We all recognize the contribution of volunteers – in youth sports, health promotion, emergency services, faith communities, social services and the environment.  We know that volunteers are involved in just about every aspect of service delivery in all walks of life.  But, we sometimes forget to acknowledge that volunteers don’t “just happen”.  Behind this army of volunteers there exists an equally dedicated group of individuals and agencies who are responsible for the coordination, support, training, administration and recruitment of the world’s volunteers.  They are skilled professionals…

United Way of King County’s Day of Caring was a day devoted to harnessing the power of volunteers!  Over 11,000 volunteers from business and community groups fanned out throughout King County to work with hundreds of nonprofits on 400 + projects.  The accomplishments of this army of volunteers were remarkable.  Seeing so many volunteers at work on behalf of the community was truly inspirational.  To access some of these amazing volunteer stories check out the September 28^th blog post Great work – great stories.…

Are you a leader of volunteer engagement (AKA volunteer program manager/ coordinator) in your organization?  Are you looking to connect with your peers?  Then mark you calendar for June 22^nd and join VAN for a day of peer networking and learning at the Annual Conference for volunteer administration professionals.

The primary objective of the conference is to support and promote a powerful community of volunteer administration professionals, support best practice in the field, and enhance the vitality of the volunteer sector.

As a volunteer administrative…

As a leader of volunteer involvement (aka volunteer manager or volunteer coordinator), I am always looking for opportunities to connect and network with my peers.  In the Greater Seattle Metropolitan area, there is no better place to network with peers than the Volunteer Administrator’s Network Northwest. 

VAN is a vibrant professional network that advocates for the profession and empowers volunteer managers.

The Volunteer Administrators Network provides opportunities for:

And VAN Northwest has a new website!  Check…

These governance and volunteer management trainings are open to all nonprofit organizations and volunteers.
For cost and descriptions of each of our workshops, click on each link below.
Please bookmark our training calendar as we will add future trainings.

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Zero.  Volunteer program managers don’t screw in light bulbs, they recruit and train others to do it.  As a volunteer program administrator, I can laugh at this joke.  I do think it’s funny.  But it also gives me pause.  I think there are often too many tasks or metaphorical “light bulbs” that we could recruit and train volunteers to take on, but we don’t.  We end up doing an overwhelming amount of volunteer management work ourselves.  I don’t think sharing work is a problem unique…

Teen Feed is a Seattle-based organization that works with the community to offer support to meet basic needs, build strong relationships, and ally with homeless youth as they meet their future off the streets.

Teen Feed recently went through the Volunteer Impact Program (VIP) to strengthen their volunteer engagement capacity. Teen Feed has used volunteers to run an evening meal program for homeless teens in the U-district for a long time. Through VIP, Teen Feed realized they could be doing more with these volunteers so they developed

Why do you engage volunteers? I ask this question at every workshop I deliver on effective volunteer management.  It is an important question to ask.  As volunteer managers, we are in the business of engaging people with our organizations.  But why?  The most common answers I hear: we don’t have enough money to pay for staff; to get work done; to educate the community; to build community connections; and to raise money.  There is one answer that encompasses all of the rest. We involve volunteers…

Celebrate International Volunteer Managers Day on November 5^th!

Have you thanked a volunteer manager lately?  Well…November 5^th is the day to celebrate your favorite volunteer manager!  We all recognize the contribution of volunteers – they are involved in just about every aspect of service delivery in our communities.  Behind this army of volunteers lies an equally dedicated group of individuals who are responsible for the coordination, support, training, administration and recruitment of volunteers.  They are an often unrecognized group of professionals who skillfully transform individual…

Over 10,000 United Way Day of Caring Volunteers! All I can say is “Wow!”  From the feedback I’ve received since Friday from agency staff about the incredible work done last Friday, there is definitely a lot to celebrate!  Just check out the photos of Day of Caring volunteers in action and you really get a feel for the energy and excitement that infused the day. 

I want to take a moment to celebrate the staff and volunteers at 281 agencies that submitted their Day…