May Flowers: Volunteers Are the Treasures of NonProfits
NonProfit Roundtable Blog
May 20, 2014
By Jerry Metzker, Nonprofit Roundtable Co-Chair and Development & Marketing Manager of Biotech Partners
For
community benefits organizations and agencies, public projects, and community
action initiatives, individuals who freely devote themselves, their skills and
their time can be the life’s blood of an activity, and sometimes the
organizations themselves. At its May meeting, the Chamber’s NonProfit
Roundtable addressed the many aspects of volunteers and volunteering for the
community. These included how to look for volunteers, engage them, train them,
support them and thank them.
Volunteers
are individuals who undertake tasks for an organization but are not paid,
including such persons as board and committee members, pro bono consultants,
people who are assigned community service, unpaid interns and students
volunteering for class credit. In 2012, 26% of Americans
volunteered, more women than men, and mostly in the 35-44 year-old range with 33%
of all volunteers in youth services.
The
meeting featured Jayne Cravens of Coyote Communications (www.coyotecommunications.com), an
internationally-recognized consultant, researcher and trainer. Her work focuses
on communications, volunteer involvement, community engagement, and management
for nonprofits, NGOs and government initiatives. She has a decade of
international experience, and extensive experience regarding community and
institutional development. Cravens is a pioneer regarding the research,
promotion and practice of virtual volunteering, including virtual team work,
online mentoring, microvolunteering and crowdsourcing. She has worked
extensively with multicultural audiences, corporate audiences, United Nations
agencies, national and international agencies, international aid workers,
low-income communities, and those who are traditionally socially-excluded. She
is also co-author of the book, The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook.
During
her presentation, Cravens covered many aspects of volunteering. Her suggestions
include: 1) organizations should use their own strengths, mission and stories
as recruitment tools; 2) think about why people want to volunteer, nothing that many
people respond because they are angry about something and want to do something
productive to address or fix the situation; 3) different people have different
reasons for volunteering, and many of them go after what they are passionate
about; 4) look for ideas from other organizations and volunteer services and try
them; 5) beware of anti-volunteer positions, such as those held by individuals
displaced after disaster or internships.
She also noted how important it is to value volunteers as individuals who
are engaging with you in your
mission or activity. They are not helpers because the organization cannot
afford to pay workers. In fact, Cravens strongly recommends avoiding talking about
monetary considerations at all. She also encouraged organizations and agencies
that use volunteers to create a mission statement for volunteers.
In addition, developing a range of volunteer engagement and opportunities
under the mission is crucial. These may include volunteer roles (such as board
and committee members that have very specific requirements), length of time
necessary (for example, a youth mentor is expected to dedicate her/himself to
the youth for a minimum of nine consecutive months), location of activities
(onsite, online) and skills needed. As many people like to work from home, do
you have opportunities that satisfy this interest?
She concluded with the reminder that volunteering is a way to engage people
in your mission and activity; the best way to satisfy them and utilize their
potential is to help them enjoy it.
John
Alyosa of CASA – Court Appointed Special Advocates (www.casaofalamedacounty.org) – shared his
experiences as a volunteer coordinator for that agency on how to maximize
volunteer time. The best practices he shared include establishing goals,
recruitment protocols, screening processes, training, supervision guidelines
and ongoing engagement. He also shared ways to identify volunteers, such as
having an inquiry process via an app or website, being listed in search engines
(such as Volunteer Match), referrals and, crucially, word-of-mouth.
For any organization, determining how volunteers fit requires some thought
and strategy. Alyosa recommends establishing requirements/guidelines, noting if
the position is independent or supervised (and how much supervised) and
creating an application process. For anyone working with youth, fingerprinting,
TB testing and background checks are essential (and in many cases, required by
law).
Working with volunteers follows many of the same protocols as those applied
to paid employees, such as orientation, training and support; welcoming them
warmly; identifying their immediate supervisor; establishing a reporting
structure; and giving constructive and corrective feedback. Whether they have
good or bad experiences, during and after, volunteers are spokespersons for the
organization. It behooves the organization to be respectful and honorable in
all of its dealings with them.
The meeting also featured an exercise on acknowledgment led by NonProfit
Roundtable co-chair Âna-Marie Jones of CARD (www.CARDcanhelp.org). In this exercise, each
participant wrote one or two different things that s/he had accomplished and
was proud of. Then Jones divided the attendees into pairs of two, in which the
partners swapped their cards. The recipient read the card, turned it over and
wrote on the other side why s/he was pleased by the accomplishment or how
important that contribution is. Then the partners shared aloud with each other
both the contribution and the appreciation.
To learn more about volunteering and volunteer appreciation, check out www.volunteermatch.org, www.volunteereastbay.org, www.compasspoint.org and www.coyotecommunications.com.
Thank you, also, to Iryna Oreshkova of Iryna Accountancy (www.irynacpa.com) for bringing the
treats.
* * * * * * * * * *
Events are critical to the success of
nonprofits. Whether it's a classic fundraiser, an open house, a training or
workshop, or simply sponsoring a happy hour to have your friends and supporters
get together, these events allow people to experience us and embrace our work.
Come join us at the Nonprofit Roundtable on Tuesday, June 17th,
2:30pm - 4:30pm, to go deep into making events work for our agencies.
Presenters include Kathryn Weber, Corporate Partnership and Events Manager of
Alameda County Community Food Bank, Maren Amdal, CAE, Executive Director of CFA
Society and Roundtable Co-chair Jerry Metzker, Development & Marketing
Manager of Biotech Partners. If you have an upcoming event, please come
prepared to share about it! Also, we gratefully welcome door prizes and snacks.
Contacts:
Co-Chair Âna-Marie Jones, Executive Director of CARD (AMJ@CARDcanhelp.org)
Co-Chair Jerry Metzker, Development & Marketing Manager of Biotech Partners (jmetzker@biotechpartners.org)
Co-Chair Âna-Marie Jones, Executive Director of CARD (AMJ@CARDcanhelp.org)
Co-Chair Jerry Metzker, Development & Marketing Manager of Biotech Partners (jmetzker@biotechpartners.org)
Labels: nonprofit, NonProfit Roundtable, oakland chamber, oakland chamber of commerce, OMCC, Treasures, volunteers
posted by Oakland Chamber of Commerce @ 5:30 PM
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