Tag Archives: management

What funding volunteer engagement looks like

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image of a panel discussion

A week ago was Valentine’s Day in the USA, and it’s not too late to talk about LOVE for the people at your program that support volunteers, and a great way to show them some love is to pay for what’s needed to fund effective volunteer engagement!

I talk a lot about funding volunteer engagement, how if communities – including corporations, foundations and governments – want for more people to volunteer, and want more nonprofits and community programs to involve volunteers, they are going to have to pay for it, in cash. What would funders be paying for to increase community engagement, to increase volunteerism?

  • Salaries for part-time or full-time managers of volunteers.
  • Training for ALL staff in effective volunteer engagement (not just the person in charge of volunteer engagement), like how to create meaningful, appropriate assignments, how to appropriately support vounteers, how to report safety and quality concerns, etc.
  • Training for the person in charge of volunteer engagement in skills that could help in better support and recruit volunteers, like basic video or audio editing skills, so they can produce simple YouTube videos, podcasts, etc., or classes in another language, such as Spanish, or classes in facilitation, conflict management, DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), etc.
  • Subscriptions to services that have the information and news they need, like Engage.
  • Books – yes, BOOKS. Like mine, The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook.
  • Volunteer management software, computers, smart phones, video conferencing software (free versions often don’t provide a manager of volunteers all they need to effectively work with volunteers), etc.
  • Registration fees and travel expenses for staff to attend conferences that provide speakers and learning experiences that can help improve volunteer engagement.
  • Renting meeting or event spaces for volunteer-related activities.
  • Funds for volunteer recognition: gift cards, swag, etc.

All of the above is the “overhead’ that too many corporations and foundations refuse to fund. When I say volunteers are NOT free, these are the expenses I mean. Let me say it once again: if communities, corporations, foundations and governments want more people to volunteer, and want more nonprofits and community programs to involve volunteers, they are going to have to pay for it, in cash.

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Nine plus four emerging volunteer engagement trends (a VERY different list than you will read elsewhere)

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graphic by Jayne Cravens representing volunteers

Lots of people public predictions of upcoming trends in volunteer engagement – and often, these are people who are not managers of volunteers nor researchers regarding volunteerism. Their lists are things like People want micro tasks! – something many have said year after year, and something that, in practice, never seems to be what people are actually looking for, no matter what they might say in surveys. In other words, most of the lists seem to be focus on a casual, perfunctory view of volunteer engagement, not one based on reality, on actual experience.

Below is MY list of growing trends in volunteer management. It’s based on:

  • what I’ve seen on online communities like the volunteer subreddit and various other regionally-based subreddits, as well as on Twitter and on TechSoup,
  • what I’ve seen in the comments on Facebook posts by various nonprofits requesting volunteers,
  • what I’ve seen in emails and DMs sent to me (people like to share things with me, which I very much appreciate),
  • conversations with oh-so-many volunteers, wanna-be volunteers, and managers of volunteers,
  • my own work with volunteers and in volunteer management.

And after my own list, I post four more points from another organization that I agree with very much (hence why I called my blog “Nine plus four emerging volunteer engagement trends.”

  1. People want to know why a position is unpaid & don’t always like the answer.

Especially for positions that require particular skills, like web development, video editing, graphic design, translation, online community management, accounting/financial management or social media management, people want to know why the role is unpaid instead of a paid position – and “we can’t afford to pay someone” is NOT the answer they accept. They are also pushing back against unpaid internships at nonprofits. Also, labor unions, professional associations and people with disabilities are asking why people who are experts in something are being asked to donate their services, without being paid for their time (groups that are experiencing high unemployment are particularly angry).

Most organizations don’t have a mission statement for their volunteer engagement, one that could help guide the organization on when a role should or should not be an unpaid role. Most organizations also haven’t thought about ethical issues, like the inappropriateness and disrespect to people with hearing issues of having a student studying American Sign Language trying to interpret a live event rather than someone with this particular skillset and credentials, specifically.

The result of this trend if it’s not addressed properly: a continuing backlash against ALL volunteering.

2. People want much more support as volunteers.

Especially true of public-facing volunteers, like members of school boards and people expected to support youth or at-risk populations. These volunteers are being asked to recognize and report child abuse, deal with extremely angry parents and navigate potentially violent situations. They need specific training on these issues and they need continued support regarding such – and that training and support costs money that most governments and corporations balk at funding.

The result of this trend if it’s not addressed properly: fewer people volunteering for community, city and county government advisory boards, more people with specific political agendas doing so. Fewer people volunteering for critical volunteering roles with children, or with people who might be experiencing mental health issues, meaning many programs, like youth sports leagues or programs to support homeless people, have to be canceled.

3. Volunteers want to know why their service matters.

A mug, a t-shirt, a thank you event via zoom – it’s just not enough of a “thank you” to volunteers, not anymore, and maybe it never was. Volunteers want to know WHY their service mattered. That does not mean saying the monetary value of their hours. It does not mean saying platitudes like, “We just couldn’t function without you!” Rather, it means talking regularly on social media, in the organization’s non-volunteer-focused events, and in board meetings about how what volunteers did made some kind of difference regarding the organization’s mission. It means integrating talk about the value of volunteers – and NOT monetary value – into all communications by the organization, public and internal.

4. Volunteers want to have fun, and/or an enlightening experience.

So many organizations that involve volunteers have forgotten that volunteers aren’t just laborers working for free, who show up, do what needs to be done and leave. For instance, firehouses that involve volunteer first responders seem to have forgotten the social aspects that many people seek through volunteering, and that interacting with fellow first responders outside of official duties – a sporting event, a picnic, a campout, a training or event not related specifically to their service, etc. – can help everyone recognize strengths in each other they may not have seen otherwise, further build a sense of team, and further build a connection to the community they serve.

Focusing on activities and events that are fun and that further build a sense of team and a stronger commitment to an organization and its cause is not just a good thing to do for volunteer recruitment and retainment: societies are becoming increasingly polarized. We all need to care about each other and our overall communities more, and that kind of caring comes from being around a diversity of people in contexts outside of professional work and standing in lines to buy something.

I was on a board for a nonprofit that gives away grants to arts organizations. I thought this would be a great experience to celebrate and learn about the arts in my community, but for most of the time, it’s been just work. A TON of work. In one year, I received more than 1000 emails just from fellow board members. After three years, I left, because there’s no fun. There’s no enlightenment. I was getting resentful about the arts instead of being inspired by them. The county government our organizations supported also was silent about our hours and hours of work.

5. People want “heart” from volunteering

I’ve struggled with the word to use here – personal doesn’t feel quite right. So I went with heart. What I mean is this: I think many people are just so, so hungry for very human experiences, where they hear voices, look into people’s eyes, feel like they are having a sincere, human interaction. They want to feel like they are in a community. Once it is safe to do so, people are going to fill concert halls, theaters, crafts classes, dance classes, sports events – I know this is happening in some places already, despite it spreading the deadly novel coronavirus every time, but in other places, where the culture is one more focused on personal safety and community, it’s not. Once hospitalizations finally go down, after years of a global pandemic, very personal experiences are going to be like a balm for the soul. No, that does NOT mean virtual volunteering is going away. Let me say it again: virtual volunteering can be a highly personal, even emotional experience.

Volunteers, more and more, are wanting to feel connected to other humans, and they want their volunteering service to provide some of that.

6. Managers of volunteers must master tech tools.

Not all of the tools – that’s impossible – but definitely social media (and not just Facebook), online community platforms and volunteer management software – beyond spreadsheets. The managers of volunteers that prosper – that are able to recruit and engage a diversity of volunteers in a diversity of projects and are valued within their organizations – will understand basic web design and be able to update the text on a web page, be able to edit a simple video and share it on YouTube and know how the audio software works on their laptop or phone so they can record things – like a conversation for a podcast.

7. An increasing number of traditional volunteering programs that refuse to evolve will disappear.

The town where I live no longer has an Optimist Club. Most of the remaining service clubs in town have seen dramatic drops in membership. Why? Those service clubs refuse to change: they don’t have social media channels or, if they do, they don’t update them regularly with event information, recognition of volunteers, information about how to volunteer, etc. They don’t post to the subreddit for their town. They don’t reach out to new residents. Their web site, if they have one, hasn’t been updated in years. They don’t invite the members of the high school Key Club or anyone from the high school or university newspaper to their events. They over-rely on Facebook as a way to advertise activities – and even then, don’t use it very well.

People under 40 really want to volunteer – just spend a few minutes on Reddit and you will see just how hungry young people are to volunteer. But they don’t know about service clubs, so they try to start their own. They don’t know about Meals on Wheels – that’s why they all tried to start their own meal and grocery delivery programs when the COVID-19 pandemic started. They don’t know about existing mentoring and tutoring programs, like Junior Achievement – so they try to start their own.

If your nonprofit is struggling to attract members, program participants or volunteers, here’s my challenge to you: try to find your information about such online, via a search engine or on Facebook, WITHOUT using your program’s name. Try to find it just using the name of your city and the word volunteer or community service, for instance. Here’s more on diagnosing the causes of volunteer recruitment problems (one of the most popular blogs I’ve ever written).

8. Trying to please corporate donors will further hurt volunteerism

Corporations say we want more microvolunteering, so nonprofits pour resources into creating micro tasks, something inefficient, time-consuming, and often more about creating busywork than getting things done that a nonprofit actually needs done. Also, corporations want a monetary value for volunteer time, so organizations will continue to focus on that, which will create more hostility with labor unions and the unemployed, who see it as more fuel for their argument that volunteer engagement is an effort to cut costs by cutting paid positions.

The pushback against corporations who say this is what they want is so overdue. Nonprofits have got to start saying “no” to corporations demanding volunteer engagement that is, in fact, creating conflict and more, and unnecessary, work for nonprofits.

9. Virtual volunteering will continue to become so mainstream that we stop talking about it.

Online roles and tasks for volunteers have not been unusual nor innovative for a few years now. Virtual volunteering was already widespread long before the COVID-19 global pandemic, and calling an online role virtual volunteering often isn’t even done anymore – it’s simply volunteering. Not that there isn’t going to continue to be a need to talk about creating virtual volunteering roles, managing virtual teams, supporting online volunteers, etc. – just as there is always going to be a need to talk about other volunteering modalities, like creating volunteering roles for families or corporate groups, and how best to support those groups. But that hard wall so many put up in talking about virtual volunteering as something entirely separate from traditional, onsite volunteering – that’s long been crumbling.

On a related note: back in 2017, the UK-based Association of Volunteer Managers published a blog, Ten Ten: How Does The Next Decade Look For Volunteering. These four points stood out to me then and still stand out to me now, four years later, because I think this is absolutely where volunteer engagement is going – or, at least, where it MUST go:

  • The potential for volunteering will go on growing. Whether its volunteers in schools, welcoming refugees, campaigning against government cuts, or helping neighbours, we haven’t begun to reach saturation in the ways that volunteering can change society.

It’s absolutely true: we haven’t begun to reach anywhere near the saturation in the ways, the potential in the ways, that volunteering can be leveraged to improve our world. When I talk about all of the ways organizations are involving just online volunteers, I watch people’s eyebrows raise – they start to realize just how much more volunteers could be doing at their organizations. And when I talk about volunteers engaged in delivering mission-based programming, I have seen mouths start to gape as it dawns on people that volunteers are so much more than people who get tasks done.

  • Volunteer managers will have specialisms just like fundraisers do. There are over 15 types of fundraising expertise. Expect volunteering management to become more and more specialist as it matures, just as fundraising has.

This is already happening, as predicted! There are volunteer managers who specialize in one-time, just-show-up group volunteering events, those who specialize in hack-a-thons and edit-a-thons, those who specialize in online transcription-based projects mobilizing hundreds of volunteers at once, those who specialize in volunteers as mentors for at-risk youth, those who specialize in volunteer activities for teens or for seniors or for immigrants or for people on parole or are incarcerated, and on and on.

  • Intertwining specific audiences by demographics (eg working parents) and product (eg micro-volunteering) will be the breakfast of volunteering champions. In other words, the best organisations will understand exactly who their volunteers are, or could be, and create the volunteering products to encourage, entice and engage them ever more into giving their time.

A thousand times this! Those who manage programs for volunteer engagement will be at the table with those that manage fundraising, those that manage marketing, those that manage program, and the HR Director (because HR and volunteer engagement are NOT the same thing!).

I would word this point differently. It says originally:

  • The most far-sighted charities will invest in volunteer recruitment the way they do donor recruitment. Typically they may invest several hundred pounds in donor recruitment and the total budget may amount to millions of pounds in the biggest charities. I wonder how many volunteer managers even have a recruitment budget.

Change it to this and it’s accurate:

The most far-sighted charities will invest in volunteer engagement the way they do donor recruitment. Typically they may invest several hundred pounds in donor recruitment and the total budget may amount to millions of pounds in the biggest charities. I wonder how many volunteer managers even have a budget for every aspect of their volunteer engagement, from recruitment to support to recognition to results-tracking?

And those are my predictions about trends in volunteerism. What are yours?

If you have benefited from this blog 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.

Me as a volunteer? More frustrated than ever.

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I’m a consultant regarding volunteer engagement (among other things). And one of the ways I keep my skills sharp and I keep learning and evolving, is by volunteering myself, both online and in traditional, face-to-face assignments.

In October 2011, I wrote a blog called How to get rid of volunteers, based on a really bad experience I had as a volunteer.

In February 2012, I wrote a blog called I’m a Frustrated Volunteer., based on more bad experiences as a volunteer.

In May 2018, I wrote a blog called Still trying to volunteer, still frustrated, based on even more bad experiences I’ve had as a volunteer.

And now, in 2021… I’m still here and still frustrated. The upside is that it helps me to keep creating what I think are practical, highly-relevant guidance for successfully engaging volunteers. The downside is… I don’t like being repeatedly frustrated, and it’s a reminder that volunteering is NOT always the uplifting, inspiring experience so many say it is.

I saw this meme and it hit so close to home regarding my own volunteering experiences in 2021 I almost burst into tears.

Never push a loyal person to the point where they no longer care.

When I express interest in volunteering with a nonprofit or program, I’m excited. I’m energized. I’m inspired. I’m highly motivated. I’m ready to help regarding a cause that I’m feeling strongly about. And very often, I’m hoping for a long-term experience. I’m hoping to volunteer for months, maybe even years, not just a few times. I’m hoping to enjoy myself.

Too often, I leave a volunteering experience that I’ve wanted to be a long-haul after a year or less, feeling overwhelmed, taken advantage of, ignored and/or under-appreciated. And I haven’t enjoyed myself. At all.

As I read the message in that image, I immediately thought not just about my own experiences as a volunteer, but also how many programs have lost fantastic volunteers because of not being clear about expectations, or changing those expectations, or asking too much of a volunteer’s time, or not welcoming and showing appreciation for a new, enthused, passionate volunteer, or otherwise “pushing.”

For this latest experience, I joined a county advisory board regarding the arts. It was a really nice experience the first year, though quarterly meetings were always in-person and held in places that were extremely difficult to get to via public transport (that’s how I get around weekdays, pre-COVID). The second year of my volunteering service was dominated by the global pandemic, and suddenly, we were allowed to do something our host organization assured us was absolutely impossible and not allowed: have meetings online. At the end of 2020, I was asked if I would consider being chair and thought, hey, what the heck, I should step up and do this for one year.

At my first meeting as chair, the bomb was dropped: our government host organization was dropping our board as a responsibility and we would move under the fiscal sponsorship of a nonprofit. At that first meeting, it was said several times, “Things won’t really be changing.” That proved to be a gross misstatement: my required time commitment skyrocketed as I realized a whole host of new processes would have to be researched, developed, proposed and voted on by the board members in a very, very tight timeframe. I went from meetings once a quarter to two or three times a month, and dozens of emails a week – sometimes dozens of emails in one day. Lots of steps in the transition hadn’t been identified by the previous host and the new host, and as I asked questions for clarification, more and more work to do got revealed. I was no longer a part of an advisory group; I was a full-fledged board member of a brand new nonprofit that the board had not asked to be a part of. And I was the chair. And that is NOT what I signed up for when I agreed to volunteer.

My passion wained quickly. My excitement evaporated. My energy and motivation have been squashed.

How did this happen? The people who created this substantial change:

  • did not consult with the volunteers who would be told to take on the responsibility.
  • were in denial that it was a substantial change.
  • have not taken a volunteer management 101 workshop or read any of Susan Ellis’ books.

Yes, I’m still a frustrated volunteer. I still haven’t found a volunteering experience since returning to the USA that’s been what I’m looking for. I still haven’t really had fun volunteering since 2009. But I’m so happy to have yet another experience that will help me as a consultant regarding volunteer management.

Other blogs inspired by my volunteering:

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site or my YouTube videos 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. 

Infuriating statements about volunteering

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graphic by Jayne Cravens representing volunteers

When it comes to talking about volunteer engagement, I am just not at all about bunnies and fluff and warm fuzzies and hugs. I don’t like talking about volunteers as nice but, rather, as necessary, for a whole range of reasons that have nothing to do with money. I think talking about volunteers in terms of warm fuzzies devalues both what volunteers do and what the nonprofits and other programs they support do.

I also cringe over the idea of entitlement regarding volunteers: those people who believe that their desire to do a certain kind of volunteering should be all they need to get to do that volunteering, regardless of what people actually need.

I admit it: I’m not very kind in response to such people. Especially lately.

There are statements and attitudes about volunteering that make my blood boil. They contribute to volunteer engagement not being taken seriously and not being financially supported, and in some cases, to a patriarchal, colonialist view of volunteering, and excuse for volunteers for having that view.

Here are some of those statements that send me over the edge:

  • Volunteering is great, but it’s not serious, like a job. Volunteers can never do something as well as someone that’s paid to do that thing. they can never be experts.
  • People can volunteer whenever they might have some time and solve homelessness, create economic opportunities leading to equity, stop climate change, and solve other serious social and environmental issues. Volunteering is something you do when you don’t really have anything else to do or when you feel like doing it.
  • I feel like I would be good at counseling people, because I do it with friends / at my bartending job, so I should get to counsel people as a volunteer, but I don’t want to have to go through a bunch of training.
  • I like animals, so I should get to volunteer with wildlife, like elephants and baby orphaned tigers.
  • My company’s employees want to work with kids, so the local school should let us host a pizza party for the sixth graders this Friday, from noon to 1.
  • People in poor communities wish people with really “good hearts” from other places will come to their communities and do things local people would like to do themselves: build schools, care for orphaned children, build wells, care for wildlife, etc. And those people in those poor communities want to give these foreign volunteers free housing and these people are so grateful that these volunteers come there, even for just a week or two.
  • Volunteers are cost-free.

I read comments like these all the time on Quora and Reddit. Here’s a perfect example of such. I’ve edited for brevity (the original post is much longer):

I am curious if working for nonprofits or volunteering can become be lucrative at all. I wish I could just live off tips or donations from people that I’ve made their lives better.

I spend a lot of time just talking to people about their problems. Genuinely listening and focusing on them, trying to guide or nurture towards where they are looking to grow, or nudge them towards solutions that are just out of reach. I spend a few minutes a day just answering posts in FB vent groups or lonely people. Just generally check in with people and see how I can make their day better.

I always liked the sense of freedom from volunteering. Especially in a situation where you can work as much or as little as you want. Come in whenever, or on a loose schedule, etc.

Is there low pressure, humanistic jobs, volunteer work, or non profit work that would support a minimalist lifestyle but provide enough to not stagnate? I’m not afraid of labor, but would want to do it on my own terms.

The privilege in this post… the vanity… the stereotypes about not just volunteering but about the help people in crisis need, that it’s all something you can do whenever you might feel like it, and just do it, ’cause, you know, you have a good heart and you really “get” people… yes, my blood is boiling.

While I absolutely believe volunteering can be fun, that it can be informal, and that it can be episodic (one-time event, no further obligation), I also believe volunteering should be something that has some sort of actual impact for the organization, that it should serve the organization and its mission primirarily, and that it shouldn’t be mainly about giving a volunteer a feel-good “look, I helped!” experience. While I believe volunteers can have great ideas about what volunteers should do – virtual volunteering has been driven mostly by volunteers, in fact – I also believe that the final say regarding volunteer engagement is always what the organization and its clients need.

I also believe volunteering, even for just a few hours, is a real commitment, because the issues addressed by volunteer are real, sometimes even urgent, issues. Come in whenever you might feel like it? I would fire volunteers for that. It’s profoundly disrespectful to the causes nonprofits attempt to address.

The work of nonprofits is serious. That work addresses homelessness, it helps the environment, it helps people experiencing domestic violence, it helps communities with a range of quality of life issues, it helps people recover from disasters and on and on. It is not for “whenever I might feel like it because, you know, freedom!” Volunteering is not for the cavalier. It’s not for photos for your Instagram page.

My advice to the person I quoted above? Maybe doing some episodic volunteering, like cleaning up a beach – but, you know, only if you might maybe feel like it.

I’m tired.

Also see:

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site or my YouTube videos 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. 

Yes, virtual volunteering will continue after the pandemic

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I keep seeing this comment in blogs and articles and tweets:

“Will virtual volunteering continue after the pandemic is over?”

Of course, it will. Just as virtual volunteering was happening BEFORE the pandemic, at THOUSANDS of organizations. Why in the world wouldn’t it continue?

Maybe my latest video will stop this question from being asked… though probably not. FYI, the video is just four minutes long.

And for a free, basic orientation in virtual volunteering, you can watch these free videos on my YouTube channel – altogether, less than an hour:

Altogether, these videos cover developing initial online roles and activities for volunteers, how to rapidly engage online volunteers, how to expand virtual volunteering, how to adjust policies, how to address safety and confidentiality, the importance of keeping a human touch in interactions, addressing the most common questions and resistance to virtual volunteering and much, much more. You have my permission to show them at any conference or workshop or class you might be doing regarding virtual volunteering.

For some more advanced topics regarding virtual volunteering:

Also see:

If your program wants to better use online tools to support all of your volunteers, including those providing service onsite, or if your program wants to create a robust virtual volunteering scheme, such as an online mentoring program or online volunteer engagement as skills-building or other extension of your mission , check out the Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook: Fully Integrating Online Service Into Volunteer Involvement. The book can help you fully explore the reality of remote volunteer engagement, in terms of policy and procedures, to ensure success. This book was helpful long before the global pandemic spurred so many organizations to, at last, embrace virtual volunteering. This is the most comprehensive resource anywhere on working with online volunteers, and on using the Internet to support ALL volunteers, including those you might not think of as “online” volunteers.

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site or my YouTube videos 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. 

Guidance on Virtual Volunteering – time tested!

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The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook: Fully Integrating Online Service Into Volunteer Involvement was published in early 2014. Now, six years later, is it still relevant? Oh, yes… I know because I’ve been testing all the principles offered in it over and over since it was published (as well as before it was published, when I was still writing it). My latest test: working with more than 150 online volunteers that participated in Knowbility’s 2019 Accessibility Internet Rally.

The book is the result of more than 20 years of research and practical experience by me, with heavy advice and observations by the book’s co-author, Susan Ellis. When we wrote the book, we wanted it to be timeless, like so many of Susan’s own books about various aspects of volunteer management. It’s not that I don’t still have things to learn about working with volunteers, online or off – I do! We all do. It’s that we believed strongly that certain principles would not change, and would be easily adapted no matter how the technology or even society evolved. These were principles that were explored in-depth at a variety of organizations when I managed the Virtual Volunteering Project at the University of Texas at Austin back in the 1990s, and they continue to be explored and tested – and proven.

For instance, I learned in the 1990s that the easier I made it for volunteers to sign up to volunteer, the larger the percentage of those volunteers that dropped out without even starting the assignment, let alone finishing it. But just putting in a simple second step that a candidate had to complete before they got to start on the assignment screened out the people who didn’t understand this was REAL volunteering and screened in the people who would take it seriously. It was true in 1998 and it’s true NOW, more than 20 years later.

I learned early on in studying virtual volunteering, a practice that’s been happening since the 1970s, and in working with online volunteers myself in the 1990s, that volunteers need to feel supported and valued or they won’t finish an assignment, or won’t finish it with the quality needed by an organization. In my role with Knowbility this time, I came on very late in the rally process, and because of that, trying to build trusting relationships with the volunteers that were already on board and get answers quickly to their questions proved quite difficult. The problems I have had with volunteers and that they had with their participation can almost all be traced back to that situation.

I learned early on, many years ago, that having expectations of volunteers in writing, online, both in role descriptions and in policies and procedures, was KEY to ensure both volunteers and managers are all on the same page as far as what’s happening and what’s needed, don’t get conflicting information, have a common place to look for guidance, etc. It greatly reduces conflict and misunderstandings, two factors which can lead to a lot of problems in volunteer engagement. Everyone isn’t going to read absolutely all of the support materials, but having it for referral is amazing in getting questions answered and conflicts resolved quickly. This lesson has been reinforced over and over over the years, including during this Knowbility event.

I’m thrilled to know my book is still relevant!

I have more than 100 hard copies of The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook in my possession and I would love for you to have one – or more! You can also order an electronic version. Yes, it’s available via Amazon, but let me be frank: I get far, far more money from the sale if you buy directly from me. Please consider doing so – buy one for yourself and for your favorite nonprofit!

Before you recruit any volunteers

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As the year comes to an end and things slow down at your organization for a week or two, this is a good time to think about reviewing some of the basics your organization should have in place to ensure you are getting the most out of your volunteer engagement and that volunteers are properly supported at your organization and feel like their donated time is being properly valued.

In fact, before your program recruits any volunteers – before you post anything to your web site or social media or a third-party site like VolunteerMatch, there are three things that I believe you absolutely should have in place first, and if you don’t have them already, this is a good time to get that taken care of. Having these three things in place will help:

  • ensure volunteers are engaged and supported appropriately – and that helps prevent volunteer turnover, misunderstandings, conflict, etc.
  • ensure volunteers are onboarded quickly – and that helps prevent volunteer turnover AND sets a tone with new volunteers that these are serious, real commitments.
  • inappropriate volunteers self-screen themselves OUT of your program – dropping out before they’ve gotten far along in your process and started an assignment. That means fewer people who drop out and leave you with unfinished activities and a scramble to get things done.

I get a lot of pushback when I try to implement these three things at any organization where I’m working – lots of complaints about bureaucracy and increased work, etc. But I regularly encounter a range of problems at programs where these three things are NOT in place, and I see just how much more work comes with NOT having these things in place. And, so, I’m going to keep saying it.

Here are the three things:

  • Have a mission statement for your volunteer engagement
    (Saying WHY your organization or department involves volunteers)
    This is at the heart of everything I say and recommend regarding volunteer engagement. This idea is what I would like to be identified with even more than virtual volunteering: that, in addition to carefully crafting the way you talk about the value of volunteers, your organization creates a mission statement for your organization’s volunteer engagement, to guide employees in how they think about volunteers, to guide current volunteers in thinking about their role and value at the organization, and to show potential volunteers the kind of culture they can expect at your organization regarding volunteers.
  • Required Volunteer Information on Your Web Site
    To not have this basic information about volunteer engagement on your web site says that your organization or department takes volunteers for granted, does not value volunteers beyond money saved in salaries, or is not really ready to involve volunteers.

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Taking control of your web site when you aren’t the web master

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Most web masters at mission-based organizations – at nonprofits, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), government agencies and schools – want to do the best job possible in creating and managing the initiative’s web site.

Unfortunately, there are situations where staff at mission-based organizations are intimidated by the people that manage their web site, to the point of being afraid to ask questions, even to ask for a change in the site. All a web master has to say is, “That can’t be done” or “that’s too expensive” or “I won’t be able to do that” and many of these staff members will not pursue an issue further. After all, the web master is the expert, right?

It is unfortunate that there are so many web masters that take advantage of their expertise and will use it to claim certain things cannot be done on a web site when, in fact, they can be done. Perhaps they don’t see it as a priority and don’t want to do it. Perhaps they don’t know how and don’t want to admit it. Whatever the reason, it holds a lot of organizations back from doing all that they should with their web sites, like making them designed for their particular audiences, or making them accessible for people with disabilities.

Here are things staff at mission-based organizations can do to set a tone with IT staff regarding who has input into web-related decisions, including design:

1. Ask your web master what company hosts your organization’s web site, how your domain name is registered, and for all passwords. Your web site should be hosted by a reputable company in the business of hosting web sites, not the web master’s side business or through a company he or she has a “special deal” with. You can look up your domain name registration here and make sure it’s registered in such a way that your organization owns it, not your web master, and that it matches what your web master tells you. You need all of the passwords associated with the web site in case the web master leaves.

2. Ask your web master what the 10 most visited pages are on your web site are. This is a very easy question to get answers for, and there should be no reason for your web master to hesitate to provide this information. 

As you review the data he or she provides, ask yourself, the web master, and other staff member these questions:

  • Is there a page on your web site that is more popular than the home page? Why is that?
  • Are these the 10 pages you want to be the most visited on your web site? If not, what should you do to increase the number of visitors to the pages you most want users to visit?

Don’t just think about increasing visitors to certain pages. Sure, you could get more people visiting your donate to us page if you made it your home page, but would it increase the number of donations your nonprofit gets? No. Think about what you want to happen as a result of people visiting your web site, what you want users to do as a result of navigating around your web site, and remember that different people will have different wants regarding your web site. Have your web master in on these conversations, so he or she can understand your organization’s communications priorities, which program staff should set, not the web master.

3. Invite volunteers to your conference room and have them navigate your web site with their own laptops and smart phones. Have the web master there to observe. Ask the volunteers to find information on how to volunteer, and quiz them on what they found. Ask them what donations pay for at your organization, based on what they found on your web site. Ask them what difference your nonprofit makes, based on what they found on your web site.

Take notes on their answers and then have a followup meeting with communications staff, including the web master. Talk about what you learned from this feedback, and either develop a plan on how to adjust your web site so that it does what you want it to do, or ask your web master to develop such and then present it to staff.

4. Six months after the changes have been made to your web site, do steps one and two again. Are the top 10 pages visited on your web site the pages you want most visitors to see? Are volunteers able to more easily find information about how to volunteer, what donations pay for, what difference your nonprofit makes, etc.?

5. When you want a feature on your web site, find an example of it on another web site, particularly at a company or agency about the size of your organization. Have this ready to show the web master, to prevent the “that can’t be done” argument.

6. Tell your web master which staff members need to be able to make simple text changes without his or her support. Whomever is in charge of communications at your organization should have this ability. Maybe you want a small group of reliable volunteers with some web design experience who can step in to do such when the web master is not available. And then have your web master show exactly how those staff members should make those changes via whatever content management system he or she prefers. Maybe there is a WordPress interface. Maybe there is another type of interface (I use BlueGriffon). The point is that you should never have to wait for the web master to make time to merely add a paragraph or two to a page, or to correct a typo.

These six simple things will let you take back control over your organization’s web site, and help you have the documentation you need for when your web master moves on – and your web master WILL move on!

Also see:

If you have benefited from this blog 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.

Your favorite non-English resources re: volunteerism or nonprofits?

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I asked this back in 2011, but it’s time to ask it again:

I would like to know YOUR favorite online resources regarding volunteerism / volunteers (especially the support and management of such), nonprofits or NGOs (non-governmental organizations), including Tweeters, in languages OTHER than English.

Spanish, French or German are most desired, but any language – Arabic, Persian Farsi / Dari / Tajik /, Hindi, whatever – would be welcomed.

In short, I’m looking for the Spanish, French, German, Arabic and other non-USA, non-English-language versions of Energize, Inc., of VolunteerMatch, of resources for those that manage volunteers like what I have on my web site, etc.

Please send the name of the resource, the URL of the resource, and a summary of what the resource is – does it focus on volunteer management? On nonprofits / NGOs / charities using the Internet? Or helping organizations recruit volunteers? Or fundraising / resource mobilization? Or any aspect of management? Is it a web site? A database? A Twitter feed?

I have some of these resources already, but I would like to have more. Plus, mine need updating:

I will share what I’ve compiled already and what’s submitted – and is what I’m looking for – on my web site, and announce the page here on my blog, as well as my Twitter feed and my Facebook page.

If you have benefited from this blog 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.

Tools for project managers with remote teams

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This article from International Center for Journalists is focused on journalists and editors working with journalists and other contributors remotely, but much of its advice is applicable for nonprofits working with remote staff and remote volunteers (virtual volunteering) – or working with staff you see face-to-face but you need to work with online as well. The article is written by the project manager of Chicas Poderosas, a community of women in media spread across 18 countries in Latin America. 

For instance, when brainstorming a story or a project with your team, she uses remote visual boards like Jamboard. “Jamboard has virtual post it notes, and allows your team to simultaneously create text boxes, write comments and even draw.” Has anyone else used it? What do you think of it?

To keep track of the individual activities in the chart, she uses Trello. Each task is its own card, which can be assigned to a team member, and can include deadlines and alerts. Trello has integrations with other tools such as Google Drive. “In our Chicas Poderosas weekly calls, we update the Trello board, checking up on what each Chica did, and we create and take ownership of new tasks for the next week.” 

She also has good, not-techtool-specific advice like: 

The best tool is not the latest, or the most complex and automated. The best tool is always the one that is more natural for your team, the project and any other involved stakeholders.

If you do find a new tool that you want to implement, always take the time to schedule on-boarding sessions so that your team can practice using it, ask questions and share their challenges. 

Do you use any of the tools she mentions? Do you have other ideas?

And if you want to explore how to involve and support volunteers, whether those volunteers are around the corner or around the world, check out my book with Susan Ellis, The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook. The book is the result of more than 20 years of research and experience regarding virtual volunteering, including online micro volunteering, crowdsourcing, digital volunteering, online mentoring and all the various manifestations of online service. It’s packed with examples from a variety of organizations and details on how virtual volunteering works, how challenges are overcome, and how success is measured. It includes

  • Detailed advice on virtual volunteering assignment, including one-time “Byte-Sized” tasks (micro-volunteering / microtasks), longer-term, higher-responsibility roles and virtual team assignments.
  • A thorough look at various practices for screening and matching volunteers to assignments, with an eye to getting the most capable volunteers into your volunteering ranks and preventing incomplete assignments or burdensome management tasks
  • How to make online volunteer roles accessible and welcoming for a variety, diversity of people

Susan and I wrote The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook in such a way that it would be timeless – as timeless as a book about using computers, laptops, smart phones and other networked devices could be. It is USA-centric but it offers a lot of international perspectives as well.

There’s also a chapter just for online volunteers themselves, which organizations can also use in creating their own materials for online volunteers.

If you read the book, I would so appreciate it if you could write and post a review of it on the Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Good Reads web sites (you can write the same review on all three sites).