They volunteered…now what?

Every organization I have ever worked with is recruiting volunteers, and almost every single one of those organizations never has a enough volunteers despite having sign up drives at every event, social media posts, and friends dragging friends to the organization.

I believe the main reason for this is once a volunteer completes your application, your organization is asking “what do I do with this person?” 

The answer is stop recruiting and rewrite your program. Volunteers are precious gold to an organization, and currently in the U.S. a volunteer’s time is worth $28.54 an hour (read the article here). If you were paying an employee this much per hour, they would have a job description that provided direction and clear steps to how to complete their tasks. A volunteer deserves this and more.

Step One - what do you need volunteers for. And, no, “help” is not the right answer. Sit down with yor team and look at specific areas that you need help. For example, if you are working on a major event for the year, break down the event volunteers: volunteer committee chair, event day volunteer coordinator, silent auction coordinator, technology coordinator, auction item procurement volunteer…etc. Then take the time and list out the requirements of these positions and what skills a person will need to do the job. This is how you prevent Mary’s grandmother from getting volunteered to help with the new software for the auction and everyone feeling overwhelmed.

Step Two - recruit a person, not a volunteer. Treat every volunteer meeting like a job interview, ask questions, get to know the person sitting across the table from you. Listen to what they like to do and want to do. It is your job to place a volunteer into a position that they are geared for and want to do, not just to simply sit them at the front desk to answer phones.

Next week, I will share more on the importance of follow-up and being proactive with volunteers.