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.

Keyword

Title	Keyword	Tags	Year
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
Volunteer Appreciation Guide is Volunteer Appreciation Guide is a free resource developed by Wild Apricot to offer tips and advice for volunteer programs just getting started… more	Capacity Building	recognition	2019
Want to Write a Volunteer Program Annual Report? Here's How to Start VolunteerMatch blog guest post by Elisa Kosarin. This post originally appeared on Twenty Hats. Your volunteers tell a compelling story. It’s time to… more	Capacity Building		2019
How to Write a Strong Reference Letter for a Volunteer A reference letter showcases a volunteer’s achievements and the skills they’ve gained through volunteering. It can help a volunteer who is looking… more	Staff Training	recognition, reference letter	2019
Playing by the Rules: Creating an Effective Volunteer Handbook. This one hour archived webinar was presented by Jennifer Bennett of VolunteerMatch in conjunction with the 4 state Get Involved: Powered by Your… more	Volunteer Handbooks	policies, handbook	2019
How to Build a Successful Volunteer Program This brief guidebook was created by the International City/County Management Association.	Capacity Building, Staff Training	toolkit	2019
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
Do's and Don'ts of Supervising Library Volunteers This July 2019 article from Public Libraries Online provides an excellent overview of working with volunteers in large and small libraries.	Capacity Building, Staff Training	supervision	2019
Beware of These 6 Trends Lurking in Your Volunteer Program This brief article from November 2019 delineates troubling trends about volunteer engagement programs gleaned from the most recent Volunteer… more	Capacity Building		2019
Could Volunteers Replace Paid Staff?? Have No Fear! An organization’s decision to bring in volunteers may spark fears that volunteers could eventually replace staff. After all, volunteers can do many… more	Staff Training, Engaging Staff and Unions	Staff Resistance, staff buy-in	2019
Arizona's Buckeye Library Shares it's Experience with Get Involved In this 6 minute video, Krista Cornish, Buckeye Library's (AZ) Volunteer Engagement Coordinator shares her library's experience and best… more	Capacity Building, Engaging Staff and Unions		2019
How to Prioritize When Everything Feels Important There's never enough time to do everything you want to do. It's a universal problem. And we all accept that fact and live with its reality until the… more	Staff Training	prioritize, priorities, planning	2019
Shelving with Dewey - Illinois This 1 hour self-paced course from LibraryU, a program of the Illinois State Library and the regional library systems is archived by WebJunction. It… more	Job Specific Volunteer Training	shelve, book shelving, shelver	2019
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
Recruitment Success Story - Flagstaff Arizona In this 4 minute video, Claudine from the Flagstaff library talks about her successes in finding a volunteer to serve as her assistant volunteer… more	Capacity Building, Engaging High Impact Volunteers	online booksales, Book sale	2019
Engagement as a Path to Inclusion and Justice This brief article from Beth Steinhorn at VQ Strategies outlines 4 questions we can all ask ourselves for developing and implementing a plan that… more	Capacity Building, Staff Training	inclusive, racism, diversity	2020
Moving Forward: Taking Action on Race and Equity On Nov 19, 2020 the Points of Light Foundation hosted the first conversation in their Listen. Learn. Act to End Racism initiative, in partnership… more	Staff Training	equity, inclusion	2020
Adopt-A-Shelf Job List - Cedar Rapids Public Library IA This is the Job List for volunteers who "Adopt-A-Shelf" at the Cedar Rapids Iowa Public Library. A related document is the Adopt-A-Shelf… more	Job Specific Volunteer Training	Shelving	2020
Why Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Matter for Nonprofits This article from the National Council of Nonprofits not only describes the issue, but suggests ways to start making changes, and provides a number… more	Capacity Building, Staff Training	racism, diversity, inclusion	2020
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