Revised on March 8, 2009
Promoting your volunteering program internally
Too often, the first position cut at an organization facing financial difficulties is the volunteer coordinator. Most people in these positions, I'm sorry to say, do a poor job of making sure that every staff member at their organization knows the time and expertise they bring to the position, and the essential nature of their role in recruiting and supporting volunteers. Volunteer coordinators also often isolate themselves, seeing their work as somehow separate from the rest of the organization.
Contrast this with the fundraising manager at an organization, who often does a great job of letting everyone know how much money he or she has raised, making sure funding successes are celebrated internally and, by default, making his or her role seem absolutely essential to the organization. The fundraising manager makes sure all staff knows just how hard he or she works to get results. Why shouldn't the volunteer manager make sure volunteering successes have just as high a profile in an organization as well, and make sure he or she is seen as also absolutely essential to the organization?
If you are in charge of volunteering activities at an organization, you need to be regularly promoting those activities internally. The board, all paid staff and all volunteers need to know:
- how volunteers are recruited
- what information is available on the web site for volunteering candidates and about volunteer activities/successes
- what volunteers actually *do* at the organization (everyone may know about the volunteers who help at events, but do they know about the pro bono consultant helping the organization regarding human resources management?)
- what impact volunteers have had at the organization (not just how many hours contributed, but also, what qualitative impact they have had)
- how many volunteers have been engaged in the last month, the last quarter and the last year
- how different paid staff or volunteers have been successfully engaging volunteers at the organization
- new ways to involve volunteers (do they know about online volunteering? do they know how to identify a high-responsibility role for a long-term volunteer? do they know how to identify a tech-related assignment for a volunteer? do they know how to identify a short-term assignment for a volunteer with a particular area of expertise?)
- where they can go for help in working with volunteers
This means selling your volunteering program internally. Don't wait for a senior staff member to ask you for information! Don't assume that staff know what you do!
To sell your volunteering program internally:
- Submit a short, pithy report of interesting data for every staff meeting, just as your fundraising manager probably does.
- Submit a similar report or data for every board meeting, just as your fundraising manager probably does, and ask after the board meeting how the data was received; even better, ask for five minutes to present your data at each board meeting so you can hear reaction yourself.
- Negotiate with the appropriate staff to get at least one page in the next annual report to talk about volunteer impact at the organization (but don't emphasize the number of hours volunteers contribute or the monetary value of such hours; this implies that volunteers are valued because they are "free labor", and implies you could replace paid staff with volunteers).
- Send a short email to all staff and volunteers every now and again to update them about the volunteering program. Provide data, tell them about a page on the web site that's been updated with volunteering photos, etc.
- Involve marketing staff as much as possible regarding your program's outreach and promotion needs. For instance, ask your marketing staff to help you develop a video of testimonies by different clients talking about the impact volunteers make, and/or by volunteers themselves talking about why they enjoy volunteering for your organization. If your marketing staff says they cannot help because of other commitments, make sure that you report at each staff meeting about what you are doing with regard to meeting your program's marketing needs, so that it's clear that you should get credit for such.
- Make the volunteering section of your organization's web site content-rich, with lots of information about the impact volunteers have with your organization, photos of volunteers in action, testimonies about why volunteers are important to your organization, a blog by you talking about what volunteers are up to, etc.
- If any staff at the organization blog, ask them to blog about the role of volunteers at your organization, and provide assistance on specific blog topics.
- Celebrate staff members who are doing a good job of creating volunteering opportunities or working with volunteers, by calling them out at a staff meeting, or sending around an email to all staff highlighting their involvement of volunteers.
- Do all of the above more than once! Don't rely on a one-time presentation or report to get your message across regarding volunteering impact.
- Do presentations for individual departments, or meet one-on-one with key staff, to talk about how to identify volunteering assignments, how to support volunteers, what assistance you provide, and where they can get help for working with volunteers
- Be persistent in talking to other staff members about how they involve volunteers, what help they need from volunteers, what help they need in involving and supporting volunteers, etc. This takes lots of one-on-one meetings: drop by different people's offices regularly, set up formal meetings, etc.
Also see:
- Using Video to Support Online Volunteers/Remote Volunteers.
Video is a great way to further support volunteers, and your computer probably already has all of the tools you need to make a video, or to engage in a live video conversation with others. Video isn't something to use only with online volunteers or remote volunteers (those providing onsite service at a different location than yours). It's also a tool you can use with new and current volunteers. In addition to an organization producing videos for volunteers, it can also work the other way around: volunteers can produce videos for organizations. This resource provides information on your options, and links to my own short video on the subject.
- Using Real-Time Communications With Volunteers
A growing number of organizations are using real-time communications -- including video conferencing, online phone calls, chats and instant messaging -- to hold online meetings with volunteers, to allow volunteers to interact with staff, clients, or each other, or to involve volunteers in a live, online, real-time event. This resource provides more information on real-time communications with volunteers -- what the various tools are, how agencies are using them to interact with volunteers, and tips to encourage and maintain participation in synchronous communications.
- Recognizing Online Volunteers & Using the Internet to Honor ALL Volunteers
Recognition helps volunteers stay committed to your organization, and gets the attention of potential volunteers -- and donors -- as well. Organizations need to fully recognize the efforts of remote, online volunteers, as well as those onsite, and not differentiate the value of these two forms of service. Organizations should also incorporate use of the Internet to recognize the efforts of ALL volunteers, both online and onsite. With cyberspace, it's never been easier to show volunteers -- and the world -- that volunteers are a key part of your organization's successes. This new resource provides a long list of suggestions for both honoring online volunteers and using the Internet to recognize ALL volunteers that contribute to your organization.
- Short-term Assignments for Tech Volunteers
There are a variety of ways for mission-based organizations to involve volunteers to help with short-term projects relating to computers and the Internet, and short-term assignments are what are sought after most by potential "tech" volunteers. But there is a disconnect: most organizations have trouble identifying such short-term projects. This is a list of short-term projects for "tech" volunteers -- assignments that might takes days, weeks or just a couple of months to complete.
Return to my volunteer-related resources
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