I have recently been learning another language and when I explained what I do, the need for the word 'volunteer' came up fast. 'What's the word for someone who works without pay?' I asked.

'A slave.' said my teacher.

Ah, yes. You know non-profit slaves! People with smarts and ethics and education who you stuck photocopying pages for an hour. Or markering a poster. Those slaves, the ones that don't come back after your first slave meeting.

There are lots of resources on the internet for getting and keeping volunteers, but I find a lot of them are either not free, out of date, or tend to talk down to organizations about volunteer coordination. There is slightly more out there on online volunteering coordination - try this as a starter place - but it's hard to find. Feel free to prove us wrong by posting fabulous volunteer coordination resources in the comments section. But until you do:

If you are a desperate real-time volunteer coordinator looking to improve your resources, the best thing you can do is (More...)