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Volunteers: A Valuable Resource

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People who give of their time, skills and resources as a nonprofit volunteer provide invaluable resources to nonprofit organizations. Now is a great time to show your appreciation for your nonprofit volunteers during National Volunteer Week.

National Volunteer Week is an opportunity to celebrate the impact of volunteer service and the power of volunteers to tackle society’s greatest challenges, to build stronger communities and be a force that transforms the world. Each year, we shine a light on the people and causes that inspire us to serve, recognizing and thanking volunteers who lend their time, talent and voice to make a difference in their communities. (Points of Light https://www.pointsoflight.org/nvw/)

The actual value of the time spent by volunteers working in a nonprofit is not reported on IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ, so the exact economic impact of nonprofit volunteerism is unknown. However, a report on San Luis Obispo County nonprofits estimated volunteers provide more than 627,274 service hours annually, and that could be a very low estimate (Beacon Economics).

Additionally, volunteers help fill the gap for vital professional services when budgets are tight and more assistance is needed. Just as in for-profit companies, salaries are usually the highest line item in a nonprofit’s budget. Most nonprofits can’t afford to hire the amount of staff needed to adequately meet operational demands. In addition, some businesses may not have staff at all and depend solely on volunteer help to function. Being consistently short-staffed and overworked can cause burnout, resulting in employees leaving to seek work elsewhere. Hiring and retaining volunteers thus becomes a crucial component in building a successful nonprofit.

Here are a few tips to help nonprofits find and keep the essential volunteers they need.

  • Plan for volunteers before you reach out: There are endless reasons why a person chooses to volunteer. Some want to give back to the community, develop new skills or stay connected with others. Whatever the reason, plan for your volunteer the same way you plan for other staffing. Create a job description to clarify the needs of the organization. This helps create realistic expectations for the volunteer as well as for the organization. However, be flexible as a volunteer may not want to do all of the tasks you’ve outlined, or you might get a person with a totally different but essential skill set that you hadn’t anticipated.
  • Prepare to make a good first impression: Let everyone know when a new volunteer is coming so they can give him or her a warm welcome and the volunteer knows that their service is appreciated.  When setting the first appointment, be clear if you expect the person to start helping immediately or if this is just an initial interview. Have the volunteer application and information on the nonprofit ready to share with each applicant. Bringing in a volunteer is similar to bringing on a regular staff member—that is, treat everyone the same. For instance, if a background check is required for employees, then it should be required for volunteers as well.
  • Provide an onboarding training session: Having a first day onboarding session with a new volunteer is imperative to orient the person to the organization and for you to get to know them better. Be welcoming and positive so the person feels relaxed. Create a designated place to store belongings and to work, and provide and review information in your Volunteer Handbook together.

These few tips are just the start for working with volunteers, but getting off to a good start sets the tone for a successful relationship. To get more tips on working with volunteers, join Spokes for the following April workshops:

  • Preparing Your Agency for Volunteers, Tuesday, April 16, 9-10:30 a.m.
  • Keys to Keeping Quality volunteers: Volunteer Retention and Motivation, Tuesday April 23, 9-10:30 am.

See information below in the newsletter for more information on the workshops.

For Spokes members, go to your Online Resources Library in your membership area to find multiple resources for volunteer recruitment, management, and retention.

Other Resources:

2013 Central Coast Economic Forecast, Beacon Economics. www.Beaconecon.com

Top 10 Strategies for Retaining Volunteers that Actually Work: https://www.givegab.com/blog/top-10-strategies-for-retaining-volunteers-that-actually-work/

Keep Your Volunteers Coming Back!

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Spokes would like to thank Rachel Cementina, Spokes faculty and SLO County YMCA Director of Membership and Marketing for guest-writing this article.

Several years ago, a young man contacted our office seeking a last-minute volunteer opportunity. John was required to complete 15 hours before the semester ended. We thought the Cal Poly student would do well at a computer project and quickly set him on his task.

Upon completion of the hours, he was asked how he felt about the experience. John answered, “It was the most boring work ever.” And that was the last we saw of him.

We can learn a lot from our experience with John and use it to keep volunteers coming back in the future:

• John said yes to the hours even before we told him about the project.

Make sure volunteers know in advance what they are signing up for by setting expectations. This means outlining a position description, including the purpose, duties, and skills that are required of the volunteer. A great place to start is at volunteer recruitment – make sure your position descriptions are complete at VolunteerSLO.org!

• We didn’t know how John was motivated.

Besides having appropriate training to get the assigned work done, volunteers also need the motivation. Was John motivated by the achievement of the project, satisfaction of giving back to an organization he was passionate about, or recognition of his hard work and time? On the surface, he may have been motivated by the proof that he completed the volunteer hours, but had we gotten to know him, we likely would have found that he also wanted to feel good about the work he was doing.

• John didn’t understand why his job mattered.

Even though we asked John to complete what he found to be a menial task, he may have found it more fulfilling to know why it mattered. If volunteers understand how their support leads to the greater mission of the organization, they have a better volunteer experience. Let each volunteer know how their efforts are making a difference and how their work contributes to the bigger picture.

When a volunteer knows what they are going to be doing in advance, are appreciated for their work, and can connect it to the “why,” it creates a quality volunteer experience. For more additional resources on Volunteer Retention, check out Energize Inc or chat with your friends at Spokes at (805) 547-2244 or [email protected]

Volunteer Appreciation Week: Clever Ways to Say ‘Thank You’

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Volunteer Appreciation Week is April 15-21! Now is the perfect time to plan to say thank you to your volunteers. If your organization is like ours, you rely heavily on volunteers as an extension of your staff or human resources. A genuine gesture of appreciation can result in a happier, more motivated volunteer. Here are some options to try out:

1. Surprise your volunteers with a kind gesture – coffee or muffins to start their day or a plant to show you’re thinking about them.
2. Show your appreciation through social media or a newsletter.
3. Send a personalized thank you note to the volunteer themselves or to their employer.
4. Use the power of the testimonial. Ask staff and other volunteers to write notes about a time that their colleague handled a challenge or made a difference. Compile the notes on a poster or book and present it to your volunteers.

Remember, a gratified and well-treated volunteer is a motivated and happy volunteer! If your organization is seeking additional support for its volunteer program, Spokes has several volunteer management classes coming up: Preparing Your Agency for Volunteers: Navigating Volunteer Screening and Recruitment on April 11 and Keeping Quality Volunteers: Volunteer Retention and Motivation on April 18. Join us!

Competitive Nonprofit Wages Are Important

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Legislation just passed that prohibits employers from asking job candidates for their salary history. This is great news. In the nonprofit sector, employers can no longer base their salary offers on how much the candidate previously made; in contrast to other sectors, these numbers are notoriously low.
But, how is an employer supposed to know fair compensation rates?

The answer lies in the Center for Nonprofit Management’s Compensation and Benefits Report. Every year, approximately 400 nonprofit organizations in Southern California participate in the survey to define comparable compensation data for various staff positions respective to an organization’s budget, responsibilities assigned, and geographic location.

Unfortunately, recent survey results have not provided a clear picture of benefits and compensation in San Luis Obispo or Kern Counties due to low participation among nonprofits in those regions. CNPM states, “The strength of the C+B Report survey is the diversity and volume of participants.” Toward that end, CNPM is urging Central Coast and Central California nonprofits to complete the survey prior to February 16, 2018. So, Spokes Members, let’s contribute our data to the C+B report for the survey’s benefit – and ours!

Completing the survey requires one individual from your organization to complete two questionnaires – one specific to compensation and bonuses paid to your organization’s employees, and another specific to employee benefits. The questionnaires are online and no more than 20 minutes is required to complete both of them. The most appropriate person to answer the survey is typically the Executive Director or CEO as s/he will need to know your organization’s operating budget, the salary and related job responsibilities for each staff position, and your organization’s personnel policies specific to health/retirement benefits, time off, paid leave and telecommuting practices.

The deadline to participate in the survey is February 16, 2018.

Once it’s published Spokes will have a copy of the 2018 C&B Report in our resource library to share with all of you. Thank you, in advance, for contributing your data to ensure that this resource is as valuable and relevant as it can be to our local nonprofit sector!

Four Steps To Prevent Stress

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Stress and burnout plague everyone in every sector. Nonprofit employees, however, seem to suffer especially. If we all spent five minutes jotting down the causes of our stress, we’d probably have fairly similar lists: emotionally draining work, constant urgency of needs, limited resources to do the work, low pay, not enough time in the day, etc. And, surprisingly, we’d all miss the only true cause of stress: rumination.

In his article, “Pressure Doesn’t Have to Turn into Stress,” published in the Harvard Business Review on March 16, 2017, Nicholas Petrie explains that the “causes” we would put on our list are actually not stresses but, rather, pressures. We create stress when we choose to react to pressures with rumination – the act of rethinking past or future events while attaching negative emotion to those thoughts.

Different folks can face the exact same pressures but experience very different levels of stress because of their individual reactions. For those who are interested in reducing their stress-levels, this is great news! Your stress-level can be entirely within your control with practice and discipline. Petrie offers the following four steps to help you:

Wake up and be present. Most rumination occurs when we are daydreaming or not focused on our current actions. Try some physical tricks like sitting up, clapping your hands or moving your body to bring you into the present. Get busy and re-engage with tasks at hand.

Focus on taking useful action. Petrie suggests the following exercise: Draw a circle on a page, and write down all of the things you can control or influence inside it and all of things you cannot outside if it. Remind yourself that you can care about externalities — your work, your team, your family — without worrying about them.

Put things in perspective. Petrie suggest three strategies for gaining a healthy perspective of your situation. One is a questioning exercise in which you ask yourself:  “How much will this matter in three years’ time?” and “What’s the worst that could happen?” and “How would I survive it?”.

Let go. Petrie admits that this is the hardest step to take. It has three required components: accept the situation, learn from the experience, and take appropriate action to move through and out of your situation.

Read Petrie’s entire article here and start a stress-free Spring tomorrow!

https://hbr.org/2017/03/pressure-doesnt-have-to-turn-into-stress

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