Susan Cory, who coordinates volunteers at the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden, recently sent an email to people who had served as garden hosts that talked about her fun interactions with guests that day on topics ranging from bullfrogs to bananas. The subject line: “Wish you were here!”
That message resonates with a lot of managers of volunteers these days. Volunteerism had been declining for years before Covid-19, and the pandemic sent many charities’ volunteer programs into disarray. As many as 30 percent of managers of volunteers got reassigned or laid off in the six months after Covid struck, according to a 2021 report by VolunteerPro, run by Tobi Johnson, a volunteer-management expert.“
Read the full article on The Chronicle of Philanthropy.