Hot Topics by Susan J. Ellis

Susan J. Ellis began writing a monthly "Hot Topic" article on volunteerism in 1997 and continued for the next 23 years! The hot topic was available on her website and was always thought provoking and timely, sparking many discussions among leaders of volunteer engagement. In addition to providing a glimpse at several major events and trends during those decades, a majority of these articles are still very relevant to practitioners today.

1997

Global Connections - International Volunteerism
Is the Challenge Recruiting Citizens to Volunteer or Making Sure Agencies Are Ready for Volunteers?
Is Volunteer Management Really a Profession?
Redirecting Corporate Volunteering
The Holiday Season: Going Beyond "Feel-Good" Volunteering
Volunteers as the "Third Branch" of an Organization
What's Gender Got to Do with It?
Why Is It Labor Unions vs. Volunteers?
A Proposal for Five Additional Goals after the Summit

1998

Reinventing Conferences
What's the Mystery about Motivation?
Turbulence at the State Level
The Presidents' Summit One Year Later
The Limits of the "V" Word
The Giving of Thanks
Some Nagging Questions...
Reaching Out to International Visitors
Let's Commit to International Exchange
Let's All Resolve...
Give Volunteers a Voice

1999

Trend Watch: Are You Ready?
The Wall of Executive Indifference
The Money Factor in Volunteer Management
The Just-a-Volunteer Syndrome
Statistics, Bikinis and Volunteers: The New Independent Sector Study on Giving and Volunteering
Staff Resistance and Highly-Skilled Volunteers
Once in a Millennium Opportunity
Volunteer Managers and the Time Management Trap
If the Whole World is Changing, Can Volunteerism Stay the Same?
Mystifying Data: Can America's Promise Get Away with It?
Philanthropy, Civic Engagement, and the Lessons of Volunteering
Lessening Social Exclusion through Volunteering

2000

A Proposal for IYV2001: The Look Back to Look Ahead Project
Wishes and Resolves for the New Year
Warning! We're about to Waste an Opportunity!
Volunteering in For-Profit Settings: Exploitation or Value Added?
Unskilled vs. Differently Skilled: Maximize Volunteer Differences
The Volunteer Generation Gap
On Being a Dream-Catcher
Be Careful What We Wish For! The Cost-Benefit Analysis of Volunteering
Enough Formal Banquets! Let's Transform Recognition Events
Mixed Messages: What Do We Really Think about Young Volunteers?
Some Truths Revealed about Nametags
If Not Your Home Page, Then Where?

2001

A Volunteerism Perspective on the Days after the 11th of September
Who is Celebrating IYV? Connecting the "Streams of Service"
When a Volunteer Transforms into an Employee
Tackling Causes Not Symptoms: New/Old Roles for Volunteers
Purity and Reality: For-Profit Consulting in Volunteerism
National Volunteer Week: Does Anyone Care?
It's Time to Start Counting Volunteers Seriously
Advocacy for Volunteer Involvement: The Role of Funders
"Youth Involvement" in Our Field
Faith-Based Initiatives: What Might This Mean?
Money is No Object
Evaluating by Comparisons: Watch Out for the Traps!

2002

A Utopian View of Volunteerism Professional Organizations
Don't Call Me a 'Senior'!
Mixed Messages from Government: Lessons from Minnesota
Moving on from 2001
Reacting to the Critics
Spring Cleaning: Take a Fresh Look at Your Volunteer Program
The Missing Link: Where are Volunteers at the National Level?
A Medal for Volunteer Service - How to Measure Success?
What's Hot, What's Not
The World According to Volunteer Experience
The Great Divide: Leaders Who Are Paid and Leaders Who Are Volunteers
United Way is Not the Way for Volunteer Centers

2003

Educating Other Professions about Volunteers: Starting at the Source
What We See, or Don't: Volunteers in Television, Films, and Novels
War and Volunteers: History Repeats Itself
Universal Standards vs. Your Own Situation
Turning a Gift into a Powerful Tool: The Internet-related's Impact on the Volunteer Field
The Need for Institutional Memory
Raising Money through Volunteer Labor
Beyond Common Sense: Volunteer Management as a Specialty
Making an Impact When You Spend Money
One Step Further: Volunteer Services and Agency-wide Education
The Hot Topic Is the Hot Topic
Marketing Savvy - Our Field's Blind Spot

2004

Applied Futurism: Putting Trends to Work Today
Chicken or Egg: Why Are Our Professional Associations Weak?
Does It Matter if Volunteers Work in a Nonprofit or a Government Setting?
Economic Development, Internet Technology, and Volunteers
Government, Politicians, and the Use of the Word "Volunteer"
Interns: The "Acceptable" Volunteers?
Making Volunteer Management Happen: A Proposal for AmeriCorps
A Great New Report to Praise, Criticize, and Use
Shaping Public Opinion: Volunteering, Government, and News Reports
Workplace Volunteerism: Have We Thought this Through?
Watching, Helping and Learning from China
Should We Ask Volunteers to Give Money on Top of Time?

2005

Volunteers Just Want to Have Fun
Charity Burnout? How to Cope with the Impact of Mother Nature in 2005
We Can Model True Collaboration
The Silver Lining of Disaster
Mobile Volunteers -"Tis the Season"
Still Tilting at Windmills
Strength in Numbers: Engaging Volunteers as Partners in Program Development
Keeping an Eye on Things in the Year Ahead
Why Can't We Make Progress on Public Perceptions about Volunteering?
Why Be Boring When You Can Celebrate in So Many Ways?
Recruitment Maxims
Save a Life, Win a Car! When Do Incentives to Volunteer Cross the Line?

2006

"I Don't Have Time"
A Call to Action on Behalf of Our Profession
Wouldn't It Be Nice to Really Know
Why a New Association Should Serve the USA
Together We Stand: Volunteers and Volunteer Resource Managers Connected
The Middle Management Barrier
The Implications of History
The Fair Labor Standards Act and Other Obstacles to Progress
Start Early: Teaching Students about Volunteering, Not Simply Doing It
Online Spying Can Improve Your Volunteer Management Skills
Encouraging Entrepreneurial Volunteering
What's in a Name or a Title?

2007

I'll Help with That, but Don't Ask Me to Lead It!
Make New Friends But Keep the Old...
Marking a Special Birthday
Should Volunteer Program Managers Be Volunteers, Too?
Technology Acceleration: Grab Hold and Hang On
The Big Merger: Many Unanswered Questions
The Moral Obligation of Volunteer Recruitment Promises
The More We're Different, the More We're the Same
Volunteering We See but Don't Recognize
Voluntourism - Pros, Cons, and Possibilities
Boards of Directors: Governing at a Distance?
Helper Triage: Volunteer Management in Emergencies

2008

The Yin and Yang of China's Olympic Volunteers
From Organizing Charity to Building Community
How Will the Economic Crisis Affect Volunteering?
Volunteers Should Not Be Second-Class Taxpayers
Volunteering Is Bigger than the Nonprofit Sector
The Power of Difference
So, What Do You Do?
Replacing Volunteers with Paid Staff
It's Volunteers and Money
Is the Rising Cost of Gas a Crisis or an Opportunity for Volunteering?
California Governor "Pumps Up" Volunteering
Confidentiality and Other Objections to Volunteers

2009

When the Ax Falls: Budget Cutting and Volunteers
"A New Era of Responsibility": An Open Letter toPresident Obama
Days, Hours and Minutes of Service - Enough Is Enough
Making Ongoing Volunteering Valued and Visible
Media Blitz vs. Media Noise: What Are We Trying to Accomplish?
Taking the Client's Perspective in Designing Volunteer Roles
The Difference Between Needing and Wanting Volunteers
The Drive towards "Highly-skilled" and "Pro Bono" Volunteering
The Role of Volunteer Resources Managers in the Serve America Act
The Separation of Service-learning from Volunteering...and Does It Matter?
What's Ahead for 2009?

2010

"You Get What You Pay For"
When Volunteers Resist Change
The Word "Volunteer" Can Reveal, Conceal, or Confuse
The Self-Directed Volunteer
The Correlation between Time Donors and Money Donors
Reimagining Service: Is Corporate HR Management What We See?
Online Information Overload -- and How to Cope
Limiting Volunteers through Insurance Requirements
Good Intentions Going Nowhere -- Again
Differentiating between Volunteering and Working for Pay
Both Receiving and Giving
AmeriCorps and Senior Corps Targeting Volunteer Management

2011

What Leaders of Volunteers Can DO to Gain Executive Attention
Is the Corporation for National and Community Service on the Right Track for Volunteerism?
The Choice of the Citizen: Pay Taxes, Do Without, or Volunteer
Short Attention Spans versus Long-term Causes
Real Professions Have Strong Associations
Part-time Volunteer Management Means Equally Limited Volunteer Involvement
Needed: A Multi-level Approach to Credentialing Volunteer Management
My Personal "State of the World's Volunteering" Report
I'll Never Understand Why Executives Still Don't Understand
Exercise Your Volunteering Funny Bone
Celebrate Collective Accomplishments, Not Volunteered Time
Addressing Volunteerism Issues in the Blogosphere

2012

"Why?" Is More Powerful than #@#%!
Common Sense and Volunteer Involvement
End-of-Year Reports Can Illuminate Volunteer Achievements
How Serving the Volunteer Field Has Changed after 35 Years -- Or Not?
Is Volunteering the Emperor's New Clothes?
Let's Be Honest about Nonprofit Boards of Directors (or, Lessons to Be Learned from Penn State
Practicing What We Preach: Volunteers Helping Us, Too
The Perfect Volunteer Storm
Three Things Volunteer Managers Can Learn from the Social Media Revolution
Volunteering Is Inherently Political
What Would the Perfect Volunteer-Involving Organization Look Like?
Why Do We Love Volunteer Satisfaction Surveys?

2013

Breaking through the Glass Ceiling for Volunteers
Don't Let the History Made by Volunteers Fall through the Cracks of Time
Education through Celebration on InternationalVolunteer Managers Day
Prospective Volunteers Are Closer than You Think
Revisiting the Seven Deadly Sins of Directing Volunteers
Should We Cap the Number of Hours a Volunteer May Serve Each Week?
Stop Volunteers from Being Their Own Worst Enemies
Strategic Volunteer Management: Expanding Your Organization's Brain
The Treasure Trove of Knowledge Philanthropists
Volunteering and Employability: Cause or Effect?
Why Social Media Is Not the Cure-All for Building Volunteer Engagement
What Volunteer Resources Managers Can Teach Human Resources Managers

2014

Working Together to Recognize Volunteers…and More
Whom Don’t We Ask to Volunteer?
What Did You and Volunteers Do Well this Year?
Volunteers and the Quest for Innovation
Virtual Volunteering Revisited
Ten Time-Tested Volunteer Recruitment Tips that Still Work
Pulling the Rug Out from Under Volunteer Involvement: Sudden Staff Changes
Let’s Help People Help Each Other
It’s Time to Discuss the Complex Relationship of Volunteering and Money
Identifying Who Is and Is Not a “Volunteer”
I Really Want to Know: What’s Going on Out There?
Branding National Volunteer Week: Whose Week Is It Anyway?

2015

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures
Mixed Messages to Volunteers Whom We’ve Asked to Be Friendly
Letting Volunteers into the Team’s Locker Room
Keeping Former Volunteers as Our Long-term Friends
In the Middle: The Leader of Volunteers as Intermediary
If Google Can’t Find the People Who Lead Volunteers, No One Can
Fighting against Ignorance: Picking up My Sword Yet Again
Do Volunteers Want to “Talk Amongst Themselves”?
What I Learned about Online Resources for Volunteer Management (While Updating the New Energize, Inc. Web Site)
Volunteers as Beta Testers
See Superheroes for What They Really Are!
Replace Current Volunteers or Redirect New Ones?

2016

When Things Look Dark, Volunteers Can Spark Lightning
What Volunteer Recruiters Can Learn from #GivingTuesday
The Limitations of Seeing Volunteers Only as Unpaid Staff
The Domino Effect of Setting Goals for Volunteer Involvement
The Division of Labor between Volunteer Centers and Volunteer-Involving Organizations
Sending Volunteer Talent Down the Drain
Political Campaigns: Epicenter of Volunteering
Inform, and WOW, Everyone about Volunteers
Incorporate the Power of Live Web Calls into Volunteer Management
Get the Most Support: Blending Money, Things, and People
Do You Stick Your Neck Out When Advocating for Volunteers?
Clients Are a Talent Pool, Too

2017

Three Great Days: Reflections after the Summit on Volunteer Engagement Leadership
The “Social Compact” and Voluntary Action Are the Foundation of Democracy — Even Today
Pride in the Volunteer Management Profession
Are You in a Volunteer Management Silo?
Letting Fear Prevent Volunteer Involvement is Too Risky
Leaders of Volunteers: Will You “Be the Voice ”for Our Profession?
Find the Money for Priceless Conferencing
Energize Turns 40!
Don’t Forget Volunteers as Part of the Solution to 2017 Nonprofit Challenges
Continuous Learning Is Not Optional

2018

What Is the New National Alliance for Volunteer Engagement and What Will It Mean for Us?
Volunteers? Donors? Let’s Call Them All Supporters!
Seeking Funder Support for Volunteer Engagement? Assess Your Approach!
New Year’s Resolution for Executive Directors of Volunteer-Involving Organizations
Leaders of Volunteers: Stop Being So Bloody Nice!
Leader or Liability: Are Leaders Sabotaging Volunteer Engagement?
Is Volunteer Management Really a Profession?
Bribing volunteers: Should we be incentivising people for their time?
Don’t Just Recognize Volunteers, INVEST in Them…and Yourself
Good News: Today and Tomorrow for Energize, Inc.
Grow Volunteer-Staff Harmony: Plant New Seeds this Spring
Happy Birthday to Energize’s Founder and a Volunteer Management Pioneer

2019

Could Volunteers Replace Paid Staff? Have No Fear!
Fueling Volunteer Passion: Empowering Volunteers to Self-Motivate
How Volunteer Action in 2018 Can Focus Us for2019
Lessons Learned About Leading Volunteers From a Volunteering Working Mom
Remembering Susan J. Ellis
Revisiting Credentials and Certifications in Volunteer Engagement
S#%& Words We Need To Stop Saying: Words and Phrases to Erase from the Lexicon of Volunteer Management
The Times They Are a Changin’—Even for Volunteers
The Volunteer Engagement Cha-Cha
Volunteering Trend Watch: What Can We Learn from Looking Back?
When "Just" a Volunteer is Better than a Paid Employee

2020

How Leaders Can Find Strength In Vulnerability
Re-Opening and Recovery: Volunteer Engagement Resources in a Coronavirus World
Supporting Volunteer Efforts During Coronavirus
Susan J. Ellis Foundation: Supporting the Volunteer Engagement Profession