Join me today (Wednesday, May 6th) for the ALIVE webinar: Elevating Leaders of Volunteers: It’s time to strategize advocacy.
I’m a big, big believer in strategy because hey, I spent the first 10 years of my #LoVols career without strategy, and that pretty much meant running around putting out fires, often without a hose, sometimes without water and sometimes seeing two fires merge and burn the place down. I got tired of smoke in my lungs.
Chaos can be an opportunity for becoming a change-maker as new a normal arises.
We are at a junction. Volunteer past is meeting volunteer present and volunteer future. How will we treat each one going forward?
It’s too soon to know what changes will occur, but it is not too soon to start strategizing for a better present and future. Will we recruit new volunteers saying, “It’s a new day folks,” and by sweeping away the past, piss off all the volunteers who have stuck with us? Will we try to force all the new volunteers into old roles and methods and appear to not have gained any innovative insight from this crisis?
Volunteer past is an organization’s foundation. Honoring volunteer stories and accomplishments from the past means your organization has created a solid base and has laid an infrastructure on which to continue building.
I discovered long ago, that when seasoned volunteers spoke at volunteer orientation, new volunteers were impressed, but also thought, “Am I supposed to be like this volunteer or will I have my own volunteering path? Is there anything new to be done?”
Moving forward, modern volunteers need to get excited about their volunteering journey. Volunteers are looking at the future instead of being content with the present. It’s a subtle, but significant shift.
What does that mean for us then, when it comes to recruiting, sustaining and on-boarding new volunteers? It means balancing past volunteer methods, awards and accomplishments with present goals and visions for the future. It means setting the foundation and then inspiring new volunteers to put up the walls, or decorate the interior or construct another floor. It means focusing on moving forward.
What if you’re not an exciting start-up organization with endless possibilities? Introduce expansion, new programs and future visions to volunteers who may be wondering, “why do you need me?”
Nothing is more infectious than an inspiring vision that has movement. It gives volunteers an identity. It means that they won’t have to mimic volunteer past to make their unique mark.
Volunteer Past infused with Volunteer Future looks something like this:
“Our volunteers have won numerous awards for their work. But, we want to build on that and we need your unique passion.”
“Our volunteers gave 70,000 hours in the past 5 years. That’s why we can expand our innovative programs. That’s where you come in.”
“We’ve used this method for many years because it worked. Now, we are moving forward and you are part of the journey.”
A well-rounded volunteer understands volunteer past and looks to make their mark on volunteer present and volunteer future.
Our volunteers want to celebrate and understand the past, but own the future. Let’s give them both.
We, leaders of volunteers (#LoVols) have shared experiences, shared hopes, shared challenges and a shared future. We are a family, a team, a brother/sisterhood. We are a LoVols kindred. When one of us succeeds, all of us succeed and all volunteerism succeeds.
Forging alliances, finding one another, speaking with shared voices (wedon’t have to agree on everything) strengthens us and our volunteers. Recently, Marina Paraskevaidi, Volunteer Manager at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich wrote to me and wanted to share her thoughts with all of you in a LoVols kindred moment. Marina hails from Greece, has lived in Italy where she served as a volunteer coordinator with the NGO Service Civil International and since moving to the UK, she works as the Volunteer Manager at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, overseeing the overall strategic direction of the Volunteering Programme.
Each one of us can share our challenges, successes, questions, frustrations, and hopes with one another because we get each other and guess what? We support each other, want to see each other succeed, and we all are working towards the same thing: Elevating volunteerism. Here is Marina’s message:
When joining the Old Royal Naval College a little less than a year ago, I could never have imagined our site being closed same time this year due to an unpredictable pandemic that would keep us all at home (like a sci-fi post-apocalyptic movie). But amidst the uncertainty, our communities stay strong.
The past two weeks have been a rollercoaster of reactions and emotions for all staff and volunteers. First, the uncertainty kicked in when the news spread about COVID-19 cases rising across Europe, while we were still on a let’s-pretend-it’s-all-normal mode on site, planning volunteer-led private tours, organising group reciprocal visits to other museums, conducting volunteer recruitment interviews and preparing upcoming inductiontraining sessions. Then, following the announced set of restrictions, the situation escalated so quickly, and we had to make swift changes to our everyday lives. A regular day in the beginning of March now feels a distant past. We had to take the decision to close our site to the public, while still processing the prospect of many of us having to isolate for weeks, even months, thinking especially of our volunteers who are in the most vulnerable groups.
Ten days later, our new home-based routine is the norm and it looks like we are adapting to new virtual ways to keep in touch and support each other in the best way we know: sharing the love.
From volunteers asking about their peers’ wellbeing and sending personal warm wishes, to our staff mobilising team efforts to produce resources that can be accessible remotely; from our CEO’s reassuring message, to people going beyond and above to show solidarity and help each other while working remotely with limited resources.
It’s the same warm welcoming feeling that sparkles around in the Visitors Centre when volunteers put on their best smile to greet our visitors, it’s this shared love for what we do and who we are that drives solidarity among our communities.
A lot of things remain uncertain and yet to be figured out: how do we keep in touch with those not online? How do we ensure we look after our staff and volunteer’s mental health? How can we be creative using virtual technology to communicate, offer online learning opportunities and organise local initiatives? How can we continue sharing our history and engage the public while closed? Can we think outside the box and create remote volunteering opportunities?
The most difficult times might be yet to come, but I have always been a strong believer in the power of communities (and that’s also why I have chosen to work with volunteers): through the challenges we will learn, pave new paths and come out stronger on the other side.
Spread the love, Marina
Thank you Marina for reaching out to all of us. We appreciate your courage, your conviction and your connection. I appreciate your LoVols kindred spirit.
Spread love, knowledge, support, a shoulder to cry on, a tip on recruitment, a success story, a cautionary tale, an innovative project with each other. Find one another and use this time to build momentum. Volunteers are counting on us.
It’s not easy, building a movement, but we are in this together.
Uncertainty sucks big time, but guess what? We, volunteer managers deal in uncertainty all the time. Think about it. Everyday we wonder…
Will anyone who attends my speech at the local Classic Car Collector’s Guild on Saturday actually sign up to volunteer? Will one or two attendees fall asleep in the back and snore so loudly I have to shout over the noise?
Can I trust that Magda in event planning will communicate the revised meet-up spot to the volunteers and not forget again? Will I get a frantic call from a volunteer asking where he should be while I’m at my son’s violin recital and then I get shame-shushed by snarky Heather who always sits behind me?
Will volunteer Trevor stop bringing his herbal supplements to clients’ homes or do I have to have another conversation with him? Will he ever stop trying to sell his energy pills to everyone? (huh, maybe that’s why I’m so jittery...)
Will I come in to work this morning and find a volunteer has once again written a letter to the editor of the local paper, calling out the lack of volunteer department budget? (after I’ve patiently explained that going to the press ensures WE WILL NEVER GET THE MONEY NOW!)
Will the A/V equipment break in the middle of my presentation to the chamber of commerce and then I’m stuck drawing a graph on volunteer impact from memory on a chalkboard? (and I hastily draw a graph that resembles male body parts)
Will I have to carpool volunteers to the luncheon because finance did not pay for the bus and driver I reserved? (and we arrive late because volunteers have to stop to use the restroom along the way)
Will the printing company get this year’s appreciation theme correct and not print 400 balloons saying, “Volunteers have no heart.”
We, volunteer managers routinely operate in an uncertain world so we’re already positioned to navigate these times. But wait. Not everything is uncertain so let’s look at what we do know.
People want to help: If anything tell us that volunteerism is alive and well, this pandemic proves it. From neighbors helping neighbors to social media groups that mobilize participants to 750,000 people signing up in the UK for the NHS, people are still volunteering. The spirit of volunteering is alive.
We know there will be an end: There’s always an end. Sure, there will be a new normal with new challenges so this is the time to start strategically planning for the new normal in a way that benefits you, your volunteers, and your volunteer initiative. How do you envision yourself coming out of this? Better equipped to speak up and mold your volunteer program for this new normal?
Change is an opportunity. No one is more adaptable than a volunteer manager. We can come out of this with the adaptations that fit the modern volunteer. Change can be an opportunity, so let’s make it work for us.
Priorities rise to the top: What does that look like for you? Communicating with volunteers, serving clients or revamping archaic systems? Challenging circumstances have a way of exposing flaws and outdated methods while highlighting the greatness of the things working well. Now is the time to sort through and document what is working, what is not working and why, so that moving forward, you have supporting information that will back-up your plans moving forward.
We are in this together. Yep, we are, because we, volunteer managers have a common purpose. Let’s take this time to find each other, band together and further our goals. Volunteer organizations are forced to stream their volunteer award events. These are the events we can all support by virtually attending or commenting on in a show of solidarity.
We are no strangers to uncertainty and the same strength, courage and resolve we employ everyday will see us through these times. We will come out of this stronger, more resilient and more determined to see volunteerism and our volunteers elevated.
We will come out of this more connected to one another, more supportive of one another, and more able to speak as unified voices. One thing we can do to create a swell of united support is to stream more. Let’s use this time to record, stream, and create videos showing volunteer impact so we can build an audience that sees the work firsthand. Let’s not relegate volunteer awards to a nice lunch at a moderately priced hotel, seen only by attendees. Let’s share volunteer value and impact with the world. Let’s go big and take our message to everyone.
We are in new territory and for many organizations, volunteers are temporarily staying home. What can a volunteer manager do to keep volunteers engaged when we can’t sit down with them, hug them, hear their stories or laugh with them?
Right now, we can supplement our daily spontaneity with strategy. First, we need to plan the approach. Where do your volunteers see/hear/read/absorb information from you or your organization? Common ways are:
emails
phone calls
website
social media
meetings
Next, determine strategies for each information pipeline. Schedule communications (weekly, daily, bi-weekly) so volunteers look for regular updates from you. And, giving yourself a deadline helps keep you on track. Prepare your scheduled messages.
For those volunteers who only get information through phone or meetings, create a phone tree of volunteers to pass along information and also to encourage those volunteers to choose a tech method in which to stay informed. Not all will, but this is an opportune time to start funneling volunteers into more central avenues of communication such as your website. This is a time to create a new normal in which volunteers expect to learn, be informed, find educational offerings, meeting schedules, inspirational stories etc. from the tech site(s) you find most advantageous. (for example, you would like all volunteers to follow your Facebook page or you would like all volunteers to check your volunteer portal)
A few ideas for scheduled communications are:
provide helpful information on your website. Volunteers trust us, so be the site they go to for correct and factual information-if you give volunteers information, be sure to include the source, don’t re-word the information, quote accurately, don’t opinion-ate on facts.
set up a new hashtag for your volunteers specifically during this time ( example: #SpringhillVolsCov19 ) and share what your org and you, as their LoVols are doing during this time. (include your website address to funnel volunteers towards a central spot)
post testimonials from past clients, volunteers, etc to celebrate volunteer impact and for inspiration to keep engagement alive.
set up Facebook live events to speak directly to your volunteers. You are their anchor and seeing you is reassuring.
this is a great time to share the history of your organization. Share old photos, stories of how the mission was created, and the early struggles. If possible, interview your org’s pioneers; those who were there when it began. Connecting your volunteers to the birth of your mission strengthens their engagement.
issue a challenge-read a book, exercise, learn a skill. A challenge illustrates that you care about their well-being (which you do) and makes this time about them.
ask volunteers to email their favorite volunteering memory and share those memories with the volunteer team. You can also re-purpose the stories to use later as testimonials for recruitment and training purposes.
create a quiz. Quizzes are entertaining and can serve an educational purpose at the same time. Add a bit of humor to your multiple choices by making one answer funny.
survey your volunteers. What have you always wanted to know? Create a survey with multiple questions to help you plan forward.
ask volunteers to share their tips for surviving a shelter in place order and post those tips.
Netflix party with your volunteers (through Google Chrome). Pick a comedy, or classic or feel-good movie and watch together with volunteers. You can even chat during the movie.
This is a stressful time filled with chaos. Strategically planned communication with volunteers helps decrease our stress while continuing their engagement. The immediate future may be uncertain, but one thing has not changed. Volunteers appreciate information and connecting and we, volunteer managers are excellent at keeping our volunteers engaged.
Uncertainty is less stressful when a plan is in place. Plan your communications and use this time to invest in volunteers, funnel them into a centralized information hub and gather opinions and stories from them to be used now and later.
In this special episode of Volunteer Plain Talk Podcast, (recorded Monday March 23) Rob Jackson of Rob Jackson Consulting Ltd. located in the UK, and Meridian chat about coping, challenges and opportunities in uncertain times. Rob offers his thoughts and advice including: (also available on Stitcher, Apple, Spotify)
“There’s a moment here,” for thought leadership
Connecting and venting vs. isolation
Readying our profession for what’s next
Miss Piggy’s quote
The abundance of information volunteer managers will have to share
Harnessing the community spirit and is this like an alien invasion movie?
If I missed any resources, please let me know so I can include them and please subscribe to these websites as they are rich in all sorts of resources for volunteer managers.
Huge thank you to Rob Jackson for jumping on this podcast at short notice. You are amazing, knowledgeable, infectiously funny, dedicated and forward-thinking. Sometimes, I just have to think, “What would Rob do?” 🙂
Pandemic. It’s a worrisome time and we, leaders of volunteers worry. A lot. Like mother hens, we cluck about, gathering masses under our protective wings. “I got you,” we murmur, pulling everyone close.
We worry about the frail volunteers who are determined to keep volunteering but may become infected with the virus. We worry about the volunteers who stay home and are missing that one, bright, social spot in their lives as they hunker down, alone. We worry about the clients we serve and how they are deprived of that perfect moment, when our skilled volunteer makes a connection, soul on soul.
We worry we aren’t doing enough, or we’re overlooking a volunteer who needs us. We worry that things will never be the same again, and our volunteers will leave over new regulations. We worry that volunteers may experience a new normal and be reluctant to work directly with clients. We worry that no one will come to the next training class. (although I always worried about that, anyway)
I’m not going to say, “stop worrying.” Worrying is human. It’s the tough part of being a caring, sentient being. It’s part of a volunteer manager’s drive to be effective.
But I will offer this: Your worry means you care. Your worry means you are determined to make this world a better place, one volunteer, one client, one program, one training, one speech on volunteer value, one long night of blowing up balloons, one showing up at a volunteer’s swearing in as a new citizen at a time.
You believe in possibilities. You believe in light. You believe in neighbors stepping up to help neighbors. You believe in people wanting to help. You might even believe that some good will come out of this and volunteering will increase. You are optimistic.
You’re the very essence of what being human is about. So be human and care about the world. We, volunteer managers are resilient. We adapt, we adjust, we pivot, we overcome. We are always moving, and altering our direction to keep going forward. Our worries are often a map to finding the way. We’ll be all right.
Believe in your abilities and take care of yourself. We need you.
In a volunteer manager’s chaotic day, volunteer impact is difficult to plan, hard to complete and often impossible to execute. We laughingly describe our chaos in phrases like, “herding cats,” “wearing many hats,” and “controlled chaos.” But, the inability to move ourselves and our volunteers forward due to chaos is no laughing matter.
I’d like to add another phrase to the lexicon: “Watering plastic flowers,” which means time spent on futile activities. But wait, futile is a strong word; it means “pointless,” or “incapable of producing results.”
So, let’s eliminate the word futile, because there’s always hope right? As volunteer managers, we hold hope in our hands: Hope for that volunteer who is hurting and wants to help, but keeps canceling. Hope that our impassioned speech about volunteer value changes minds. Hope that today we will fill a role no volunteer wants to do.
Instead, let’s look at ROI-return on investment. When our time investment does not produce enough results to continue, this doesn’t mean we must stop reaching out to that volunteer who never shows up; it means we have to weigh how much time we spend doing it.
And remember, for every minute we spend on something with little ROI, we miss spending that minute on something with a large ROI that has impact and moves us in the direction we want to go.
What steps can we take to determine where we should invest our time?
Volunteer ads: Analyze ads’ effectiveness and spend more time on effective ads. Relegate lesser producing ads to your office volunteers to manage. (and if you don’t have a team of volunteers helping you in every aspect of your job description, what the heck are you waiting for?)
Volunteers who are unreliable: Set a tolerance number-I will contact a volunteer X number of times and after no response, I will send them a letter/email/message thanking them, inviting them to contact us when ready.
Conflict challenges: If a challenging volunteer repeats egregious behaviors, craft a policy on expectations and stick to it. Make sure every volunteer is given a copy, reads and signs the copy and is aware of your policies and the final dismissal step.
Educating staff on the many aspects of volunteerism: Start with one important point and repeat, repeat, repeat; then build on that one concept. Too many concepts dilutes the ability to absorb it all.
Staff who improperly manage a volunteer’s time: Move the volunteer to a department that effectively engages volunteers. Make no apologies for moving volunteers to departments or positions that meet the volunteer’s needs.
Report, speak and substantiate the why: Want change? Infuse thewhy (specifics) into everything you say and do. For example, “We have an opportunity to partner with a local florist whose employees want to volunteer and potentially donate flowers, fund-raise for us and help advocate for our services. This will lead to other business partnerships so I need support from multiple departments.” Or, “I moved volunteer Tess to finance because her skills were underutilized in client records.”
Close your open door: Set aside planning time and remove yourself from distractions. With anyrepeated behavior, people will grow accustomed to “oh, yeah, Julie’s out right now. It’s planning time. She’ll be back in an hour.”
Overloaded volunteer managers have no time for weak ROI. Under our careful cultivation, we need flowers that bloom and grow into effective volunteer engagement and impact.
So, watch out for plastic flowers; they may look colorful, but water them all you want and they still won’t grow.
Instead, water the flowers blooming with impact and watch your garden grow into a lush volunteer initiative.
Bo Goliber, who heads up philanthropy at Fingerpaint, a health and wellness marketing agency, shares the keys to a successful relationship between nonprofits and corporate partners. Bo assures us that corporate partners do not want to overwhelm volunteer agencies, but instead, are looking for long-term relationships built on honesty. Bo says, “don’t be afraid,” when companies reach out for a volunteering opportunity. Authentic partnerships can yield other benefits.
Fingerpaint was named 2019 Agency of the Year by Med Ad News, and in 2018, it won the Heart Award from Med Ad News for its commitment to philanthropy and social causes. Additionally, it has been on Inc. Magazine’s list of the 5,000 Fastest-Growing Companies for the past seven years. Founder Ed Mitzen was honored as 2016’s Industry Person of the Year by Med Ad News.
Please view recent articles on Fingerpaint’s philanthropy and culture:
volunteerplaintalk 