Volunteer Program/Resources Manager, Role of

Transferable Skills: What Makes Us Invaluable?


In a crisis situation, a designated volunteer coordinator can take charge and handle the spontaneous outpouring of volunteers that typically accompanies the situation. This Points of View examines why those skilled in volunteer management can automatically tap into a proven set of abilities when asked to respond quickly and effectively − and why this makes us different from other managers or human resources personnel faced with similar situations. And, we might add, it also makes us invaluable.

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Messing It Up: How Not-For-Profits Sabotage Their Volunteer Programs

In this third e-Volunteerism article in our Sabotage series, the authors turn their focus to those not-for-profit organizations that engage and deploy millions of volunteers globally. They list 10 universal actions that not-for-profits engage in, and argue that these actions make their volunteer programs less effective, reduce volunteer commitment, and ultimately lead to costly mistakes, lost revenue and reduced scope. More importantly, in the context of a major demographic shift, the authors argue that these actions may cause hundreds of thousands of organizations to be faced with a service delivery crisis within a decade. The authors consider practical solutions for moving forward.

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The Other Half of the Volunteer World

Much of volunteering happens outside of formal agencies and what we call “volunteer programs.”  Think of the thousands of all-volunteer associations, civic and service clubs, faith communities, professional societies and other groups with none or only a few paid staff – but each has its own leaders, most often volunteers themselves. These leaders are, in all ways, practicing volunteer management, but they do so in isolation from our field.  Working with volunteers who are self-led and working with those in agency-based programs has more similarities than differences, yet there is little evidence that volunteer program managers ever talk to the officers of all-volunteer groups or vice versa.  In this Points of View, we discuss how this is a great waste of potential.

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Tongue Fu! How to Deflect, Disarm and Defuse Verbal Conflict

Gwen Fujie calls it “martial arts ideas for the mind and mouth.”  In this article, Fujie explains why “Tongue Fu!” leads to cooperative communication and more peaceful relationships, both essential elements to success in volunteering. Based on author Sam Horn’s popular book by the same name, Fujie argues that Tongue Fu! is the “constructive alternative to giving a tongue-lashing or to being tongue-tied, a step-by-step process for turning hostility into harmony and aggravation into aloha.”  

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Clearing Hurdles on the Volunteer Obstacle Course

In this Points of View, the authors won’t argue for a return to the old and casual systems for volunteer involvement.  After all, this is a different world with different problems – with criminal record checks serving as a perfect example of something that volunteer managers learned the hard way need to be done, as imperfect as they currently function.  But a goal of volunteer resource managers should still be to extend a welcome to prospective volunteers, making the process go as well as it can in today’s more complex environment. This Points of View presents some ideas that will help more people clear the hurdles of the volunteer process and help them actually cross the finish line as accepted volunteers.

 

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Sabotage Part Two: How Managers of Volunteers Diminish Their Role


An interesting movement is emerging in volunteer management: Some managers of volunteers are limiting themselves to being responsible for only one part of their organization's volunteering scheme − the most 'traditional' part − while their organizations build new ‘pro bono’ and ‘community involvement’ programs without them.  While this is not a new phenomenon, what is new and concerning is that there has recently been significant growth in this ‘non-traditional’ volunteering. The change is undermining the role of the manager of volunteers and hampering the ability of community organisations to adequately meet the needs of the community. In this article, the authors consider what factors prevent or limit a manager of volunteers from taking responsibility for all volunteering responsibilities, and they also present a strategy for change.

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If You Think Education is Expensive Try Ignorance


Every once in a while the subject of self-development bears revisiting.  Since one of the most important roles a volunteer program manager fills is that of in-house educator – the key advocate for effective volunteer involvement – it is vital for all of us to keep our knowledge current and our ideas fresh.  The payback for carving out time to do this is a broader reservoir of concepts and techniques with which we can tackle our daily challenges.  Steve and Susan suggest nine ways in which volunteer managers can improve their knowledge about the field – both expected and unexpected learning methods.

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The Language of Leadership


Leaders are people who inspire others to follow.  They do this largely through their communication.  That influence partly comes from what leaders talk about, such as a vision of the future, organizational values, and other topics which have been well-described in many books and articles on the subject.  But the influence also comes from the way leaders phrase things.

Rick Lynch has based this article on some of his recent research into what kinds of communication inspire commitment and what kinds inspire resistance.  He identifies seven skills which will make you a more influential leader if you master them.

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Are You a 'Manager' or a 'Leader' of Volunteers?


Should there be a significant difference in leadership ability between the head of the organization and the head of the volunteer program?  While there may be differences in authority, leadership is not restricted to the executive director or chair of the board, nor should it be for the sustainability of the organization.   Leadership happens at all levels within an organization.  Everyone, including volunteer managers, has the capacity of becoming a leader. We all have skills which can be enhanced and abilities which can be cultivated. 

 

Some volunteer program managers may not yet perceive themselves as leaders in their organization, but they can be.   In this article, Bailey and Petro provide some self-assessment considerations and tools.

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Generating Funds for Your Volunteer Program: The Mindset and Methods

This is a landmark article, in that it tackles a critical subject rarely presented in depth:  what it takes to raise money to support volunteers and the infrastructure of a volunteer program.  As the title says, noted trainer and author Betty Stallings covers both the attitudes necessary to fundraising success and a wide variety of ideas for finding or generating adequate funds.  Included are:

  • Reasons why it is a challenge to raise money for a volunteer program.
  • How to develop a strong case for support – specific “talking points.”
  • Moving from begging to marketing.
  • Visualizing success.
  • Suggested methods of raising resources for your volunteer program, including donations from current volunteers, outreach to corporations and foundations, special events, gifts in honor of volunteers, and other creative approaches.
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