InnoVate Blog

Earlier this summer, we launched our new name, "JFFixler Group" (and shared a bit about the importance of branding) - but our name isn't all that's new! JFFixler Group adds new resources and new services to our longstanding tradition of customized consulting, training, and publications.  Our latest addition is our new book, Boomer Volunteer Engagement: Facilitator's Tool Kit by Jill Friedman Fixler and Beth Steinhorn, published in partnership with VolunteerMatch.

As I have noted before, one of the benefits of travelling the continent for conferences, consultations, and workshops is that I get to meet so many dedicated professionals, passionately engaging volunteers to help make the world a better place. Last year, I met Eileen Pelletier, who is Co-Director of Volunteer Services for Hartford Hospital in Hartford, CT. She and her colleagues shared a program in which they have engaged volunteers as active partners with hospital staff in preventing patient falls by visiting rooms, talking with patients, and ensuring that protocols have been followed. The program continues to be very successful with tangible results. Eileen and her two colleagues, Kelley Boothby, Co-Director of Volunteer Services, and Chris Waszynski, Geriatric Nurse Practitioner, agreed to be interviewed so we could feature their organization in our ongoing series of case study in our blog. We believe this is a powerful and useful example because the program addressed a tangible and pressing need and did so while also providing volunteers with a valuable volunteer position. The results demonstrate how impactful a volunteer-staff collaboration can be. We think it will inspire you to think outside the box and find innovative ways to engage volunteers in solving real issues for your organization.

JFFixler Blogger Beth Steinhorn interviewed the team. Here are some highlights from their conversation.

Branding is all the rave in our consumer-based, emotionally-driven society. From cars to computers, clothing to food, everything in our society-- and in life for that matter-- has a ‘brand'.  You have a brand. Your organization has a brand.  So what is a brand and why is it so important in enhancing your volunteer program? In this post, we'll take a look at what branding is and how it can enhance your volunteer efforts ten-fold.

This past week, the Corporation for National & Community Service released its “Volunteering In America” report and data, summarizing some of the top volunteerism trends for 2009. We, along with many, have been eagerly awaiting this report both to see if our observations in communities across the country bear out nationally and to set our strategic compasses for the coming year in order to leverage these trends for the benefit of our client organizations.

By Josh Fixler, JFFixler Associate

A few weeks ago, Beth Steinhorn wrote a post about the Millennial Generation. She asked me to respond to it, since I have a unique perspective on the subject. I am, after all, a Millennial. I was born in 1984, putting me on the front edge of that generational line and I strongly identify with the label.

Websites are the portal to your organization. It's where your current volunteers can go for the latest news and where your potential volunteers can become familiar with -- and ultimately, engaged with -- your organization. So, having a powerful and effective homepage on your site is crucial to making your first impression one that is a lasting impression. We asked our colleague Monique Cuvelier of Talance, Inc. to share some tips about strengthening your organization's homepage. And, of course, we believe you have volunteers in your midst with skills and interest to help you implement all of these recommendations!

What compels a large, successful non-profit to re-imagine the potential of volunteers to build organizational capacity? "The economy" may be an obvious answer, given the increasingly fierce competition for philanthropic dollars... But our recent time on the ground with one of our Canadian clients revealed motivation that predates the economic woes and commitment that we believe will position the organization to become, in their words, the "charity of choice" in their country.

One of the benefits of travelling the continent for conferences, consultations, and workshops is that I get to meet so many dedicated professionals, passionately engaging volunteers to help make the world a better place. Just last month, I was at the National Council on Aging conference in Chicago and met Jenni Frumer, who is one of those dedicated and passionate professionals. Jenni is Associate Executive Director of the Alpert Jewish Family & Children’s Service in West Palm Beach, Florida and she is doing some impressive and innovative work with volunteers and older adults. She agreed to be interviewed so we could feature her organization as a case study in our blog. We believe the program will inspire you to utilize volunteers in similar grassroots, impactful programs – and to share your stories of your success on this blog, too. JFFixler Blogger Beth Steinhorn interviewed Jenni recently. Here are some highlights from their conversation.

Evaluation. Performance measurement. Outcomes-based assessment. These are all phrases we talk about frequently – and we repeatedly hear in conversations as we attend conferences, consult with clients, and confer with colleagues.Last week’s Chronicle of Philanthropy featured Patrick Corvington, the new head of the Corporation for National & Community Service, as he discussed his goals of shifting the Corporation toward a more outcomes-based culture. After reading that article and this blog, talk with your staff and volunteers about what it would mean to take this to the next level by cultivating volunteer leaders to help actualize those outcomes.

Baby boomers have been rewriting American culture for decades. Now, as the first wave of retiring boomers leaves the work force, they are redefining yet another great American institution – volunteerism.

More than half of non-volunteers 55 and older express interest in volunteering, with many viewing retirement as a time to begin a new chapter in their lives, according to the report “Great Expectations: Boomers and the Future of Volunteering.” Professionals and women aged 55 to 64 are most likely to be interested in volunteering, the report says.

Read this post by Guest Blogger Robert Rosenthal of VolunteerMatch.