SUSAN ELLIS

the Philadelphia-based volunteer management expert who traveled the globe to promote volunteerism and effective leadership of volunteers, has died. She passed away peacefully on February 24, 2019, after successfully living with cancer for over eight years. She was 70 years old. Widely recognized for her knowledge, her indefatigable spirit, and her relentless promotion of volunteerism, Ellis was considered the doyenne of the volunteer management field she helped develop. In 1977, she founded Energize, Inc., a training, consulting, and publishing firm that specializes in nearly every facet of volunteerism, working to assist organizations of all sizes and types to start, expand, or strengthen volunteer involvement. As president of this Philadelphia-based company, she assisted clients in nonprofit health and human service organizations, cultural arts groups, professional associations, schools, government agencies, and businesses throughout North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Australia. A prolific writer, Ellis was the author or co-author of fourteen books, including From the Top Down: The Executive Role in Successful Volunteer Involvement; the top-selling By the People: A History of Americans as Volunteers; The Volunteer Recruitment (and Membership Development) Book; and The LAST Virtual Volunteering Guidebook with co-author Jayne Cravens. From 1981 to 1987, she was editor in chief of The Journal of Volunteer Administration. She wrote more than 120 articles on volunteer management for dozens of publications, and wrote the national bi-monthly column, "On Volunteers," for The NonProfit Times from 1990 to 2015. Her interest in new technology regarding volunteer engagement was behind her launch of the Energize website, which won international recognition as a premier online resource for volunteer program leaders. In 2000, Ellis and colleague Steve McCurley launched the field's first online journal, e-Volunteerism: The Electronic Journal of the Volunteer Community. Since 2005, she had been the dean of faculty for Energize's Everyone Ready� Online Volunteer Management Training Program. And she considered herself the "midwife of volunteer management associations," and was the keynote speaker at association launches in Japan, Singapore, The Netherlands, and Ecuador, to name a few. "One of the reasons volunteer management is even on the radar is because of trailblazers like Susan," said Sheri Wilensky Burke, a volunteer management and training consultant with Everyone Ready and Energize since 2015. Ellis' dedicated work earned her numerous awards, including the "Diamond Achievement Award" for distinguished alumni from Temple University, and the Association for Volunteer Administration's 1989 Harriet Naylor Distinguished Member Service Award. And before she died, Ellis made sure that her life's work could continue without her. Before she died, Ellis established the Susan J. Ellis Foundation to support programs to expand volunteer administration, and to support education and research activities in volunteerism. In addition, she prepared her staff and consulting team to continue the many facets of Energize, Inc. "She kept running Energize, Everyone Ready, and e-Volunteerism for years past when she could have retired because they were basically Susan's gift to the world of volunteering," said McCurley, a friend and colleague for over 40 years. "She had an opinion on everything, and would happily discuss it with anyone for any length of time. But as much as she loved arguing, she loved truth even more, and devoted her life to it. That's the person I will miss the most." The only child of Holocaust survivors Ernst and Anne Ellis, Ellis grew up in Irvington, New Jersey. She moved to Philadelphia to attend Temple University and never left. After graduating from Temple's College of Arts and Sciences in 1969, she accepted a job with the community volunteer program in the Philadelphia Family Court. She fell in love with the program's volunteers and soon found her life's calling: bringing professional standards to volunteer management. Shortly after founding Energize, the lack of printed resources related to her new career inspired Ellis to write her first books. When publishing houses refused to produce texts on volunteer management because the market segment was too small, Ellis created her own publishing company and bookstore within Energize to ensure resources were available. "There have always been volunteers. Let's face it, volunteers built Noah's Ark," Ellis once said. "But there were no professional management guides or books."
Andy Fryar never forgot his first encounter with Ellis over 20 years ago, when he recruited her to be a keynote speaker at the National Volunteering Conference in Adelaide, Australia. "After 30-plus hours of flights from the USA, including some delays, she was incredibly later than expected and completely exhausted," said Fryar, founder and director of OzVPM, Australasian Volunteer Program Management. "After a brief five-minute check in, Susan marched into a packed auditorium just as the MC was reading her bio to the audience, took the stage, and had us all completely mesmerized for the next two hours! Her professionalism and dedication to our sector will be most missed." After her father passed away when she was 30 years old, Ellis was fiercely devoted to her mother, who lived and worked with her in Philadelphia. When an early marriage ended in divorce, Ellis became equally devoted to a wide circle of friends, who learned to treasure what former Energize intern Jeff Kahn called "the most eclectic set of interests imaginable." Ellis loved science fiction, Star Trek (but not Star Wars), unicorns (her medical support circle called themselves "The Badass Unicorns"), theater, raucous potluck dinners at her home, film (especially children's animated movies), and Philadelphia (her Folklore and Folklife master's degree thesis at the University of Pennsylvania covered the history of scrapple). "She never did things halfway," said Kahn, executive vice president and general counsel, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Throughout her career, Ellis' most natural role was perhaps that of mentor to volunteer professionals around the world. "Susan's light was sometimes blinding as she pushed us forward to a future we weren't always sure we were ready to tackle," said Betty Stallings, a friend and well-known volunteer management colleague. "She was an amazing and cherished mentor." Ellis' final gift was the grace, dignity, and humor she imparted to her friends as she fought her disease since being diagnosed in 2011. She created a steady stream of detail-oriented emails about her medical journey , which she called the "Medical Magical Mystery Tour." Said Betty: "The last few years have been challenging in so many ways for Susan. But she shared her journey with courage and humor, and gave us all a special connection and a model for end of life on this earth." Ellis' last email to her support team was sent on January 24, 2019, at 8:16 pm. "One day at a time," she wrote. "Smiles as often as possible. Love to you all!!! XOXO Susan." Services and interment are Private. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Susan J. Ellis Foundation. Please send to: The Susan J. Ellis Foundation Energize, Inc., 5450 Wissahickon Ave, #C-13, Philadelphia PA 19144