Engage

"The Civic 50 beyond recognition. It gives companies at every stage a year-round benchmarking tool for strengthening employee volunteering, community investment, workplace culture, and impact measurement."
🌎 Check out the link to this report here:

Points of Light Releases 2026 Civic 50 Benchmark & Insights Report - Points of Light New resource turns data from leading companies into practical benchmarks for employee volunteering, philanthropy, and corporate social impact.  ATLANTA, Sept. 22, 2026 – Points of Light has released The 2026 Civic 50 Benchmark & Insights Report, a practical resource that helps companies across th...

NEW from Ahead of the Curve!
Volunteering has long been recognized for strengthening communities, but its impact extends well beyond service. As employers increasingly value practical experience, transferable skills and demonstrated commitment, volunteer programs are becoming powerful pathways to employment, career growth and long-term economic mobility.

Emerging technologies – from digital credentialing and learning management to AI-powered coaching and impact tracking – are making it easier to connect volunteer experience with workforce readiness and measurable career outcomes.

In this Ahead of the Curve, Editor Sam Fankuchen explores how Volunteer Engagement leaders can leverage these tools to intentionally connect service with career opportunity as a way to help more people access meaningful employment while creating lasting benefits for individuals, employers and the communities they serve.

https://engagejournal.org/article/july-2026/beyond-service-how-volunteer-experience-opens-doors-career-opportunities
* this article is for Engage members, low cost monthly memberships are available

Should nonprofit employees volunteer for their organizations without compensation?
Who would be in charge of those volunteering activities?
The volunteer director? The head of that activity's department? Their boss?
🌎 "If the employees' regular duties ...are therefore substantially different from the volunteer work, the employer can accept such services without any obligation to pay regular wages or overtime."

DOL Says Employees of Nonprofit Can Perform Unrelated Volunteer Duties | JD Supra Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, employees of for-profit companies cannot "volunteer" to provide additional uncompensated work. The rules are a...

"the students said there is an idea that volunteering is gruelling work: doing the jobs nobody else wants to do."
🌍 These instructive comments give us a peek into how students view volunteering:

We asked students what they really think about volunteering. Here’s what they told us. - Inclusive Volunteering I had the best start to my week. On Monday I spent the day with the LSE Volunteer Centre delivering Hack the Future: Mobilising Next-Gen Volunteers, alongside

"The ideal is to have roles for both long- and short-term volunteers, and for everyone in between. The volunteering options you offer need to span the spectrum, from coffee break volunteering to multi-year engagements."
🌏

Caterpillars and Butterflies: Volunteers are Metamorphosing - Karen Knight Volunteer Management Consulting Volunteers are metamorphosing. Many of our organisations, though, are still only attracting caterpillars. We need to change.

"New technology is making it possible to document volunteer development at scale...organizations can begin building a more complete record of what participants learn, demonstrate and contribute over time."
🌍 In our new Ahead of the Curve, Sam Fankuchen explores how Volunteer Engagement leaders can leverage tools to intentionally connect service with career opportunity as a way to help more people access meaningful employment while creating lasting benefits for individuals, employers and the communities they serve.

How Volunteer Experience Opens Doors to Career Opportunities Volunteering has long been recognized for strengthening communities, but its impact extends well beyond service. As employers increasingly value practical experience, transferable skills and demonstrated commitment, volunteer programs are becoming powerful pathways to employment, career growth and l...

" When many of the things that we are reasonably good at start being done by a machine, it means that we need to double-down and become specialists in the areas where machines can’t take over."
🌎

We need to become volunteer engagement specialists - Check out this article by Karen Knight: We need to become volunteer engagement specialists. Learn more.

"There is plenty to learn from our experience and we are pleased that the funders intend to collaborate in future to explore wider questions about the long-term sustainability of social infrastructure. We hope this signals the start of a new approach to supporting infrastructure."
🌍

Reach will remain open | Reach Volunteering Reach Volunteering will remain open after funders unite to secure its immediate future.

Our new Ahead of the Curve sheds light on ways technology can capture the longer-term value of the experience people gain through service.
"The experience someone gains through volunteering may be meaningful, but its relevance is not always obvious outside the context in which it was earned. A title or record of participation may say little about the actual work involved or the capabilities someone demonstrated along the way."
🌎 Our new Ahead of the Curve sheds light on ways technology can capture the longer-term value of the experience people gain through service.

How Volunteer Experience Opens Doors to Career Opportunities Volunteering has long been recognized for strengthening communities, but its impact extends well beyond service. As employers increasingly value practical experience, transferable skills and demonstrated commitment, volunteer programs are becoming powerful pathways to employment, career growth and l...

What happens when a volunteer's personal beliefs conflict with the needs, choices or identity of the person they are serving? In this Ethics, Lori Showalter explores this issue from the lens of healthcare volunteers in a video presentation that addresses the ethical challenges and opportunities facing healthcare volunteer programs worldwide.
🌎 Coming soon!
https://engagejournal.org/article/july-2026/leading-integrity-ethical-challenges-and-opportunities-healthcare-volunteer