Volunteers

When you are working with volunteers, be sure that you honor their time and your commitments. Explain clearly what you expect — and what they can expect. Be sure that you set volunteers up for success.

If you are not asking your volunteers to give, you are leaving substantial money on the table. Here are four ways to enlist your volunteers as donors.

As the holiday season spotlights charitable contributions and acts of kindness, a new national study shows that Americans significantly increased their commitment to volunteering and civic engagement in 2011, with the national volunteer rate reaching a five-year high. The findings come from Volunteering and Civic Life in America, a report issued by the Corporation for National and Community Service in partnership with the National Conference on Citizenship.

More than half of American teenagers and young adults volunteered last year, and the best way to enlist this group turns out to be peer pressure: Three quarters of people ages 13 to 22 whose friends volunteer regularly also do so, which is nearly twice the number of those who pursue voluntary activities based on their concern about particular social issues. Those were the key findings of new research results released today by Do Something, a group working to get young people involved in social change.

The Toy Industry Foundation's Jean Butler shares the key tactics her organizations utilizes to keep giving moment going beyond just the year-end giving season.

Employee matching-gift and volunteer-grant programs are two underutilized sources of fundraising for many nonprofit organizations.

Done right, recruiting and using volunteers can be a huge blessing. Done poorly, they're headaches. So how do you manage volunteers right? Here are seven tips to make sure that both your volunteers and you have a mutually beneficial experience.

An hour of volunteering was worth $21.79 in 2011, up 43 cents from 2010, a new estimate says.

The estimate by Independent Sector is based on the average hourly earnings of all production and non-supervisory works on private non-farm payrolls, as determined by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Independent Sector increases that number by 12 percent to estimate for fringe benefits.

Done right, recruiting and using volunteers can be a huge blessing. Done poorly, they're headaches. So how do you manage volunteers right? Here are seven tips to make sure that both your volunteers and you have a mutually beneficial experience.

The number of college students who volunteer actually decreased from 2009 to 2010, but the total number of volunteer hours increased, a 2010 study conducted by Volunteering in America showed.

"This data show that the students who are volunteering are doing so more regularly or on a longer-term basis," says Heather Peeler, chief strategy officer for the Corporation for National and Community Service.

Some experts say a key reason that recent graduates are turning to longer volunteer opportunities could be the competitive job market and economic climate.