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
Consequences of Good v. Bad Volunteer Experiences
A brief article detailing a couple of ways to make your volunteers have a good experience, or to respond to situations where someone's had a bad… more
Staff Training 2022
Survey Design: The Top 10 Best Practices to Maximize Your Results
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 BuildingStaff Training surveys 2022
Volunteer Orientation and Training: The Ultimate Guide
A 2022 article from Wild Apricot on what to consider when planning volunteer orientation and Training.
Capacity Building volunteer training, orientation 2022
Fun Volunteer Teambuilding Activities That Will Keep Your Remote Team Engaged
This article from Tobi Johnson about Volunteer Team Building activities includes instructions for both in-person and virtual activities.
Capacity BuildingEngaging High Impact Volunteers team building 2022
Sticky Situations: Applying Ethics to Your Work with Volunteers
We all encounter ethical dilemmas in our daily work.  But rarely do organizations focus on ethics related to volunteer engagement.  This… more
Staff Training Ethics 2022
Changing the Frame: Civic Engagement Through A Racial Equity Lens
Since Robert Putnam’s book Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital came out in 2000, policymakers, nonprofit funders, and pundits have sent… more
Capacity BuildingStaff Training diversity, equity, inclusion 2022
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
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
Research and Case Studies Regarding Virtual Volunteering
Research on virtual volunteering compiled and updated in March 2022 by Jayne Cravens of Coyote Communications.
Capacity BuildingEngaging High Impact Volunteers virtual, virtual volunteer 2022
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
How to Write Volunteer Recruitment Messaging that Converts
Strategies to enhance your volunteer recruitment.
Capacity Building Recruitment, Volunteer Recruitment 2021
Book to Action - Whittier Public Library CA
Whittier Public Library's 2021 Book to Action project
Staff Training Book to action 2021
Co-Creating Racial Equity in Volunteer Engagement - MAVA
The Minnesota Alliance for Volunteer Advancement has been conducting research and education on race equity in volunteerism for 5 years. This is the… more
Staff Training diversity, equity, inclusion 2021
3 Tips for Finding New Board Members
Great advice for how to think about and plan for board member recruitment.
Capacity BuildingEngaging High Impact Volunteers boards, Trustees, Recruitment 2021
Engaging Volunteers: A Comprehensive Literature Review
Literature Review completed for AmeriCorps by ICF International in 2021.
Capacity BuildingStaff Training literature 2021
22 Simple Tips for Managing Virtual Volunteers
Help with planning for, implementing and managing volunteers who work remotely.
Engaging High Impact VolunteersStaff Training virtual, virtual volunteer, remote 2021
Getting it Right! Nine Areas Managers of Volunteers Sometimes Get Wrong
A terrific brief article by Martin Cowling to help us find our way.
Capacity Building 2021
Safety While Volunteering - COVID 19 Policies/Procedures - San Jose CA
Powerpoint presentation used by San Jose Public Library to share COVID-19 policies and procedures with volunteers.
Volunteer Orientation COVID-19 2021
Closed Captioning Volunteer Job List - Cedar Rapids IA
During the global pandemic the Library shifted to sharing more programs online and wanted to ensure the programs were accessible to those who utilize… more
Job Specific Volunteer TrainingCapacity Building virtual, virtual volunteer, remote, closed captioning, COVID-19 2021
Insights & Impact 2020: Measuring the Social Impact of Volunteerism
This report describes new ways to calculate the value of volunteer time. These approaches rely on data from Independent Sector and from the U.S.… more
Capacity Building ROI, Reporting, annual report 2021