{"id":7230,"date":"2023-10-02T03:14:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-02T10:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/?p=7230"},"modified":"2023-09-25T06:20:22","modified_gmt":"2023-09-25T13:20:22","slug":"a-dare-for-nonprofit-executive-directors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2023\/10\/a-dare-for-nonprofit-executive-directors\/","title":{"rendered":"A dare for nonprofit executive directors"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/volunteerstransparent.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/volunteerstransparent.jpg\" alt=\"graphic representing volunteers at work\" class=\"wp-image-1186\" style=\"width:202px;height:330px\" width=\"202\" height=\"330\" srcset=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/volunteerstransparent.jpg 358w, https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/volunteerstransparent-183x300.jpg 183w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 202px) 100vw, 202px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Do you head a nonprofit or non-government organizations (NGO)? I have a challenge for you. It&#8217;s a simple challenge, but a revealing one, and I&#8217;m daring you to do it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>responding to someone that emails or calls and says they want to volunteer. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>meeting with \/ interviewing someone for the first time that wants to volunteer, getting all the necessary paperwork from the new applicant, etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>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?)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>inputting all of the volunteers&#8217; information into a central database.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>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. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>following up with volunteers to see how their experience is going. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>trouble-shooting on behalf of volunteers. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>firing a volunteer. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>recognizing and rewarding volunteers. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>tracking volunteer contributions and reporting such to the organization. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>interviewing volunteers that leave, to see why and to address issues. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Now that you have your list, then, at your next staff meeting, ask your staff these same questions. And learn two things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>If you are right. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>If the staff that have these responsibilities knew they had these responsibilities. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Don&#8217;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&#8217;t know it. Reflect on these discrepancies and think about how you are going to support staff that didn&#8217;t know it was their responsibility to manage a piece of working with volunteers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then, finally, ask for a progress report on each of these tasks. And don&#8217;t be surprised to hear, again and again, &#8220;We&#8217;re behind on that. We&#8217;ve had other priorities. Sorry.&#8221; Because unless you have a dedicated manager of volunteers, someone whose sole responsibility is to support and engage volunteers, it&#8217;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 &#8211; the marketing director, the fundraising manager, the thrift store manager, etc. &#8211; aren&#8217;t doing it regularly. And with that, you&#8217;ll finally understand why your organization doesn&#8217;t have all the volunteers it needs and why volunteers don&#8217;t stay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And maybe then you&#8217;ll stop saying, &#8220;Well, people just don&#8217;t want to volunteer anymore!&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also see: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2018\/02\/diagnose\/\">Diagnosing the causes of volunteer recruitment problems<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2023\/06\/volunteering-or-that-meeting-must-sound-enticing-even-compelling-or-people-wont-care\/\">Volunteering, or that meeting you are going to host, must sound enticing &amp; compelling or people won\u2019t care (our post-pandemic reality).<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2022\/05\/what-are-your-volunteers-saying\/\">What Are Your Volunteers Saying?<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2022\/06\/volunteer-turnover-isnt-always-a-bad-thing\/\">Volunteer turnover isn\u2019t always a bad thing<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2022\/04\/the-key-to-retaining-volunteers\/\">The key to retaining volunteers<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2022\/01\/seven-emerging-volunteer-engagement-trends-a-very-different-list-than-you-will-read-elsewhere\/\">Nine plus four emerging volunteer engagement trends (a VERY different list than you will read elsewhere)<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2022\/07\/how-are-you-supporting-the-mental-health-needs-of-your-volunteers\/\">How are you supporting the mental health needs of your volunteers?<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.coyotecommunications.com\/volunteer\/mission.shtml\">Mission statements for your volunteer engagement<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do you head a nonprofit or non-government organizations (NGO)? I have a challenge for you. It&#8217;s a simple challenge, but a revealing one, and I&#8217;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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20],"tags":[100,176,187,289,464,530,532],"class_list":["post-7230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-volunteer-engagement","tag-community","tag-engagement","tag-evaluation","tag-management","tag-success","tag-volunteering","tag-volunteers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3fFJB-1SC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7230"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7231,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7230\/revisions\/7231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}