Diving into data

Aatmanirbhara,   Last month I mentioned the Initiative for Strategic Volunteer Engagement. Some of you may have attended the information session as well and learned about who we surveyed and what we learned about the state of strategic volunteer engagement within organizations and what funders think about strategic volunteer engagement.   The Initiative launched two surveys: one to Executive Directors or other nonprofit leaders, and one to funders and foundation decision-makers (check out the reports). We're just beginning to understand how those two groups view the importance and value of volunteer engagement.   As noted in the "The State of Volunteer Engagement: Insights from Nonprofit Leaders and Funders" Funders and nonprofit leaders either disagree, or have starkly different perceptions, about the benefits of volunteer engagement.   Large differences of opinion exist, for example, on whether volunteers to a "great extent" provide cost savings (73.9 percent for nonprofits vs. 38.9 percent for funders); increase the quality of services or programs provided (72.2 percent for nonprofits vs. 25.2 percent for funders); and provide more detailed attention to people served (65.6 percent for nonprofits vs. 29.3 percent for funders). In general, nonprofit CEOs are much more positive about the benefits of volunteering compared to nonprofit funders.   Stay tuned over the next few months as we - along with the other Initiative Partners - work to bridge that gap.    In the meantime I'd love to hear from you! I want to learn about your experience, as a leader of volunteers within an organization. I've put together a quick survey.   P.S. You may have already received an email from us about the upcoming Learning Center hiatus. We will have our regularly scheduled webinars through March 2023, and all of the slides and resources will continue to be available for download during the hiatus. We'll have some exciting new things to share soon!   Jennifer Bennett, CVA Director, Education & Training | VolunteerMatch The Learning Center    Join our free, professional development webinars for leaders of volunteers March 7th Measuring Success March 8th Writing Accurate and Useful Position Descriptions March 9th Engage Volunteers in New Ways March 14th Volunteer Engagement Strategy The Learning Center How We Connect: Hopeful and Helpful Data from Today's Volunteers Wednesday, March 29th 11:00 - 12:30 PT   A successful volunteer program begins with understanding volunteers, their motivations and challenges, and how they want to give their time. We surveyed over 1,000 volunteers about how they approached volunteerism in 2022 and what they want from future opportunities. Register today for an in-depth discussion of our findings. All attendees will have early access to the report. Register Now VolunteerMatch Member Benefits When you pay for a VolunteerMatch Membership, you gain access to additional tools, designed to help you recruit more volunteers! Explore LOV Resources This National Ethics Awareness Month, take a free webinar with CCVA on Ethics Education. Participants will learn a process for ethical decision-making and use real-life scenarios related to volunteers.   Have you been looking for a calendar that tracks dates relevant to nonprofit professionals, like awareness days and monthly themes? Look no further than Neo One's 2023 Nonprofit Calendar!   To ensure that the most current opportunities appear to volunteers, VolunteerMatch has a 90 day expiration date on listings. Here is how you can update your opportunity's expiration date. Our support team is always available to answer any questions regarding your account (support@volunteermatch.org).    Do you have awesome resources, insightful data, or professional workshops that our community might find useful? Let us know at engage@volunteermatch.org. VolunteerMatch, 5424 Sunol Blvd, Suite 10 PMB 1164, Pleasanton, CA 94566-7705 Manage preferences