Managing your volunteers: 19 ways to work wonders

Without paychecks, won't volunteers snooze or run wild? Won't they disappear without notice, leaving you in the lurch? Won't it be impossible to keep them focused on critical work? It's crucial to confront these questions and reconsider how to manage volunteers. This article by Nick Levinson, reprinted by the Georgia Center for Nonprofits, will outline 19 effective ways to manage your volunteers.

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Using Your Web Site to Support Strategic Goals – An organization's website can do more than provide information to its members, it can help an organization reach its strategic goals.  In a new article, published on Guidestar.org , fundraising media specialist Frank Berry gives nonprofit organizations four easy tips on how to redevelop their websites to ensure they help support the organizations strategic initiatives. 

Fund a Cause – More Americans are heading to the polls this election year than any in recent history, which means it is a good time for your organization to advocate for its cause. Sadly, however, many charities do not have the funds and resources to educate the public about their missions or to raise awareness of issues affecting their constituents. That could change, as a new report called "Why Supporting Advocacy Make Sense for Foundations," from Atlantic Philanthropies encourages foundations to help bring about social change by funding advocacy. For foundations, this report provides lessons learned from advocacy-oriented grant making. For charities, this report provides examples of successful advocacy efforts that have been foundation funded and insights into the way foundations might approach such requests. 

Finding Mr. and/or Ms. Right – Every board with recruitment and composition challenges should read this Grant Thornton article that discusses how to build a functioning board. Grant Thornton introduces "decision screen," a due-diligence process to help determine whether your board candidates truly meet your requirements. Conflict-of-interest policies, background checks, interviews by future peers, and discussions of the candidates' governance philosophy are just some of the filters that weed out the most obvious mismatches.