunteering together. There are so many causes that cut across political divides, such as helping people who are homeless after a disaster, helping people build the first home they will ever own (Habitat for Humanity), promoting spaying and neutering to cut down on animals in shelters, and preserving wild habitat (both for campers and hikers and for hunting and fishing). But engaging volunteers is not cost-free, and creating volunteering activities for groups is probably THE most time-consuming job around volunteer engagement. I'm so ready to help organizations and communities think about ways to bring different people together as volunteers, but I also want to push corporations, foundations, governments and others to fund the training and staffing necessary to make it happen!
An online volunteering effort to make public online communities kinder & more helpful. I even have a name and some web pages for this proposed nonprofit effort: Coyote Helps. It would be focused on helping to make online, interactive spaces kinder and more public-spirited, by mobilizing online to volunteers to engage in activities that help make the Internet a place where people can more easily engage with the human, environmental and community causes they care about most, as well as explore new causes. This will be done through leveraging online volunteers and existing online resources - online communities, volunteer matching platforms, apps, information-sharing sites, etc. - to help people connect with causes they care about and to learn about issues from credible sources, and to help nonprofits, NGOs, government programs and other mission-based initiatives connect with potential supporters. The result, I hope, would be for parts of the Internet to be flooded with credible, up-to-date information about

volunteering opportunities with a variety of nonprofits, NGOs and community programs,
voter registration and election dates,
dates of upcoming local government meetings and town halls with elected officials and people running for office,
events at local public libraries,
community theater and nonprofit dance company auditions, classes and performances,
proposed hike and bike trails,
changes in mass transit schedules,
events at local public schools,
announcements from local government offices about resources and events,

and all the other things that can help people connect with their neighbors, meet new people, and feel more a part of their communities. Check out the proposal for this and let me know if you might like to be involved.

Ways that religious and cultural barriers prevent:
- the education of girls and women
- women from engaging in business, from farming to selling things on the street to owning a shop
- women from engaging in government or leadership roles
- the use of condoms for disease prevention and pregnancy prevention
and how various organizations and advocates have worked to overcome such. I'm always interested in being a part of any project that addresses the above, or helps women being affected by such - especially in Afghanistan. I appreciate all of the many efforts to help girls and young women there access education, for the day when the Taliban is out of power, we hope, but there needs to be efforts focused on men to be allies, and there needs to be efforts to help older women who are the heads of their families or are single - with no adult men in their families, they are helpless.
Capacity-Building for nonprofits/civil society in the developing world
So many civil society organizations are doing fantastic work, but lack the skills on how to document that work and promote it to potential supporters, as well as how to evaluate their work, record successes and identify obstacles -- all of which lead to their being able to do more fantastic work. I'm interested in efforts to help mission-based organizations (nonprofits, non-governmental organizations/NGOs, and public agencies) serving in the developing world to be well-run, transparent, results-oriented and attractive to potential supporters, as well as to build their capacities to publicize their efforts and to cultivate support. This includes capacity-building in volunteer management practices in the developing world.
Promoting best practices in virtual volunteering / online volunteering
I continue to research, speak, write and train regarding this subject frequently, and the resources I've developed regarding online volunteering are linked from my web site.
Court-ordered community service
I have blogged about this regularly over the years, more than any other consultant or practitioner regarding volunteer engagement. I feel rather alone in talking about this, in fact - there seems to be a reluctance by organizations that promote volunteerism, by associations of managers of volunteers and by managers themselves to talk about people who undertake volunteer - UNPAID - service for nonprofits and charities. I explore the volunteering opportunities available to people sentenced to community service by the court, if virtual volunteering can be an option for them (it can), and how to best supervise and support people online in virtual volunteering roles.
Ethics in volunteer engagement
The only volunteer management consultant I ever heard address ethics in volunteer engagement in years' past was Mary Merrill. When we lost Mary, we lost a hugely important voice to discuss this topic. I've tried to start instigating discussions about ethics in volunteer engagement on my blog and on various online communities in which I participate. In addition, there are certain kinds of activities branded as “volunteering” that I find unethical and that I regularly research, blog about and talk about on social media:
- Voluntourism, where unskilled Westerners go abroad to “volunteer” – usually for a fee – and do work that either isn’t something local people see as a priority or is something local people would like to be paid for, and there is no screening for the volunteers: whoever can pay the fee gets to go.
- Paying to volunteer in any capacity in a program that seems to be more about giving an individual money than about actually serving a community or cause.
- Companies that charge a fee for a letter that says a person engaged in volunteering that the person uses to fulfill court-ordered volunteering.
Advocating that talk about digital inclusion and addressing the digital divide include addressing the needs of people with disabilities. It's something I've been passionate about since the 1990s, in fact, since the first year I got on the web in 1994 or so. Nonprofits need to be taking the lead in this - all nonprofits, not just those focused on people with disabilities, but arts organizations, animal shelters, environmental groups and more.
Educating USA Citizens About International Affairs
Americans do not receive much information about the world abroad. The major TV channels provide little information about other people and cultures, and their incomplete information about the United Nations has lead to gross misunderstandings about the important, vital work of the UN and how the organization is administered. Local chapters of the UN Association, as well as other organizations, need larger, younger membership and much higher profiles, in order to counter this lack of information.
Developing Sustainable Tourism & Alternative Tourism
As a long-time, avid traveler for both fun and for business, I've seen first hand the impact that tourism can have on a variety of countries and communities, and benefited from what traveling has given me. I love the good that tourism can do for small local businesses and for the traveler as well. I'm very interested in initiatives that help build the capacities of communities, particularly those in transitional countries, to develop a sustainable travel industry that benefits local people and appeals to a variety of travelers - ecotourists, adventure travelers, budget travelers, business travelers, and women travelers from any of those groups, not just luxury travelers or package tours (though those are important as well). I created a page of Advice for Hotels, Hostels & Campgrounds in Transitional & Developing Countries: The Qualities of Great, Cheap Accommodations based on my own experiences in more than 30 countries, but I would so love to do more to help communities create sustainable tourism, helping them to: create a variety of accommodations for a variety of travelers, offer quality local restaurants for a variety of budgets, offer safety for all travelers, particularly women, ensure that visitors can get around via bicycle or by walking, offer transportation to and from larger cities, and on and on. Read more about developing sustainable tourism and alternative tourism.
Factors for Success in using theater as a tool for development
This was the subject of my Master's Degree project.
Some more personal, more specific project ideas I have toyed with that I would love to lead, co-organize, or just help someone else with. I would love to find others interested in these. I would love to discover there's already a nonprofit addressing any one of these.

Often, I link to particularly interesting resources I find about the above topics, or to resources I create, via My Blog.

Quick Links

my home page

my consulting services & my workshops & presentations

my credentials & expertise

Affirmation that this web site is created & managed by a human.

My book: The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook

contact me or see my schedule

Free Resources: Community Outreach, With & Without Tech

Free Resources: On Community Engagement, Volunteering & Volunteerism

Free Resources: Technology Tips for Non-Techies

Free Resources: Nonprofit, NGO & other mission-based management resources

Free Resources: Web Development, Maintenance, Marketing for non-Web designers

Free Resources: Corporate philanthropy / social responsibility programs

Free Resources: For people & groups that want to volunteer

linking to or from my web site

The Coyote Helps Foundation

me on social media (follow me, like me, put me in a circle, subscribe to my newsletter)

how to support my work

To know when I have developed a new resource related to the above subjects, found a great resource by someone else, published new blog, uploaded a new video,
or to when & where I'm training or presenting, use any of the following social media apps to follow me on any of these social media platforms:

Disclaimer: No guarantee of accuracy or suitability is made by the poster/distributor of the materials on this web site.
The information provided on this website is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered legal advice.
I am not a lawyer. I am not a legal professional. Do any information on this site as legal counsel.
I am not responsible for any losses, damages, or liabilities that may result from the use of this website or reliance on its content.
Your use of this website and its information is at your own discretion and risk.
This material is provided as is, with no expressed or implied warranty or liability.

See my web site's privacy policy.

Permission is granted to copy, present and/or distribute a limited amount of material from my web site without charge if the information is kept intact and without alteration, and is credited to:

Jayne Cravens &
Coyote Communications, www.coyotebroad.com

Otherwise, please contact me for permission to reprint, present or distribute these materials (for instance, in a class or book or online event for which you intend to charge).