Building the Case to Fund Volunteer Engagement

Based on our annual survey of the Get Involved listserv, we find far too many missed opportunities to engage community members as library supporters and advocates through engaging them as volunteers. A major barrier to increasing volunteer engagement in libraries appears to be a lack of support and commitment of library staff and leadership to the concept.

This article by Beth Steinhorn Discusses the need to build the case internally with leadership, sharing the value that engaging volunteers brings to an organization and the fact that, while volunteers may give their time freely, they are not cost- free to engage and support. She then discusses ways to do that.

Beth also did a webinar for Better Impact - Building the Case to Fund Volunteer Engagement - on this subject that can be found here: https://www.betterimpact.com/webinar-resources/vq-volunteer-strategies