NPL 473 Nonprofit Leadership

Keeping the Community Involved (Stephen McCurley)

I. Needs Assessment and program planning

a. Deciding on the use of volunteers

b. Staff involvement

i. Major task is developing good working relationship between staff and volunteers

ii. Decision to use volunteers must be agreed on by staff

iii. Provide training to staff on working effectively with volunteers

II. Position development and design

a. Position description is foundation for all that follows in recruitment

b. Contains clear written description of

i. Work

ii. Supervisory mechanisms

iii. Personnel that surround the work situation

c. Should meet certain requirements:

i. Work must be meaningful and significant

ii. Incumbent should be able to feel some ownership

iii. Work must fit part-time situation (for volunteers)

iv. Work must fit into overall context of agency

d. Good idea to be extremely flexible in developing wide variety of voluntary positions

III. Recruitment

a. Identifying potential recruitment appeals

i. Community need

ii. Community benefit

iii. Potential objections/fears

iv. Personal benefit

b. Designing a recruitment campaign

i. Warm-body recruitment

ii. Targeted recruitment

1. skills/aptitudes needed

2. where are they located?

3. what motivates these people?

iii. Concentric circles recruitment

c. Using events to recruit volunteers

i. Attractor events

ii. Scouting process

iii. Nurturing process

d. Potential recruitment dangers

i. Getting too greedy too fast

ii. Relying on make-work jobs

iii. Having too few opportunities for true advancement

e. Recruitment via the Internet

f. Recruiting for volunteer diversity

g. Providing a responsive recruitment process—relationship is most fragile in early stages. Most common mistakes:

i. Fail to offer assistance

ii. Staff don’t offer their name

iii. Not referred to appropriate contact person

iv. Not asking for name & phone number when staff not available

v. Not calling back

vi. Not thanking for contacting agency

IV. Interviewing and Matching

a. Purpose of volunteer interviews—not “who can do this job” but “How can this person help us?”

i. Identify fit

ii. recruit

b. Interviewing site

i. Accessible

ii. Friendly

iii. private

c. Advance preparation

i. List of possible jobs with descriptions

ii. List of questions related to qualifications for each job

iii. Application form

iv. Open-ended questions to explore motivation

v. Information about agency and its programs

d. Opening the interview

i. Welcome

ii. Build rapport

iii. Give background about agency

e. Conducting the interview

i. Explore interests, abilities, situation

ii. Discuss various job possibilities

iii. Discuss agency requirements

iv. Further recruitment

v. Pick up on assignment cues

f. Closing the Interview

i. Make an offer

ii. Explain what will happen next

iii. Get permission to conduct reference/background checks

g. Matching volunteers to positions

i. Make all initial assignments on a trial-period basis

h. Risk management and volunteer screening

V. Orientation and training

a. Orientation session

i. Description and history of the organization

ii. Programs & clientele

iii. Organizational structure

iv. Orientation to facilities

v. General policies and procedures

vi. Description of volunteer management system

b. Training

i. How to do specific job

ii. What not to do in the job

iii. What to do in case of emergency or unforeseen situation

VI. Volunteer motivation

VII. Supervision of volunteers

a. General aspects

i. Criteria for success, standards of performance, program objectives

ii. Measuring actual volunteer performance

iii. Making corrections as needed

b. Special supervisory issues

i. Supervisory responsibility—volunteer coordinator, or staff person?

ii. Flexible management approaches

iii. Allocating time for management

iv. Integrating volunteers into the flow of the organization

VIII. Evaluation

a. Does not replace day-to-day supervison; more relaxed, “big picture” view

b. Review motivational aspects of volunteer’s involvement

c. Seek input from volunteers who have left the organization

IX. Innovation in volunteer management

a. Impact of the workplace—form relationships with local businesses

b. Shift toward shorter-term volunteering

c. Volunteering via the Internet

d. Involving families as volunteers

MSU