Get better volunteers. Light the fire of volunteerism in your organization, group or club.

Let The Volunteer

Sparks Fly --

Getting The Most Out Of

Your Volunteers

Volunteers are the heartbeat of any organization. They keep it going. If you are a volunteer, I solute you.

Sure, if you are a paid staff member you are the organizer (or brain if you will), but without the heart you will soon cease to exist.

Volunteers are also like a warm, glowing campfire. Campfires (your organization) that have lots of new fuel (volunteers) placed in it are more likely to cause sparks. Small fires

Do You Have Volunteers

If you have many volunteers, great. You must be doing something right. If not, you should reevaluate why you don't.

I will discuss some helpful hints that could strengthen your volunteer base. Some may seem silly, but try them out and see what works for your organization.

Let's say that you have volunteers on your roles, but they are reluctant to help out like they used to. First, check to see if they are regular donors. If not, this will give you a clue that they may have other priorities now or have problems with your group.

Guidance

Here's a scenario Someone walks up at an event and asks, "How can I help"? Then you here one of the leaders say, "That's great, we'll take any help we can get." They are so engaged with what they are doing that they walk away as if the new volunteer is supposed to know what to do.

Most volunteers are looking for direction and guidance. Without guidance, they will simply slip back into the shadows.

Your Attitude

How do you come across to your volunteers. Are you upbeat, encouraging, charged? Do you engage them in your game plan? Do you ask for their ideas, comments and feedback?

Do you smile when you talk to them over the telephone? Yes, smile. Your attitude really does come across as you talk over the phone. If you are smiling, then you are cheerful and friendly and they can sense it, even over the telephone.

When you talk to your volunteers are you distracted, looking over their shoulder as if something "important" is just out of your reach? Or do you look them in the eye, touch them on the shoulder or answer their questions effectively? If not, you are showing them that they are not important.maybe even wasting your time, they think.

Effective Job Placement

Placing someone or coercing a volunteer into a job that does not interest them is the best way to have large amounts of turnover. Ever wonder why you just can't keep volunteers?

Maybe they are upset because they do not like to volunteer at what you want them to do. You should meet with your volunteers and potential volunteers and get to know them. Get to know what makes them tick, their likes and their dislikes.

EXAMPLE: Mr. Bigbucks is a successful businessman, so you think that he will be a great fundraiser for your special youth camp nonprofit. Mr. Bigbucks loves children (having 5 of his own) and he would rather be involved in teaching or working with the youth to encourage them.

You ignore all of the signs about why he likes your group. In fact, you never really sat down with him to discuss why he likes your organization. It's your agenda that you need to fulfill so you pressure him into accepting a role a fundraising chairman. He reluctantly accepts the job, but turns out to be a flop, because his heart is really not in it.

Being embarrassed, he returns less and less of your calls until eventually he cuts his donations down to a trickle. At this point, he may never volunteer for anything again.

Rather, ask him to do some fun things first until he later grasps the importance of the fundraising tasks that keep your organization going. Get other volunteers to ask him to go along with them on some fundraising calls until he gets comfortable with the idea of assisting with fundraising.

Placing your donors into the right position will not only ignite a spark in them, but it will keep your fires going as they in turn light your fire.

Training

Ok, you've recruited a new volunteer. First, you schedule an opportunity to train them. This training may be informal or formal.

Without proper training, you will soon find that your volunteers may feel alienated and inadequate. Kick off their volunteer experience and make them feel at home with the right training.

As standard policy, I would implement the rule that at the end of each year you will reevaluate all volunteers. New positions will be recruited for each year.

That way new volunteers have the ability to move up the ladder so to speak. It also keeps long time volunteers with old ideas from dominating your charity year after year. This rule also allows you to remove a volunteer by simply not nominating or recruiting him or her for a second term.

If you want to really make volunteers feel as a part of the team, then ask some of your top volunteers to become trainers themselves. The BSA (scouts) has a program called Train The Trainer that really keeps the sparks flying.

It works great and some of the most senior volunteers are with the scouts, because they are trainers as well. In other words, you've engaged their knowledge, used their skills, and have asked for their assistance. This would make any person happy.

Recognition

If you are truly appreciative of the help that your volunteers give, you must show your recognition in several ways.

First, and often overlooked is the simple "thank you". Your thank you can take many forms including: A letter from the President, a lunch invitation from a staff or board member, flowers sent on a special day, Christmas Cards and Birthday Cards sent out, periodic phone calls from the Chairman asking for input, and more.

You'll see that once you recognize your volunteers, they will recognize the needs of the organization even when you don't ask for help. Follow these rules and you will have a top notch volunteer corps for now and well into the future.