A free resource for nonprofit organizations, NGOs, civil society organizations,
charities, schools, public sector agencies & other mission-based agencies
by Jayne Cravens
via coyotecommunications.com & coyoteboard.com (same web site)

Effective Volunteer Engagement:
Creating Roles & Tasks for Volunteers

Before your program starts recruiting volunteers, you need to have defined roles and tasks, in writing. How can you recruit for roles and tasks that you don't have yet? Having written roles and tasks will better ensure everyone has the same expectations about the assignment. It will also force you, the manager, to better ensure you aren't setting up volunteers for failure, aren't asking too much of volunteers, etc. If you don't have time to put assignments in writing, you don't have time to involve volunteers.

Added challenge: creating volunteering roles is NOT the primary responsibility of the manager of volunteers; a variety of employees and leadership volunteers should be creating opportunities for volunteer engagement.

Example: Habitat for Humanity

The international nonprofit Habitat for Humanity has affiliates all over the world. Each affiliate engages in activities that help people access home ownership. A typical Habitat affiliate has a manager overseeing house construction and another manager or coordinator overseeing the program to help community members meet the criteria for homeownership and become successful homeowners. These may be employees or may be volunteers themselves. Many affiliates in the USA also have a program to provide critical home repairs to vulnerable home owners and a program to revitilizae neighborhoods, each with its own manager or coordinator. Many affiliates also have a thrift store, called a ReStore, which accepts used items and overstock items for resale, with sales funding the operations of the local Habitat affiliate.

EACH of these Habitat staff members managing or coordinating different programs is expected to create a variety of volunteering opportunities. The construction manager and neighborhood revitalization coordinator are especially encouraged (some would say required) to involve individuals helping just once, groups each helping just once, and individuals helping on an ongoing basis, and for these volunteers to be a mixture of young people, old people, people from under-represented communities, people from the corporate world, people from faith communities, students from university programs and more.

For this volunteer engagement to be successful, the individual program managers and coordinators need to be creating tasks and roles for volunteers - NOT the manager of volunteers, who usually knows little to nothing about construction, or financial education, or trash disposal, or retail sales management, or any of the other things each manager and coordinator responsible for a different program knows about. The manager of volunteers recruits volunteers, tracks their applications and data, works with managers and coordinators to communicate the role, onboards the volunteers and, after the event, follows up with both volunteers and staff to get feedback. That manager may even take photos of volunteers in action, for use in marketing and fundraising efforts. That manager also looks at the demographics that volunteers represents and makes sure its representative of the community and that it is as inclusive and diverse as the organization desires - and if it doesn't, creates strategies to address that.

This model is successful ONLY if a great deal of work is done with each individual manager, long before they ever work with any volunteers.

Look around your nonprofit, NGO, government program or other mission-based program. Where should volunteers be involved? And based on your answer, what employees and leadership volunteers would therefore be in charge of supporting them?

Getting Staff to Create Volunteer Tasks & Roles

Should your nonprofit or other mission-based organization encourage or require staff members to create volunteer roles? The answer: both.

For volunteer engagement to be successful:

All staff have to buy into the idea that volunteer engagement is essential to your organization, beyond "money saved." This is achieved both with training ALL staff members at the start of their work and reminding them at staff meetings of why your organization involves volunteers.
All staff that will be expected to create roles for volunteers and work with those volunteers have to be trained in both of these tasks.
- Does your staff know how other similar organizations, or managers at other organizations that have similar roles, involve volunteers? Could those organizations be called on to help train your staff?
- Are staff regularly hearing about fresh ideas for involving volunteers in their specific scope of work? How can you make that happen?
- Does your staff understand the support volunteers need to be successful?
- Does all staff understand how your organization's code of conduct and safety policies apply to volunteers?
- Does your staff understand how to request volunteers from the person at your organization responsible for volunteers?
If you answered no to any of the above, then how will you change that? What role will your manager of volunteers play in making it happen?
Every employee and leadership volunteers needs to have the requirements regarding working with volunteers in their job or role description. If your thrift store manager is expected to create roles for volunteers, to support volunteers in those roles, to work to ensure volunteers' have a satisfactory experience and that others have a satisfactory experience with volunteers, etc., that needs to be in their job description, and they need to know that their annual performance review will include reviewing this work with volunteers. ALL staff should have a line in their job responsibility requiring them to work with volunteers, so that no one can opt out of such.
Staff that are effectively involving and supporting volunteers should be CELEBRATED, as well as encouraged to share with the rest of staff how they do it. If you've seen an increase in volunteer retainment, if you have seen a lot of positive feedback from volunteers, if individuals and groups are asking to come back and volunteer again, you need to recognize the staff person that is making that happen. They should be recognized not just at staff meetings but at board meetings as well, and you may want them to do an "Ask Me Anything" with the rest of staff over lunch.
The Executive Director and the Board of Directors must require and support all of the above activities, full stop. Without that mandate, none of it will happen.

If you make volunteer engagement optional for staff, if you have no internal requirements about it, staff will likely NOT involve volunteers. This requirement needs to be fully communicated from the very start of an employee or volunteer's role with your organization, emphasized as much as your requirements regarding timecards, reporting, and following the code of conduct.

Each volunteer role described in writing.

Staff need to be trained on how to put a volunteer role in writing and how to work with the manager of volunteers so that an appropriate person, or group, can be recruited.

Each volunteer role should say, in writing:

What skills or experience a volunteer should have before applying.
What training will be provided.
What physical abilities are required (for instance, ability to lift a certain amount of weight, or ability to stand for most of the shift).
If there is a requirement of a reference check and/or a criminal background check.
If an orientation for new volunteers is provided and what it's like (how long it takes).
How many hours a day, a week or a month you expect a volunteer to give in this role, and for how long (a week? a month? three months? a year?).
Who this role benefits, why this role matters, the difference the volunteer in this role will make.
What does success look like in this role, for the volunteer and the organization?
If some or all of this role can be done online, remotely.

What's terrific about requiring staff to write out each volunteer role is that it forces them to really think about what the volunteer will do, what is required of the volunteer and what they need to do to prepare for the volunteer or volunteers. Problems get identified before any volunteers come onsite, rather than being awkwardly realized as volunteers arrive and stand around.

But creating assignments is a challenge for a lot of nonprofits, schools, NGOs and others. Here's a way you can approach it:

What tasks need to be undertaken for a particular event, a particular program activity, a particular task that is the responsibility of an employee or volunteer?
What parts of that task could be assigned to someone helping that is NOT full time (helping just an hour a day, or four hours every Friday, or 20 hours over the course of a month, or helping at a particular event, etc.).
How much do I or another supervising employee or volunteer need to be involved with someone who undertakes this task? What would our involvement look like, in terms of supervision and support?

And then answer all the same questions asked earlier regarding what should be in a written volunteer role or task description.

Let's be blunt: if a staff member doesn't have time to do this, then that person does not have time to involve volunteers.

Each volunteer TASK does NOT have to be in writing.

While every volunteer ROLE needs to be fully defined, in writing, not every TASK has to be in writing. For instance, how volunteers should dust your thrift shop each morning, or how to clean the windows, probably does not have to be fully describe in writing.

But the kinds of tasks that a volunteer in a certain ROLE might do should be listed in that role. You can't predict every task, of course, but be reasonable: a volunteer greeter / front desk staffer at an event may not expect to have to also carry chairs and tables for the setup and then also put them away - therefore, they may not dress for that part of the role. Be clear about expectations for a role IN WRITING, and allow volunteers to say which parts of a role they may have to decline for whatever reason.

More about Creating Roles & Assignments for Volunteers:

How Volunteers Can Support the Person In Charge of Volunteer Engagement
The person in charge of volunteer engagement at a nonprofit, NGO, charity, school or other civil society organization or mission-based program primarily recruits and manages volunteers that are supporting other staff: the program staff, for instance, may need mentors for clients or people to clean up a public space or to foster animals. The fundraising staff may need volunteers to staff a donor event. But the person in charge of volunteer engagement should also be thinking about how volunteers can help with volunteer engagement - with recruitment, onboarding, training, support and recognition of volunteers. This resource provides information on how and why to do that .
Short-term Assignments for Tech Volunteers
There are a variety of ways for mission-based organizations to involve volunteers to help with short-term projects relating to computers and the Internet, and short-term assignments are what are sought after most by potential "tech" volunteers. But there is a disconnect: most organizations have trouble identifying such short-term projects. This is a list of short-term projects for "tech" volunteers -- assignments that might takes days, weeks or just a couple of months to complete.
One(-ish) Day "Tech" Activities for Volunteers
Volunteers are getting together for intense, one-day events, or events of just a few days, to build web pages, to write code, to edit Wikipedia pages, and more. These are gatherings of onsite volunteers, where everyone is in one location, together, to do an online-related project in one day, or a few days. It's a form of episodic volunteering, because volunteers don't have to make an ongoing commitment - they can come to the event, contribute their services, and then leave and never volunteer again. Because computers are involved, these events are sometimes called hackathons, even if coding isn't involved. This page provides advice on how to put together a one-day event, or just-a-few-days-of activity, for a group of tech volunteers onsite, working together, for a nonprofit, non-governmental organization (NGO), community-focused government program, school or other mission-based organization - or association of such.
Creating One-Time, Short-Term Group Volunteering Activities
Details on not just what groups of volunteers can do in a two-hour, half-day or all-day event, but also just how much an organization or program will need to do to prepare a site for group volunteering. It's an expensive, time-consuming endeavor - are you ready? Is it worth it?
How to Immediately Introduce Virtual Volunteering at Your Program (How to Involve Online Volunteers Right Away)
There are so many things volunteers could be doing RIGHT NOW, from their home or from work, for your nonprofit, NGO, school, government agency or other community program or cause-based initiative, that could help your program and clients, immediate roles and activities that don't require any new investment in new systems or equipment, and don't require any time to alter volunteer policies and procedures (provided you already have at least SOME policies and procedures for volunteers regarding confidentiality, safety, respect, etc.). This is a list of more than 20 virtual volunteering roles and tasks your program could launch RIGHT AWAY.
Examples of Virtual Volunteering
The most comprehensive list of virtual volunteering tasks you will find anywhere. Hosted on the Virtual Volunteering Wiki. It's a huge range, from short-term, micro tasks (micro volunteering online) to high-responsibility, high-profile roles.
Myths About Virtual Volunteering
A list of common myths about virtual volunteering - engaging and supporting volunteers online - and my attempt to counter them.
Micro Volunteering and Crowdsourcing: Not-So-New Trends in Virtual Volunteering
Back in the 1990s, I called it byte-sized volunteering: online volunteering tasks that take just a few minutes, hours or a few days to complete, like translating some text into another language, gathering information on one topic, tagging photos with certain keywords, etc., but require no ongoing commitment. Now, the hot-new term for this is microvolunteering. It's no different than offline, onsite episodic volunteering; just as volunteers who come to a beach cleanup or participate in a Habitat for Humanity work day don't undergo a criminal background check, don't receive a long pre-service orientation, don't fill out a lengthy volunteer application form and may never volunteer with the organization again, online volunteers that participate in a micro volunteering task may get started on their assignment just a few minutes after expressing interest. But just as offline episodic volunteering like beach cleanups are more about building relationships, creating more awareness and cultivating more supporters that getting things done, microvolunteering needs to have the same goals in order to be worth doing, to have more than micro impact.
The best assignments for online volunteers
An online workshop I did years ago, hosted by TechSoup. This video is FREE online, viewable at any time via YouTube. It's under an hour.
Promoting your volunteering program internally
Too often, the first position cut at an organization facing financial difficulties is the volunteer coordinator. Most people in these positions, I'm sorry to say, do a poor job of making sure that every staff member at their organization knows the time and expertise they bring to the position, and the essential nature of their role in recruiting and supporting volunteers. The volunteer coordinator should make sure he or she is seen as also absolutely essential to the organization. This page talks about how a volunteer coordinator can make sure the board, all paid staff and all volunteers at an organization know the essential value of not only volunteers, but also the volunteer coordinator.
Make All Volunteering as Accessible as Possible
Tips for creating an accommodating and welcoming environment for ALL volunteers, including those with disabilities. You are missing out on fantastic talent and resources by NOT focusing on accessibility!
Resources Regarding USA Labor Laws and Volunteering
How should you determine who is a volunteer and who should be paid for the hours they work at your organization? Your method should NOT be Who can we pay and who can't we pay? In the USA, there are laws and rulings from the Department of Justice that guide what tasks may and may not be done by volunteers (as opposed to paying someone to do the work), whether paid staff can be asked to volunteer (work unpaid) at the nonprofit where they work and more. This is a blog, rather than a resource page on my web site, and is therefore more about linking to other sources and quoting other sources than me actually writing the guidance. Although this is US-centric, some of the criteria is applicable in any country in trying to determine what is ethnically appropriate regarding volunteer tasks, including internships.
Advice for those assigning or supervising court-ordered community service
Mandatory community service or a "Court Referral Program" is an alternate sentencing option for Superior, Municipal, Traffic and Juvenile Courts in the USA. Community service is considered restitution by an offender through helping his or her community. The service means actions, activity, engagement -- doing something that needs to be done and that helps the community or a cause. Too often, the goals of court-ordered community service aren't happening, and instead, people who need the service cannot find a place to do their service hours, and nonprofits expected to host these volunteers cannot do so. This new resource is for judges, probation officers, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and other criminal justice practitioners that are involved in assigning and supervising court-ordered community service.
Hosting International Volunteers
More and more local organizations in developing countries are turning to local expertise, rather than international volunteers, to support their efforts. However, the need for international volunteers remains, and will for many, many years to come. This resource provides tips for local organization in a developing countries interested in gaining access to international volunteers.
Pro Bono / In-Kind / Donated Services for Mission-Based Organizations:
When, Why & How?
There are all sorts of professionals who want to donate their services -- web design, graphic design, human resources expertise, legal advice, editing, research, and so forth -- to mission-based organizations. And there are all sorts of nonprofits and NGOs who would like to attract such donated services. But often, there's a disconnect -- misunderstandings and miscommunications and unrealistic expectations that lead to missed opportunities and frustrating experiences. This resource, prompted by the topic coming up at the same time on a few online discussion groups I read, is designed to help both those who want to donate professional services and those who want to work with such volunteers. It's applicable to a variety of situations, not just those involving computer and Internet-related projects.
Blog: If humans can do it, so can volunteers (who are, BTW, also humans). An editorial about breaking down the boundaries that are keeping you from allowing volunteers to undertake certain roles and tasks.
Blog: Letting Fear Prevent Volunteer Involvement is Too Risky. An editorial about how too many nonprofits think volunteers should be barred from certain roles and tasks because the tasks involve risk.
Blog: When to NOT pay interns. One of several commentaries about the ethics of involving unpaid interns (not paying them makes them volunteers).

But before you do any of the above, have you done the FIRST steps in volunteer engagement? And have you created policies and procedures for safety?

Return to this web site's index of volunteer engagement-related resources

And also time to have a look at:

The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook:
Fully Integrating Online Service Into Volunteer Involvement.

A comprehensive guide to using online tools for supporting & engaging ALL volunteers, & for creating online roles & online tasks for volunteers.

The Ultimate Guide to Setting Up Virtual Volunteering At Any Organization.

Here's how to order
(includes table of contents and reviews).

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