Nonprofit Tools & Resources

Reimagining Service believes that one way to increase the impact of volunteering is to encourage nonprofits to become service enterprises. A service enterprise is an organization that fundamentally leverages volunteers and their skills to successfully deliver on the social mission of the organization.

Research identified the eight characteristics, outlined below, as consistent and critical practices for nonprofit service enterprises: 

Executive Leadership

• What Leaders of Volunteers can DO to Gain Executive Attention
  Brief article on how a volunteer manager can better educate and gain the support of his/her organization to increase volunteer capacity 

• Strategic Volunteer Engagement: A Guide for Nonprofit and Public Sector Leaders
  Provides a framework to approach volunteer management and volunteer investment
  

Additional Literature on Executive Leadership

• From The Top Down: The Executive Role in Successful Volunteer Involvement
  Low-cost guide that highlights strategies to develop executive-level support for volunteering 

• 12 Key Actions of Volunteer Program Champions: CEOs Who Lead the Way
  Free booklet that summarizes 12 key actions for CEO support of volunteering based on interviews with CEOs who champion volunteer engagement

• Leading the Way to Successful Volunteer Involvement
  Low-cost book, including worksheets and practical tips, for executives to develop strong volunteer organizational practices

Strategic Resource Allocation

• Volunteer²'s Return on Investment Calculators
  Use this Return on Investment Calculator created by Volunteer² to assist your organization in determining the value of your volunteer investments over time to help guide decision making. You can also listen to the audio of the April 2 webinar in mp3 format, fast forward 10 minutes for the official start to the webinar and read follow-up responses to two questions.
  

• Recognise, Support, Invest: Your Guide to Valuing Volunteer Management
  Free guide to assist your organization with investing allocating resources to support volunteer management

• The New Volunteer Workforce
  Scholarly article on maximizing volunteer impact and increasing organizational capacity

Additional Literature on Strategic Resource Allocation

• Budgeting for and Funding Volunteer Involvement  
  Specifically, chapter 3 of low-cost book, Leading the Way to Successful Volunteer Involvement outlines budgeting for volunteer engagement and methods of generating funding for it

Effective Training

• Everyone Ready ^® Volunteer Management Skill-Building Program
  An in-depth paid training program for your workforce on 39 critical volunteer management topics produced by Energize, Inc.  This quality online training program - Flash® seminars, self-instruction guides, discussion boards and more - is taught by an international cohort of faculty with expertise in volunteerism.

• Readiness Roadmap 
  A free resource that outlines eight steps for nonprofits as they prepare for pro bono services, created by the Nonprofit Collaborative convened by Capital One Financial Corporation in partnership with Common Impact, Points of Light, and Taproot Foundation.

• A Guide to Training Volunteers
  An extensive manual on different approaches to volunteer training and on how/when to execute those approaches

• Best Practice Guidelines For Screening Volunteers: Finding the Right Match
  A 10-step guide for volunteer screening

Additional Literature on Effective Training

• Training Busy Staff to Succeed with Volunteers: 55-Minute Staff Training Series
  Series includes 12 modules to train staff to effectively engage and manage volunteers

Clear Expectations

• Volunteer Management Practices and Retention of Volunteers
  List of best practices and research related to effective practices for managing volunteers, including setting expectations and communicating with volunteers

• Take Root: Volunteer Management Guidebook
  Guide for the many steps of volunteer engagement and management including worksheets to aid in the planning process

Ongoing Fundraising

• Resource Guide for Volunteer Management Funding
  Reimagining Service guide that includes materials to assist nonprofits with building the case for the financial support of volunteers as well as sample successful grant proposals.

• Economic Impact of Volunteers Calculator
  Online tool to document the economic impact of volunteers

• Volunteer Management Advocacy Kit
  Free guide outlining strategies for advocating for and generating support for volunteer management

• UPS Foundation, A Guide to Investing in Volunteer Resources Management: Improve Your Philanthropic Dollar (2002)
  A guide that lays out the case to funders for investing in volunteer infrastructure