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December 2010
Volunteer Cheer: Raising Funds, Recognition, and Risk
In This Issue
Featured Resource: Better Safe...
Other Resources
Excerpt: "Eliminate the Risk"
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Volunteer recognition, fundraising, and other holiday events are either underway or near. Here's a last-minute opportunity check your to-do list and check it twice. The resources below offer advice on including volunteers in end-of-year fundraising events, recognition ideas, and managing risk to keep special events as risk free as possible.
resource2 Featured Resource
Better Safe... Risk Management in Volunteer Programs and Community Service
by Linda L. Graff

Better Safe...Better Safe gives a broad overview of all the components of good risk management, with special emphasis on volunteer issues. Chapter 7 specifically covers unique risks associated with volunteers at special events and short-term positions, which are common this time of year. The "Risk Identification Checklist" in chapter 5 is a must-have.

Linda provides even more tools required to systematically examine and plan improvement of current safety practices -- tips, checklists, sample forms, and hundreds of time-saving, common sense, affordable strategies.
resource2 Other Resources

Skit Kit
Volunteer Recognition Skit Kit
These skits are so easy that it's not too late to add a fun component to your upcoming event. Seven original skits include instructions, scripts, and volunteer lyrics put to well-known melodies.

Fabulous Fundraising Events
How to Produce Fabulous Fundraising Events
Step-by-step guide to making money effectively and enjoyably by running a Dynamite Dinner--and how to involve volunteers throughout.
Beyond Police Checks
Beyond Police Checks
Definitive guide for screening volunteers and employees, explaining why and how to assure everyone's protection.
55-Minute Training Series Module 11
Training Module 11 in The 55-Minute Training Series: Risk Management in Volunteer Programs
Shares the importance of adhering to policies and procedures for managing risk in a volunteer program, as well as suggestions for controlling, alleviating or diminishing risk.

Resources Book Excerpt
Eliminate the Risk
Excerpted from chapter 5 "Risk Management in Action," in Better Safe: Risk Management in Volunteer Programs & Community Service, by Linda L. Graff, (Dundas, ON: Linda Graff and Associates Inc., 2003).


This approach to risk control is about prevention, and prevention ought to be the central aim of every risk management program.

There are many changes that can be made to decrease the likelihood that something will go wrong. Use the "Four Ps" to guide your exploration of what might be done to control each of the risks on your Risk Management Action List.

The Four Ps of Risk Elimination
  • POSITION: Are there changes to the volunteer position that could be made to prevent harm?
     
  • PERSON: Are there changes related to the person in the position or to the personnel complement of the program that could prevent harm?
  • PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT: Are there alterations to the environment in which the position takes place that might prevent harm?
  • PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT: Is it possible to supervise, support, or work more closely with the volunteer in such a way as to enhance prevention?

________

Permission is granted for organizations to reprint this excerpt. Reprints must provide full acknowledgment of the source, as cited here:

Excerpted from chapter 5 "Risk Management in Action," in Better Safe: Risk Management in Volunteer Programs & Community Service, by Linda L. Graff. Found in the Energize, Inc. Online Bookstore at http://www.energizeinc.com/store/1-211-E-1
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