March 2017
Buzzing about Practical and Thoughtful Volunteer Management Resources
Applauding and
Thanking Volunteers
Discover more than one way to "applaud" the  people who dedicate their time and effort to benefit another person, group, or organizationEnergize's volunteer management books and resources can help you provide more meaningful volunteer recognition and appreciation. Find new ways to celebrate the accomplishments of everyone in your organization, both volunteers and employees.

Now is the time to think of some of those ways with t he season for recognizing volunteers on a national level about to kick off. Many countries annually designate specific "volunteer weeks."  Below is a list of several of them, with the dates for 2017 and links to free information and resources for each country.

Canada
National Volunteer Week
April 23-29, 2017

United States
National Volunteer Week
April 23-29, 2017

Australia
National Volunteer Week
May 8-14, 2017

United Kingdom
Volunteers' Week
June 1-7, 2011

New Zealand
National Volunteer Awareness Week
June 18-24, 2017

Singapore
National Volunteer Month
December, 2017

Books

PDF e-book
Recognizing Volunteers and Paid Staff
Sue Vineyard

Ten keys to recognizing volunteers, ends with a list of lots and lots of actions you can take to say thank you.

 
PDF e-book
Keeping Volunteers: A Guide to Retention
Steve McCurley and Rick Lynch

Focusing on making sure volunteers feel recognized and appreciated on an ongoing basis, this book contains two chapters on making volunteers feel special and adapting recognition techniques to the unique accomplishments and personalities of each volunteer.

 
PDF e-book
77 Ways to Recognize Volunteers
Bill Wittich

Don't wait for volunteer appreciation week to make volunteers feel valued.  Make the most of daily opportunities to say thank you with ideas from each page of this booklet. 

 
PDF e-book_PPt Slides
Training Busy Staff to Succeed with Volunteers
Module 12: Volunteer Recognition
Betty Stallings

Ready-to-use and adaptable training tools for teaching staff the significance of meaningful recognition and to generate creative formal and informal ways to acknowledge volunteers and staff.

 
PDF e-book
Volunteer Recognition Skit Kit
Arlene Grubbs and Evelyn Levine

Transform your next recognition event with songs, smiles, and this collection of seven original skits, complete with instructions, scripts and ideas for adaptation.

 
PDF e-book
Things We Love About Volunteers
Graham Harrop

25 full-color cartoons that celebrate the commitment and compassion of your volunteers. A wonderful way to say "Thank you!" for all they do.

 
Articles 
The articles below come from the   Archives of the past issues of e-Volunteerism You can subscribe to the journal for a full year or for 48-hour access. All subscribers have full access to the Archives of all 16 previous volume years.  

Poetry can say some things hard to express in sober declarative text. Volunteerism guru,  Ivan Scheier, demonstrates this by sharing several of his poems as well as  wonderful lyrics to "The Volunteer Song" by Paul Horrisberger. 

A medley of three song parodies to popular Beatles songs that you can use for volunteer recognition.
Emma Corrigan  presents a step-by-step résumé writing activity as a way to support and thank volunteers. Her simple yet innovative design highlights how easily others in the organization can share responsibility for recognizing volunteers' contributions.