Leadership

Managing volunteer programs can be a whirlwind of risk management, policies, and procedures, with mounds of credentialing and more red tape than we’d like to admit. Jumping through hoops can become a necessary skill for volunteers to meet all of the criteria required to donate their time, particularly in large organisations or regulated sectors.  

In this article, author Tracey O’Neill reflects on her own experiences as a volunteer in three organisations where she also managed volunteer services and programs. She explores what these experiences taught her when it comes to ensuring that “my volunteer programs remain relevant and appealing to our community and supporters.” O’Neill’s ideas will challenge you to reflect on ways you can make volunteering more accessible and appealing in your organisation, while working to retain the best volunteers in today’s volunteering climate.

The majority of e-Volunteerism readers are leaders of volunteers and many of us play a significant role in training volunteers. But should that be the case? In this Training Designs, editor Erin R. Spink asks some tough questions about the role that leaders of volunteers play in training volunteers. By looking into what she calls “the trouble with training,” Spink offers insights into why and how this could look different.

Have you ever felt like you are working all alone in volunteer management, or being pulled in different directions by groups working in siloes? Then you will be excited to hear about the launch of the new National Alliance for Volunteer Engagement, a group that developed after the 2017 National Summit on Volunteer Engagement Leadership “to guide future collective action at the national level towards embracing volunteer engagement as an effective strategy to address community needs.”

In this Voices, author Allyson Drinnon hears from some of the people active in the National Alliance for Volunteer Engagement movement. They explain why this collective action at the national level will advance the power and potential of volunteer engagement.

 

What role can volunteering and leaders of volunteer engagement play in developing future leaders? This Research to Practice reviews a new instrument developed specifically to help volunteer resource managers identify future leaders in their volunteer base.

Recognizing that many of the qualities that prompt individuals to volunteer are also qualities of leaders, leadership development researchers Janina Fuller and Curtis Friedel set out to develop a way to identify volunteers who had the desire and potential to develop as leaders. To do so, they conducted two surveys with volunteers from HandsOn Network affiliates across the U.S. The first survey aimed to understand volunteers’ perceived advantages and disadvantages of developing leadership as volunteers. The second survey posed questions to volunteers to capture leadership behaviors and intentions. As the authors write, “Organizations that purposefully recognize their volunteers’ leadership skills generate positive consequences not only for themselves and their volunteers, but also for the clients and the communities they serve.”

When it comes to volunteer leadership, experienced volunteer manager Meridian Swift believes that two models dominate: reactive or proactive. But in this e-Volunteerism feature, Swift argues that it’s time to break the cycle of being a reactive volunteer manager – someone who waits for volunteer requests and then works hard to fulfill them – and ease into proactive volunteer management that anticipates needs and consistently networks with the decision-making staff.

“While reactive volunteer management will get the job done, proactive volunteer management frees us to take control and responsibility for volunteer services, to become creative, expand our circle of influence, have a hand in decision making and ultimately elevate ourselves within our organizations,” writes Swift. Through examples and additional insights, Swift outlines the way to proactive leadership for current and future volunteer leaders.

 

Think of how meaningful and useful it would be to peer inside the heart of every one of your volunteers – to understand what is important to them, what inspires them, what gets them excited, what taps into their passion, and what keeps them dedicated to your mission. Or you could gain insight into the factors that may diminish their enthusiasm or make them feel a little less jazzed about serving the cause. 

Sound like some crystal ball fantasy? It doesn’t have to be. Leaders in high-performing organizations are already doing this through what is called coaching, a form of leadership that sounds deceptively simple yet takes skill to do effectively and some practice to master.

In this feature article, author Barry Altland shows how dedicating time to engage in scheduled, ongoing, and meaningful conversations with longer-term volunteers reveals what is in their hearts that drives their choice to continue to serve. The key? Ask the right questions. Listen intently. Probe a little deeper than the occasional, casual hallway conversation allows. As Altland explains, this strategic, purposeful, and proactive time investment can and will make the difference in sustaining the engagement of more volunteers.