Recruiting and Managing Volunteers for Social Impact Organizations

Start up and Funding Models for Social Impact Organizations
Introduction
Volunteers are needed for social impact organizations, which have limited funds and require the efforts, participation, and commitment of volunteer personnel in order to meet organizational goals. To recruit and manage volunteers, it is important to communicate a vision and mission of what the organization is doing, what it aims to achieve, why it matters, and what volunteers can do to help achieve the goals. Every volunteer’s role must be clearly defined, and every vision clearly articulated. This paper will describe how to manage, motivate and evaluate volunteers in a social impact organization.
Where Volunteers are Needed
Volunteers are a necessary component of any healthy society and community (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2005). They are needed because they help to communicate the sense of value in both the community and the organization among stakeholders. Volunteers show that a cause is worthwhile; they show that the vision has meaning; and they show that enough people are willing to believe in it that they will work and dedicate themselves to that vision even without pay. Volunteers are essential workers at every level of the social impact organization because they can bring vital skills, vital manpower, and vital insights and experience.
Recruiting volunteers depends upon the organization’s ability to use technology, such as social media, to get the word out and to connect with potential volunteer candidates. The organization has to be able to communicate the vision and the mission so that volunteers are attracted and inspired to want to help out. There should be clear benefits for volunteers as well, as these can act as incentives for bringing volunteers on board. Their role should be articulated and their passion and impact on the organization recognized routinely (Georgetown University Alumni Career Services, 2016).
Roles They Play
Volunteers are more than mere helpers who stop by in their spare time to lend a hand in some of the more mundane activities of the organization. On the contrary, volunteers can do everything from low level jobs to the actual running of the organization As the US Department of Health and Human Services (2005) points out, “larger organizations, such as the Salvation Army and the American Red Cross, have survived for more than 100 years due in large part to a strong volunteer commitment” (p. v). Volunteers help with fundraising for organizations; they can help with the distribution of information; they can be active on social media, interacting with the public and engaging in influencing tactics. They can devote time to people at a personal level to facilitate social impact. They can manage groups, direct operations, and engage in strategizing. Volunteers exist at all levels of an organization, from the Board to the room where phone calls are taken. The role they play all depends upon who they are, where they come from and what they bring to the operation (Smith, 1994). Volunteers are vital, for example, in keeping Wikipedia going (The Economist, 2011).
Preparing Them for Work
Preparing volunteers for work is not an easy job and most CEOs fail to adequately prepare and manage volunteers—which is why there is such high turnover among volunteer staff from one year to the next (Eisner, Grimm Jr, Maynard & Washburn, 2009). The key to preparing them for work begins with the manager. The manager must be able to assess what the volunteer brings to the table and give the volunteer meaningful work that keeps the person engaged and enables the person to use his skills. A manager who assumes that all volunteers are low-skilled workers is a major problem for an organization. Many volunteers are actually highly skilled and want to give their time because they are charitable, believe in the vision and mission of the organization and have time to give. The keys to preparing them for work involved the following critical steps:
1. Matching their skills with appropriate work
2. Recognizing the ways in which volunteers contribute and honoring them for their time and effort
3. Taking stock of the impact that volunteers have on an organization and measuring it using standard evaluation practices
4. Giving volunteers the same opportunity for professional development as is given paid employees
5. Providing volunteers with mentors, trainers and guides so that they are not lost on the job (Eisner et al., 2009).
By following these key steps, managers can better prepare volunteers for the job and reduce the risk of high turnover among volunteers.
Volunteers are like paid employees in that they all want to feel appreciated and valued. Volunteers want to know that their contributions are not going unnoticed by management. Managers thus need to give volunteers the accolades they deserve. But they also need to make sure they know who they have. If a volunteer comes with experience in leadership, that person’s skills should be leveraged. If a volunteer needs training, that training should be provided.
Volunteers also need to know what the organization’s expectations for them are (Georgetown University Alumni Career Services, 2016). They also need to be provided the means of communication so that they have access to a manager or mentor when need arises. Training and skill-building are also vital tools that should be made available to volunteers.
Reporting Structure
Volunteers should have their own supervisor, who can provide them with tasks, oversight, guidance, support and the means for communication (Hager & Brudney, 2004; US Department of Health and Human Services, 2005). Without this kind of reporting structure, volunteers can feel marginalized, sidelined, and as though they are a mere second-thought in the organization. However, because volunteers are vital resources, they need to have their own managers, to whom they can report and who in turn can report to upper management within the organization so that all departments are aligned and operating with the same information.
Motivating Volunteers
Volunteers, like paid employees, also require motivation. Every volunteer has needs that must be met, and the volunteer typically has a need both to help and to identify with the organization to which he is donating his time and energy. These needs are both emotional and intellectual, but there are ramifications for volunteers entering into a relationship with an organization, which can be similar in terms of how an employee feels towards the organization that employs him: the worker identifies as being a part of the mission/group and therefore as one who should be compensated in some form or another. The volunteer is not looking for pay but will appreciate recognition and some form of benefit, even if it is not monetary. Free access to certain events, or a discount to services could be an example of the type of benefit an organization might allow to a volunteer.
One of the most efficient ways to motivate, however, is simply to have likeable managers who know how to use social and emotional intelligence with volunteers. Managers who relate to volunteers, who encourage them and offer them approving and complimentary words will be seen as most likeable and in turn will have the most impact on motivating volunteers. Giving volunteers a continuous sense of the vision and a reason to believe in the organization and commit to it are also good motivators. The volunteer is like a member of any other group: he is there because he believes in the group, so the manager should constantly strive to reinforce that belief and make sure unbelief is never an issue. Managers should be able to help volunteers to see that they are capable of changing the world and becoming the best possible versions of themselves, as Screwvala (2018) states. Developing the right culture for the volunteer workplace is essential to this activity. A culture should be positive, reinforcing the organization’s values and vision at all times.
Assessing Volunteers
Assessing volunteers will depend upon what goals were set out for the volunteer group to achieve. Unless there is a clear goal with objectives identified and established, there can be no valid way to assess the performance of volunteers (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2005). The goal of the assessment also has to be identified. What the assessment is supposed to show, and how it is supposed to show are to keys to a successful evaluation.
Collecting the data is the next important aspect of volunteer assessment. Data can be collected using survey or interview methods. It then has to be analyzed and that can be done both quantitatively and qualitatively. Quantitative measures will look at numbers and statistics to assess performance. Qualitative measures will look at morale, opinions, attitudes, and other non-numerical components of performance that can allow managers to see the extent to which volunteers are reaching performance goals.
How Their Roles Differ from Paid Employees
Volunteer roles differ from paid employees in the sense that volunteers are not contractually engaged. They cannot be managed in the same way as paid employees because the latter are under a contractual obligation to perform. Volunteers are not. Thus, it is not necessarily that the roles are different, for volunteers and paid employees may in fact both have the same roles, depending on the organization. Rather, it is the character of the role that is different. The character of the role of the volunteer is much more philanthropic than is the character of the role of the paid employee. That difference will alter the way in which both workers are to be managed.
Plan to Achieve Social Impact Using the Mission Model Canvas as a Framework
A plan to achieve social impact using the Mission Model Canvas as a framework should include a list of each of the following: 1) key partners, 2) key activities, 3) key resources, 4) value proposition, 5) buy-in support, 6) deployment, 7) beneficiaries, 8) the mission budget or cost, and 9) the mission achievement factors.
For this social impact organization, the key partners are going to be local leaders and organizations within the community, who can support the aim of the organization through spreading of the vision/mission, providing donations or funding, and by offering volunteer support. This would be the political capital and the social capital needed. Key activities will involve reaching out to the target group with the message, information and services required; providing access to the target group, and fundraising to supply the financial capital. Key resources will include communication resources, funding operations resources, human resources, infrastructural resources, and mobile resources, who would supply the human and intellectual capital. The value proposition of the organization would be that which states the value that it is bringing to the community. Buy-in support would come from stakeholders who are involved in the decision making process. Deployment would come from volunteers who go into the field to put the mission and vision into practice. Beneficiaries would be the recipients of the organization’s social impact. The mission budget would consist of the amount of funds that can be safely allocated to operations. And the mission achievement factors would consist of the variables that must be addressed in order for the organization to reach its goals. Financial, human, intellectual, social, and political capital are all required.
Conclusion
Volunteers are essential elements of the social impact organization and should be treated as valued stakeholders. They must have their own managers and clearly defined roles; expectations should be made clear, and they should have access to the same training opportunities and professional development opportunities as paid employees. Motivating volunteers is especially important since unmotivated employees can lead to high turnover and increased costs for the organization.
References
The Economist. (2011). Wikipedia’s fundraising, free but not easy. Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/node/21536580
Eisner, D., Grimm Jr, R. T., Maynard, S., & Washburn, S. (2009). The new volunteer workforce. Stanford Social Innovation Review, 7(1), 32-37.
Georgetown University Alumni Career Services. (2016). Effective Volunteer Recruitment & Management Strategies for Non-Profits. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6h4Pk47ymE#action=share
Hager, M.A., & Brudney, J.L. (2004). Volunteer management practices and retention of volunteers. Retrieved from http://www.urban.org/uploadedpdf/411005_volunteermanagement.pdf
Screwvala, T. (2018). How Volunteering can help Change the World. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGtFvOSmZ8A#action=share
Smith, D. H. (1994). Determinants of voluntary association participation and volunteering: A literature review. Nonprofit and voluntary sector quarterly, 23(3), 243-263.
US Department of Health and Human Services. (2005). Successful Strategies for Recruiting, Training, and Utilizing Volunteers. Retrieved from https://www.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/volunteer_handbook.pdf