What WAS New with Jayne & Her Web Site

December 2020

Advice for those assigning or supervising court-ordered community service
Mandatory community service or a "Court Referral Program" is an alternate sentencing option for Superior, Municipal, Traffic and Juvenile Courts in the USA. Community service is considered restitution by an offender through helping his or her community. The service means actions, activity, engagement -- doing something that needs to be done and that helps the community or a cause. Too often, the goals of court-ordered community service aren't happening, and instead, people who need the service cannot find a place to do their service hours, and nonprofits expected to host these volunteers cannot do so. This new resource is for judges, probation officers, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and other criminal justice practitioners that are involved in assigning and supervising court-ordered community service.

November & December 2020 Blogs

October 2020

Still trying to remind everyone that virtual volunteering is an established, credible practice, more than 35 years old, with a rich history and more organizations than can be counted involving online volunteers this way. In short, Virtual Volunteering is NOT NEW. If you are a volunteerism "expert" and you are calling it new - you aren't a volunteerism "expert." 

A milestone is reached: I have found more than 100 research or academic articles about virtual volunteering - and there is no doubt many more in languages other than English. I have the list at the Virtual Volunteering Wiki. Also see my blog about my thoughts about this important milestone: how it was reached and what it means.

A new video: Virtual Volunteering: Advice for Corporations & Businesses. (7 minutes).

New reviews are coming in for The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook! With a surge in sales because of the novel coronavirus, more people are offering new thoughts about the book, and I've compiled my favorites here.

September & October 2020 Blogs

September 2020

New: Resources regarding online harassment, defamation & libel. If you are a manager of social media, if you use online tools at all as a part of your work, this is a must read. And if your organization employs or engages a social media manager, as a paid worker or as a volunteer, this is also a must read (and a prompt for you to check on on that person's work - they may be being harassed and be reluctant to tell you).

Updated: One Day Activities for IT Volunteers or Volunteering Using IT (Hacks4Good, for instance)
For a couple of decades now, volunteers have been getting together for intense, one-day events, or events of just a few days, to build web pages, to write code (hackathons, apps4good, etc.), to edit Wikipedia pages, to transcribe historical documents and more. These are gatherings of usually of onsite volunteers, where everyone is in one location, together, but even before the global pandemic, these activities were involving or mobilizing remote volunteers - online volunteers helping from wherever they were. This resource has been revised to take into consideration more virtual volunteering / remote volunteering, rather than everyone being in the same room.

New: The Nonprofit & NGO Guide to Using Reddit
As of July 2019, Reddit ranked as the No. 5 most visited website in the USA and No. 13 in the world. Reddit is a community of communities, and its communities are called subreddits. A subreddit can have a focus on a geographic area, a book, a celebrity, a particular time in history, a specific hobby - anything. Statistics suggest that 74% of Reddit users are male. Users tend to be significantly younger than other online communities like Facebook with less than 1% of users being 65 or over. If you want to reach a younger demographic regarding your volunteering opportunities, your awareness messages, your data that shows your value to the community and more, you need to build posts to Reddit into your marketing strategy, no matter what your nonprofit's size or focus. This resource tells you how to do it.

July & August 2020 Blogs


July 2020

I remain overwhelmed with inquiries and work regarding virtual volunteering because of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. But I've squeezed in time for these activities:

My Journey to Virtual Volunteering, the United Nations & So Much More
An essay I wrote WorldPulse and its #SheTransformsTech campaign.

Using Whats App or Similar Direct Messaging Apps in Volunteer Support & Engagement
Includes examples, how to get started, and evaluating if this is something you should explore.

Volunteering in the time of a pandemic: How to find volunteering opportunities during the novel coronavirus / COVID-19 & how to stay safe while volunteering.
This is a resource for people that want to volunteer, but if you want to engage volunteers onsite, in-person, you should review this and make sure you can meet all of these standards that are being recommended.

May & June 2020

May & June 2020 Blogs

Virtual Volunteering is EXPLODING
The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has caused a sudden, drastic rise in the number of programs launching and expan virtual volunteering programs to engage their clients with volunteers who must stay home. Via Google Alerts, Since late March, I am daily receiving a long list of new news stories, articles and blogs that mention virtual volunteering, virtual volunteers, online volunteers, online helpers and on and on. And Twitter is awash with new initiatives being launched. Here is how I've been responding since late March:

March & April 2020 Blogs

February & March 2020

Gone for Most of March
I will be traveling in Baja, Mexico for most of March and I will not be answering email or any electronic messages in that time. I may not even have access to my phone number. It's going to be wonderful! If you want to reach me, it's best to write me before March 1st or after March 30th. If you need to reach me urgently, DM me or MT me on Twitter and I'll get a notice on my phone the next time I'm in Internet range.

Considerations When Redesigning Your Web Site
When is it time to redesign your nonprofit, NGO, charity or government program's web site? And what guidance should you provide your designer? This page offers detailed information that will get you a better web site - not just a different one. As with most content on my web site, this is for small programs, including all-volunteer organizations.

Recruiting Volunteers To Serve in Difficult, Even Dangerous Roles
Some volunteering is perceived as difficult by potential volunteers and the general public, because of the clients that volunteers will work with or the kind of activities volunteers must undertake. Examples: serving as a Big Brother/Big Sister, mentoring a foster child, assisting adults with developmental disabilities, volunteering in a shelter for women experiencing domestic violence, or staffing a suicide hotline. Some volunteering is perceived as difficult AND dangerous, such as fire fighting or search and rescue or volunteering in prisons or jails. Some volunteering is perceived as controversial, such as providing water stations in the dessert for people entering a country illegally and can die from dehydration, or defending a women's health clinic patients from protesters. Difficult, dangerous and/or controversial roles actually appeal to many people who want to volunteer: they feel strongly about the cause, or they want to do something substantial and challenging. But other roles may seem too intimidating to new recruits, like mentoring a young person going through the foster care system, working with young people in the juvenile justice system, working with people with intellectual disabilities, or working with seniors. How do you recruit for roles that might seem difficult, dangerous, even controversial? How do you recruit for a subject area or role that might provoke an initial reaction of fear among potential volunteers? This resource can help.

Cultivating Online Civility
When I began writing about online culture, back in the late 1990s, misinformation was at a minimum and easy to identify, and hateful trolls were oh-so-quickly banned from online communities. Now, hate and misinformation rage online, and not just among strangers - neighbors are raging against each other on local online communities. Can online civility be restored? Is it possible to challenge misinformation and destructive speech in the strongest, most deliberate of terms without being accused of hate speech yourself? This page links to efforts focused on online civility - most of these efforts are not by me, BTW.

Available Again For Consulting or Employment!
Happy to say that I'm again available for consulting or employment - but AFTER March, as I will be out of the USA for most of that month!  Here are the consulting services I offer for nonprofits, NGOs, charities, government agencies or universities. I also would be very open to a senior position regarding communications or project management or a university-level adjunct position

Add Video-Editing to My Repertoire
In the last two years, I've produced a fair number of videos in relation to my work: writing and producing simple trainings, editing presentations, training and speeches by others, and captioning all of these - nothing too sophisticated, though I did produce a short program highlights video with music. If you have simple video editing or captioning needs, please contact me - I have very affordable rates for this freelance work.

Have you benefited from any of the resources on my web site? Would you like to support me in continuing this work? I accept donations via PayPal or you can make a regular monthly gift by becoming a patron (via patreon.com).

January & February 2020 Blogs


January 2020 News

How Volunteers Can QUICKLY Help Your Program To Be More Accessible Online
Most nonprofits, NGOs, charities, schools and other mission-based organizations will never be able to afford a professional web designer, let alone one that can build a fully accessible web site. Yet, these organizations most certainly want people with disabilities to access their online information, just like any other donor, client, volunteer, participant, activist or other potential supporter. This resource talks about how volunteers can help any mission-based organization have a more accessible, more welcoming web site. 

UPDATED: One Day Activities for IT Volunteers or Volunteering Using IT
This page provides advice on how to put together a one-day event, or just-a-few-days-of activity, for a group of tech volunteers onsite, working together, for a nonprofit, non-governmental organization (NGO), community-focused government program, school or other mission-based organization - or association of such.

Special Offer Reminder
If your group (association, university class, etc.) is in the USA and the group you may want to receive one of my trainings is an audience that will be at least one third African American, Latino and/or American Indian/Native American, I will give you a special, reduced rate for an online or onsite training. This is per my commitment to helping African American, Latino and American Indian/Native American managers in nonprofits, civic organizations, government programs and schools in particular to build their capacities regarding communications and/or volunteer engagement, and to cultivate far more trainers and consultants from these communities. Please contact me for more information about my special rates for your audience. Here are some of my trainings on YouTube. You can read more about my consulting services and the list of University-Level Instruction - Course Options that I am interested in teaching, in-person or online.


December 2019 News

Updated: One Day Activities for IT Volunteers or Volunteering Using IT
You can recruit a group of volunteers for intense, one-day IT or web-related events, or events of just a couple of days, to build web pages or improve your web site's accessibility/usability, to write code for a new app, to edit Wikipedia pages, to transcribe historical documents and more. Because computers are involved, these events are sometimes called hackathons, even if coding isn't involved, though edit-a-thon or transcribe-a-thon are also being used more and more. This updated resource can help your nonprofit think about possibilities for such one-day events that might benefit one of your programs or the entire organization.

November & December 2019 Blogs


October 2019 News

Make All Volunteering as Accessible as Possible: advantages for your program & how to do it
If you want access to the greatest amount of talent and resources that volunteers can possibly bring to your program, you have to make all volunteering as accessible as possible. That means looking for ways to accommodate a myriad of people who have different abilities, needs, personality types and work styles. As Susan Ellis said, "Accessibility and diversity are about accommodating everyone, not just people with disabilities or people who are from minority groups. You want to make volunteering as welcoming to the widest number of people possible." This resource can help.

Booked through February 2020
I'm working full-time again for a previous client through February 2020 (and, per funding, much longer, I hope!). That means this client is currently my professional priority and I am very limited on any consulting work I can do. I am still available for trainings on a very limited basis. Here are the services I offer for nonprofits, NGOs, charities, government agencies, universities or for-profit companies wanting to improve CSR. And my earlier offer stands: if your group (association, university class, etc.) is in the USA and the group you may want to receive one of my trainings is an audience that will be at least one third African American, Latino and/or American Indian/Native American, I will give you a special, reduced rate for an online or onsite training. This is per my commitment to helping African American, Latino and American Indian/Native American managers in nonprofits, civic organizations, government programs and schools in particular to build their capacities regarding communications and/or volunteer engagement, and to cultivate far more trainers and consultants from these communities. Please contact me for more information about my special rates for your audience. Here are some of my trainings on YouTube. You can read more about my consulting services and the list of University-Level Instruction - Course Options that I am interested in teaching, in-person or online.


September & October 2019 Blogs


August 2019 News

When "Just" a Volunteer is Better than a Paid Employee
In this guest blog for the Energize, Inc. Hot Topic, I explore the criteria for when a role should be filled by a volunteer INSTEAD of a paid employee.

Hosting International Volunteers: A Where-To-Start Guide For Local Organizations
I’m seeing more and more local organizations – non-governmental organizations (NGOs), charities, schools – in developing countries posting on sites like Reddit, asking foreign volunteers to travel to their countries and volunteer. These NGOs and others offer no information on whether or not its legal for foreigners to come to the country and volunteer, no information on what they will do to ensure volunteers will be safe, no information on what screening they do of volunteers to ensure safety of volunteers – they just post, “Hey, we help orphans / wildlife / women, and you can come here and help us.” Hosting International Volunteers: A Where-To-Start Guide For Local Organizations provides detailed suggestions for NGOs in developing countries interested in gaining access to foreign volunteers.

Oregon Volcanic Rock Huggers Motorcycle Ride:
A travelogue of my 4 day, 3 night, 580 mile motorcycle tour of Deschutes National Forest, Newberry National Volcanic Monument, Big Obsidion Flow, McKay Butte Fire, and Fort Rock, Oregon.

July & August 2019 Blogs


May & June 2019 Blogs



April 2019 News

Special Offer
If your group (association, university class, etc.) is in the USA and the group you may want to receive one of my trainings is an audience that will be at least one third African American, Latino and/or American Indian/Native American, I will give you a special, reduced rate for an online or onsite training. This is per my commitment to helping African American, Latino and American Indian/Native American managers in nonprofits, civic organizations, government programs and schools in particular to build their capacities regarding communications and/or volunteer engagement, and to cultivate far more trainers and consultants from these communities. Please contact me for more information about my special rates for your audience. Here are some of my trainings on YouTube. You can read more about my consulting services and the list of University-Level Instruction - Course Options that I am interested in teaching, in-person or online.

March & April 2019 Blogs

February 2019 News

A tribute to Susan Ellis
So many of us are reeling at the passing of Susan J. Ellis in February. There is no person on Earth who has done as much to promote volunteerism and the best practices for engaging and support volunteers than Susan. Her contributions cannot be overstated. This is my tribute to my dear colleague, with links to several others.

Corporate philanthropy / social responsibility resources
My advice for corporate social responsibility (CSR) is different than most anything else you will read on the Internet or read in a book. It's different from most anything you will ever hear at a conference or workshop or consultation. My advice is meant to be provocative and disruptive. I'm sharing information and approaches and complaints that so many nonprofit, NGO and public school staff want to say to corporations and foundations, but they've been too afraid to. This new section of my web site provides an index of resources meant to help for-profit businesses, large and small, engage in CSR - financial donations, in-kind donations, employee volunteering, etc. - in a way that really does benefit the causes, communities or nonprofits and goes beyond feel-good public relations. 

Volunteering on Public Lands in the USA (national parks, national forests, state parks, wetlands, etc.)
How to volunteer outside, on public lands - national parks, national forests, national monuments, state parks, etc. -  is a frequently asked question Quora and Reddit. Also, people in the USA often will pay thousands of dollars to travel overseas to undertake activities they could do right here in the USA, for far less money and spending far less travel time. This is my attempt to reach out to people who want to volunteer outside in support of wildlife and/or our natural spaces and provide them with the guidance they need. This is a part of my growing set of resources for volunteers.

I'm available for consulting or employment!
I'm available for conference training days, short-term or long-term consulting, for short-term deployment abroad, or even a part-time or full-time gig. You can see some of my trainings on YouTube and read more about my consulting services. I'd also love to teach. I've developed a list of University-Level Instruction - Course Options that I am interested in teaching, in-person or online. I have lectured as a guest in several classes at various universities, and I am very interested in creating and delivering undergraduate and graduate-level courses as part of an MBA program, a nonprofit management or public sector management degree, a social work degree, a public health education degree, a marketing or public relations degree, or international affairs, among others. I've detailed my research, university teaching experience, teaching philosophy and course development interests here.

January & February 2019 Blogs

January 2019 News

Diagnosing the causes of volunteer recruitment problems
My top blog in 2018, BY FAR, was this one. In fact, it’s now one of my top 15 most-read blogs  ever. I've curated a list of my other most popular blogs in 2018 here.

Efforts to Educate the Public About Humanitarian Development & the work of Nonprofits, NGOs, Charities, etc.
The audience for my web pages and blogs are, primarily, staff at mission-based organizations: nonprofits, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), charities, government agencies, schools and other public sector organizations, as well as their partners - corporations, universities, etc. I also sometimes write material for volunteers themselves - or people who want to be such. Sometimes, however, I write material to try to educate the public about humanitarian and development work and about the work, culture, ethics and limitations of nonprofits, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), charities and other mission-based organizations. Here are some of those blogs focused on the general public.

Join me on Quora and Reddit in 2019
I am the most-viewed contributor to several Quora groups, including those on volunteerism, volunteering, nonprofit organizations, non-governmental organizations, non-profit fundraising, community service, and more, I'm also one of the moderators of the subReddit on volunteering. I'm all alone on these forums in trying to answer questions, for the most part - and I don't want to be. Please join me on these groups and help me educate people about the realities of volunteer support, nonprofit management and ethics, and voluntourism!

December 2018 News

Volunteering to Address Your Own Mental Health
The majority of my work is focused on helping professionals that work at nonprofits, non-governmental organizations, government agencies and other mission-based programs. That includes helping them to work with volunteers. However, I have a section of my web site focused on helping volunteers themselves, based on the questions I read on Quora, Reddit and other sites from people that want to volunteer. This new resource on that section of my web site is designed to help you have realistic expectations for volunteering and to avoid an experience that will make you feel worse instead of better.

November & December 2018 Blogs

November 2018 News

I dream of hostels
I would love to see nonprofit travelers hostels developed in Louisville, Kentucky and in Tillamook State Forest, Oregon.

October 2018 News

Folklore, Rumors, Urban Myths & Organized Misinformation Campaigns
Interfering with Development & Aid/Relief Efforts, & Government Initiatives
(& how these are overcome)

Folklore, rumors (or rumours) and urban myths / urban legends, as well as organized misinformation campaigns and "fake news", often interfere with aid, relief and development activities, and government initiatives, including public health initiatives -- even bringing such to a grinding halt. They create ongoing misunderstandings among communities and cultures, prevent people from seeking help, encourage people to engage in unhealthy and even dangerous practices, cultivate mistrust of people and institutions, have even lead to mobs of people attacking someone or others for no reason other than something they heard from a friend of a friend of a friend, motivated legislators to introduce laws to address something that doesn't exist, and influenced elections. Since 2004, I have been gathering and sharing both examples of this phenomena, and recommendations on preventing folklore, rumors and urban myths from interfering with development and aid/relief efforts and government initiatives. I do this entirely on my own, as a volunteer, with no funding from anyone. I am pleased to have recently updated these resources with new resources.

September 2018 News

How to Recruit Volunteers in Forest Grove & Cornelius, Oregon -
for nonprofit organizations, government programs, schools & communities of faith
A few nonprofits in my area have said that they struggle with finding enough volunteers. I made this straight-forward resource for this specific geographic area, both to help these nonprofits and to offer an example for other communities in how to put together such a customized guide for themselves. 

For two weeks in late July (and two days in August), I traveled through Nevada via motorcycle.

July & August 2018 Blogs

June 2018 News

In 1994, perhaps earlier, an initiative called Smart Valley was launched in California. Smart Valley was a 501(c)(6) nonprofit organization focused on creating an "information infrastructure" in Silicon Valley, California - Palo Alto, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, San José, Santa Clara and the surrounding area, creating projects to enhance the quality of life in Silicon Valley. Smart Valley's projected included SmartSchools NetDay and PC Day, Smart Voter, to help people learn about upcoming elections, Connect 96: The Global Summit on Building Electronic Communities, the Public Access Network (PAN), a Telecommuting Initiative, and the Smart Valley Webmasters Group. Smart Valley was also affiliated with the nonprofit organization Plugged In, one of the first digital divide efforts, working to bring "the tremendous technological resources available in the Silicon Valley to youth in low-income communities" in East Palo Alto and SV-PAL, the Silicon Valley Public Access Link.

My dear colleague Erin Barnhart (Effective Altruism) is organizing summer webinars on selected Fridays regarding expanding skills in volunteer engagement, some featuring my other dear colleague, Liza Dyer and some featuring me! These webinars are intense, fun, interactive, an hour long (never more), affordable and each focused on ONE aspect of effective volunteer engagement. We designed these topics based on what we are all hearing from people working with volunteers, in any capacity, as well as our own experiences as managers of volunteers and as volunteers ourselves. Here's more info about the webinars.


May & June 2018 Blogs

May 2018 News

The Virtual Volunteering Wiki was developed in association with The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook. The wiki has been hosted at virtualvolunteering.wikispaces.com- its home since 2013. Unfortunately, as of September 2018, Wikispaces will be discontinued by its parent company. It's a devastating blow, as The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook has the Wikispaces address in it - and that can never be changed - and Susan Ellis and I have worked so hard to get the Wikispaces address shared, far and wide. The Virtual Volunteering Wiki has been relocated here, at www.coyotecommunications.com/vvwiki/. Although it will not longer be, officially, a wiki, it will maintain its neutral tone and will welcome contributions from anyone who has information about virtual volunteering. Some of the most popular pages on the wiki:

March update

Video: why accessibility must be a part of human rights, digital divide & social inclusion efforts
If your initiative has a mission regarding human rights or the digital divide or social inclusion, shouldn’t that include a web site that is accessible for people with disabilities or using assistive tech? YES! Yes it should! I've made a less-than five-minute video talking about why. I captioned it using the YouTube closed captioning tool, which is AMAZING.

March & April 2018 blogs

January & February 2018 blogs

January 2018 updates

I've created two new resources to help organizations use social media: 
  • For Schools: You Should Be Using Social Media. Here's How.
    There are a lot of web sites saying what the benefits are for schools to use social media. But there's few that give specifics on what a public school should be sharing via Facebook, Twitter, etc. This advice talks not only about exactly what your school should be posting to social media, but the consequences of not doing so, as well how to handle tough questions and criticism. It also links to legal advice. 

  • For Local City & County Governments: You Should Be Using Social Media. Here's How.
    To not be using social media to deliver information and to engage means you are denying critical information to much of your community and promoting an image of secrecy and lack of transparency. In fact, the lack of use of social media can be seen as your city council or county government trying to hide something, and even lead to rumors that are much harder to dispel than they would have been to prevent. This advice talks not only about exactly what your school should be posting to social media, but also how to handle tough questions and criticism.


December 2017 updates

I was honored to guest blog the Energize, Inc. Hot Topic for December. The topic I chose to write about: "Letting Fear Prevent Volunteer Involvement is Too Risky." If you can't tell from the title, it's about how the risks around involving volunteers often aren't as great as NOT involving them - to NOT involve volunteers puts your organization at risks that I consider far greater than by involving them. There is a podcast version, in case you would prefer to hear me blabble.

I also have a new resource on my web site: Getting More Viewers for Your Organization's Online Videos. Videos are a great way to represent your organization's work, to show you make a difference, to promote a message or action that relates to your mission, etc. But just uploading a video isn't enough to attract an audience. This new page on my site offers specific steps that will get more views for your organization's videos on YouTube. Note that many of these tasks would be great for an online volunteer to undertake, with guidance from an appropriate staff member

November 2017 updates

Since June, I've been working with Knowbility, a nonprofit based in Austin, Texas with whom I’ve been working with on and off since its founding in 1998. I'm recruiting nonprofits, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), charities, schools and others to be able to participate in OpenAIR 2018, so that those participating organizations can welcome more clients, more donors, more volunteers and more supporters via their web sites. This Accessibility Internet Rally (AIR) by Knowbility was a hackathon before there was the word hackathon - it's been going on since 1998. See the event web site OpenAIR 2018 event web site. for more information and how your nonprofit, NGO or charity can participate. This means, however, that I’m not available for any consulting gigs, other than one-off trainings, until after May 2018. So if you are thinking of me as a consultant in 2018, contact me ASAP, as my schedule fills up quickly! More about my consulting services.

Check out this photo of me and some of my fabulous Knowbility co-workers!

Also, check out my new five minute video pitching participation in OpenAIR 2018 to nonprofits, NGOs, charities and artists. Give me five minutes of your time, watch the video, and PLEASE consider participating!

November & December 2017 blogs
  

October 2017 updates
I had the honor of being profiled by Open University in the United Kingdom, where I received my Master's Degree. I also wrote a followup regarding whether or not pursuing a graduate degree at OU helped my career (spoiler alert: it did).

October 2017 blogs

September 2017 updates
I am thrilled to announce that I am working with Knowbility, a nonprofit based in Austin, Texas with whom I’ve been working with on and off since its founding in 1998. And even better: what I’m doing will help nonprofits, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), charities, schools and others to be able to welcome more clients, more donors, more volunteers and more supporters via their web sites. I am the Knowbility liaison for nonprofits, NGOs, schools and other mission-based organizations that will participate in OpenAIR 2018. This is my very favorite group volunteering gig and hackathon anywhere in the world. This Accessibility Internet Rally (AIR) by Knowbility was a hackathon before there was the word hackathon. It was an onsite, local event for many years, and is now an international virtual volunteering event! See the event web site OpenAIR 2018 event web site. for more information and how your nonprofit, NGO or charity can participate. This means, however, that I’m not available for any consulting gigs until after February 2018. So if you are thinking of me as a consultant for next year, contact me ASAP, as my schedule fills up quickly! More about my consulting services.

Also, I've created a web page that answers the question, "How did you get a job with the UN?!" Because I am exhausted from answering that question on various online discussion groups.

September 2017 blogs


August 2017 updates
Latest Resource: Civil Society Capacity Building: Why?
My favorite kind of professional work is building the capacities of civil society organizations, especially in transitional and developing countries, to communicate, to change minds and to engage a variety of people and communities, through communications, dialogue and volunteering. But the term civil society isn't used in USA as commonly as it is elsewhere, and many don’t understand exactly what I mean when I talk about my favorite type of work. This new resource explores exactly what is meant by the phrase civil society capacity building.


August 2017 blogs

July 2017 blogs

June 2017 blogs
in June, all blogs were focused on communications and community engagement in some way

May 2017 blogs
in May, all blogs were focused on volunteerism in some way

April 2017 blogs

March 2017 blogs

January & February 2017 blogs

December 2016

United Nations Tech4Good / ICT4D Initiatives, a list of the various United Nations initiatives that have been launched since 2000 to promote the use of computers, feature phones, smart phones and various networked devices in development and humanitarian activities, to promote digital literacy and equitable access to the "information society," and to bridge the digital divide. My goal in creating this page is to help researchers, as well as to remind current UN initiatives that much work regarding ICT4D has been done by various UN employees, consultants and volunteers for more than 15 years (and perhaps longer?).

Updated:
Preventing Folklore, Rumors (or Rumours), Urban Myths & Organized Misinformation Campaigns From Interfering with Development & Aid/Relief Efforts & Government Initiatives
Folklore, rumors and urban myths / legends have interfered with humanitarian aid activities and government initiatives, including public health programs, even bringing such to a grinding halt. They create ongoing misunderstandings and mistrust, prevent people from seeking help, encourage people to engage in unhealthy and even dangerous practices, and have even lead to mobs of people attacking someone or others because of something they heard from a friend of a friend of a friend. With social media like Twitter and Facebook, as well as simple text messaging among cell phones, spreading misinformation is easier than ever. Since 2004, I have been gathering and sharing both examples of this phenomena, and recommendations on preventing folklore, rumors and urban myths from interfering with development and aid/relief efforts and government initiatives. I've updated this information with new information per the organized misinformation campaigns targeting Ukraine and the elections in the USA. Now, with fake news sites set up specifically to mislead people, as well as crowdsourced efforts by professional online provocateurs and automated troll bots pumping out thousands of comments, countering misinformation efforts has to be a priority for aid and development organizations, as well as government agencies.


What Was NetAid?
A history of the NetAid initiative, part of which became the UN's Online Volunteering service.


November & December blogs 2016
My top blogs of 2016
Volunteers Along Immigrant & Refugee Journey
Folklore, Rumors & Misinformation Campaigns Interfering with Humanitarian Efforts & Government Initiatives
Did Facebook hurt the Syrian Revolution?
20 Years Ago: The Virtual Volunteering Project
How did volunteers impact the 2016 USA Presidential election?
fake news, folklore & friendships
Nonprofits & NGOs: you MUST give people a way to donate online
How Will Trump Presidency Affect Humanitarian Aid & Development?
2017 National Summit on Volunteer Engagement Leadership
To Do List the Day After the USA election
Why I still don’t like “International Volunteer Manager’s Day”
When “participatory” & “consultation” are just words
Gossip’s toll in your workplace
Research Explaining How Websites Encourage Volunteering & Philanthropy
papers on cyberactivism by women in Iran & Azerbaijan
Some Truths About Volunteer Retention
Volunteering & social cohesion in a post Brexit world
Song of frustration re: volunteering


November 2016

Tech Volunteer Groups / ICT4D Volunteers
A list of tech volunteering initiatives, some defunct, some still going strong, that recruit tech experts to volunteer their time support either local nonprofit organizations or NGOs in developing countries regarding computer hardware, software and Internet tech-related tasks.
 
Updated: PDX-area Organizations Involved in Overseas Development / Aid / Relief & Volunteer Efforts Or Educating People Re: Other Countries/Global Affairs
Some are nonprofits, some are university programs, and some are for-profit companies / businesses. Some are focused exclusively on aid and development, some are focused only partially on such. There are more than 35 such organizations here, mostly in Portland, but a few in other places in Oregon.

Al Gore Campaign Pioneered Virtual Volunteering
Back in 2000, when Al Gore ran for president, his campaign championed virtual volunteering by recruiting online volunteers to help online with his election efforts. I was getting ready to leave the Virtual Volunteering Project then, to work for the UN in Germany, and was not able to document these pioneering efforts at the time. I remembered this effort recently, per the current (and seemingly never-ending) Presidential campaign in the USA, and went digging on archive.org to find the original materials from that campaign regarding this work with online volunteers. He even had a site for users of personal digital assistants (PDAs), the precursor to the smart phone. ( Somewhere on the site is also a mention of either online volunteering or virtual volunteering, but I can't find it anymore...

October 2016

University-Level Instruction - Course Options
I have lectured as a guest in several classes at various universities, and I am very interested in creating and delivering undergraduate and graduate-level courses as part of an MBA program, a nonprofit management or public sector management degree, a social work degree, a public health education degree, a marketing or public relations degree, or international affairs, among others. I've detailed my research, university teaching experience, teaching philosophy and course development interests here.

Research needs re: virtual volunteering
What would NGOs and nonprofits love to know about virtual volunteering? What would be great, even ground-breaking research regarding virtual volunteering? Here are some digital volunteering research topics in dire need of exploration (and that really need to be undertaken by people that are NOT me).

September & October 2016 blog entries
August 2016 

Lessons from onlinevolunteering.org
Some key learnings from directing the UN's Online Volunteering service from February 2001 to February 2005, including support materials for those using the service to host online volunteers.

Updated: Where to Find Online Volunteering
My work is focused mostly on nonprofits, government agencies and other mission-based programs, but a lot of individuals that want to volunteer contact me as well, often about where to find online volunteering opportunities. I created this page for anyone looking to quickly get into virtual volunteering, whether it's a long-term, high-responsibility commitment or a micro task.

August 2016 blog entries
  • The awesome power of tweet tags
  • Research needs re: virtual volunteering
  • Virtual volunteering: it’s oh-so-personal
  • assigning law breakers to community service: worthwhile?
  • “If no one is complaining, we don’t have to change how we do things”
  • Proud to fool courts re: community service
  • Kentucky politicians think volunteers are free
  • Volunteer management is community engagement


  • July 2016 blog entries
  • women-only hours at community Internet centers? why?
  • humanitarian stories & photos – use with caution
  • Wikipedia needs improvement re: volunteerism-related topics
  • Tourism, a catalyst for peace and development
  • Safety in Virtual Volunteering
  • Why Do So Few Women Edit Wikipedia? Insights into virtual volunteering
  • Police: use social media to invite community participation, show compassion
  • Is it really *impossible* to break into humanitarian work?
  • Universal accessibility in tourism! World Tourism Day theme 2016
  • Selling community service leads to arrest, conviction


  • June 2016 blog entries


    May 2016

    I blog often about communications - crafting welcoming messages, crisis responses, managing online conflict, encouraging reconciliation, etc. I decided to create an index of those blogs here. For more than two months, every Tuesday night, and sometimes on Saturdays, I attended the Washington County Sheriff's Department's citizens academy. The academy ended in May. As a consultant and researcher regarding volunteer engagement and communications, I’m talking to organizations about community engagement, and I wanted to see a non-volunteering community engagement scheme first hand, to see how it works and to think about ways the idea might be exported to other, non-law enforcement agencies and even overseas. Also, I’m a human rights advocate, and when I look at what happened in Ferguson, Missouri in particular, I am outraged. So I wanted to see what the attitude of my local sheriff's department is. I blogged halfway through the experience. And now have a lovely photo of me and Sheriff Pat Garrett (no, really, that's his name).

    May 2016 blog entries

    April 2016

    Due to a lot of retweets and mentions, I've been getting a lot of visitors to my blog: Vanity Volunteering: all about the volunteer. Have a read and leave a comment!
     

    April 2016 blogs
    : (in published date reverse order)
    March 2016

    A visit to Havana, Cuba
    I went to Havana, Cuba at the end of February. It’s been a life-long dream. Per my research before and during the trip, I've written published two blogs in March, one on Internet access / digital literacy in Havana, and one on Tweeters re: Cuba development & ICT4D.
     

    March 2016 blogs: (in published date reverse order)
    January & February 2016

    Me in South Carolina Jan. 27 - 29
    I'll be the keynote speaker and presenting workshops at the South Carolina Association for Volunteer Administration (SCAVA) annual conference, January 27-29, 2016 in North Myrtle Beach! You do not have to be a member of SCAVA to attend. Join me! And you can book me for your conference or workshop!

    Me in Vancouver, Washington Feb. 11
    I'll be the keynote speaker at the Nonprofit Network Southwest Washington / Directors of Volunteer Programs Association (DVPA) conference on Thurs., February 11 in Vancouver, Washington (state).
    And you can book me for your conference or workshop!


    January & February 2016 blogs: (in published date reverse order)


    What was new prior to 2016 (since 2005)  



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