Training Materials | Get Involved! Resource Clearinghouse

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
The 9 most Important Survey Design Tips & Best Practices Survey design is extremely important as it can make or break your survey's completion rate. This article reviews some survey design fundamentals, and… more	Capacity Building, Staff Training	surveys	2018
Gaining Staff Buy-In for Volunteer Engagement This chart created by Carla Lehn identifies the common reasons that staff are resistant to the idea of engaging volunteers in their work, and… more	Capacity Building, Staff Training	staff buy-in	2018
Getting Staff Buy-In for Volunteer Engagement Video clip on this topic from a Get Involved Volunteer Engagement Institute in Oakland California in May 2015. (26.5 minutes)	Engaging Staff and Unions		2018
Where Do I Go From Here? Engage Volunteers in New Ways This one hour archived webinar was presented by Jennifer Bennett from VolunteerMatch on October 24, 2018. It focuses on: How long do volunteers… more	Capacity Building, Engaging High Impact Volunteers, Staff Training		2018
The Essential Guide to Managing Volunteers at Your Nonprofit A free comprehensive overview for volunteer management from VolunteerPro.	Capacity Building		2018
Building Capacity: Strategic Volunteer Engagement In this Points of Light blog post, the point is made that organizations that build a culture of volunteerism, and purposefully embed volunteerism… more	Capacity Building, Staff Training	Strategic	2018
Volunteer Background Checks: Giving Back without Giving Up on Privacy How do nonprofit organizations screen volunteers? There are several options. The choices depend largely on the volunteer job involved and the… more	Volunteer Screening / Interviewing, Capacity Building, Staff Training	background checks, screening	2018
Build Staff Buy-In for Volunteer Engagement Often one of the biggest challenges to a new model of volunteer engagement is the resistance of paid staff. Often attitudes and fears of our co-… more	Staff Guides for Working with Volunteers, Capacity Building, Engaging Staff and Unions	Staff Resistance, staff buy-in	2018
Three Things We Know About Engaging Millennials in Your Cause A quick read on what Millennials are interested in to help you in your recruitment efforts.	Millennials	Millennials	2018
Grow Staff Volunteer Harmony Tips from Energize Inc. on helping staff to work more productively with volunteers.	Engaging Staff and Unions	staff buy-in	2018
GenerationOn Projects, Ideas and Resources Looking for possible library volunteer projects for kids, teens and/or families? Check out GenerationOn's projects and resources to get some… more	Millennials	Teens, family volunteering	2018
Can We Reject a Volunteer? What do you do when someone applies to volunteer and you realize they will not work out? How can we justify rejecting anyone who steps forward and… more	Interviewing Volunteers, Staff Training	Fire, reject, complaints	2018
You Can't Fire Me, I'm a Volunteer! This quick read from Blue Avocado focuses on addressing volunteer dissatisfaction points to the right way to handle disgruntled volunteers.	Staff Training	Fire, disgruntled	2018
Getting the Highest Visibility on VolunteerMatch – How to RePost Your Listing Keeping your volunteer opportunity near the top of the list in your zipcode is critical to keep it visible to potential volunteers. One of the… more	VolunteerMatch Tools and Resources	RePost	2018
Volunteer Management: How to Get it Right A 2018 study by MAVA (Minnesota Association of Volunteer Administrators) showed a lack of understanding about the essential nature of volunteers and… more	Capacity Building	volunteer coordinator	2018
Engaging Volunteers from Diverse and Immigrant Communities The Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration (MAVA) has developed a set of 8 strategies for creating a more inclusive volunteer program at… more	Capacity Building, Staff Training	diverse, inclusive, immigrant	2018
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 Building, Interviewing Volunteers, Staff Training		2018
Rethinking Volunteer Recognition This 2018 archived Webinar from Verified Volunteers presents research shows that there is a disconnect between what volunteers are seeking in terms… more	Capacity Building, Engaging High Impact Volunteers	recognition	2018
Successfully Managing Library Volunteer Program Changes What should you do when it’s time to change the policies and procedures that govern or guide the volunteers that work with your organization? How can… more	Capacity Building, Staff Training	change management	2018
Volunteers are the Reputational Assets Your Organization is Overlooking A great reminder in a brief article by Erin Rebecca Spink.	Capacity Building, Staff Training		2017