Hottest 100 Ideas in Volunteer Management

IDEA #1: Rethink Your Job Description

As someone who works with volunteers, you probably won’t find this phrase in your job description: “facilitate an individual’s acquistion of needs.” Fact is, people volunteer to meet needs — needs that are going unfulfilled in their lives. It’s your job to help them identify those needs. Then, you can determine if the volunteer opportunities you have available are appropriate for that individual or if you should refer them to another organization better suited to handle their needs.

IDEA #2: Test Your Listening Skills

How well do you listen to your volunteers? Test yourself: The next time you meet one-on-one with a volunteer, note how many times you interrupt him or her. (Do the same in a group meeting.) Also, measure how often you dominate conversations by noting how many ideas come from you and how often you encourage volunteers to speak.

IDEA #3: Consider Open-Ended Training

Never assume you always know more than the people in your training session. Develop open-ended questions to get the volunteers to share life experiences. For example, ask a person planning to work with troubled teens, “Have you ever worked with people who were struggling in any way?”

IDEA #4: Develop a Faith-Based Volunteering Program

Identify the leaders of a community of faith and reach out to them. Work with them to learn more about their faith. Discuss how volunteering in your program can be integrated into the practice of that faith. You’ll be surprised how well the values of volunteering and faith match. The key to success is keeping an open mind on both sides and seeking common ground.

IDEA #5: Use Families on a Family Volunteering Advisory Committee

If you are trying to create new family volunteering opportunities, why not start by creating an advisory committee made up of the families of your current volunteers? Be sure your families on the committee represent diverse family units (such as single parent, foster families, grandparents with grandchildren, etc.). Have your families help you find opportunities for them to volunteer.

IDEA #6: Recruit People with Disabilities to Volunteer Virtually

Examine your volunteer opportunities and determine which ones could be performed using technology. Next, contact agencies that offer services to persons with disabilities. See if you can post your virtual volunteering opportunities with them or if they have a client who might be interested. Remember, the number one reason people don’t volunteer is because they were never asked!

IDEA #7: Join a Professional Organization

According to Dr. Pat Boer at the Center for Career/Life Planning, the best way to start a new career or to develop your current one is join a professional association. Membership in an association, she says, allows you to connect with like-minded professionals, to become inspired, and to contribute to your field. Moreover, it helps you keep up with the latest trends and helps you discover what best practices are being utilized in other organizations.

IDEA #8: Approach Private High Schools about Youth Volunteering

Many private high schools have a community service graduation requirement and these students are always looking for ways to fulfill it. Contact the private high schools in your area and see if they have someone designated to coordinate volunteer opportunities for students. Work with them to adapt aspects of your volunteer program for these youthful volunteers.

IDEA #9: Recruit Volunteers of Faith Through a Lay Person

Sometimes, the best way to approach a congregation of faith is through a lay person. Adult Sunday school classes and other groups of faith within a congregation often look for activities to do together. Why not create a volunteer activity for them?

IDEA #10: Offer to Teach Faith Leaders about Volunteer Management

One way to partner with communities of faith is to offer to teach the faith leaders about volunteer management in exchange for helping to recruit volunteers for your program. The faith leaders will learn more about working with volunteers in their own congregation and you’ll have access to a new pool of volunteers.

IDEA #11: Use the Volunteer Wizard

The Volunteer Wizard is Kansas City’s local connection for volunteer opportunities over the Internet. Organizations with volunteer programs can post their opportunities on the Volunteer Wizard at www.spiritofservice.org. Potential volunteers can search the Wizard to agree with their individual preferences regarding location, clients served, and service interests.

IDEA #12: Build an Internal Volunteer Management Team

As a volunteer program expands, the demands of leadership and coordination also expand. Utilizing a team approach to volunteer management allows and fosters shared ownership of volunteer involvement by including many people (both paid and volunteer) in the work it takes to make it happen.

IDEA #13: Understand Why You Use Volunteers

Ask this question: if your organization had all the money in the world, would it still want volunteers involved? Answering this question will help you uncover some of the unique characteristics that volunteers bring to the fulfillment of your organization’s mission.

IDEA #14: Assess Your Co-Workers Attitudes Towards Volunteers

Think about the other staff in your organization and which of these three attitudes they most often exhibit about volunteers: distrust, tolerance or trust. Once you’ve thought about this, consider ways you can help those with distrusting and simply tolerant attitudes become more trusting of volunteers.

IDEA #15: Review Your Recruitment and Orientation Materials for Substance and Accuracy

Sometimes the wording in volunteer program materials misleads potential volunteers about the nature of the experience that awaits them. When volunteers join a program and do not find the kind of experience they expected, they are likely to become disillusioned and leave. Take a moment to look over your recruitment and orientation materials to ensure they adequately reflect your volunteer program.

IDEA #16: Use Your Volunteers to Recruit Online

Ask your volunteers if they have a business or personal Web site on which they could add a note about your organization and the volunteer opportunities available there. Better yet, provide an electronic “special volunteer” medallion for people to display online, hotlinked to your Web page, listing volunteer opportunities.

IDEA #17: Be a Better Leader – One Step at a Time

Learn about the skills that make people great leaders. Look at your own leadership style in comparison to others. Focus on one leadership skill that you would like to improve. Make a commitment to work on that skill a little bit each day until you’ve mastered it. Then work on a new skill.

IDEA #18: Help Young Volunteers Understand the Outcomes of Their Volunteering

Since many young volunteers are still developing their ability to grasp “the bigger picture,” it’s important to go out of your way to help them. Be sure you spend time with the young volunteer giving them an understanding of the connections between their volunteering and the impact it has in the larger scheme of things.

IDEA #19: Create Service Descriptions Instead of Job Descriptions

A service description is a brief explanation of what service the volunteer is providing. It is general and allows the volunteer manager and volunteer to customize the responsibilities of the service to the unique needs of the organization and the individual.

IDEA #20: Organize a Social Event for Your Volunteers

If your volunteers are a particularly social bunch, consider organizing a laid-back, social event for them. Make it different from your annual recognition dinner or event. Organize a trip to the ball game, a movie, a picnic or the zoo. (Remember to have them pay!) Have them invite their friends and family along. Give them a chance to socialize, kick-back and have fun!

Help us complete our list.

Submit your ideas below or e-mail us at vcckcmetro@crn.org. Contributors will be credited for their ideas.

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