Leveraging Volunteer Talent March 17, 2009

Intellectually we all know how important volunteers are to our nonprofit work.  But day in and day out, we often fail to fully leverage and tap into this rich vein of talent and support.

Certainly this is a hot topic these days.  As budgets are strapped and demand for services up, increased dependence on volunteers is likely a smart solution for all organizations.  In addition, given the record level of layoffs in the past few months, there are possibly more talented individuals available to provide hands-on help.  And we have seen evidence of an increased interest in volunteerism in the up and coming generation, many of whom were seriously mobilized and engaged for the first time in the 2008 election. 

Yet, despite these trends, studies show nonprofits have a hard time retaining and leveraging volunteers.  The cover story of this month's Advancing Philanthropy addresses the topic and cites a Stanford Social Innovation Review article that nonprofits lose volunteers for a number of reasons which include not matching volunteers' skills to the jobs assigned, failure to train and lead volunteers, failing to recognize volunteers' contributions and measure their value.

What's to be done?  First, there needs to be an organizational commitment to leveraging volunteers to their fullest.  In order to do this, it's quite helpful to fully understand the impact volunteers have on an organization which is impossible without good measuremement.  (Check out a very helpful article on this topic from Blue Avocado: http://www.blueavocado.org/content/tracking-volunteer-time-boost-your-bottom-line-complete-accounting-).  Second, decide and learn to manage volunteers just as you would manage any other critical function in your organization.  The Advancing Philanthropy article previously mentioned has some great ideas on this. 

Finally, make sure you don't add more responsibility without the tools to measure, manage and scale.  GiftWorks Volunteers can help with all of this - from capturing volunteer skills and your organizational needs, capturing volunteer and project hours, to providing the means to recognize and communicate with your volunteer team.

 

Comments

Good point, Mary Pat. Yes, there will be a flood of volunteers coming our way. We would be remiss not to embrace this opportunity as a time to use technology to help get our volunteer program up to speed.

At the same time, don't forget that our board members are also volunteers. This is an era to consider the "care and feeding" of board members. Encourage board training and work closely with them to ensure you are making the most of their talents.