Contributed by Nikki Russell
The VAN Reading, Resource and Leadership Corner: a bi-monthly post to the VAN blog that will keep you up-to-date on the latest thinking, online and local resources, and best or promising practice relevant to effective volunteer engagement.
Do you have a favorite volunteer management resource, book, or blog? Don’t hesitate to share them with your peers. Just submit your favorite resource to me at nrussell@uwkc.org and I’ll include it in the next VAN Reading, Resource and Leadership Corner.
Reading and Resource Corner:
Do you value the resources, information and news you receive bi-weekly from VAN? Consider engaging with your VAN peers online to share even more resources and discuss volunteer management issues relevant to you. You can join your VAN peers on LinkedIn: We now have 126 group members asking volunteer management questions and sharing volunteer management resources. Join the conversation! You can also follow VAN on Twitter @VAN_NW. It would be great to increase our VAN Twitter following, so if you’re on Twitter, follow us!
VAN now has a page on Facebook. So far we have 26 likes. Look up and like the Volunteer Administrators Network (VAN) Northwest.
Making the Case for Investing in Volunteer Management
Do you need to make the case for investing in volunteer engagement with your executive director and board? There is a new report out that that supports the critical role of executive leadership in leveraging the time, skills and talents of your organization’s volunteers? Read the Volunteer Engagement Stars Report. The publication is packed with practical, real-life examples of how nonprofits are dynamically engaging volunteers in ways that deliver bottom-line results.
Local Trainings and Workshops:
On May 8th United Way of King County is offering a new workshop for Board Members and Executive Leaders:
Leveraging Volunteer Engagement to Accomplish Your Mission -
Time: 8:30-10:30am
The most effective organizations have always seen volunteer engagement as a core strategy and resource for accomplishing mission. In these times of increasingly scarce financial resources, volunteers are one resource that is not decreasing. Successful organizations are leveraging volunteers as ambassadors for their mission, using their professional skills to augment that of staff, and developing the internal capacity needed to harness the full potential of volunteers.
Drawing from lessons and tips of leaders of the 36 organizations that went through United Way’s 2010 and 2011 Volunteer Impact Program, this seminar will help organization leaders, both executive directors and board members, better understand their critical role in raising the profile of their organization’s volunteer engagement efforts and identify steps they can take to ramp up volunteer involvement efforts and engage volunteers for impact.
On May 15th, United Way of King County presents:
What Are Volunteers Worth? Measuring the Value Impact of Volunteer Efforts
This is a 4 Hour Advanced Volunteer Program Management Workshop
Time: 9:00am-1:00pm
“Volunteers are our most valuable asset.” We’ve all heard it. We’ve all said it. But what are they really worth? Can we justify the investment of time and resources required? There has long been a focus on measuring outcomes in the nonprofit sector, but this expectation has somehow bypassed our volunteer programs. When asked to articulate the real performance and impact of our volunteer efforts, many nonprofits resort to reporting the number of volunteers and hours contributed. Given the increasingly significant role volunteers fulfill in our nonprofit work, it is time we articulate the real impact of volunteer efforts. This workshop explores the value volunteers bring to your nonprofit, how to measure volunteer impact and how to monitor the performance of your volunteer program.
Participants will gain a new understanding and commitment to effectively measuring the performance and impact of volunteer efforts and will walk away with performance measurement tips, ideas and strategies they can incorporate to more effectively
measure the impact of volunteers.
This workshop assumes a working knowledge of the essentials of effective volunteer engagement. You’ll have an opportunity to engage in a more in depth systems analysis of your volunteer program.
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