After the 2008 recession, financial belt-tightening forced nonprofits to cut jobs to recoup “fixed people costs.” That was seen as the easiest first step to decrease expenses, although it wasn’t necessarily the wisest given how much talent and organizational knowledge was sacrificed.
This is happening again due to the pandemic, as organizations ask the question, “how do we get the job done with fewer staff?” Or, “how we do we stay mostly volunteer, with only a core staff?”
Post-recession economics, coupled with the first wave of Baby Boom retirements, generated major growth efforts in the volunteer workforce in large national nonprofits. Organizations such as the March of Dimes, American Cancer Society and American Red Cross created programs to use volunteers’ professional skills to augment and invigorate their staffing needs. Alumni associations and community organizations also became more intentional about volunteers.
By 2019, according to the Independent Sector, the estimated value of volunteer time in the U.S. was $27.20 per hour.
The dynamic energy of the social service sector has multiple lessons for smart volunteer management. Lesson #1 is that integrating volunteers into your organization isn’t always as easy as you might think. Volunteers need education, care and feeding. If not, they can quickly become disillusioned and drop out due to unreal expectations of their roles, lack of appreciative feedback, inadequate training, excessive demands on their time and little sense of personal accomplishment.
Valuing Volunteers, Not Simply Tasking Them
In recent months, I’ve had two polar opposite volunteer experiences. As non-profits organizations of all sizes struggled with raising gifts early in the COVID-19 retreat to remote work, my colleagues and I decided to selectively offer pro-bono or reduced professional services. It was our way of helping keeping things going at a time of enormous disruption in organizations and the economy.
Case study #1:
When I read of a local film society’s plans to build a new theatre, I reached out. Perhaps I could assist with their fundraising appeals to major donors, which is one of my specialties. My email was returned within two hours! Like many community nonprofits, this organization was largely volunteer-led, with a small core business staff. While they were very good at crowdsourcing and similar fundraising tactics through social media, they were less comfortable with their capability to shape a “case for support” to foundations, from which they would seek critical large gifts. And a significant deadline was fast approaching.
Having written dozens of case statements over the past few decades, I offered to help – pro bono. We partnered, Zoomed, shaped “the story” on paper. They walked away from their first major funder meeting with a five-figure commitment. And now we are working on other similar proposals.
The value for me was to contribute to a good cause, partner with smart and committed staff and volunteers, see positive results and develop new contacts, and hopefully referrals, in the local non-profit community. In business, such a move would be called a “loss leader.” For me, it’s been a “personal gain.”
Case study #2:
Another volunteer opportunity arose recently, and I immediately jumped at the chance. It was for a cause personally very important to me. I also had plenty of experience regarding the topic. This started as a group collaboration but quickly became a one-way street. While a busy project manager at work, likely the chair hadn’t had much experience with volunteer organizations. They require a different attitude toward “management.” In this case, the “job” was to quickly check off a list of tasks to get a standard website and social web presence establish against tight deadlines.
Initially I volunteered for a couple of assignments; they were received but not acknowledged. I began to intuit that the chair had a different approach. I would have really valued a thank you, or an explanation or an update. Perhaps the quality of my work didn’t meet her standards, or the direction was off, but having that understanding would have been most helpful. It became obvious that the chair wasn’t using what I was contributing. When I raised the issue, she was completely tone-deaf; her only focus was fulfilling a list of tasks. I decided to step away from that volunteer role.
Using Volunteers Effectively – and Motivating Them
Having advised large volunteer organizations, such as alumni associations, and non-profit boards, I accept that “chemistry” matters. The team has to work well together and sometimes the fit is not right for everyone. That said, thoughtfully channeling volunteer expertise, energy and dedication has extraordinary potential for membership and fundraising organizations. Volunteers can add vital capabilities – e.g., a marketing VP of a multi-national corporation who sits on a university board or a diversity and inclusion expert from a community organization recruited for a private school board. Together, with the organization’s leaders, they work to achieve mission-focused objectives and bring a phalanx of support that tracks to bottom-line goals and longer term outcomes.
Here are some important principles for using volunteers effectively:
- Manage smart volunteers smartly. When possible, that means investments in staff to oversee them as well as training, technology and systems to ensure meaningful volunteer engagement, measurable outcomes and organizational ROI.
- Leverage volunteers’ creativity, fresh perspectives, knowledge, skills and experience to grow expertise and staff capabilities. Map this talent to organizational outcomes and defined metrics.
- Recruit volunteers in alignment with the human resources office or committee charters to match their skills to the organization’s needs. Not every volunteer will be the right volunteer, so clarity with them about the position and appropriate selection and placement are important.
- Initiate volunteer involvement with job descriptions, performance goals and benchmarks that map to the organization’s metrics for full-time staff and shape mutually understood expectations. As with paid staff, this consistency establishes a platform for providing feedback and coaching, for holding volunteers accountable and for motivating them further.
- Communicate with volunteers and connect them with leadership vision and strategy. By respecting and engaging them as “insiders,” they will see and hear that their involvement matters.
Most importantly, ensure that volunteers feel that they are part of the team. There is no trade-off for the solid “people skills” that not only help organizations attract – but also retain – an array of willing expertise. As my first example demonstrated, it’s a win-win for the volunteer and the organization.