This page makes the case that volunteer leadership isn’t just a single role and that there is a need to have the Volunteer Coordinator role be more strategic.
Volunteers can play a significant role in most non-profits. The roles can range from low-skilled to very high skilled. If this latter case, they take time to find and develop, just like an employee.
Many organizations imply that the Volunteer Coordinator role is not important. They do this by making it a starting assignment, making it part-time or even a volunteer position. My experience indicates that most Volunteer Coordinators don’t stay in their role very long. Together, these things lead to lower impact. Try to staff the Volunteer Coordinator role with someone experienced and/or expect them to develop into “professionals”. Insist that they participate in the Cincinnati Association of Volunteer Administrators (CAVA) for professional development.
Volunteer leaders should lead “up, down and sideways” in the organization. Leading up, they engage the Executive Director, Leadership Team and even the Board. Leading sideways, they engage key Staff in goals and new opportunities. Leading down, they engage volunteers to find the right match and helping them “serve to their potential”. Volunteer leadership is beyond the role of just one person; many people can be volunteer leaders, especially the Executive Director. Think of the role as tasks across various roles with the Volunteer Coordinator as the hub.
Examples of Strategic Volunteer Management Tasks:
These roles may be performed by the Volunteer Coordinator or someone from the Leadership Team or Board.
- Volunteer Visioning. Engage the Board and Staff in a volunteer vision process. The Vision should then be posted prominently.
- Strategic Planning. The strategic plan should address Organizational Capacity and the use of volunteers even if in a small way. Is there any mention of volunteers?
- Organizational Capacity. Conduct a “needs assessment” annually to determine new volunteer role opportunities that address organizational capacity constraints. Influence the role descriptions of Staff to reflect volunteer needs.
- Lead Volunteers. Board members are a specific type of Lead Volunteer. Consider having these roles in key departments too.
- Best Practices. Find, develop and implement critical work process for sustainability.
- Volunteer Committee. A Volunteer committee might include the Volunteer Coordinator, a key member of Staff and even a Board member. Together, they can guide the continual improvement process.
Suggested Metrics:
- % of Best Practices at “green” (see the Best practice Assessment Tool)
- # of Lead Volunteers utilized
- # of Departments with increasing volunteer utilization
Contact me if you want to discuss this at a deeper level.