Training Materials

Learn more about best practices in volunteer recruitment and engagement, and how to get the results you need.

NOTE: These are examples from public libraries and should be reviewed and modified to ensure fit with local policies and culture.

Title Keyword Tags Year
Recognizing Racism in Volunteer Engagement - MAVA
Important food for thought from the Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration
Staff TrainingCapacity Building inclusive, racism, Recruitment, diversity 2020
Racial Equity and Inclusion Resources for Volunteer Engagement Leaders
This is a terrific list of links to articles, books, research, podcasts, movies and toolkits on this subject put together by MAVA - the Minnesota… more
Staff TrainingCapacity Building inclusive, inclusion, equity, racism 2020
QuickStart Guide for New Volunteers
Not a library, but a lovely example to get ideas from.
Volunteer Orientation orientation, handbook 2022
Questionnaire Design Tip Sheet - Harvard University
A tip sheet on question wording from the Harvard University Program on Survey Research.
Capacity BuildingStaff Training surveys 2021
Putting Corporate Volunteers to Work
This one-hour webinar (2012) presents evaluation points to help volunteer managers determine if their program is ready to engage, or expand the use… more
Volunteer RecruitmentVolunteerMatchEngaging High Impact VolunteersVolunteerMatch Tools and Resources business partnerships, group volunteering, corporate relations 2012
Professional Ethics in Volunteer Administration
These handouts and powerpoint are from a webinar titled: "Sticky Situations: Applying Ethics to Your Work with Volunteers" presented by Katie… more
Staff Training Ethics, CVA 2022
Pro Bono Project Worksheet - VolunteerMatch
This worksheet was a handout provided during aone-hour webinar entitled Engaging Pro Bono & Skilled Volunteers. It was presented for a library… more
Engaging High Impact VolunteersStaff Training Skilled Volunteers, Pro Bono
Privilege, Bias and Microaggressions
On Aug 25, 2022 Points of Light and the Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration led a conversation exploring identity, privilege, bias and… more
Capacity BuildingStaff Training privilege, bias, microaggression, diversity, equity, inclusion 2022
Preparing Co-Workers to Lead Volunteers Online and On Land
Ideas for training staff to engage with volunteers.
Staff TrainingCapacity Building Staff Resistance, staff buy-in, staff training 2022
Power, Privilege, and Volunteerism
Volunteerism can reinforce patterns of power and privilege (whites and people of means as volunteers, and communities of color or those without means… more
Staff Training equity, inclusive, inclusion 2020
Planning for Including People with Intellectual Disabilities in Volunteer Programs
A tip sheet created by The Arc to help you to include people with intellectual disabilities in your volunteer program.
Staff Training disabilities, diversity, equity, inclusion 2019
Partners in Reading Leadership Team, San Jose, CA
In this 2-minute interview with Judy Klikun, you will learn about engaging volunteer leaders, building teams and developing advocates for the library.
Capacity BuildingEngaging High Impact Volunteers adult literacy, Video, leadership team, team leaders, tutor 2010
Outdoor Programming and Outreach Best Practices - Oklahoma City OK
Developed by the Metropolitan Library System in Oklahoma City during the COVID-19 pandemic as a guide for staff.
Capacity Building outdoor, outreach, programming, COVID-19 2021
Online Book Sale Operation - Mesa AZ
The link below to a 10 minute video will introduce you to the Mesa Public Library's amazing online booksale operation (about $100,000/year) which is… more
Engaging High Impact VolunteersCapacity BuildingJob Specific Volunteer Training online booksales, Friends, Friends of the Library, Booksales 2022
Nonprofit Volunteers: Minimizing the Risk
Minimizing legal exposure is important because volunteers’ acts are generally imputed to the nonprofit organization. Specific, written volunteer… more
Capacity BuildingStaff Training Risk Management 2013
NextGen Nexus: Moving Beyond Awareness
This article answers the question: How do we build awareness about our issue among young Americans?
Millennials Gen Z 2020
NextGen Nexus: A Peek Inside the Millennial Mind
What if you could have a young person authentically share their viewpoint about your social issue and cause? What would they say, and how can you… more
Millennials 2019
New Volunteer Manager's Toolkit
Get Involved Webinar Archived June 27, 2018
New to volunteer management? Looking for a refresher on the basics? This one hour webinar, presented by… more
Capacity BuildingInterviewing VolunteersStaff Training 2018
New Volunteer Manager's ToolKit
This one hour webinar recording was presented for the Get Involved initiative by Jennifer Bennett, Director of Education and Training at… more
Staff TrainingCapacity Building toolkit 2023
Neither//Nor: Stories of Life Beyond Binary Gender
More and more people are negotiating gender beyond the binaries of Male/Female/Man/Woman/Boy/Girl. 
This 60-minute webinar from the Human Rights… more
Staff Training diversity, equity, inclusion, non-binary, Gender 2024