Guest Post by Nick Cooney

Guest Post by Nick Cooney, Author of Change Of Heart: What Psychology Can Teach Us About Spreading Social Change

For small non-profits (like the one I run), having volunteers can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand we depend on volunteer help to achieve our goals; money is tight, and hiring additional staff (or any staff) is often out of the question. Yet while volunteers play such an important role in the success of most small non-profits, as a group they are notoriously fickle, expressing great interest one day and disappearing the next. While this general situation is unlikely to change, non-profit directors can turn to the scientific record for insights into how to recruit new volunteers and keep their current ones motivated. Decades of psychology research have yielded (among many other things) the following pointers for revving up volunteers: Continue reading →