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Glossary of Volunteerism Terms
Benchmarks: Pre-determined measures of success
or achievement with respect to a particular outcome indicator. For
example, a benchmark of a government program to alleviate poverty
might be to reduce the percentage of those families earning below
the poverty line to under 10%. The success or failure of the program
should be measured in terms of this standard.
Community Relations: An institution's planned,
active, and continuous participation with and within a community
to maintain and enhance its environment to the benefit of both institution
and the community.
Governance: The act or manner of conducting the policy and affairs
of an organization; the control or influence of people; constituting
a rule, standard or principle.
Indicators: An observation or measurement that
is assumed to be evidence of the attributes or properties of some
phenomenon. Indicators involve moving from the abstract conceptual
level to the concrete and observable. We observe the indicators
of a variable, not the abstract variable itself. [e.g., We have
indicators for poverty (such as income level), but we cannot actually
observe poverty.] There may be more than one indicator of a variable.
Indicators may be quantifiable (a number or percentage) or qualitative
(such as a canary in a coal mine).
Leadership: The act of motivating or commanding
a group or organization; showing the way to a destination be preceding
or accompanying them.
Manager: A person who is in charge of an organization
or group of staff; a person who administers and regulates the activities,
and training of a group.
Non-Profit Vs. Not-for-Profit: There is no consistent
distinction between these two terms. Non-profit is used more often,
but Not-for-profit seems to imply a wider umbrella of organizations.
Non-profit infers that an organization cannot make a profit and
must have a zero balance at the end of the fiscal year. In reality
both Non-profits and Not-for profits make profits. However an organization
may be limited on how those funds are used.
Outcomes: The positive or negative changes that
occur in conditions, people and policies as a result of an organization's
or program's inputs, activities and outputs. Outcomes answer questions
such as "What is different? To what extent were the organization's
goals achieved? What are the unintended results of the program?
Outcomes measure the effect of a program or an organization's activities
on immediate customers, individuals & groups indirectly affected,
and the wider community. Outcomes can be looked at in terms of short,
medium and long-term.
Outcome Indicators: These measure important aspects
of the defined outcomes one is trying to achieve. They should be
relevant to mission or objectives, understandable and useful to
the audience using them, reasonable cost and feasibility in their
collection.
Target Audience: The individual, organization,
company, or population type you are addressing in your communication
or to whom you are targeting your event.
Voluntarily: At will; of one's own accord; on
one's own responsibility; by choice; purposely; intentionally; with
personal volition.
Voluntarism: The principle of relying on voluntary
action.
Volunteer: A person who freely offers to do something;
a person who works for an organizations without being paid.
Volunteerism: The involvement of volunteer labour,
especially in community services.
Glossary of Media Terms
Advisory: A notice to alert the media of an event.
Backgrounder: A briefing for reporters on complex
issues or on organization. It can be a written backgrounder attached
to a news release.
Deadline: The time by which a reporter must have
completed a story to get it broadcast or published.
Event: What you wish you covered — news
conference, speech, photo opportunity, etc.
Feature: An interesting story, yet not highly
news-worthy or topical.
Hook: The item of information that attracts the
attention of the new personnel as a potential news angle.
Human-interest: One type of feature about real
life drama.
News Conference: An event where people make themselves
available in a formal manner to reporters who wish to question them.
News Release: A brief written statement prepared
following the format of the news release.
Op-Ed Piece: An opinion piece written by anyone
with a particular point of view, Opposite the Editorial page.
Target Audience: The individual, organization,
company, or population type you are addressing in your communication
or to whom you are targeting your event.
The following descriptive words may be helpful when writing policy,
procedure, articles, stories, proposals, etc.
POSITIVE ACTION (Verbs):
Influence, Lead, Evolve, Take charge, Manage, Commit Motivate, Guide,
Direct, Create, Engage, Listen, Promote, Inspire, Master, Assert,
Involve, Dedicate, Act
POSITIVE DESCRIPTION (Adjectives):
Awesome, Timely, Quality, Effective, Value-added, Gracious, Animated,
Passionate
POSITIVE NOUNS:
Passion, Materials, Logic, Emotion, Belief, Medium / Media, Trust,
Source, Resource, Reason, Value, Tool, Knowledge, Communication,
Conscience, Respect
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