Betty Stallings

Local volunteer bureaus began appearing on the landscape in the 1960s as a way to stimulate and support community volunteer activity. As the model gained momentum, it also produced some exceptional leaders for the field – such as Betty Stallings.

In the mid-1970s, Stallings began looking for a place to volunteer while she chose to stay home with her young children. Frustrated by her lack of success in finding a good match, she founded the Valley Volunteer Center (VVC) with a handful of other volunteers in her community east of San Francisco. During her term as VVC’s first Executive Director (1976-1988), she quickly learned that volunteers were not always well engaged and that those in positions of leading volunteer efforts in nonprofits had minimal, if any, training. This led to the creation of a structured Volunteer Management training program; internships for women and young students returning to the workforce; the establishment of a Corporate Council; and a vehicle for connecting skilled volunteers with organizations who needed help with short-term projects. The creative programs the VVC offered grew to benefit 120-plus local nonprofit organizations and empowered countless volunteers from service organizations, churches, schools and businesses to connect with an organization of interest and “Make Their Caring Count!” Stallings’ successes soon became nationally known and served as models for similar approaches in Volunteer Centers around the country. She was invited to share her methods and became well known as a thought leader who was always willing to help her peers learn and grow. 

Upon leaving VVC in 1988, Stallings decided to share her experiences on a larger scale. She launched Building Better Skills, her consulting firm designed to inspire and empower people to effectively attract and utilize volunteer and financial resources to achieve their organizations’ mission. During the next 30 years, Stallings worked as a highly sought-after trainer, consultant  and keynote speaker, specializing in Volunteer Management, nonprofit fundraising, board development and leadership. A prolific writer, she authored numerous popular books, including: Getting to Yes in Fundraising, A Resource Kit for Managers of Volunteers; Training Busy Staff to Succeed With Volunteers; The 55-Minute Training Series; and How To Produce Fabulous Fundraising Events: Reap Remarkable Returns with Minimal Effort. She also authored a chapter called "Families as Volunteers" in the book, Managing Volunteer Diversity, and wrote numerous articles focusing on volunteerism and fund development.  She trained in all 50 states, Canada, Japan and Africa. The books and training materials she wrote have been licensed and translated for use in Mexico, Russia and France. 

During the latter part of her career, Stallings focused on the critical role of the executive director in supporting volunteer involvement. Building on earlier work by Susan J. Ellis, she wrote Leading the Way to Successful Volunteer Involvement – Practical Tools for Busy Executives. Stallings then conducted some related research, summarized in a study published by Energize, Inc., called 12 Key Actions of Volunteer Program Champions: CEOs Who Lead the Way.

Another major advocacy effort championed by Stallings was her partnership with the Leighty Foundation to educate funders about the value of supporting Volunteer Engagement in their grantmaking. She worked with the Foundation’s CEO Jane Justis to produce The Funders Guide to Investing in Volunteer Engagement, and spoke to groups of funders across the country to encourage this paradigm shift.

Throughout her long career, Betty Stallings loved interacting with her audiences, generously sharing her abundant energy and passion. She fed several generations of hungry practitioners through her inspiring speeches, training rich with practical information and solid wisdom, her writing and her mentoring.