March 2026

New resource:

Measure the ROI of your nonprofit's volunteer engagement by grading each volunteer activity.
Some organizations want to evaluate ROI (return on investment) regarding volunteer engagement by comparing the cost to the organization for a particular volunteer activity versus how much that volunteer activity brings in in terms of financial donations. I don't think that's a good evaluation method. Instead, here's a method I think is a much better way to judge the ROI of volunteer activities. You can do this evaluation by yourself, as the manager of volunteers, or you can do this as a team exercise with a variety of employees and lead volunteers.

Updated resource:
Ideas for Creating Roles for Volunteers.
A lot of nonprofits, NGOs and other groups struggle with ideas for engaging volunteers. I've got some substantial lists of ideas for volunteer engagement - to support your outreach activities, to support fundraising (beyond just asking them to ask their friends to donate), to help with IT-related issues, and more. There are also ideas here for groups of volunteers and, of course, online volunteers. These roles are based on reality: I've either worked with volunteers in these scenarios or been a volunteer in these scenarios myself.

My availability:
I'm available again for full-time or part-time employment, or short-term consulting, training or presenting. I did some amazing things at the nonprofit organization I worked for most recently and am so ready to get busy with new projects! I'm ready to help improve your communications activities to attract and retain more donors and volunteers and to build more recognition and trust in your community, I'm ready to help improve your volunteer engagement, I'm ready to evaluate your communications and volunteer engagement activities, I'm ready to train your staff, and so much more. Contact me! 

February 2026

Most of my web site is now mobile-ready, meaning that it will render appropriately on smart phone screens. This has been a long-time coming and is VERY overdue. But being a one-person shop, and my paid work, has regularly interfered with finally getting it done. Well, mostly done. If you haven't looked at most of the pages on your nonprofit's web site, I highly recommend it. And if you think most people are looking at your web site from a laptop or desktop - oh, my, you are overdue for a reality check.

Among the sections I made easier to read on a phone are my blogs from Afghanistan. For six months in 2007, from March through August 2007, I worked in Kabul, Afghanistan, helping a national government ministry there with various communications functions and to help build the capacity of the Afghans I worked with to do their jobs, with a particular emphasis on women government workers. I maintained a blog via a private Yahoo Group for friends and family, and I cleaned up those blogs later for public consumption, publishing them on my web site, because I want to remember my time there, because I want to have a record online of what life was like there for a foreign aid worker in 2007 (in contrast to now), and because, for many years, I hoped it would be helpful to other female aid and development workers that might be going to Afghanistan or any post-conflict zone (I got emails saying it did - thanks for writing). It's surreal to read them now - we were all so full of hope... and not only does that hope for Afghans feel gone, but the careers of many thousands of people in the US in international humanitarian work have been crushed.

With the demise of the volunteer subreddit (it's now just another subreddit for people to ask where to volunteer and a few organizations to recruit volunteers - there are more than 25 of these already on Reddit), I had no where to share all of the volunteer management and volunteerism info I used to share there. I found that r/Volunteerism had been abandoned seven years ago and decided to follow the procedure to become its moderator. And so I am - and am posting almost every day about volunteerism trends, legislation that can affect volunteer engagement, resources regarding volunteer management and more. Join me there. Reddit users are far younger than the people who usually read volunteerism-related info!

My Blogs in January & February 2026

• The campaign against US nonprofits has been a long time coming. The worst of it is starting. Are you ready?
• An old subreddit revived after seven years, now a place to discuss volunteerism.
• Design Checklist: What to Review Before Publishing a Communications Product.
• How to get a variety of staff to create roles for volunteers.
• America Gives, a nationwide initiative designed to make 2026 the largest year of volunteerism in U.S. history.
• 30 Years on the Web

January 2026

Happy New Year!

A new, free resource from me:
Design Checklist: What to Review Before Publishing a Communications Product
Nonprofits produce communications products, online and in print, from web pages to social media to brochures. Whether that product is designed by a professional designer or is designed by someone who has never had a design class, there are certain qualities those products MUST have. And while there are a plethora of online resources that provide excellent guidance on accessibility and usability for online products, like web pages and apps, there is a lack of guidance for how to make print products and graphics associated with social media relevant / necessary, complete, informative, legible for a majority of viewers / readers and understandable for a majority of the target audience. This web page provides simple, easy-to-understand guidance for both designers and those who have the final say on something being published.

December 2025

Making a short video for your nonprofit with just the tech you have.
Most nonprofits, no matter their size, no matter their focus, need at least one short video that succinctly explains their programs and their impact, or a video that shows how the organization engages volunteers. They may also need a video that helps onboard program participants or explains safety measures. Your small nonprofit with just a handful of staff - maybe just a few employees, maybe just one employee, maybe all volunteers (unpaid staff) - may think it cannot make such a video, because it can't afford a professional videographer. In fact, you can, and with just the tech assets you have. This resource takes you step-by-step in how to identify the hardware and software you have right now, via your smart phones and laptops and operating systems, and how you can leverage that very basic technology, as well as the photos you may already have on hand, to create videos you need, from videos of clients explaining the impact of your programs to short videos for Facebook and Instagram reels, Tik Tok, and whatever else shows up as the fun new social media. Note: this is the first tech-focused resources I've created on my web site in YEARS. It's nice to get back to the subject that inspired this web site back in 1996.

If you want to see the video I made for the Habitat affiliate I work for now, the video I made on the cheap, it's linked off the aforementioned page, but here's the link to the video as well..

Creating Roles & Tasks for Volunteers.
A key to retaining volunteers is having roles and tasks well-defined and IN WRITING, so that expectations are clear. This is yet another step to undertake BEFORE you start recruiting volunteers - and if you don't, don't be surprised when you can't keep volunteers and your volunteer engagement flounders. Added challenge: this is NOT the primary responsibility of the manager of volunteers; a variety of employees and leadership volunteers should be creating tasks. This resource now not only has ideas for roles and tasks for volunteers, but also the steps necessary to encourage (require?) staff to do so.

My Blogs in October, November & December 2025

• How to Keep Immigrant Volunteers at Your Nonprofit or Community Program Safe From ICE.
• Want a list of all the companies selling community service hours? I have it.
• How to do a fundraising, volunteer recruitment or other video on the cheap for your nonprofit.
  
• My time as moderator on one of the most popular subreddits is at an end.
• Is your nonprofit ready for an influx of SNAP recipients needing 80 hours of volunteering each month?
• Why the Verboort Sausage & Kraut Festival is successful as a fundraiser & community event & what you can learn from it.
• Social networks continue to lose their influence & that hurts nonprofits. What to do?
• The Undeniable Value of the Human Touch.

September 2025

Training Staff in Volunteer Engagement (& the risks of not doing so)
Nonprofits, NGOs, government agencies, community groups and more rarely make training employees and lead volunteers a priority when it comes to volunteer engagement. There is an assumption that the hard part of volunteer engagement is recruitment (it's not), and the easy parts are creating volunteer roles, communicating expectations, supervising and supporting volunteers (they aren't easy). There's an assumption that anyone and everyone know inherently, without training, how to do all that's needed to involve volunteers successfully - or that you just simply point volunteers at a pile of work and wish them well. But the reality is that there are specific points about volunteer engagement and support your staff need training on, and  there are very real risks in not providing this training at least yearly.

My Blogs in August & September 2025

• Subreddits for Good Revisited.
• Volunteer engagement is the pursuit of building empathy & many find that idea dangerous.
• Work & volunteering advice: don’t leave it all on the field every time.
• Resources re: labor laws and volunteering – UPDATED.
• May non-citizens & non-green card holders volunteer in the USA? exploring the complicated answer.
• URGENT: if your USA-based program involves volunteers, you need to create a budget NOW & fight for it when budget cuts are discussed.
• Final report on results of US support in Afghanistan until the Taliban retook the country.
• Nonprofits, don’t cede creativity or curiosity or customer relations to AI, & keep your use of AI ethical

July 2025

If you follow me on the social media channel of your choice, you have been kept up-to-date regularly about all that's been going on. But if not, here's what you've missed:

• The highlight of the last two months was being a part of Habitat for Humanity's relaunched Global Village Program, volunteering onsite in Paraguay. It has affirmed my evolution regarding voluntourism: there IS such a thing as ethical, worthwhile voluntourism, and this program is a great example of it. I’ve written about my trip as a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity. I’ve written about my trip as a volunteer management expert. And Here is my travelogue for the tourism part of the trip; it includes information about my visit to Iguazu, in Brazil, to visit Iguazu Falls in Argentina.

• I attended my first Touratech Rally. Touratech is a company that sells after-market items for motorcycles, for motorcylists who like to travel and camp, especially long distances and in other countries. I offered to present at the rally on how to “do good” (volunteer) while on a motorcycle adventure (based on my transire benefaciendo "to travel along while doing good." advice and was accepted!

• The United Nations General Assembly has proclaimed 2026 the International Year of Volunteers for Sustainable Development. I've created a IYV2026 resource on my site that notes the origins of the year, highlights the accomplishments and resources of the first International Year of Volunteers in 2001, and links to the growing number of official resources, so your nonprofit, NGO, charity, or other community organization leverage the year - something you should start to do now, not in January. I hope my resource/portal can be used to compare resources now and then, to see how far we've come and how much more we need to do.

And I've been blogging regularly in May, June & July:

• Prepare now to leverage International Year of Volunteers for Sustainable Development 2026.
• The Kiva debate: crisis communication & bloggers misleading others
• My highlights from the 2025 Human Development Report from UNDP (the theme is artificial intelligence)
• What Did I Think of the Habitat for Humanity Global Village Program?
• What’s the future of international humanitarian development & foreign relations careers?
• Packing for Paraguay – answers to an FAQ.
• Volunteering: not a black & white subject.
• Could your nonprofit be the target of an ICE raid? Are you prepared?.

April 2025

Me participating in a volunTOURism activity? Yes, it’s happening! I’m well known in many corners of the Interwebs for speaking out against unethical voluntourism and vanity volunteering. But I'm less known for supporting ethical voluntourism: where local people define the activity and lead it. Where the focus is on educating the visitors so they can become advocates back in their own countries. Where the activity actually creates jobs for local people. Where short-term visitors are kept away from vulnerable people, like orphans, and view wildlife from afar, not interacting with them as though they are pets. Where intercultural learning really does happen. In May 2025, if all goes as planned, I’m going to Paraguay via Habitat for Humanity’s Global Village program. I still have a bit more money to raise to support the local program in Paraguay (would love your support). I'll write about my trip, of course - follow me on the social media channel of your choice to stay up-to-date!

Other blogs in March & April 2025

• Told ya. & I’m still telling you.
• Horrific experience with AI: a warning for others.
• How Your Nonprofit Can Have a Wikipedia Page (& if it can’t, why not)
• Updating my resource on volunteering abroad: your help needed
• Breaking down online barriers for online volunteers with disabilities
• How to vet a trainer for soft skills at your nonprofit.
• Something IS working when your staff is willing to tell you that something isn’t working.

February 2025

I want to highlight two recent blogs in particular, because I feel it's so, so important right now. One is Your Nonprofit CAN Resist. Here's How. In On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder, he warns “Do not obey in advance”. Yet, I recently watched in horror as a consultant encouraged nonprofits to alter their language, WITHOUT being asked to, regarding diversity, equity & inclusion, to play it safe, to not attract attention, to appease in advance, etc. This is a slippery slope of nonprofits trying to appease and therefore going against what should be their core values and contributing to the success of people that want to wholly and ultimately undermine their work. There’s a point where nonprofits need to stand up for their core values despite the consequences. This may be it.

Another is Your nonprofit WILL be targeted with misinformation; prepare now. Nonprofits, no matter how small, no matter how beloved, need to be thinking about their strategy NOW for if and when they are targeted by misinformation. It doesn’t matter what your nonprofit’s mission or size: it can be a target for misinformation, on a local or even national level. And given the current Presidential administration, the power of misinformation should never be under-estimated.

Other blogs in January & February 2025

• Me participating in a volunTOURism activity? Yes, it’s happening!
• The PR genius of Collie J, Grambling’s Man with the Golden Pen.
• Nonprofits & NGOs: your social media should focus on volunteering as much as possible.
• Philanthropy is commendable, but…

January 2025

Happy New Year!

For the first time in many months, I've created a new resource on my web site for nonprofits: How Your Nonprofit Can Have a Wikipedia Page (& if it can't, why not). Not every nonprofit, NGO, charity, cause-based initaitive, etc., needs a Wikipedia page. And not every nonprofit will qualify to have a Wikipedia page. But if you feel your nonprofit deserves a Wikipedia page, or you want certain Wikipedia pages to mention your nonprofit or some prominent person associated with your nonprofit, this resource is for you. As someone that's created more than a dozen Wikipedia pages that have not been deleted, I know what I'm talking about. 

You may have already noticed some changes to my web site - that I'm not updating certain sections anymore, like the section on addressing misinformation in community and humanitarian initiatives, Or the pages on database management for nonprofits. A lot of information on those pages is timeless - that's the primary reason I'm keeping them up even though I'm no longer updating them, because I think they are still helpful. Another is that I think they might be helpful to academics. But I'm scaling back which sections of my web site I'm updating because it's just to much effort, entirely unfunded, to keep them up-to-date. I'm focusing more these days on my paid work and on my travels and personal interests.

I have every intention of continuing to update most of my content regarding communications for nonprofits and volunteer engagement, as well as my advice for volunteers or people who want to volunteer. And you can continue to find me almost daily on various social media channels.

You can find me online on these social media channels (and I update them far more than I do my web site):

                 

December 2024

I have substantially updated some of the social media management advice pages on my web site, as the social media landscape has changed so drastically in the last year in particular:

Nonprofit Organizations, NGOs, Charities & Online Social Networking: Advice for Getting Started or to Keep Going.
There are a lot of nonprofits using social media (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, the site formerly known as Twitter, BlueSky, Mastodon) and online communities just like they use their web sites: to post to press releases or event announcements, just as a one-way form of communication. And if that's how your nonprofit, NGO or government agency is using social media, then your organization is missing out on most of the benefits you could gain from such, like new donors and volunteers, returning donors and volunteers, greater awareness in your community regarding your work, etc. Social media platforms are all about engagement. This guide is meant to help you know what you should be doing, at minimum, to manage your organization's social media activities - even if you are an all-volunteer organization with a tiny budget.

Daily, Mandatory, Minimal Tasks for Nonprofits on Social Media.
There are certain tasks that a nonprofit, NGO, government agency or other mission-based organization should be doing every day, or most every day, on social media to make using such worthwhile: to build trust in your work, to attract more volunteers and financial donors, to keep your current volunteers and financial donors, to attract media attention, and to ensure your organization is seen as relevant and credible by elected officials and the general public. That's what this page is for. I broke these must-do tasks down into the most simple, basic list as possible - these tasks take minutes, not hours, a day.

October, November & December 2024 blogs

• Be Kind After You Read the First Draft
  
  
• Folks need post-election reassurances from your nonprofit – here’s what to say
  
  
• No excuses: give employees & volunteers all the time they need to vote tomorrow
  
  
• Webinar: Careers in International Development
  
  
• Yes, you CAN get experience for entry level UN positions in your own community
  
  

August 2024

I did a webinar for the Beyond Africa Podcast in August (on YouTube) about careers in international development, including the United Nations. Here is a link to the resources I referred to in this webinar, as well as the slides - I compiled all of my resources regarding how to work abroad or how to volunteer abroad and put them all on this page for the webinar. 

July, August & September 2024 blogs

• The truth about working from home
  
• Be careful using Canva – nonprofit graphics are starting to all look the same!
  
• Quick tip for your nonprofit if it uses Google Workspaces (formerly Google Drive)
• Nonprofits: be honest with yourself, your staff & the public about how the November 2024 elections may affect you
• The endangered women left behind in Afghanistan
• Web Sites Still Matter

July 2024

PRICE DROP on The LAST Virtual Volunteering Guidebook paperback!! I have less than 10 paperback copies left and once these are gone, they are GONE, and the paperback book will be available only at Amazon for a higher price!

May 2024

Affirmation that this is web site is created & managed by a human (and why you should post a similar affirmation on your web site and create a public statement on how you use artificial intelligence).

In June, I will be the keynote speaker at the Volunteer Engagement Leadership Conference, hosted by Minnesota Alliance for Volunteer Advancement (MAVA). This is my first in-person speaking engagement since before the COVID pandemic! More about my workshops and speeches and how you can book me.

April, May & June 2024 blogs

• A new online community: Tech4Causes
• UNV 2023 Annual report
• Arts Organizations Have Always Been Masters of Customer Relations & Data Management
• what theatre taught me about management & internal communications
• Mandatory community service can be amazing for the “voluntolds”
• No foolin’: Things to do now so you don’t leave your best work behind when you leave an employer

March 2024

My two part time jobs and several personal projects have resulted in my not updating my online channels as much as I have in the past. Some things I've been up to:

• In February, I joined colleagues from Habitat for Humanity to advocate to members of Congress for more support for affordable housing,
• In January, I went to Guatemala for two weeks to tour parts of the country by motorcycle.
• In November, I went to Kentucky for personal reasons, but it resulted in me getting a dulcimer for Christmas, and learning to play a dulcimer, and continuing to learn to play piano and guitar, have proven more interesting than updaing this web site regularly.

January, February & March 2024 blogs

• How to avoid scams in volunteering
  
• Are you using your own smartphone or other devices in your work or volunteering activities? Is your employer aware?
• My first experience lobbying in Washington, DC!
  
• Getting great photos for your nonprofit’s marketing needs takes planning.
• Why you need to focus on your own media literacy – & a New Year’s Resolution idea