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You're probably
doing some spring cleaning around your home (or fall cleaning, if you're in the
southern hemisphere!), and maybe your office, too...so why not spring clean your
volunteer program? Take a look at which of your practices are working and which
need some "sprucing up" with these helpful evaluation tools.
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Featured Book
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Volunteer Management Audit
A validating tool for analyzing the
effectiveness of an organization's volunteer management practices, with
complete scoresheets and instructions to conduct the process successfully. Order the Audit (electronic version only)
- US $20 for Single User license
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US $125 for Administrator license (Permits buyer to administer
the Audit repeatedly in different agencies by copying the Audit Scoresheets and
handouts as often as necessary)
See a sample section of the Audit's Scoresheet here and read on below for the excerpt, "Are We Doing the Best
We Can with Volunteer Involvement?"
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More Resources to Help with "Spring Cleaning"
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The Youth Volunteer Audit
An assessment and planning tool for developing best
practices for dealing with young people as volunteers, complete with forms to
copy and use again.
Measuring Up
Dozens of forms to plan for and then fairly assess your
program readiness, success, climate, volunteer performance, training, change,
customer services, communication, recruitment, recognition, image and much
more.
Mutual Performance Reviews: Module 8 in the 55-Minute Training Series
Train staff in how implementing mutual performance reviews (during which the volunteer also has an
opportunity to evaluate the organization) can make evaluation an affirming,
sharing event. Included in the module are learning objectives, suggested script
and expandable activities, key concepts and notes to trainer, PowerPoint
slides, handout masters, a bibliography, a workshop evaluation form and more. Also available: 55-Minute Training Series Module 10 on Volunteer Program Evaluation.
e-Volunteerism Training Design article: "Examining Moments of Truth"
Every one of us has experienced a time when we approached an
organization and were treated in a less than satisfactory way. For example, how
many of us have called an organization to get information only to be put on
hold and transferred repeatedly, causing us to re-tell our story over and over
again? These experiences are "moments of truth": moments that cumulatively
create our opinion of an organization. This Training Design provides strategies
for recognizing "moments of truth" and eliminating the negative ones, so that
you create mostly positive moments of truth for your volunteers.
Measuring the Difference Volunteers Make: A Guide to Outcome Evaluation for Volunteer Program Managers
With permission of the Minnesota Department of Human
Services and author Melissa Eystad, this extremely useful 1997 guidebook (now
out of print) is available free of
charge in electronic form.
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Book Excerpt
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Teaser Checklist: Are We Doing the Best We Can with Volunteer
Involvement?
From Volunteer Management Audit,
Susan J. Ellis, � 2003, Energize, Inc.
Download a printable version of this checklist here.
Ask your executive director,
department heads, and other decision-makers to take this "quiz."
Test
your understanding of our volunteer involvement by indicating your opinion next
to each item below:
Y = Yes N = No ? = I don't know
Our organization...
- Has access to highly skilled volunteers as on-call
consultants or advisors.
- Lists current volunteer opportunities with free
Internet registry sites.
- Participates in local National Volunteer Week
celebrations.
- Has a volunteer corps that reflects the diversity of
our community.
- Knows what volunteers are saying about us to their
friends.
- Provides training for staff who work with volunteers.
- Is tapping into the new trends in volunteerism such
as singles and families as volunteers, online service (virtual volunteering),
and student service-learning.
- Invites financial donors to participate as volunteers
to increase their long-term loyalty.
- Fulfills legal requirements for screening volunteers.
- Benefits from national and local days of service like
"Make a Difference Day."
- Is implementing the best practices of volunteer
management.
- Sees the connection between direct-service
volunteers, fundraising volunteers, board members, student interns, loaned
executives, and other people who contribute time and talent to us without going
onto our payroll.
- Gets and uses input from volunteers on how we might
improve our services.
- Can create useful assignments for volunteers who
offer us unexpected skills.
- Has a vision for what we would like the volunteer
program to look like in 10 years.
Do
these questions make you wonder if you are maximizing volunteer involvement on
behalf of your agency? They should! Volunteerism is all about tapping the
community to help meet agency needs. The only limits are imagination and not
providing effective support once volunteers have been recruited. (If you
answered N or ? to more than half the questions, a Volunteer Management Audit may need to be in
your future!)
Permission is
granted for organizations to reprint this excerpt. Reprints must provide full
acknowledgment of the source, as cited here: Excerpted from Volunteer Management Audit, by Susan J. Ellis
� 2003, Energize, Inc. Found in the Energize, Inc.
Online Bookstore at http://www.energizeinc.com/store/5-206-E-1.
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Energize, Inc. 5450 Wissahickon Ave., C-13 Philadelphia, PA 19144 [email protected] www.energizeinc.com
Energize empowers and inspires leaders of volunteers worldwide. Our specialty is creating and selecting the most relevant, innovative resources in volunteer management. We're advocates for the power of volunteers and for the recognition of the leaders who unleash it. About Us |
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