Rural Communities: Volunteering and Neighboring

Today, changing economies and demographic shifts have brought new challenges for rural communities. With shrinking resources, those who remain face major hardships -- from decreasing employment opportunities to lack of livable wages, housing, healthcare, transportation, and positive activities for youth. “It’s important to engage those we serve … often we do an adequate job of ministering to the poor, but not with the poor.” These words from a director of a volunteer ministry in rural Indiana speak volumes about how volunteering has traditionally been practiced in meeting the needs of the underserved. There is much to be done to effectively mobilize the power and potential of volunteers to address the intractable challenges facing low-income rural communities today.More

Cashing in on Your Volunteer Program

Successful organizations recognize that the pool of talented resources includes volunteers as a means of accomplishing objectives. As a result, these organizations have come to recognize volunteers as unpaid staff. The effective and efficient involvement of these resources requires a well-managed volunteer program. However, what is often overlooked is that both volunteers and the volunteer program can be sources of much needed revenue. By re-mining your organization, you can extract new sources of revenue and cash in on your volunteer program. More

The Three Parts of Your Recruitment Message

This pdf document contains a brief but insightful outline to help you break down your recruitment message into its basic parts. It also demonstrates how to present a more powerful version of each of these basic parts. More

Recruiting and Supporting Latino Volunteers

Latinos make up one minority group that many organizations would like to better recruit for volunteer roles. This publication was prepared to help volunteer recruiters better understand the characteristics of the Latino community that impact volunteering and to suggest strategies or steps to use in successfully recruiting and supporting Latino volunteers. More

Myths About Online Volunteering

Are myths about online volunteering preventing your organization from tapping into this valuable resource? In this article, consultant Jayne Cravens dispels some common misconceptions about finding and working with online volunteers. More

Top Five Time Management Mistakes

To accomplish significantly more in our days, we need not increase our efforts. As an example, in a horserace, the first horse may earn a $50,000 purse and the second horse may earn a $25,000 purse. The first horse gets twice as much money as the second horse, not because it ran twice as far or twice as fast. It was only a "nose ahead" of the competition. So it is with our daily results. We need not run twice as fast or put in twice the effort to significantly increase our daily success. We only need to be a "nose ahead" of where we already are. And time management is the key. More

What Do Teens Want?

While a hospital gift shop is not a typical mall destination, bored teens will nonetheless find their way inside. Consider the ‘Blink-182 Rules’ in this article to make sure you are ready for them. More

How to Increase Incremental Sales

Incremental sales are purchases by customers in addition to what they intended to buy when they entered your store. The tourist who goes to a gift shop in a resort town looking for a trinket, but buys an expensive bowl instead, is one example. The museum visitor, who wants a book about the museum's exhibits, but also ends up buying a gift for their child's teacher, is another example. The hospital staff person, who intended to spend $25 on a gift for Aunt Sarah's birthday, but spends $50 including two additional items, is a third example. More

Nine Things To Know About Negotiation

As you go about your workday, do you take time to negotiate the obstacles you face regularly, or do you just walk away in disgust? Don't walk away. Face those obstacles and negotiate. Especially in these difficult economic times, your ability to negotiate may mean the difference between success or ruin. All you need is effective negotiation skills. Here are nine things you need to know before you approach your next negotiation. More