To honor 2011 as the 10th anniversary of the United Nation's International Year of the Volunteer (IYV+10), Volunteer Canada and Manulife Financial have developed a "national campaign aimed at enriching volunteer experiences for Canadians and strengthening the country's volunteer sector."
This campaign features an interactive website - Getvolunteering.ca - that offers volunteer tools for the public and non-profits, along with creative examples of how Canadians show their volunteer spirit.
In addition, Canada's first Matching Tool has been integrated into GetInvolved.ca to engage Canadians in finding volunteer opportunities and help organizations find great volunteers. An interesting feature on this website is the Power of the Hour - which challenges businesses, organizations, individuals, schools and community groups to stand up and be counted by pledging volunteer hours that will be tracked on the website.
Designed in Response to Volunteer Canada Study
This campaign was conceived in response to the results of a study, Bridging the Gap, which outlined the changing culture of Canada's volunteer sector. The study, conducted in 2010 by Volunteer Canada in collaboration with the Centre for Voluntary Sector Research & Development, revealed there are significant gaps across the country between the opportunities organizations provide and the meaningful experiences sought by today's volunteers.
Check out some of the helpful (and cool) features on these two websites:
So on this 10th anniversary of the "International Year of the Volunteer" - what are your organization's volunteer management challenges? Share some of your successes or strategies in the comments below.
Photo source: Vancouver Opera Blog