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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
VolunteerMatch Re-Posting Tutorial Reposting is THE MOST IMPORTANT step you can take to get your opportunities noticed on VolunteerMatch. Why? Because VolunteerMatch searches are… more	VolunteerMatch Tools and Resources	VolunteerMatch	2018
Why Should We Pay Attention to Volunteer Trends? If we could see the coming volunteering trends, we could prepare for them, right? Thirty years ago, were there signs that volunteers wanted more… more	Capacity Building, Engaging High Impact Volunteers	trends, corporate	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
Revitalizing Library Volunteer Engagement One hour archived recording of a WebJunction webinar: Library volunteerism is evolving. Gone are the days of looking for tasks to keep your… more	Engaging High Impact Volunteers, Engaging Staff and Unions, On-line Volunteer Recruitment		2018
The Essential Guide to Managing Volunteers at Your Nonprofit A free comprehensive overview for volunteer management from VolunteerPro.	Capacity Building		2018
How to Create Your Volunteer Program Budget A format for developing a budget for your volunteer engagement service.	Staff Training, Capacity Building	budget justification	2018
Demographic Trends Shaping America and Service Beth Steinhorn of VQ Strategies takes 2018 Pew Research results and extrapolates them for volunteer engagement professionals by addressing the… more	Capacity Building, Millennials		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