When Volunteers Cost More Than They Return
The International Journal of Volunteer Administration
The voluntary sector has approached the engagement of volunteer resources in a largely haphazard manner. Organization leaders, service planners, and funders have failed to fully understand, appreciate, and accurately assess the value of volunteer involvement. As a result, some volunteer positions are probably returning less or little more than they cost to sustain. More importantly, a plethora of new opportunities could be created by those who are open to new ways of engaging volunteer talents.More

Emergency Exits
Volunteering England
Having to ask a volunteer to leave is probably one of the worst tasks a volunteer co-ordinator has to perform, and seems at odds with the overall ethos of volunteering. Unfortunately it is sometimes necessary. But cases requiring dismissal are rare, and there are a range of options for dealing with problems before they get that far.More

How to Make Service Into Service Learning
Energize
The traditional placing of students in non-profit organizations for a few required hours to get a taste of volunteerism, while still in place in many school districts, is giving way to service by students designed to enrich their academic course work. For the volunteer administrator this requires new considerations for volunteer student placements in order to enrich both those being served and the student volunteers.More

Joomla for Nonprofits
Tech Soup
If your organization plans to launch or redesign a website in the near future, chances are that Joomla will be part of the discussion. With over 10 million downloads worldwide, Joomla is one of the most popular open-source content management systems (CMS) out there today. Clients using Joomla include MTV, Al Gore, the United Nations, and Citibank. Joomla is attractive to many nonprofits due to its ease of use and low cost to implement (the software itself is free). But is it right for you?More

Great Customer Service: Remembering the Little Things
Retail Customer Experience
When a company has to downsize, picking up additional responsibilities can make employees feel overworked, over-stressed and under-appreciated. If you're a manager, what can you do to keep your employees focused on delivering great customer service? What small, yet meaningful, rewards can you create?More

Employee Name Tags Can Improve Your Workplace
The Sideroad
the value of employee name tags spans far beyond getting to know people - it's all about being approachable. So whether you work in retail, hospitality, food service or sales, to wear a name tag is to be on stage. To be on stage is to be ready to serve your customers. And to be ready to serve your customers is to do your job effectively.More

Ten Rules for Great Customer Service
All Business
Think about the last time you had a negative buying experience. Did an e-commerce site fail to respond to your email query? Did a sales associate at your neighborhood computer store fail to know the difference between a floppy drive and a hard drive? Perhaps you were left on hold for an inordinate amount of time when you called a mail-order company's toll-free line. Negative buying experiences are almost always linked to shoddy customer service.More