What should the qualifications be for a person that is responsible for volunteers at an organization?
That’s a hot topic right now, and there is a LOT of disagreement about it. Heck, we can’t even agree what to call such a person! (volunteer manager? volunteer resources manager? volunteer coordinator? director of community engagement?)
My view:
If an organization views this person as merely the purveyor of free labor, and sees this person as the primary manager of volunteers in a single activity – volunteers staffing the gift shop or the help desk, working in the food pantry (more with the food than the clients), serving food in a shelter, cleaning up beaches on one-day events – then the qualifications are going to be quite low. The person in charge of volunteers will report to the head of human resources, won’t be a senior manager, and will be judged on whether or not all shifts are filled and all tasks are completed. Those are skills that can be taught to someone on the job – no need for volunteer management credentials – though some volunteer management workshops would be helpful.
This is how most corporate folks and very traditional organizations view managers or coordinators of volunteers. This is how most volunteer management workshops and most volunteer management conferences view those responsible for volunteers at an organization.
By contrast, if an organization views this person as responsible for:
- community engagement, demonstrating that the community invests in the organization and believes in its mission
- building the capacities of other employees to involve volunteers in their work and supporting employee involvement of volunteers in a variety of roles, including in leadership roles
- being up-to-date on legal issues, political rhetoric and trends that can affect volunteer involvement
- creating ways for volunteer involvement to relate directly to the organizations mission
then the qualifications required for the person in charge of volunteers are MUCH higher. The manager of volunteers or director of community engagement is not merely the purveyor of free labor; this manager has a direct role on program delivery and, therefore, should report to the director of programs – if not directly to the Executive Director! And credentials are essential – though not necessarily a certificate in volunteer management.
Here’s all the places this is a hot topic right now – check out what’s being said and join the conversation!:
- Susan Ellis / Energize, Inc.’s hot topic for July: Needed: A Multi-level Approach to Credentialing Volunteer Management
- Redundant public sector workers should become volunteer managers, says Francis Maude, in the United Kingdom
- Why Francis Maude is wrong and concerns about the sector response, a blog from Rob Jackson
- WANTED BRICKLAYER Thoughts on VM qualifications, and a followup, and then another followup – all blogs by an anonymous person calling himself “A Devils Advocate of the volunteering world”
Also see:
Thanks for adding to the conversation, Jayne. Because of all the good discussion, we are planning to devote the entire October issue of e-Volunteerism (www.e-volunteerism.com) to credentialing — every article will look at this theme from a different perspective.I just wanted to note that one of the problems is that "volunteer manager qualifications" means two different things. We can discuss what it takes to be "qualified" (skilled, informed) to do the work. But in the UK, as one example, "qualifications" actually means government-set basic "standards" for an occupation. Different things! The latter is more connected to credentialing.A similar problem that has been surfacing in the discussion of "certification" (again, standards). Many confuse this with the granting of a "certificate" (document verifying the completion of a course of study) granted by a university or other teaching body.If this were easy, I guess we all would have figured it out by now! Thanks again.
Thank you for this Jayne. I have linked to this blog post from The Cowling Report http://cowlingreport.blogspot.com/ and from the People First Facebook page today.
Under ‘By contrast, if an organization views this person as responsible for:’I would like to add: Keeping an Open Door policyEngaging the volunteer in developing their skills and confidenceBeing an attentive listener especially to concerns of volunteersCreating exciting, fulfilling programs so that volunteers look forward to their volunteer periodKeeping abreast of volunteering and management trends so as to engage with senior management in a professional manner.It seems to me that if Volunteer Managers want to improve professional recognition then credentialling is vital.
I think those are more approaches than the positioning of the job. They are good to do – but don’t really have anything to do with how the job is positioned at the organization – as a source for free labor or as an extension of program. And I don’t think any of those approaches – valid though they are – require credentialing to be understood and practiced.