The dynamic 21st-century volunteer landscape offers new opportunities for museums to build on their strong volunteer tradition. Today's volunteers--especially the energetic, educated, and socially responsible baby boomers who are beginning to retire--want a chance to make a difference. How can museums gain the most benefit from this abundance of human capital?

Transforming Museum Volunteering: A Practical Guide for Engaging 21st-Century Volunteers--written for volunteer program managers, volunteers, and the staff who work closely with them--stimulates creative thinking about finding, training, supervising, and supporting volunteers in a changing environment. It helps develop the ingredients for success: valuing volunteers, listening to them, welcoming them as part of a team, and providing a supportive community in which to work.

Learn more about Transforming Museum Volunteering today here:

About the author:

Ellen Hirzy is an independent editor and writer for museum associations, and other nonprofits. She has written and edited books, reports, periodicals, policy papers, and other publications for organizations including the American Association of Museums, Americans for the Arts, BoardSource, Chorus America, Pew Charitable Trusts, and Museum Education Roundtable. Ellen is the principal writer of Museums for a New Century and Excellence and Equity: Education and the Public Dimension of Museums, both published by the American Association of Museums; the lead contributor to Mastering Civic Engagement: A Challenge to Museums (AAM); and co-author of New Forums: Art Museums and Communities (Pew Charitable Trusts and AAM). Ellen is a member of The Museum Group, a consortium of senior museum consultants. She has volunteered for political campaigns, community organizations, and her son's schools.