volunteer engagement

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!

Unless you’ve had your head in the sand, you can’t have missed the fact that Volunteerism is “in”. It’s a hot topic in the news, on the streets, and by the water coolers. And, more than ever, everyone wants a piece of it! We believe very strongly that these corporate promotions (e.g. Disney's "Give a Day. Get a Disney Day" and the American Express Member Projects) represent an unprecedented opportunity for organizations. While the “Give a Day. Get a Disney Day” campaign, for example, may bring new volunteers to your doors with a plan to simply give a day, organizations can view this as a gateway to cultivate their deeper involvement.

“Ownership” and “doing things the way we’ve always done them” were two of the few items listed when asked, “What might staff have to let go of in order to embrace a more fully collaborative culture of volunteer engagement?” What’s to gain by embracing such a model of volunteer engagement? The list was much, much longer. It was part of an honest, lively conversation between about 65 staff and volunteers at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) this week.