In America, volunteers and volunteer organizations are a way of life. Volunteers give their time, talents, and treasures in many ways. Parents frequently volunteer to help at their child’s school, with extracurricular activities, or church groups. Children learn about volunteering from their parents, their teachers, and their peers as many public, private, and parochial schools require service of the students to foster civic responsibility. Young adults become involved in organizations to support their beliefs, such as ecology, literacy, or poverty reduction.
Whether yours is a startup nonprofit who is operating solely with the use of volunteers or an established entity with a paid staff who are complimented by volunteers, it is important to view volunteers as a valuable resource- a resource that requires maintenance and management. Volunteers as a resource can save the organization money and increase cost-effectiveness, while they expand the organization’s capabilities, improve the quality of service, and improve community relations. However, these advantages require a significant investment and commitment by the organization in time, money, and staffing.
In order to create a successful volunteer program, an organization must practice diligent volunteer management through the establishment of policies and procedures for the program. When creating your organization’s volunteer management program, remember to address the following policies:
• Recruiting volunteers
• Interviewing and screening for placing volunteers
• Orientation and training of volunteers
• Supervising and evaluating volunteers
• Retaining and recognizing volunteers
• Maintaining the records of the program
• Writing program reports
• Evaluating the program
• Advocating and educating the staff on the important roles of volunteers
Once you have established the parameters for your organization’s volunteer program, you are ready to undertake the task of volunteer recruitment. Upon beginning to recruit volunteers, you must keep in mind the need for diversity within your program. To adequately reflect the needs of a diverse population, your volunteers should be a diverse group as well. It is important to reflect the community and the client base.
Another aspect of diversity for your consideration is the fact that volunteers have diverse needs that the organization will need to address. Most importantly, the organization will need to recognize the diverse time commitments that varying individuals will be able to make. Thus, volunteer opportunities need to have diverse time components.
Whether your organization is undertaking generic recruitment, a widespread call for all volunteers; or targeted recruitment, a request for individuals with a specific skill, there are three techniques most commonly employed.
Individual Contacts- This is most effective on a one-to-one basis through a network of existing volunteers, professionals, or other key people within your community.
Organizational Contacts- This method involves the use of other organizations, such as volunteer centers, schools, service clubs, judicial systems, and online volunteer portals.
Media Contacts- The use of the media to recruit serves two purposes, to recruit volunteers and to create publicity for the organization and its role within the community.
Remember that once a potential volunteer has been recruited the real work begins. The recruitment process for the volunteer program should involve the following:
• An application form
• An interview
• Screening procedures
• Procedures for acceptance and rejection of potential volunteers
• A Volunteer Contract
• An orientation program
• An assignment procedure
• Development of a personnel file that includes all of the above
Your volunteers are important organizational assets and another essential segment of volunteer management is retention of these valuable resources. It is important to continually make efforts to remain in consideration of each volunteer’s safety and security needs, social needs, and esteem needs.
Retention of volunteers requires a staff dedicated to the philosophy of using volunteers to accomplish the organization’s mission. Everyone within the organizaiton plays a part in retaining volunteers, and administration must cultivate this attitude. Personal consideration of each volunteer’s needs and organizational strategies to meet those needs can forge a bond between the volunteer and the organization that is stronger than any bond based only on monetary compensation.
Source: http://www.ArticlePros.com/author.php?Melanie Guin
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