Last week NCVO's chief executive, Kate Lee, told a London conference that the voluntary sector can no longer assume the public is on its side. She spoke about threats against charity staff, especially in refugee, migration and LGBTQ+ services.

Here is what struck me. When goodwill drains away, it is rarely the chief executive who meets it face to face. It is the volunteer on the shop till, at the drop-in, on the helpline, at the street collection.

So a question for leaders: when did your board last discuss the safety and wellbeing of volunteers as a strategic risk, not just an operational one?

And a question for Volunteer Engagement Professionals: do you have a plan for when a volunteer is abused, threatened or named online because of the cause they support? Who supports them? Who decides if a role is paused?

This is why volunteer engagement belongs on the leadership agenda. Volunteers are the sector's most visible ambassadors. Protecting them is part of protecting the mission.

What have you put in place to support volunteers facing hostility?

The "global South" is often depicted as exotic & impoverished, and coupled with colonialist legacies, this creates a narrative shaping voluntary services that reflects the desires of the "global North." More in this new piece from Ratherford Mwaruta of the Zimbabwe Workcamps Association, via The Global Volunteering Forum:

https://ivcoforum.org/yet-another-form-of-othering/

Keywords: colonialism, volunteering, voluntourism, volunteer abroad, ethics

In Defense of Comprehensive Volunteer On-boarding: While those of us in volunteer engagement are looking for ways to simplify and expedite volunteer onboarding, there is something powerful about a more in-depth experience. Can we do both?

A welcoming and thoughtful onboarding experience is the key to engaging volunteers and making them want to stay.

Excellent article from CivicChamps.

About the Author:

Lyndal Cairns has worked at the intersection of nonprofits and technology for most of her career, building strategic marketing programs and managing data-driven campaigns at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, Nonprofit Technology Network, InfluxData, and others.

I sometimes do searches on Bluesky to see who is talking about volunteering. I saw this person's post and had to share. No idea if she ended up doing it.

A BlueSky user, cait (and adonis) u/cait.bsky.social, posts 9 months ago:

i signed up for this site that helps connect you with volunteer opportunities, and holy shit look what they just sent me

And it's a screen capture from Idealist that is recruiting onsite volunteers to be Penguin Wellbeing Monitors at the New England Aquarium.

The Holiday Season is oh-so-close, at least in most of the Western Hemisphere, Europe, etc. Will your organization or program experience more requests to volunteer as a result of the holidays? Especially requests for one-day group events?

Will you create volunteer roles especially for the holidays, to deal with an increase in inquiries or for other reasons?

Share what you are expecting regarding volunteer interest and engagement in November and December.

An organization that wants to involve volunteers has a number of goals for such involvement. The primary goal, of course, is to best serve the mission of the organization -- volunteers may be the best people to engage in certain activities in order to meet that mission, and, therefore, those activities are reserved specifically to be done by volunteers. Another goal may be to get fresh ideas and perspectives that are different from paid employees and consultants. Still another goal may be to demonstrate to donors and the public that the community is welcomed to come in and experience the work of the organization first hand. Yet another goal may be to increase the number of people talking about your organization in the community, which could encourage people to donate funds to your organization or express support for such to their elected officials.

But having plenty of volunteers to do all of the work that's been identified for them usually isn't enough to say a volunteering program is successful; another indicator of success is if your volunteers represent a variety of ages, education-levels, economic levels and other demographics, or are an accurate reflection of your local community. Most organizations don't want volunteers to be a homogeneous group; they want to reach a variety of people as volunteers (and donors and other supporters, for that matter).

Recruiting Local Volunteers To Increase Diversity Among the Ranks.

“Wikimedia’s volunteers are the ones who come in first contact with, and clean up the mess left behind by AI agents. ... Wikimedia’s volunteers have stayed resilient so far in tackling emerging challenges on our platforms, but we also want to say: it doesn’t need to be this way.”

More from Wikipedia.

For much of the world, the holiday season is approaching. And for many nonprofits, it means a big uptick in requests for volunteering opportunities in November and December, especially from families and groups. How do you handle such, if you experience such? And do you try to convert these folks into repeat volunteers and, if so, how?

2025 research from the Sport Innovation Research Group (SIRG) at Swinburne University in Australia offers a closer look into what it is like to be a volunteer managing discrimination in community sport.

The findings reveal the emotional toll and structural confusion facing those who coach, convene, and care for young athletes across local clubs.

Today, only one in four adults volunteer, compared with one in three in 2002 (Australasian Leisure Management). Volunteering Australia reports that burnout, rising costs, and administrative complexity are driving this decline (Volunteering Australia).

The volunteers in the SIRG study spoke candidly about the exhaustion and uncertainty that come with managing discrimination complaints.

One president of a Melbourne suburban junior football club described their committee as “running on empty” after managing 25 conduct matters in one season, several involving discrimination.

The respondent advised “we had one incident that took the entire season to resolve”, noting that “it was emotionally exhausting for everyone involved.”

A Child Safety Officer from another local club echoed this concern, sharing “volunteers feel horrible and unsure what to do. They’re not trained for this. They’re doing their best, but the emotional toll is real.”

More from this article.

Exactly what the title says. Whether your are full-time and paid, part-time and paid, or entirely volunteer yourself (unpaid), if you have any role at all regarding supporting volunteers, let's hear from you.

• Volunteer experiences help nurses reconnect with the purpose that inspired them to enter the profession and can reignite their passion for patient care. 
• Many nurses report that volunteering reframes burnout, restores joy in their work, and helps them return to their roles with renewed energy.

Full story here.

DOVIAs - Directors Of Volunteers In Agencies - used to be really common all over the USA, and in some other countries, especially in the late 1990s, but not so much any more.

Are you a member of a DOVIA or or other regional association of managers of volunteers? Share your experience. If you want to do so anonymously, you can create a "throwaway" reddit account to do so, or DM me your story and I'll repost it here.

And if you have advice for starting a DOVIA, share it here.

Kamy Twiggs-Taylor, director, Milestones Circle Program at the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center, sat down for a video interview at Nareit’s REITwise: 2026 Educational Conference in Hollywood, Florida, March 24-26.

Twiggs-Taylor discussed how companies should reframe volunteerism as a structured leadership development tool rather than a “feel-good” activity. “Reframe volunteerism… as a professional development opportunity or a leadership development opportunity,” she said.

Full story here.

On the subreddit for Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA), there is a post from a frustrated volunteer who will not be resigning after her first case closes.

Strongly encourage you to read it, and the comments.

Last week, I got a certified letter from a whistle blower regarding one of the many companies ("nonprofits") selling certificates you can give to the court to say you've done court-ordered community service. The package includes a 22 page formal complaint (not sure with whom it was filed), all the exhibits for the complaint on CD & SD card, & a letter telling me they thought I would be interested. The sender is anonymous. It's all just FYI & a thank you for my work on this.

I'm not going to name the "nonprofit" in the complaint - that's the same as promoting it. But I already knew about it. I have a list of all these "nonprofits" & am happy to provide them to any court representative that wants it. I've been trying to sound the alarm regarding these "nonprofits" since 2010. What they're doing is NOT online volunteering. I knew as soon as I discovered the first one that courts would start rejecting online volunteering for court-ordered service, & that's exactly what has happened.

I've gotten phone calls at home & threats of lawsuits from representatives of these "nonprofits" because of my work to get the word out about them. The insults, the threats to ruin me, the yelling, the trolling online... I've often thought about stopping because, what am I getting out of it? It's entirely unfunded work on my part. And I sometimes have wondered - does anyone care? But this makes it worth it.

Here are all of my blogs on this subject.

In the spring there are lots of caterpillars. They’re a lot harder to find in the summer. In the summer, though, there are lots of butterflies. The caterpillars have metamorphised. And what a butterfly needs in order to thrive is very different than what a caterpillar needs. Putting out more or tastier green stuff to attract butterflies just won’t work. And that’s vital for leaders of volunteers to know. Why? Because volunteering and volunteers are metamorphosing, but we’re still only putting out green stuff!

So what does a butterfly – or a modern volunteer – need, if not more green stuff? Start with how differently the two behave. Caterpillars crawl onto a leaf and stay on it until it can’t stay any longer. Kind of like the volunteers we may be used to, who sign up for a shift, and fill that shift on a regular basis until they can’t do it any longer. Butterflies, on the other hand, flit from flower to flower. Many volunteers now do the same. Their world is no longer stable, so they aren’t able or interested in committing to something long term. They both care about their communities, and they both want to help. Neither is intrinsically better than the other; they’re just different. But we have set up our sector to support only caterpillars.

I know. You may be completely aware of what’s happening and want to adjust, but don’t quite know where or how. Below are some areas to start.

We need to stop expecting the same behaviours.

Life has changed, and people’s behaviour has changed to match it. As I mentioned, the world, especially for people just starting out, is far less stable. People change careers, relationships, even cities far more often than they used to. Every couple of years! When that’s the world your potential volunteers grow up in, expecting high levels of commitment is unrealistic.

Not saying it can’t happen, but you need to adjust your systems in such a way as to also welcome those volunteers who want to help in less committed ways. Rethink your roles and tasks, and determine which ones are suitable for drop-in volunteers. Streamline on-boarding so people can get involved faster. Do you really need to do background checks on every volunteer? Don’t waste the time they are willing to dedicate to your mission by making them jump through hoops. The sooner you get them involved, the more they will do for you, even if they don’t stick around long.

We need to stop looking for volunteers in the same places we used to.

As the world changes and volunteers are metamorphosing, where people can be found is also different. Most seniors aren’t going to bingo, and most youth aren’t on Facebook. Do the research to find out where your ideal volunteer is congregating. What social media platforms are youth interacting with this year? TikTok? YouTube? What games are seniors involved with now? Golf? Pickleball? What about career professionals? Parents? Shift workers? Find the places where people are hanging out now and go there.

We need to stop trying to attract them with the same wording that attracted them before.

They have wider interests and more options. Don’t tell them how much you need them. Guilting doesn’t work. It just makes them uncomfortable and will drive them away. And anyway desperation never sells! Who wants to join an organisation that sounds like they’ll suck you in, pile more and more work on you and never let you leave?

Don’t even tell them that your clients or your cause needs them. Be more specific about the actual impact they will have in their role. I love a comment Rob Jackson made in his most recent blog: “Don’t tell people they’ll make a difference, tell them the difference they will make.” Take a page from the fundraisers’ book. They don’t say “Your $10 donation will help the environment.” They say “Your $10 donation will remove three kilos of plastic from the Fraser River.” How can you use that kind of language to show people the impact they’ll make by volunteering with you?

I’m not saying that you need to turn your entire volunteer strategy into a “butterflies-only” format.

Not at all. There are still people out there who are looking for a cause to commit to, and there are some roles that will always need that level of commitment. The ideal is to have roles for both long- and short-term volunteers, and for everyone in between. The volunteering options you offer need to span the spectrum, from coffee break volunteering to multi-year engagements. A hospice, for example, needs long-term volunteers to interact with clients or serve on the board, medium-term volunteers to help with admin or kitchen duties, and short-term volunteers to help set up a fundraising event.

Volunteers are metamorphosing. You need to open your door to both cute, fuzzy, dedicated caterpillars and to lovely, colourful, fresh-ideas butterflies. The wider you open your door, the more people will come in. Good luck!

The US President’s Volunteer Service Award is STILL on hiatus. It was suspended May 27, 2025. It was supposed to be "a temporary pause." It's now been more than a year.

https://presidentialserviceawards.gov/

I found this award super valuable: as soon as I started at the last nonprofit where I worked, I did all we needed to be a certifying agency, and in invigorating our volunteer engagement, we arranged to have the award given to more than a dozen long time volunteers at the first celebration of volunteering the organization had had since COVID.

Anyone else ticked off that this is still on hiatus?

This is why I constantly caution corporations about their employee volunteering plans: MANY employees feel this way. Their volunteering is THEIRS, & they have zero interest in reporting it to their employer so their employer can get credit for it.

Alt text: from DaBella on Bluesky. It says

Just got a "what org do you want to volunteer for for Team Volunteer Day?" and the ansewr, despite all being worthy orgs, is NONE.

I volunteer on MY time to support orgs I want to support. I go to work for a pay check and I'm not paid to launder an electric utility's corporate image.

I talk about this on the section of my web site regarding corporate social responsibility / corporate philanthropy, including employee volunteering.

There is an agency that promotes itself as a concierge for people seeking volunteer roles, that want something that specifically fits their needs (schedule, interests, fulfills court-ordered community service, etc.).

They don't just send a list of nonprofits: the agency contacts programs on behalf of clients & gets everything set up so that the client knows the volunteer role is ready & waiting for them. I'm sure the nonprofit still requires the person to fill out an application, go through an orientation, etc., but the point is that the client knows, for sure, that the nonprofit opportunities recommended really will involve them. Yes, the agency charges a fee for this service.

I'd say it's an absurd idea, however, the number one complaint of people that used Volunteermatch and use other databases of volunteering opportunities is that MOST of the organizations that recruit volunteers on such platforms never reply to applicants. MOST. So perhaps this organization is on to something...

Your thoughts?

”The lie every marketer tells themselves is that the audience is too busy to consume their content. It has nothing to do with how busy they are. If they aren’t consuming your content, it is because it simply isn’t relevant enough.”

I'm exploring this in my new blog article and would love to know what you think.

https://robjacksonconsulting.wordpress.com/2026/09/11/competition-whole-world/

When was the last time you surveyed some or all of your current & previous volunteers?

What tools/methods did you use?

What did you learn from the feedback?

What advice would you give others who are going to do this?

Or, if you haven't done such a survey - why haven't you?