Technology and Long Distance Volunteer Leadership

A major challenge for managers of volunteers is learning long distance leadership. Whether you are working with volunteers around the world or in your own city, the Internet and e-mail are rapidly replacing face-to-face management. Many of the techniques for working with online volunteers apply to distance leadership because you are primarily interacting with volunteers through written communications. More

Understanding Volunteer Motivation

How do you motivate your volunteers? The answer – you don’t. Volunteers bring their own unique motivations to their work. A good volunteer manager learns to identify those motivations and then helps each volunteer achieve a sense of personal satisfaction. A variety of studies report that volunteers are motivated to action primarily for altruistic reason. Altruism is defined as a concern for the welfare of others. Among the top reasons for volunteering consistently identified by volunteers are: a personal belief in a cause, and a desire to help others. More

Recruiting Diverse Volunteers

A diverse volunteer base can open up a larger pool of potential volunteers and donors, and contribute to a more comfortable experience for the community benefiting from service. This practice suggests identifying aspects of diversity (e.g., ethnicity, socio-economic background, disability) that are relevant in the community, and actively recruiting diverse volunteers by developing partnerships with community leaders and by involving organizational members from the target groups. More

The Benefits of Policies for Volunteer Programs

Many organizations simply have not had the time to attend to defining the values and policies within which volunteering takes place. Given the current situation wherein everyone is trying to do more and more with less and less, this is understandable. Yet, this is an area must be attended to. This is not to say that policies will resolve all problems and eliminate all hazards. However, policy development and implementation will go a long way to reduce the dangers and risks which currently exist in the field of volunteering. More

Are You Merchandising Backwards?

It takes a considerable amount of time to get new merchandise arranged. You move it here. But you don't like it. You move it there. It looks better, but now you have a hole over here to fill. And then there is this stack of merchandise that you still need to find a place for. Well, we'll put it in this corner for now. There is another way. What if you turned the process around? Imagine how much easier it would be if you knew exactly where your stock would go before it arrived. More

Add Sparkle to Holiday Sales

Retailers know the holiday season is worth every ounce of effort they can put into their business. Paul Stanford knows this too. Which is why, even if he calls the effort a “booger,” his store, The Gift Tree, often features an upside-down Christmas tree during the winter holiday shopping season. While hospital gift shops may not need to make the same sort of effort to drive customers inside, there are tips in this article to help the ones already inside make increased holiday purchases. More

Raise Your Customer Response Potential

This pdf document is a simple, one page summary of the reasons why people buy from some salespersons and not others. While your customer is in your shop, how can you connect with them to make them more likely to respond to suggestions and agree to a final purchase? Easy to print and post, this belongs on the back of the door from every stock room to every sales floor. More

How Small Stores Can Lure Shoppers

Call it a customer service Christmas. Consumers are expected to rein in spending this year, and the retail climate favors big-box stores that can offer bargains. But because small retailers can't win price wars, experts say independents need to leverage their biggest advantage over the chains: personal relationships with customers and the ability to deliver superior service. Techniques here can help even non-standard retailers like hospital gift shops do their best this season. More