Articles by CharityChannel Members
CharityChannel members who have years of experience in their field may apply to join a Contributor's Panel. Once accepted to a panel by the panel's editor, the member will work with the editor to determine article topics and to prepare an article that is ready for publication. With tens of thousands of colleagues in the CharityChannel professional community, this is a key opportunity to give back to your profession by sharing your hard-won expertise and wisdom.
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From "Us and Them" to "We": Participative Organizational Culture Contributed by:
Scott MartinWednesday, March 28, 2007 (6 years 48 days ago)
If you want to know how the retirement of the Baby Boomers will change volunteerism, look at how Boomers changed the workplace. When leading-edge Boomers began to assume positions of leadership in America’s corporations, they embraced a philosophy known as participative management. Participative management is about distributing power in an organization so that everyone can affect real change. While the “organizational men” of the Greatest Generation preferred centralized power and top-down hierarchy, Boomers brought a different vision characterized by employee empowerment, shared decision-making, self-directed teams and synergy.
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Participative Visions in Volunteer Management: Selected Quotations (Part 2) Contributed by:
Scott MartinWednesday, December 06, 2006 (6 years 160 days ago)
In 1999, AVA published “Positioning the Profession” an initiative to redefine and bring greater visibility to volunteerism. The document called for a new vocabulary emphasizing “civic involvement, innovation and results.” The profession, it said, needs less emphasis on concepts like volunteer, volunteer manager, coordination and maintaining the status quo and greater emphasis on ideas such as civic participation, public engagement professional, leadership and changing society.
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Participative Visions in Volunteer Management: Selected Quotations (Part 1) Contributed by:
Scott MartinWednesday, November 29, 2006 (6 years 167 days ago)
What I have described as participative volunteer management in my immediately prior two-part article is not a new idea. The concept of sharing decision-making power with volunteers so they are empowered to initiate change has occurred with some frequency in the literature of volunteer management since the early 1980’s. While participative volunteer management has been talked about, it has not been systematized or applied to any great extent. It has remained a minor theme, overshadowed by the dominate ideology of top-down, directive management with its emphasis on hierarchical organizational structure, command and control, centralized decision-making and highly-defined volunteer positions.
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Participative Volunteer Management: The Emerging Paradigm? (Part 2) Contributed by:
Scott MartinWednesday, November 15, 2006 (6 years 181 days ago)
The truth is that we really don’t trust our volunteers all that much. Yes, we are very grateful when they do the jobs we have designed and carry them out in the exact way we intended. We take every opportunity to thank them for what they do, but this is not empowerment.
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Participative Volunteer Management: The Emerging Paradigm? (Part 1) Contributed by:
Scott MartinWednesday, November 08, 2006 (6 years 188 days ago)
Many of us are beginning to sense that formal, organizationally-based volunteerism is in trouble. Probably no two volunteer resources managers will agree on what the problem is, but more and more of us are feeling that we are out of step with the world around us. The late Mary Merrill and Nancy Macduff brought to our attention the shift from “collective” to “reflexive” volunteering and the emergence of the “vigilante” volunteer. Colleen Kelly has opened our eyes to the limitations of traditional job design and has called for a “person-centered,” rather than “position-centered,” approach. I have written about the Baby Boomers and the challenges they present for traditional volunteer programs.
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Participative Volunteer Management: The Emerging Paradigm? (Part 1) Contributed by:
Scott MartinWednesday, November 08, 2006 (6 years 188 days ago)
Volunteer management theory has not kept up with the changing world. In a day of rapidly changing culture, work, people and competitive environments, organizationally-based volunteer management often seems out of step. This two-part article describes a new vision -- participative volunteer management -- and discusses how volunteer empowerment, shared decision-making and self-directed volunteer involvement can get us there. Learn how participative volunteer management can be a step toward bringing non-profits and volunteerism back to its democratic roots.
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Baby Boomers, Adult Service Learning and Transformative Volunteer Experiences, Part 1 Contributed by:
Scott MartinWednesday, July 12, 2006 (6 years 307 days ago)
Why are there so few service learning opportunities for older adults? Why has so little been written on the subject? Why don't we have a uniquely "adult" theory of service learning?
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Creating Boomer-Friendly Volunteer Opportunities, Part 3: Groups Contributed by:
Scott MartinWednesday, February 15, 2006 (7 years 89 days ago)
Scott Martin helps you consider the example of self-organized all volunteer groups that are ideally suited to Baby Boomers' skills and expectations.
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Creating Boomer-Friendly Volunteer Opportunities, Part 2: Developing Skilled Short-term Projects Contributed by:
Scott MartinWednesday, February 08, 2006 (7 years 96 days ago)
This article continues the discussion of how to attract Baby Boomer volunteers by creating a continuum of volunteer opportunities. It explores how entrepreneurial volunteers can be incorporated into an organization by placing them in high- or specially-skilled, project-focused opportunities. The article also discusses some of the modifications to be made to a volunteer program's infrastructure to accommodate entrepreneurial volunteers.
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Creating Boomer-friendly Volunteer Opportunities: Part 1: Restructuring Existing Opportunities Contributed by:
Scott MartinWednesday, January 18, 2006 (7 years 117 days ago)
An increasing number of corporations are restructuring jobs with the retirement age Baby Boomer in mind. But how much progress are volunteer programs making? This article recommends that volunteer managers appeal to the Baby Boomer’s need for choice by creating a continuum of volunteer opportunities. Six strategies are listed for restructuring traditional volunteer opportunities into Boomer-friendly jobs.
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Talking to Baby Boomers about Volunteering - Part 2: Volunteering As a Career Transition Strategy Contributed by:
Scott MartinWednesday, November 16, 2005 (7 years 180 days ago)
Baby Boomers will work in their primary careers until age 64 and then transition into retirement jobs throughout their 60's and 70's. This article discusses volunteering as a career transition strategy. It suggests that volunteer managers may be able to recruit Boomer volunteers by assisting them in obtaining the needed skills, work-related experience and references required for their next retirement job.
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Talking To Baby Boomers about Volunteering - Part 1: Third Quarter of Life Passions Contributed by:
Scott MartinWednesday, November 02, 2005 (7 years 194 days ago)
When talking to 55+ volunteers, we are used to appealing to their sense of civic duty. This article suggests a different approach for Baby Boomers focusing more on unexplored passions. It is argued that Baby Boomers are likely to enjoy and perform best in volunteer opportunities that address one or more of nine third-quarter-of-life passions.
CharityChannel's WE REVIEW
CharityChannel members who have been admitted to the WE REVIEW Contributors Panel are eligible to receive recently-published books from a variety of publishers (and some self-publishers) to review. Reviews are not limited to books published by CharityChannel Press, the publishing project of the CharityChannel professional community. If you are interested in reviewing books, you are welcome to apply. Note that, even though WE REVIEW has been publishing reviews for over a decade, it has recently been reorganized and re-launched. We took the opportunity to remove prior reviews, since our focus is on newly published books.
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CarityChannel Press is the publishing arm of CharityChannel. Many of the sector’s most experienced, knowledgeable practitioners are part of the CharityChannel professional community. Because of its unique role in the nonprofit sector, CharityChannel Press enjoys a rich pool of prospective authors from which to draw. In addition, the CharityChannel professional community, consisting of tens of thousands of practitioners, forms a natural initial market for the books as does the greater third sector itself. Interested in writing a book or manual?
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