Monday Buzz: Signs of a Bright Future for Volunteering

Have nonprofits finally transitioned out of the rocky period following the Great Recession? If the findings of online volunteer recruiting platform VolunteerMatch are any indication, organizations should expect a brighter future for volunteer engagement.

VolunteerMatch  (opens in a new tab) crunches all of its internal numbers each year for its Impact Report  (opens in a new tab), which presents a peek into the world of nonprofits and their volunteers.

The latest report, which includes all statistics from 2014, has a number of key figures that VolunteerMatch President Greg Baldwin believes indicate  (opens in a new tab) “the nonprofit sector and volunteer engagement may finally be recovering from the economic recession.”

Among those figures are the 20 percent increase in local cause and group opportunities listed on VolunteerMatch from 2013 to 2014; a 44 percent increase in potential volunteers connecting with local causes; and a total estimated $1.34 billion benefit resulting from VolunteerMatch users in 2014.

If you want to take a more extensive look at VolunteerMatch’s findings, you can download the entire report here  (opens in a new tab).

Twitter Tool of the Day

https://twitter.com/nickbilton/status/597804787657113600

Want to know who first tweeted a quote or a joke? Then check out this tool  (opens in a new tab) from developer Amit Agarwal  (opens in a new tab) and see just how original your next Twitter quip really is. Or, if you’re looking to pat yourself on the back, check out the first mention of your organization (we did)!

@ecorrigan  (opens in a new tab) Check out AssociationsNow Magazine from ASAE. Great stuff.

— Paul Schneider (@paulschneideraz) January 21, 2009  (opens in a new tab)

Other Good Reads

Now that we’ve covered volunteer engagement, we can move on to event attendees. Event Manager Blog contributor Kelli White has six tips for increasing interactions  (opens in a new tab) among attendees at your next event.

Millennials now account for the largest generation in the U.S. labor force, according to a new Pew Research Center report  (opens in a new tab), underscoring once again the need to take the younger generation seriously.

Thinking about instituting a “wellness-focused workplace?” In a post on Inc  (opens in a new tab)., business and finance reporter Teri Cettina breaks down some of the ways your association could put fitness at the forefront.

(AAGGraphics/ThinkStock)