Nonprofit Literature Blog

National Volunteer Month

Since April is National Volunteer Month, remember that you can find out about new books and articles that our libraries have collected on the topic with this RSS feed.

Here are some of the citations from the feed:

Apinunmahakul, Amornrat, Vicky Barham, and Rose Anne Devlin. “Charitable Giving, Volunteering, and the Paid Labor Market.”   Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, vol. 38 (February 2009): p. 77-94.
This study evaluates whether voluntarism and monetary donations are complementary to or substitutions for one another, and assesses the extent to which participation in the labor market impacts a person's decision to give time or money to a charitable cause.

Bennett, Gayle. “When Volunteers Attack!”   Currents, vol. 35 (February 2009): p. 39-41.  
Tips for education institutions on managing alumni volunteers. The article provides examples of difficult situations that can arise when working with volunteers, and discusses ways of avoiding those issues.

Boccalandro, Bea. The Methods Behind the Magic: Examining the Practices of Atlanta’s Exemplary Employee Volunteer Programs. Boston, MA: Boston College. Center for Corporate Citizenship, 2008. [10 p.]  Full Text (Requires free registration and Adobe Reader)
Describes the practices of company volunteer programs that were nominated for the 2008 and 2007 Corporate Volunteer Council of Atlanta IMPACT Awards.

Hrywna, Mark. “Mobilizing the Masses: Broader Sector Not Ready for Crush of Volunteers.”   NonProfit Times, vol. 23 (1 April 2009): p. 1, 6, 8, 10.  
Discusses the implications of the record numbers of volunteers reported by many nonprofits.

If you are near our library/learning Center in New York, click here to learn about our Special April Events to Celebrate Volunteers.

National Volunteer Week

It is National Volunteer Week (April 27 – May 3, 2008) and a great time to highlight a couple of resources for volunteers and volunteer managers available on our web site.

Start off with our Frequently Asked Question, “How can I use the Web to find volunteer opportunities?"

Then, if you are interested in books and articles on voluntarism in our collection, have a look at our topical resource list. Here is a sampling of the materials:

Corporation for National and Community Service. Volunteering in America: 2007 State Trends and Rankings in Civic Life. Washington, DC: Corporation for National & Community Service, 2007.

Analyzes information on volunteering in America in general and in individual states. Part one  gives a general overview of American voluntarism. Part two compares rates of voluntarism     across the 50 states and Washington, D.C. Part three analyzes voluntarism within each state by focusing on the number of volunteer hours and demographics. The last section is a technical note on statistical methods and data sources.

Family Volunteering: A Guide for the Workplace. Washington, DC: Points of Light Foundation, 2007.

Provides advice for managers who are planning employee volunteer programs for families.

Lysakowski, Linda. Nonprofit Essentials: Recruiting and Training Fundraising Volunteers. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2005.

Explains how to find and attract volunteers, and provides sample job descriptions. The book also covers the training of volunteers and management of their work alongside staff members.