An election has happened in the USA and, by now, even tight local elections should have been resolved and winners named. And that means, nonprofits, that you have some relationship building and sustaining to do:
Update your lists of elected officials – city councils, county officials, your state legislative representatives and your US congressional representatives. They don’t take office until January, however, so don’t change the lists prematurely if you have information to send out before the end of the year.
Newly-elected officials should get at least a card of introduction from your nonprofit. An invitation to meet face-to-face would be even better. They need to know who you are and why you matter.
For officials who did not choose to run for re-election, or lost the election, especially if they ever attended any of your events or somehow showed support for your nonprofit. Thank them for their support and consider offering an invitation to continue to be involved with your nonprofit in some way – at least signing up to continue to receive your newsletter.
Relationship building with elected officials has never been more critical for nonprofits’ to survive. You ignore doing all of the above at great risk to your nonprofits’ future.
Nonprofits in the USA: there are people among your clients, your donors, your volunteers and employees who are deeply worried right now, per the November 2024 election. You don’t have to get political, but you do need to demonstrate to those you work with and for that your organization has a commitment to respect and inclusion in its work. And your employees in particular need to know you have their back in case they need to start job hunting.
Start by reaffirming your organization’s mission, vision and code of conduct, all of which should be in writing, to employees and volunteers. All of your volunteers should be signing new liability waivers and photo releases at the start of each new year – so why not have an official re-orientation when volunteers arrive to renew their paperwork that reminds them of your organization’s mission, vision and code of conduct? If your organization has a written commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), that should be noted as well. Most of your staff will greatly appreciate the reminder and the demonstrated affirmation.
Post reminders to your organization’s social media about your organization’s mission, vision, code of conduct and commitment to DEI. Don’t just do one post for all of this: create a series of posts. A post once a week, or every other week, would make the point clear to your various audiences.
Make sure you have signage in break rooms and work sites that clients, paid staff and volunteers will see that reminds them of your organization’s mission, vision, code of conduct and commitment to DEI. If you are a part of a national network, your national HQ may have posters already made for this.
One caveat: you may lose a volunteer or some supporters because they disagree with your organization’s values – and never realized it fully until you reminded them of such. They may leave quietly or they may express their displeasure in “finding out” that your organization is so “woke.” The reality is that, if they have this reaction, you haven’t done a good job of making sure that everyone has buy-in to your organization and how it works. Do you really want people interacting with clients and potential clients who are not fully bought into your organization’s mission and culture?
Many of us work for nonprofits where our positions are funded in part, if not entirely, by federal funding that is being targeted for elimination starting July 2025. So, nonprofit executive directors: pay attention to staff morale, respect staff that have started job hunting. Be an enthusiastic and supportive reference for employees applying for other jobs.
Tomorrow, November 5, is election day in the USA. Millions of people have been able to vote early and have already submitted their ballot – as you see me doing in the photo at the right – but millions more could not do that, and the only way they are going to be able to vote is to go to a polling place on election day and probably stand in line for a very long time.
Please don’t limit your employees and volunteers to trying to vote before or after work, or over their lunch hour, if you are in a state requires voting at a polling place. Executive directors: tell your staff to let their managers know what three hour slot they will need for voting during the work day, and have managers tell YOU what three hour slot they will need.
Tell staff this is done on the honor system because OF COURSE you trust your staff to take only the amount of time they actually need to vote and to come back to work when they are finished – they won’t take three hours unless that’s what they actually need. Do NOT require things like a photo of them standing in line waiting to vote.
If your nonprofit won’t do this, if you refuse to do this, then let me be blunt: unfollow this blog, and unfollow me on social media. You don’t deserve my advice on anything.
A truth bomb from a Facebook group I follow, for people that want to work from home:
Most work-from-home jobs are customer service jobs, for insurance companies, airlines, subscription TV services, etc., and you don’t work when you want: you have a fixed, strict schedule. And these jobs don’t pay well. The trade-off is, of course, that you get to work from home, but if you think you are going to be doing child care at the same time, think again!
I work from home most of the time, and I don’t have a strict fixed schedule: I work in marketing and press relations for one nonprofit, I manage the online community for another, and I pick up marketing or volunteer management-related gigs here and there. I work from home 90% of the time, and I don’t have a strict schedule: I can walk my dog when I want, for the most part, I can take a break to watch a movie on TCM if I have time in the middle of the day, I can sleep late some days… but I have to work real hours most every day, and I can’t have distractions while I’m working. The deadlines are real. And I have to be available for phone calls and emails from clients. As flexible as my schedule is, there is NO room in it for child care.
The myths around working from home are important to me for three reasons:
There are so many work-from-home scams out there. I have a plate on my web site about What Work-At-Home / Remote Jobs Look Like and how to avoid scams because there are so many scams (and so many people falling for them).
There are so many desperate people in developing countries that believe the myths about working from home, that think it’s work you can do with just a smart phone and you can do whenever you might have some time, that you don’t need a computer or absolutely perfect and fast Internet access. They are among the prime targets for work-from-home scams.
The myths about working from home are similar to myths about virtual volunteering: that volunteering roles online don’t require a schedule (they do – extra time for online volunteering does not magically happen), that the deadlines aren’t strict (they are – if you don’t do an assignment, it often leaves the nonprofit scrambling to get something essential done that they were counting on you for), that you don’t need any skills (you do), etc. Here’s a list of myths about virtual volunteering, from the Virtual Volunteering Wiki.
There are a LOT of parallels between working online from home and volunteering online from home. My book The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook is focused primarily on people who want to engage online volunteers, and covers how to create online roles, and how to properly onboard and support online volunteers during their engagement. If you are a manager of online employees, you might find it helpful. It’s available both as a traditional print publication and as a digital book.
If you have benefited from any of my blogs or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help.
United Nations Volunteers mobilized a record-breaking number of 12,840 UN Volunteers, marking a four percent increase from 2022.
Of the total number of UN Volunteers, 11,339 or 88 per cent were from the Global South. Of these, 8,027 served as national UN Volunteers in their countries of origin, while 3,350 served as international UN Volunteers in other countries of the Global South. This demonstrated the commitment of UN partners and UNV to engaging local volunteer talent in peace and development worldwide, as well as to South-South cooperation.
In 2023, the average age of a UN Volunteer was 35, and the overall age range was from 18 to 78 years. There were 167 UN Volunteers aged 60 and above. There were 2,012 UN Youth Volunteers between 18 and 26 years of age.
The largest number of UN Volunteers served in sub-Saharan Africa (5,299). Latin America and the Caribbean had the next-largest contingent (2,762), followed by Asia and the Pacific (1,931), the Arab States region (1,649), and Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (1,224).
UNV achieved gender balance in the international professional category, while men were underrepresented in the national officer and general staff categories. Exceeding the target, 73 per cent of the UNV staff came from the Global South.
The proportion of women UN Volunteers increased to 57 per cent (2 per cent growth from 2022). Notably, in 2023, 49.8 per cent of UN Volunteers on the African continent were women, whereas this was 48 per cent in 2022.
SPOTLIGHT ON ONLINE VOLUNTEERING
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) relied on the talents of 100 Online Volunteers in Niger to run social media campaigns in French and English to raise awareness regarding the rights of refugees, most of whom are from <span>Burkina Faso, Mali and Nigeria. UNFPA marshalled 586 Online Volunteers to highlight women’s reproductive rights in Guinea and Niger and another 552 in Niger to combat fake news against the backdrop of political instability. Niger was also where 125 Online Volunteers assisted WHO in raising awareness of breast cancer and 105 Online Volunteers teamed with UN Women in championing women’s rights. Responding to the floods in Libya and the earthquake in Morocco, 95 Online Volunteers designed social media posts, mapped volunteering initiatives and managed information flows. As well, 18 Online Volunteers supported all UN entities in responding to the crisis in the State of Palestine and neighbouring countries – Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon. The assignments focused on media monitoring, need-based analyses, response mapping and translation.
To raise awareness about the 54 Faces of Africa Campaign and the Youth Connekt Summit in Nairobi in 2023, UNDP called upon 102 Online Volunteers. Another 77 analysed development plans and budget priorities for the UNDP Ethiopia Country Office. Online Volunteers with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) contributed to research on climate, nature and pollution, while for the Government of Zambia, they created content for the Africa Music, Art and Cultural Exhibition 2023.
The talents of 257 Online Volunteers were applied in support of UNDP’s work on youth empowerment in the Asia-Pacific region, while with UNFPA, 151 UN Volunteers supported the #EveryGirlCounts digital campaign. Additionally, 134 Online Volunteers supported Thailand’s Social Development Ministry by contributing to International Volunteer Day activities and creating social media content. As well, 56 Online Volunteers assisted the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) in an AI-generated platform on gender equality. UNV in China and UNDP launched #HerDigitalFuture with the support of 185 Online Volunteers to highlight opportunities and potential educational pathways in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) for teenage girls.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, 647 Online Volunteers served with the World Food Programme (WFP) in Peru to provide information to refugees and migrants, with a primary focus on those from Venezuela. In Bolivia, another 72 served in Online Volunteering assignments that helped inform people about accessing public information.
Emergency response in Ukraine was supported by 392 Online Volunteers who mapped, translated and provided important research to UN entities. Another 30 supported the UNDP Accelerator Lab initiative creating chatbots for public information. The Gender Equality and Women Empowerment programme was assisted by 60 Online Volunteers with UN Women in Kazakhstan, Moldova, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, with assignments ranging from research to data management, women entrepreneurship, peace and security. A vital role was played by 17 Online Volunteers, who contributed to the Türkiye earthquake response through psychosocial support, translation and social media content.
One of the things I have really disliked in working with people who manage volunteers is those that turn their noses up at people who have to do mandatory community service. “They aren’t volunteers, they are volunTOLDS”, they smirk. They will go so far as not inviting people doing community service to volunteer recognition events, not inviting them to follow them on social media, even not giving them the t-shirts, pins and other swag they give to “real” volunteers.
People volunteer at nonprofits for a variety of reasons and MOST of those reasons are NOT selfless: people volunteer to explore careers, to meet people, to have experience to add to their résumé, to meet a class requirement, because their religion tells them to, because they are skeptical about something and want to see first hand what the work is about, and a whole host of reasons that aren’t at all “selfless.”
I am an advocate for treating community service folks as VOLUNTEERS, just like everyone else. I have the same high bar of participation for them as I do any volunteer: they have to fill out the same paperwork, they have to go through the same screening and orientation, they have to adhere to the same policies, etc. Not all of them make the cut – just like other people who want to volunteer. But if they do, then I treat them just like all the other volunteers. And the result is that EVERY person who has done mandated community service with me has volunteered for MORE hours than the court or their class required.
This brings me to a recent experience: a friend who works at a nonprofit has a son who did something reckless and stupid and illegal, and ended up having to do mandated community service as a part of his sentence. She was at all of his various meetings with law enforcement and other officials in the restorative justice process, along with the friends who had been with him, and she talked about how he and his friends stared down at the ground, looked as humiliated as all the officials wanted them to, mumbled through answers, etc. She organized the community service hours he and his friends had to do at the nonprofit where she works – they worked alongside teens from a church to clean out the yard of an elderly, disabled homeowner. It was an all-day, very physically strenuous task. Had you been there, as I was, you could not have told which teens were from the church and which were the ones mandated by a court to be there. Days afterward, the teens had their follow-up meeting with officials, and did their usual mumbling and shame-staring, until… it was time to talk about the community service experience.
My friend said that the teens lit up, shoulders and heads straight, talking all at once about what they had done, seeing how much this homeowner had needed helped, how after a few hours they could see that they were changing her life for the better. One of them said, “I think I want to do this as my job – I want to help people like this!” They wanted to know if this was “real” volunteering and if they should put it on job applications.
Community service doesn’t always result in something like this. Volunteering doesn’t always result in something like this. But when it does – wow.
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It’s a sad reality that there are people that use nonprofits and charities to try to make money for themselves, and that recruit volunteers to “help”.
Here are some red flags to look for when signing up to volunteer, so that you can avoid being financially exploited – or worse:
The organization wants a large fee for you to volunteer. Involving volunteers is not free, and it’s not unusual for organizations to ask volunteers to pay a small fee to cover some costs – up to, say, $50 – but most organizations will offer to waive a fee for any applicant that says the fee will be cost prohibitive to volunteer. If an organization is asking for a fee, but doesn’t say what that fee pays for, ask.
The organization has volunteers working with children or other vulnerable people, but does no screening of volunteers, has no policies regarding behavior and grounds for dismissal, etc. Even if the work is done online, if children or other vulnerable people are involved, screening and policies need to be in place. If they aren’t on the web site, ask for such.
The organization doesn’t have its board of directors listed on the web site. This is always a red flag. A one-person nonprofit – a web site that has lots about the founder but not about other volunteers or the board – or that doesn’t list any board members or staff, is a nonprofit to steer clear of.
The organization talks a lot about “We can give hours!” That doesn’t mean anything. It’s a completely meaningless statement. If you are volunteering to meet a high school graduation requirement, any volunteering for a nonprofit organization should qualify. If you are volunteering to meet a court order, you have to clear the volunteering with the court contact BEFORE you volunteer. If you are volunteering in hopes of getting admitted to a university or to get a scholarship, the number of hours does NOT matter – what you did, what you learned, what you accomplished, the leadership you exhibited, etc. are what matter.
The organization’s web site is awash with photos from photo-sharing sites, rather than photos of their own actual volunteers, staff and clients.
The organization never says why volunteers are in these roles it is recruiting for, or just says, “We can’t pay people, so we recruit volunteers.” The organization should have a reason it reserves certain roles for volunteers, and the web site should give this reason.
The organization emphasizes repeatedly that you can use the volunteering to fulfill a court order, in exchange for a fee. There are nonprofits that have been sued for this practice by State Attorneys General.
And in addition to these, for volunteering abroad (in a country different from your own), look for these red flags:
The organization wants short-term volunteers, for just a few weeks, and no specialized skills are necessary. There are zero credible organizations in other countries that need foreign volunteers with no specialized skills to come to their site and do something that local people are perfectly capable of doing themselves. If you encounter such, you will find that they are asking for a great deal of money for you to come and do this “volunteering.” That’s a vacation, not volunteering.
The organization has no local people on its board or leadership team.
The organization wants these short-term, unskilled volunteers to do something highly unethical, like interact with children, work in an orphanage or interact with wildlife.
The organization does no screening at all, doesn’t check references, etc. – you pay a fee and you get to “volunteer.”
Please be cautious before signing up to volunteer. Look at the web site carefully. Ask questions. Ask to speak with a current or previous volunteer. Type the name of the organization into Google or Duck Duck Go along with words like ripoff or scam or beware and see if anything comes up.
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I read these words a lot about volunteers from the organizations they support:
unwavering dedication and selflessness
tireless commitment
always ready and available
Those qualities are, absolutely, worthy of recognition.
But I wonder…
Does your nonprofit require volunteers to have “unwavering dedication”? Or “Selflessness?” Do you expect volunteers to be “tireless?” Is that realistic?
I’ve touched on this before, back in 2018 with the blog Some people think they aren’t perfect enough to volunteer with you. It’s fine to have minimum time requirements for volunteers, and to celebrate volunteers that go above and beyond, but here’s the reality: most of your volunteers aren’t going to have unwavering dedication, they aren’t going to be tireless, and they aren’t selfless and THAT’S OKAY. Those dedicated volunteers who also have strong personal boundaries and don’t want to overextend themselves can also be really terrific volunteers.
Absolutely, honor your outstanding volunteers, but also have frequent messaging about
how easy it is to sign up to volunteer (and is it?)
the variety of ways to help as a volunteer in terms of time commitment and time of day to help (and is there?)
the benefits to volunteering for the volunteer (because the reality is that very few of us are completely selfless!)
And you also need to have a culture with volunteers that, while it absolutely can encourage a high quality of service, it also welcomes suggestions, even criticism, from volunteers, and that volunteers won’t be penalized for needing a break – for not being “tireless.”
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I live in the Portland, Oregon area, and a few years ago, the area experienced record-setting heat. In response, various city and county governments set up cooling centers: spaces in libraries, churches and convention centers where people without air conditioning and people who are unsheltered could come, with their pets, to get relief from the dangerous heat. One county government tweeted out several requests for volunteers, including one that said volunteers were needed “desperately.” I decided to amplify the message by posting it to various online communities I’m a part of, including posting it on the subreddit for Portland, Oregon. I highlighted some points in particular from the web site where people were to express interest in volunteering:
Must be 18+, have compassion for all guests. Social service experience helpful.
Please keep in mind that emergency response operations may be very hectic keeping you quite busy for extended periods. You may also experience very slow uneventful periods of time. Such is the nature of emergency and disaster response. Please take time before your deployment to prepare for this working environment.
These are 9-hour shifts. These locations are open 24 HOURS.
I did alter the message to say cooling center volunteers were needed URGENTLY, rather than desperately, because I think desperation is never a good place to recruit volunteers from.
The message was upvoted more than any message I’ve ever posted to Reddit. But there was also significant backlash. The criticisms fell into three areas:
Why aren’t these positions paid? Why are these volunteer roles instead?
Why are the shifts 9 hours instead of 4?
Why didn’t the city plan better & start recruiting sooner?
It’s a shame those first two questions in particular weren’t answered by the recruiting agency in their messaging. As regular readers of my blog know, to not say why positions are volunteer rather than paid is always a big no-no. And saying “we don’t have the money to pay, so these are volunteer!” would not be the answer I am looking for (and probably not most of potential volunteers either).
As for the third comment, I don’t know that the city didn’t start recruiting sooner; I didn’t look on HandsOn Portland, VolunteerMatch and AllforGood, for instance, to see if they had started recruiting there. I don’t know that they didn’t have notices on their own web site sooner than what I saw on social media. So I hesitate to criticize them for how they have recruited in terms of when and where.
I did take issue with one comment that was made, and pushed back at it:
Way too much money and benefits expenses being expended on volunteer “coordinators”
I noted in my response that managers or coordinators of volunteers are some of the lowest paid people at any nonprofit or other agency, and rarely is their only role managing volunteers. I also said:
Volunteers aren’t free: someone has to recruit them, read the applications, interview them, screen them (often, background checks, reference checks and extensive interviews are required), supervise them (both to ensure their safety and client safety, and to make sure they’re doing what they are supposed to), support them (train them, answer questions on demand, etc), record their hours and their accomplishments, address problems, and report regularly to senior staff about what the volunteers are doing. It’s a tough job, made harder by people who think volunteers are free, think volunteer management is “Hey, we need volunteers, come on down!” and the work all magically happens, and balk at coordinators who ask for better training for themselves, software to manage volunteers, etc.
Nonprofits have GOT to do a better job of addressing misconceptions about volunteers and volunteer engagement. This is just yet another example of why.
If you have benefited from any of my blogs or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help.
Do you head a nonprofit or non-government organizations (NGO)? I have a challenge for you. It’s a simple challenge, but a revealing one, and I’m daring you to do it:
Make this list, entirely on your own, with no consultation with others, of each person at your organization that you believe is supposed to be primarily responsible for:
responding to someone that emails or calls and says they want to volunteer.
meeting with / interviewing someone for the first time that wants to volunteer, getting all the necessary paperwork from the new applicant, etc.
orienting/training someone that will volunteer and what that orienting or training consists of (watching a certain video? going over the employee policy manual? getting a tour of facilities?)
inputting all of the volunteers’ information into a central database.
letting volunteers know about organization events or activities they would be welcomed to join or that they may be asked about from the public they work with.
following up with volunteers to see how their experience is going.
trouble-shooting on behalf of volunteers.
firing a volunteer.
recognizing and rewarding volunteers.
tracking volunteer contributions and reporting such to the organization.
interviewing volunteers that leave, to see why and to address issues.
Now that you have your list, then, at your next staff meeting, ask your staff these same questions. And learn two things:
If you are right.
If the staff that have these responsibilities knew they had these responsibilities.
Don’t be surprised if, in fact, you are wrong about who is responsible for what, nor surprised that there are staff with these responsibilities that didn’t know it. Reflect on these discrepancies and think about how you are going to support staff that didn’t know it was their responsibility to manage a piece of working with volunteers.
And then, finally, ask for a progress report on each of these tasks. And don’t be surprised to hear, again and again, “We’re behind on that. We’ve had other priorities. Sorry.” Because unless you have a dedicated manager of volunteers, someone whose sole responsibility is to support and engage volunteers, it’s very likely all those other people who are supposed to have at least a piece of volunteer engagement as a part of their roles – the marketing director, the fundraising manager, the thrift store manager, etc. – aren’t doing it regularly. And with that, you’ll finally understand why your organization doesn’t have all the volunteers it needs and why volunteers don’t stay.
And maybe then you’ll stop saying, “Well, people just don’t want to volunteer anymore!”
