Engage Library

In recent years, democracy around the world has been declining. According to one report, the “global index score is at just 5.17 out of 10, its lowest point in the history of the Economist Intelligence Unit’s annual Democracy Index.” Understanding why and where democracy is…

For the past 10 years, Tobi Johnson, MA, CVA, consultant and founder of VolunteerPro, has surveyed leaders of Volunteer Engagement from around the world about a wide variety of topics, including the state of the profession and specific challenges. Johnson published her findings…

Volunteer programs are modernizing at the same time volunteerism itself is changing. Across sectors, leaders are coordinating more complex schedules, more diverse volunteer motivations and higher expectations for impact reporting, often with fewer administrative resources. It…

The only things that are constant, apparently, are taxes and ethical issues involving volunteers. Join Ethics Co-Editors Erin McLean and Erin R. Spink as they review recent news stories involving ethical challenges with volunteers and also unpack the ethics at play.

In conversations about volunteerism and community care, environmental work often gets left out of the narrative. Granted, we hear about community care and justice for volunteers in human services like food pantries, senior companionship and youth development. But what about the…

Since its charter in 1983, the Mississauga Cooksville Lions Club in Ontario, Canada had always been a high performer with significant impact in the community. However, it was not immune to the volunteer participation challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic forced on social purpose…

Paul P. Falkowski’s journey in Volunteer Engagement caught him unaware. And in this very personal Engage feature story, Falkowski describes how a one-off, musical performance in a nursing home turned into a lifelong volunteering passion that he never would have predicted,…