The strength and demise of organizational volunteers
As a nonprofit or social enterprise organization, volunteers are mostly likely essential to your work. One or more programs or initiatives might not be able to exist without them, and they can keep your progress moving forward. Volunteers are wonderful for plenty of reasons: they bring new ideas and experiences to the organization; they have a vested interest in the work and don’t often get jaded; and — importantly — they are free. And with these strengths also lies the root of the demise of volunteers, as the “you get what you pay for” mantra can sometimes ring true. So how can you build on the strengths of your volunteers and avoid falling into these issues?
Find their strengths
Depending on what job you are recruiting volunteers for and where you have conducted volunteer outreach, you might receive a range of volunteers with different backgrounds, experiences, and opportunities. My first recommendation would be to create some type of application process, despite whether you are looking very specific skills or just any able working body. This will ensure that you get people who are genuinely interested and able to commit, and are not just signing up for a volunteer newsletter with no real intentions.
In this application, it can be helpful to ask about their professional and personal experiences, and also what they view their strengths to be in general and in relation to your organization. This information seems simple, but it can ensure your volunteers with the right abilities are matched to the right need, and therefore able to get the most out of their generous time spent with you. Additionally, questions about their preferred working styles and communication with you can also be helpful to provide both you and them with a quality volunteering experience.
Creating a simple Google form or series of questions to email back to you is an easy way to collect this information. Be sure to keep in handy in an organized spreadsheet that you can easily reference. For more specific skills-based volunteering opportunities, it can be helpful to include a short ‘hiring’ process to ensure the volunteers really are the best fit, especially if you receive several qualified applications. This can include a short phone call, zoom interview, or in-person interview to both hear about specific needs and strengths and ensure you are both on the same page with expectations.
Match into teams
People volunteer for a variety of reasons: it could be to give back to their community, to learn and engage more with a local organization they admire, or to gain a new experience. Another big reason is related to all three of those reasons: meet new people and expand their network. As an organization, you want to ensure that your volunteers are having a great experience: both because you know they could be enticed to come back and volunteer again, and because every person is also a potential partner or donor. In an effort to build community and networks, try matching your volunteers into teams to work on specific projects. If this volunteer opportunity is in person, facilitate a short ice-breaker and introduction at the beginning to start building relationships. If it is virtual, try out something similar over a video call with everyone to start orienting several people together. Creating relationships - whether for one day or over an entire project - can be helpful to also establish accountability with each other and provide an incentive to keep coming back.
Take the time for training and orienting
As previously mentioned, many volunteers are interested in volunteering to learn more about your organization. Providing an overview of your work can be really helpful to orient the volunteers to what their volunteering time will be assisting with, and how it furthers the mission of your organization. Additionally, while most volunteer activities can be pretty simple, more skill-based volunteer opportunities might involve a bit of training.
If you have the capacity, having a volunteer training session can be very helpful to attract new volunteers and ensure everyone is one the same page. These sessions could be organized monthly or quarterly, and interested volunteers could sign to attend one whenever is convenient for their schedule. Depending on the nature and complexity of the work, 2 - 3 hours is generally plenty of time for a training and orientation program. Make sure to cover both the basics of your organization, your work, and your target population, as well as the specific work volunteers could be covering during their shifts.
While most volunteer trainings and orientations are lecture based, including an activity and/or a tour of your building can be really helpful to break up the information and put it into real context. This could be a good time to break into small groups and allow volunteers to learn more about each other and their interest in getting involved with the organization. If you have several clients or customers who could come speak with volunteers during these trainings, you could host a short information panel or have them break into the small groups with the volunteers to interact one-on-one. If able, these clients or customers could also lead the tour or lead part of the training. There are lots of possibilities to make the training engaging - and you should take the time to try to make it as fun as possible, since it will often be the first interaction these volunteers will have with your organization.
Never underestimate check-ins and feedback forms
Lastly, I cannot stress how important feedback is to volunteer programs. I mentioned that volunteers can often turn into donors or partners, and while we always aim to create a great experience while volunteering, sometimes things don’t always go as planned. Instituting individual check-ins with long-term volunteers and feedback forms for short-term volunteers can be critical to this process and ensure your organization is listening to those around you.
Feedback does not just provide information about how their experience went and their connection to the organization, but can also reevaluate those strengths that the volunteer initially thought they had to bring to the organization. Maybe they recently developed a new skill they’d like to further learn through your organization, or you realized they actually were really great at doing something they didn’t initially realize. To keep your volunteer program effective and maintain great relationships with your volunteers, turn to them to inform you about how to improve the experience. Of course, not everything suggested can be implemented, but it could provide new ideas or structures about how you can organize things.
Demise of Organizational Volunteers
However, no matter how much we vet, orient, train, and check-in with our volunteers, there will always be issues. Unlike a hired employee who is often hired to lead certain programs without too much oversight, volunteers often need a lot of oversight and guidance to ensure they are working on exactly what is needed. Even if they are a nonprofit veteran, they probably won’t know everything about your organization and how it functions, and might need more help to make sure they are on the right path. To develop a truly quality and efficient volunteer program, a designated volunteer manager needs to be assigned. Volunteers are often an entire staff in itself for your organization, and without appropriate oversight, they can either make the assigned task more difficult by not being effective or complete, or can also create more work by doing it completely wrong and needing a staff person to correct it. As with any new hire, this is the risk that organizations take that they are bringing in quality talent and capacity. And while you won’t be losing any funds with volunteers, volunteers are still a risky investment when asked to do work essential to the organization.
Overall, volunteers are wonderful at increasing your organizational capacity quickly and efficiently. However, as with any new hire, challenges are sure to arise, but a few steps can be taken initially to work through those big potential issues.
If you’re looking for assistance with your volunteer program:
If you’re looking for help with creating a quality, efficient volunteer program for your organization, feel free to reach out at hello@kaliewertz.com to learn more about how I can help with your organizational volunteer impact. I am happy to set up a free initial consultation to determine your needs!