Expectations about the contribution that volunteering can make are at a new high. This book aims to meet this interest by bringing together in one volume what is known about the phenomenon of volunteering; the principles and practice of involving volunteers, and the enduring challenges for volunteering in today's world.
Heart of the Nation traces America’s volunteer tradition—the golden thread of American democracy—and how Presidents from Washington to Obama have called on citizens to serve neighbor and nation. From the bunker below the White House on 9/11 to villages in Africa, John Bridgeland shares his own experiences inside and outside of government to spark more Americans to volunteer to meet urgent needs. He compellingly argues that such service is fundamental to our own happiness and to what the Founding Fathers envisioned when they talked about the “pursuit of Happiness” in the Declaration of Independence. Bridgeland helps the reader discover their own volunteer service mission and issues a rallying cry to the nation to heal our partisan divisions by joining together across party lines to address our toughest challenges.
Across the country, volunteer ranks continue to grow, but people are volunteering differently. They're working online, seeking flexible schedules, and pursuing a role in defining how projects should be completed. They want to feel a sense of responsibility for your organization's overall mission. Put simply, these volunteers don't want to simply make a contribution; they want to make a difference! Help to recruit, manage, and lead the new breed of volunteers. Authors guide you to a clearer understanding of what today's volunteers look like, how they want to get involved, and how you can most effectively attract, train, and unleash them within your organization.
What does it mean to be a volunteer in the UK today? This book adds new insights into volunteering from the perspective of the individual, the organisation and the community .
Draws on a range of empirical studies of aspects of the history of voluntary action. This title includes chapters that range across two centuries and a variety of fields of activity, geographical areas and organisational forms.
This book provides a comprehensive overview of the latest theory and practice for volunteer involvement. It represents a milestone for knowledge of how and why volunteers become involved and will be essential reading for practitioners, policy makers and funders. Offering exercises and examples from practice, it introduces concepts for understanding volunteers’ agency and for critically assessing ways in which those who seek to involve volunteers can respond to rapidly changing environments. The authors draw on a combination of theoretical perspectives and practical experiences to develop approaches based on individuals and community strengths and assets, underlining the need for conviviality, respect and enjoyment in volunteer involvement.
Written by over 200 leading experts from over seventy countries, this handbook provides a comprehensive, state-of-the-art overview of the latest theory and research on volunteering, civic participation and nonprofit membership associations. The first handbook on the subject to be truly multinational and interdisciplinary in its authorship, it represents a major milestone for the discipline. Each chapter follows a rigorous theoretical structure examining definitions, historical background, key analytical issues, usable knowledge, and future trends and required research. The nine parts of the handbook cover the historical and conceptual background of the discipline; special types of volunteering; the major activity areas of volunteering and associations; influences on volunteering and association participation; the internal structures of associations; the internal processes of associations; the external environments of associations; the scope and impacts of volunteering and associations; and conclusions and future prospects. This handbook provides an essential reference work for third-sector research and practice, including a valuable glossary of terms defining over eighty key concepts. Sponsored by the International Council of Voluntarism, Civil Society, and Social Economy Researcher Associations (ICSERA; www.icsera.org), it will appeal to scholars, policymakers and practitioners, and helps to define the emergent academic discipline of voluntaristics.
This timely handbook examines the most contemporary, controversial and cutting-edge issues related to the involvement of volunteers in the fields of events, sport and tourism. Split into thematic sections, the primary areas covered include: key disciplinary approaches to understanding volunteerism, international contexts, managing volunteers, the impacts and legacies of volunteering and future trends in these sectors including online and digital volunteering. Commonalities and differences of volunteering in these sectors are drawn out throughout the volume. A diverse range of case studies are examined including the 2007 UEFA Under 21 Championship hosted by Poland, the development of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail, the Vancouver, London and Pyeong Chang Olympic Games, Belgium’s National Day in 2019, the Puffing Billy railway in Australia, as well as many other examples looking at destination services organizations, museums, grassroots associations, corporate events, community events and visitor attractions. Drawing on the academic and practical expertise of over 50 authors from across the globe, the handbook provides an invaluable resource for all those with an interest in volunteering in these sectors, encouraging dialogue across disciplinary boundaries and areas of study in order to advance volunteering research and practice in the fields of events, sport and tourism.
This book analyses the dynamics that underlie the awarding of public funding to small voluntary organisations in the UK. Using Bourdieu’s later work on state power, the author argues that these competitions for grants, loans and contracts are neoliberal funding ‘games’. Such games tempt grassroots organisations, she demonstrates, not just because they provide funding but because they confer a symbolic profit by defining the 'winner' and improving status. Taking part in these neoliberal funding games, however, can adversely affect the structure and development path of these organisations. Yet her conclusion is upbeat, focusing on the opportunities as well as the challenges that neoliberalism offers grassroots organisations in recompense for the moral weight that they hold within state discourse. Within supportive coalitions and with a robust evidence base that re-politicises neoliberal orthodoxy, in fact, they can choose to negotiate alternative futures within state policy or to withdraw from these funding games altogether. This thought-provoking work will appeal to students and researchers of sociology and social policy, along with scholars of Bourdieu, civil society and the voluntary sector.
Providing a comprehensive overview of volunteer involvement in UK universities, this book addresses a distinct and substantive policy and management issue. Offering examples of volunteer involvement with students, staff, alumni and communities from 148 UK Higher Education Institutions, it provides important background to understanding volunteer involvement. It also introduces key concepts for critically assessing ways in which those who seek to involve volunteers can respond to rapidly changing environments. Drawing on a combination of theoretical perspectives and practical experiences the book systematically explores approaches based on the current structures of volunteer involvement in UK universities, which provides accessible insights for Higher Education Institutions into how they can effectively organise volunteer involvement and maximise its societal impact. Developing 10 indicators with measures to evidence universities strategic approaches and achievements in community-university relations, the book offers practical ways to plan, enable, monitor, and assess the impact of volunteer involvement in universities. Jurgen Grotz is a Senior Research Fellow, and the Director of the Institute for Volunteering Research at the University of East Anglia, UK.