Volunteer management: Planning the schedule

Whichever time period works for your organization, it's a good idea to make it a set term with a beginning and end, and include:

·         A recruitment period, where you reach out to new volunteers

·         An orientation, when all new volunteers are trained

·         A regular schedule of projects

·         A mid-term evaluation meeting with each volunteer

·         An end-of-term meeting or event to thank everyone

Here is why we recommend creating a volunteer term:

·         A new group of volunteers starts together, goes through orientation together, and can bond with the rest of the new volunteers.

·         The volunteer knows that if she is unhappy, she has an opportunity to change jobs at the end of the term. This makes the commitment more manageable for her.

·         If the volunteer turns out to be the wrong person for the job she is doing, you have a chance to move her to a more appropriate job at the end of the term.

·         If the volunteer is unreliable or having a bad effect on the rest of the group, you also have a chance to end the relationship naturally at the end of the term, without a lot of drama.

·         If the volunteer is great, you can offer her a promotion or new responsibilities at the end of the term.

Designing a schedule

If your organization has never had a structured volunteer program before, we recommend designing a volunteer schedule with just one or two weekly projects that require small groups of volunteers. Perhaps a few times a year, add on a work party or public event/action where all the volunteers and other supporters are invited to participate. 

 

Make sure these projects:

 

·         Have a minimal time commitment. For new volunteers, keep the time commitment small, no more than a few hours a week. Even if someone is very enthusiastic and says she wants to work 20 or 40 hours a week for your organization, let her prove herself first with a few hours a week before you add time or responsibility.

·         Make it easy for volunteers to succeed. Make it very clear what the goals are for each project, and set goals that are easy to achieve. This will make it easier for volunteers to feel successful in the beginning. Volunteers who feel that they have failed, or that they have taken on more responsibility than they can manage, will stop coming in.

·         Are highly structured. Especially for new volunteers, create projects where there are clear guidelines, and break tasks down into small, easy, manageable steps.

·         Include gradual steps in which volunteers can take on greater responsibility and develop new skills. Let new volunteers know that if they are successful, there are opportunities for them to grow in the organization and take on more leadership. Someone who comes often and contributes a lot could become the head of a volunteer project later, or could have the opportunity for special training or travel.

An example of a very simple program for a new group of sex workers:

 

·         Street-level outreach to sex workers - A group of volunteers commits to spending two or three hours on one night a week talking to sex workers on the street and in their work places, and distributing condoms and health and safety information.

·         A weekly activity night for kids - One evening a week, the office is open to anyone who wants to bring children by for group activities, while the parents have tea and chat. A group of volunteers is responsible for opening the office, buying refreshments, planning activities for kids, and coordinating the activities.

·         A monthly meeting - Once a month, all members and supporters of the organization meet to discuss what happened in the past month, what could have been done better or differently, and what they will do for the next month.

·         An annual night of commemoration - Once a year, all volunteers come together to light candles and remember colleagues and friends who have been lost in the past year.

The advantage of this schedule is that the tasks involved do not require a high level of expertise beyond what can be taught in a one-day training. Volunteers who do well at the basic tasks could become team leaders in charge of one of the projects, or could take on leadership roles by becoming more vocal and active in the monthly meetings. This provides a clear ladder to move up the leadership system.

 

Your final schedule should include:

 

·         A greater number of volunteer jobs requiring minimal skills and short, concentrated effort with a clear goal, and

·         A  small number of volunteer jobs that involve more challenging tasks, and more responsibility for coordinating other people.

·         Ask volunteers to sign up and commit to a certain time slot so that the work is shared and scheduled in advance.

Designing a project

Begin by assessing what areas you need help in, and what skills are needed for each area. This will determine the kinds of people you need to recruit. For instance, if you are publishing a magazine, you may need people to help with planning the issue, writing articles, editing them, designing the magazine, finding pictures and getting permission to use them, and distributing the magazine. You may need people who are good writers, or who are very detail-oriented.

 

A very different project would involve visiting women at home who have health problems and giving them support and assistance. For that project, you might need people who are empathetic, who know a little bit about medicine, who know something about the local hospital system, and who can help women to get the medical care they need.

 

For each project, you should be able to answer the following questions:

 

·         What is the project, and why does it need to be done?

·         What are the steps involved in getting it done? ("First we need to do X, then we need to do Y...")

·         How many people do you need for the project, and what skills do they need to have?

·         How much time each week does each person need to spend to get the project done?

·         Is there an end date for this project, or is it an ongoing service?

·         Do you need security checks for the volunteers (for instance, if they will be working with children, or handling funds)?

·         Will you have to provide transportation for volunteers?

Who Is the Boss?

Ideally, you are building an organization where everyone feels empowered to have input into your work. But in practice, someone needs to be responsible for a project to get done. It's important to have at least one person whose name, phone number and/or email can be given out as a point person for developing your initial project team, recruiting volunteers, and creating partnerships with other groups.

 

Above all, this person should see their role as providing SUPPORT for volunteers - not just managing them and giving orders. With volunteers in particular, it is important to create a strong team, in which everyone pitches in to help out.

 

The coordinator or team leader makes sure that all the volunteers understand the mission of the organization, understand what is expected of them as a volunteer, and have the tools and knowledge they need to be volunteers. If a volunteer has a problem or concern, the coordinator or team leader tries to find a solution that - without straining the limited resources of your organization-- enables the volunteer to stay involved.

 

The volunteer coordinator or team leader should be someone who is a good listener, patient, organized, good at getting things done in a timely way, and good at communicating with people. Someone who is impatient, tends to lose her temper or fight with others, and tends to lose important information and forget things, is not a good candidate! Ideally, this should be someone who is just responsible for volunteers, and does not do anything else. Some larger organizations, or small organizations that are building up a large base of volunteers, may have a volunteer coordinator who is a paid staff person (sounds nice, right?).

 

In addition to the volunteer coordinator, each project can have a team leader who is an unpaid volunteer - someone with a little more experience that you know will be reliable. This person should arrive a little early to prepare the project each time, and should check in once a week with the volunteer coordinator or with the organization's director to let her or him know how things are going and how all the volunteers are doing. This is a good position to promote someone to - once they have proven they are reliable as a volunteer.

 

Should we pay our volunteers?

This is an important decision, and every organization feels differently about it. In many places, it is considered normal to pay volunteers. However, there are also some good reasons to not pay:

 

·         You can probably not raise enough money to pay everyone.

·         If some people are getting paid for their contribution to the organization, and others are not, it creates a feeling of unfairness and instability in the organization.

·         Paying people creates a situation in which you are serving individuals instead of building their collective power.

·         If members get paid, they are accountable to the person who pays them, not to the other members.

Here are some alternatives to paying volunteers:

·         Provide food at meetings.

·         Provide free child care so that parents can join in evening activities.

·         Reimburse people for transportation, so that coming to an activity does not cost them money.

Some people may be interested in finding a job at a nonprofit organization. If you think they would be a good addition to the team, you can help them to develop the skills they need to have that kind of job while they are volunteers, give them opportunities to get additional training, and work together to raise the funds to pay for that person's salary.

You can also advocate for that volunteer to get a paid job elsewhere, and let her know about interesting job opportunities that you hear about. Does this sound self-destructive? Actually it's an investment - while in the short term, you may lose a volunteer, in the long term, you may also gain a valued colleague who has good feelings about your organization and who can help your organization in many other ways. That former volunteer will also continue to be an advertisement for your organization in her or his new job, by making your organization known to others as a source for smart, highly-skilled and knowledgeable leaders in the field.

Tomorrow: Recruitment and orientation!

Note: Some of the information in this section was drawn from Joan Minieri and Paul Getsos' excellent book, Tools for Radical Democracy: How to organize for power in your community, published in 2007 by John Wiley and Sons. Highly recommended for groups doing grassroots community organizing!

Meg Davis is the founder and executive director of Asia Catalyst.