Volunteer Training

More than four in 10 Americans volunteered in 2013, according to the latest General Social Survey released earlier this year. While that's impressive, volunteering is down since 2010, the last time the survey was conducted. That's not terribly surprising considering a Volunteer report found that 62% of volunteers have had a negative experience. That draws the challenge for nonprofits into clear focus: How do you not only recruit volunteers, but keep them coming back? The best way to engage volunteers is to make working with your organization a positive experience. Here are a few tips for achieving that: 1. Be professional. This seems obvious, but volunteers who have a negative experience most often cite organizational issues as the main problem. Nonprofits should remember that providing a professional experience is in the details. When volunteers arrive, have name tags ready and know what the assignments are and where people should go. Ensure staff and signs are on hand t...

How often has this happened to you - you interview a prospective volunteer, love their background, love what they offer, and love what they could bring to your movement, but you never hear from them beyond the initial interview? If this has happened to you (and I'm sure it has) I have a tool that you must have to nip 'volunteer-fade' in the bud. See, after a prospective volunteer leaves your office, several questions are spinning through his/her head: will I really make a difference here with limited time? How can I possibly help the people they're serving? Will I be valued? If you let these questions blossom into doubts, you've lost that volunteer, so they key is to proactively answer these questions for your prospective volunteer before that happens. The best way to do this is with a follow up letter that addresses these concerns. When used correctly, this strategy will dramatically reduce volunteer disappearance. Here's an example of a letter I've us...

A new kind of volunteer is emerging. More today than ever before, people with high-level skills are offering their services to respected nonprofits. The "skilled volunteer" is someone who has specialized professional skills to offer, skills that do not fall within the scope of typical day-to-day volunteer tasks. These people may accept the day-to-day work that is necessary for volunteer-run programs to function or they may not, but regardless, they definitely have a specific expertise they wish to contribute. Working with these volunteers is a significant opportunity for nonprofits. When offering their services, skilled volunteers take on work a contractor might undertake, except they do not charge their services. I have met volunteers with experience developing communications plans, high-level VPs of large corporations, and people who have run extensive information Technology departments. They are often retired or semi-retired. Any organization can make use of professiona...

I am frequently asked, "How do we motivate our volunteers?" My response is, "You don't." Volunteers bring their own unique motivations to their work. A good volunteer manager learns to identify those motivations and then helps each volunteer achieve a sense of personal satisfaction. A variety of studies report that volunteers are motivated to action primarily for altruistic reason. Altruism is defined as a concern for the welfare of others. Among the top reasons for volunteering consistently identified by volunteers are: a personal belief in a cause, and a desire to help others. While these are the primary reasons cited, we also know that volunteers are motivated by a variety of personal reasons and may have different reasons at different times. I may volunteer for a particular event because I am doing it with friends and colleagues from the office. I may volunteer for another organization because I feel passionately about the cause. Perhaps someone I know ...

Volunteer placement Appropriate placement of individuals interested in volunteering benefits the agency and the volunteer. Volunteers placed in positions they are not interested in or not suited for may not enjoy their volunteer experience. If they have not been trained adequately for the job, they may feel incompetent, and may also dislike volunteering. Volunteer placement depends on a few variables, including: Positions available Agency needs Skills and interests Availability When a volunteer is placed suitably, it is a win-win situation for all. While this may seem like a relatively easy task, some potential volunteers may not be sure exactly what they want to do when they enter an agency. Likewise, an agency may not be exactly sure what volunteer jobs there can be! (Thus, the importance of job descriptions). Aside from the importance of identifying a volunteer's personal interests and skills, some questions that may be helpful in assessing a placement include: ...

Application Forms Application forms are an easy form of initial screening when recruiting new volunteers. Not only will you learn something about the background of an individual, but you may find out exactly what she is looking for in a volunteer position. Every agency will design an application which best suits their needs but there are common questions that organizations may ask and information that potential volunteers should provide. Common questions that you may want to include on volunteer application forms: What is your education background? What is your employment history? Have you had any previous experience as a volunteer? If so, with what organization, and what kind of work did you do? Why, at this particular time in your life have you chosen to volunteer with us? What do you hope to gain from being a volunteer? What clubs, organizations, or associations are you involved with? What are your hobbies and interests? What life experiences have you had that might b...

While the needs of organizations will differ, the basic steps involved in volunteer recruitment remain essentially the same. Organization must be sure to: identify volunteer and agency needs; create clear volunteer job descriptions; define target volunteer groups; develop a timeline; brainstorm and implement recruitment ideas; and practice on-going marketing and recruitment. Identifying Needs Volunteer tasks/ jobs should be meaningful to the agency, and the volunteer. That is, agencies must determine exactly what needs to be done before recruiting volunteers, rather than recruiting first and then scrambling to find jobs. While volunteers may be required to perform relatively repetitive (and less exciting) tasks (i.e. photocopying, filing), agencies should also offer more challenging and interesting work. For example, a volunteer at a crisis center works reception, answering the office phone and doing filing. She becomes comfortable with the job she is doing and wants more challen...

The contemporary gurus tell us we have entered the Information Age. It might as readily be called the Age of Blurred Boundaries. In every realm boundary issues seem to be simmering if not on a full boil. Resource disputes between Aboriginal and maintstream communities are heating up and no easy resolution is in sight. Mergers and acquisitions leave many people wondering what organization they will be working for tomorrow. Trade agreements are dissolving economic boundaries. In the world of medicine xenotransplantation stirs controversy. The ever expanding Inter-Net blurs boundaries between nations and people. The complexity at times can be overwhelming as we attempt to keep abreast of new developments. The non-profit world is not exempt from this phenomenon of blurred boundaries. As government funding has diminished more and more non-profits look to active partnerships with other non-profits or for-profit organizations to meet funding and service delivery needs. The recent controver...

We've all been there. We've inherited a program with a ragtag collection of volunteer positions, some based on old expectations of volunteers, some poorly thought out, some created to address a single need that no longer presses, some simply unpleasant no matter when, where or who. If we've kept up on trends in volunteerism or simply have a gift of empathy, chances are we know precisely why the position is so unattractive. Maybe it's too big an emotional commitment. Maybe it's boring. Maybe it isn't available when volunteers are. Perhaps we don't know how to recruit the best volunteers for the position. Even if we do know the cause, a relative few of us know the solution. To arrive at this we must be sure we have looked at every aspect of the problem recruiting. Analyzing the Problem Undoubtedly, the most fertile environment for examining the recruiting challenge will be within your own organization, with other staff and volunteers familiar with the po...

Fundraising becomes easier when a nonprofit group has the right array of volunteers. What are the right types? Twenty years of experience have led me to cluster them into five unique styles. 1. The Decision-Makers When decision-makers are good, they can ask the vital questions and make brilliant decisions even when all the information is not available (and it almost never is). They create clear policy, workable strategy, and rational plans. When they're bad, the meetings last forever and the group never acts. Ask your team to admit if they know they are bad decision-makers. Get those people out of decision-making roles - fast! (They'll probably thank you for it) Ask which good decision-makers. Anyone who does not reply that they are good or bad, are bad -- so bad they can't even decide. Boards should be made up primarily of decision-makers. Every working group or task force needs at least one. If you have to recruit decision-makers, look among people who are success...

The hours volunteers give to make programs and special events successful, and the fundraising contact they have with your donor base, makes them key spokespersons. Volunteers can be your organization's strongest recruiters, whether for additional volunteers, or for financial contributions. The most credible source of information within your organization to someone without any personal knowledge of it, they must be informed and up-to-date about your organization's mission, projects and plans. "Volunteers can come up with a list of specific donors to steward," says Norman Velnes, planned giving manager for the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada's Winnipeg division and chair of The Deer Lodge Foundation. "They can send a card with the latest newsletter or quarterly, and can help organize donor appreciation events. When they approach a family member, friend or colleague on behalf of your organization, they legitimize it in the other person's mind." ...

When newspapers publish articles and press releases about volunteer activity, the emphasis is very often on volunteering in the charity fund-raising sector. Not all of us, however, are born fund-raisers. Many of us, however, are born fund-raisers. Many of us dislike going out asking for money, no matter how worthwhile the cause. And many people don't realize that the society in which we live, particularly in the developed nations, has created a massive number of people who can best be described as "chronically lonely". Loneliness has little to do with one's age of financial resources. Furthermore, loneliness can not always be overcome by going out or joining groups. One can be very lonely indeed, even in a crowd of dozens of people, if the group encounter does not radiate a true sense of caring on a personal level. Visiting the elderly, visiting the mentally depressed, doing someone's shopping, making daily "cheer-up" phone calls - all are valuable ...

One of the most annoying habits that some volunteer leaders fall into is that of assigning a responsibility to someone and then not leaving them alone to get the work done. Remember the old cliche about not hiring a dog to protect you and then doing the barking yourself? I recently volunteered to do a particular task for a charity. I made the first phone call and established a relationship with a potential donor. When I made my follow-up call, I was told that the person who asked me to volunteer my services to perform that particular task had decided - without consulting me - to do the follow-up himself. The result: he lost my future volunteer services of course, but more importantly he made our charity's administration look disorganized. Don't do that. If you doubt that a volunteer is doing the job properly, follow up with that volunteer, not with an outside party. On the other hand, some volunteers are very delinquent when it comes to telling anyone what they are doing...

How will you know when you are approaching volunteer burn-out, and what can you do about it? You are approaching "volunteer burn-out" when some important aspect of your personality changes for the worse - and stays there! If you were a mean person when you began your volunteer activity, if you constantly criticized others who didn't reach your standards, if you had no sense of humor about yourself - and all of these characteristics have stayed with you while you have been doing your current volunteer work, you aren't necessarily burnt out. You're just a pain-in-the-behind (which, I quickly add, does not mean that you are not a highly productive pain-in-the-behind!). However, if you have developed negative and anti-social characteristics since you started your current volunteer activity and they seem to be settling in as part of your permanent makeup, then you're on the way to burning yourself out. If a fire is left alone and not fed with any new fuel, i...

Starting a Volunteer Program? Here are seven essential steps to help make it a long term success. 1. Define why you need volunteers Are you looking for volunteers to enhance the services that you provide, to strengthen your community involvement, to enrich your exposure to certain communities? Is there a genuine reason to use volunteers? Every volunteer program must begin with an understanding of why your organization wants or needs volunteer support. Ensure that you have the support of your board of directors and senior administratives before embarking on a recruitment campaign. At the initial stage, it is also essential to establish desired outcomes for volunteer involvement. Establishing these outcomes objectives early in the process will help to guide the types of volunteers that you recruit, and the way that you manage them once they have come on board. 2. Design valuable volunteer opportunities By designing valuable volunteer assignments you provide volunteers with chall...

From early childhood onward, every one of us is in the business of raising funds. "Mom, can I have an allowance?" "Dad, why can't I have a bigger allowance?" are fund raising questions common to everyone's life experience, rich or poor, North American or South Asian, boys or girls. In a well-ordered household, the recipient of an allowance usually has to do something in return - wash dishes, tend the garden, fetch the water or whatever. Nothing voluntary there. As we grow older, most of life's activities for the average person consist of searching for ways to trade our time, energy, labor and expertise for the funds we need to pay our way. Unfortunately there are a lot of people on this planet who do not have enough time, energy, labor or expertise to offer in exchange for the money they need to pay their way. On the other hand - and indeed, very fortunately - there have always been people who are willing to trade their time, energy, labor and exp...

An ideal arena for the display of leadership skills when you are asking people to give their time, their influence and their money, volunteer recruitment presents many analogies to fundraising - including the preparation for the call and the call itself. Firstly, fundraising requires volunteers who operate, a distinct from volunteers who give good advice, so I think about people who make calls and presentations comfortably, perhaps in the course of their work. I look for action- and task-oriented people, and people who sell professionally or naturally, not necessarily people who have fundraised before. Next. to identify great volunteers, I would get beyond the obvious people. Start from a clear idea of the target organizations and individuals, and ask who or what kind of person could gain access and be heard. Remember that people give to people. Think about the most senior people, whose organizations support the cause or the community generally, whose Chief Executive Officers or B...

One of the questions that often causes more anxiety than it should is determining whether or not a volunteer's expenses should be paid. Many volunteers are financially able to give both time and money to the organization of their choice. Many are not. Whoever is in charge of budgeting can event or campaign should be careful to spell out the ground rules in advance. Those volunteers who aren't in a position to cover their own expenses should not be made to feel inadequate or compared in anyone's mind to those who don't need to have their expenses covered. Time is worth money and the hours donated by a volunteer are just as important as a cheque - sometimes even more so. What are those expenses which volunteers are often faced wtih? Parking lots eat up a fair bit of change, especially for downtown meetings. Meals too. Entertaining prospective donors or volunteers is another common expense. And so on. Make private and arrangements in each case When volunteers are e...