Successful Models and Case Studies

The case studies below illustrate how theory meets action in a discussion of several models producing both leverage and impact. Learn how four community models combined resources to shift the paradigms around the potential of volunteer energy to transform communities and meet needs.

Pikes Peak Volunteer Engagement Initiative (PPVEI)

The Pikes Peak Volunteer Engagement Initiative case study describes the five year partnership of The Leighty Foundation, nonprofit organizations and stakeholders in the community.

Organizations at all levels are recognizing that they must actively commit to volunteer engagement as a core strategy in addressing the challenges of rising needs and decreasing resources. The Leighty Foundation saw an opportunity to help local organizations expand their impact by tapping into the rich pool of local human capital. Since 2011, they have convened community leaders, funders, and organizations at the board and executive level as well as staff and volunteers. They have partnered with them in offering vision, training, coaching, peer learning, cohort projects, and networking opportunities. They offered “time and talent” as well as “treasure,” and it has produced powerful results, impact and mission expansion.

• View the case study summary (PDF)
• Learn more about the PPVEI return on investment 
• Read about the Center for Nonprofit Excellence’s support of this intiative

Colorado Springs Osteopathic Foundation

Fueled by a desire to meaningfully help a few nonprofits to “move the needle,” the Foundation shifted from an annual granting cycle to, instead, inviting a small number of organizations to apply for multi-year grants. Among its earliest recipients of a three-year grant was CASA, Court Appointed Special Advocates of Colorado Springs, for a volunteer engagement model called “Peer Coordinator.”

The Peer Coordinator concept was to develop a higher level of volunteer opportunity within the organization, where experienced volunteers would mentor and support the new volunteers recruited to serve at CASA. Through this model, CASA was able to exponentially expand its volunteer recruitment and its ability to support and supervise new volunteers. Ultimately, CASA staff and volunteers were able to serve many more abused and neglected children through this capacity building. The model nurtured a deeper relationship building between the Peer Coordinators and the volunteers, thereby increasing retention, engagement and growth. It was a win-win for everyone especially CASA’s clients. Thanks to 28 Peer Coordinators, more abused or neglected children were served without having to exponentially increase CASA’s staff or budget.

Additionally, the Colorado Springs Osteopathic Foundation Board of Directors and members are more engaged in the nonprofits they have funded and those they are considering funding in the future. In addition to vetting and selecting the recipients of the grants, they are volunteering for short term projects at various nonprofit organizations. 

• View the case study summary (PDF)

CASA 

Volunteer engagement is a means to an end. It leverages a source of renewable energy (volunteers) to efficiently and effectively reach mission fulfillment. In working with CASA of Colorado Springs for 25 years, The Leighty Foundation has witnessed first hand the organization’s dramatic evolution. This case study describes the growth of the organization in health and sustainability over a 25 year partnership with The Leighty Foundation.

• Read the case study (PDF)
• Watch a short video on the Hanger Project: 

New Hampshire Charitable Foundation 

Offer more services with fewer resources is a common nonprofit motto. The New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, the state’s community foundation, saw an opportunity to reframe this perspective by taking a look at the roles skills-based volunteers can play in nonprofit capacity building.

The High Impact Volunteer Engagement (HIVE) pilot was seeded by the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation as a unique initiative that was implemented with the expertise of two cross-sector partners.

• Read the case study (PDF)
• High Impact Volunteer Engagement (HIVE) Pilot Project by the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation (PDF)

Time for Good: A Model for Increasing High Impact Volunteering

UJA-Federation’s Time for Good addresses the Jewish community’s most pressing challenges through volunteering. Seeking to:

• Connect volunteers with positive volunteer experiences. 
• Enable nonprofits to better meet needs in their communities through the use of volunteers.
• Serve as a model of strategic innovation in the area of volunteerism.
• Present UJA Federation as a relevant and compelling force in the New York community.
• Increase the New York Jewish community’s engagement with UJA Federation.

• Visit A Time for Good website