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
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
Volunteers and the Law: Legal Considerations
A good summary of legal issues from Tobi Johnson & Associates, 2021.
Staff Training law, legal 2021
A Savior No One Needs: Unpacking and Overcoming the White Savior Complex
White savior complex is a term that’s used to describe white people who consider themselves wonderful helpers to Black, Indigenous and People of… more
Staff Training diversity, equity, inclusion 2021
How to Write Volunteer Recruitment Messaging that Converts
Strategies to enhance your volunteer recruitment.
Capacity Building Recruitment, Volunteer Recruitment 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
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
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
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
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
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
Strategies for Attracting Today's Volunteers - DOVIA Sacramento Webinar
This archived webinar was presented by Carla Lehn for DOVIA Sacramento in February 2021. Learning Objectives for the session:
Participants in this… more
Staff TrainingOn-line Volunteer RecruitmentEngaging High Impact Volunteers Recruitment, online recruitment, Volunteer Job Description, Webinar 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
Engaging Volunteers: A Comprehensive Literature Review
Literature Review completed for AmeriCorps by ICF International in 2021.
Capacity BuildingStaff Training literature 2021
Volunteer COVID-19 Protocol Training - Huntington Beach CA
Protocol training for volunteers returning to the library during/after COVID-19 pandemic
Volunteer Orientation COVID-19 2021
Addressing Issues of Equity in Volunteerism
A brief article on this important subject with some ideas about where to look and what to do.
Capacity Building diversity, equity, inclusion 2021
Talking Racial Equity? Make Sure You Understand These 17 Words
A good list of terms to be familiar with from Technical.ly
Capacity BuildingStaff Training racism, inclusive, diversity 2020
Get Involved VolunteerMatch Widget Helps with Recruitment
This 3 minute video shows how the Get Involved: Powered by Your Library initiative VolunteerMatch "widget" works on your website to help recruit… more
VolunteerMatch Tools and Resources Recruitment, online recruitment, widget 2020
Fighting Racism Through Diverse and Inclusive Volunteer Engagement Programming (Part 1 of 2)
Thoughts on how to audit your own diversity, equity and inclusion strategy (DEI) in how you engage volunteers from Jerome Tennille, CVA, social good… more
Capacity BuildingStaff Training racism, diversity, Recruitment, inclusive 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
Free Self-Updating Volunteer Page on Your Website with Paid VolunteerMatch Account
If you are a California Public Library and have a paid VolunteerMatch account provided by the California State Library, another one of the features… more
VolunteerMatch Tools and Resources website, Promote Your Listings 2020