volunteerplaintalk

Category: corporate volunteering

  • Volunteer Management in The Past Decade

    Photo by Christina Morillo on Pexels.com

    Ahh, the 2010s. In looking back over the past 10 years, what ideas took hold and where do we need to go?

    I decided to do a look at volunteer management terms and see how often they appeared in a “google search.” I chose to search “news” with a date range. Warning: This is in no way scientific (mainly because I don’t own a lab coat, but I did wear my goats in Santa hats bathrobe during the search so maybe that counts) nor do I claim to be a qualified researcher (more like a nosey, busy body-just ask my neighbor) but anecdotally, I found some interesting tidbits (especially if you count that sale on orthopedic inserts that keeps popping up).

    I researched these terms- “volunteer impact,” “volunteer factor,” “still volunteering at,” “corporate volunteering,” “volunteers impacted the mission,” and “volunteer engagement,” all with quotation marks. The results are:

    “still volunteering at”

    Photo by Roman Carey on Pexels.com
    • 2010 2 results
    • 2011 9 results
    • 2012 25 results
    • 2013 27 results
    • 2014 28 results
    • 2015 49 results
    • 2016 58 results
    • 2017 95 results
    • 2018 116 results
    • 2019 219 results

    It bugs the heck out of me that a bulk of stories on volunteer activity center around a volunteer who is still volunteering at 99 years old. Before you groan at me, sure, this is great, but where is the focus on the value this 99 year old brings to the mission? Or, better yet, where is the evidence that volunteering benefits this volunteer’s well-being (helping them remain active at 99) which explains why she/he is still able to volunteer at 99? These articles for the most part miss the point and that needs to change.

    “corporate volunteering”

    Photo by Fox on Pexels.com
    • 2010 1 result
    • 2011 3 results
    • 2012 10 results
    • 2013 23 results
    • 2014 32 results
    • 2015 50 results
    • 2016 73 results
    • 2017 82 results
    • 2018 123 results
    • 2019 251 results

    There’s a clear direction here; a direction that needs our immediate attention as more companies become involved with corporate volunteering which includes group volunteering and allowing employees paid time off to volunteer. For more information on corporate volunteering, see Removing the Headache from Corporate Volunteering, the second part, Creating Partnerships from Corporate Volunteering. and finally Volunteer Manager Strategy and CSR.

    “volunteer engagement“

    Photo by Marta Ortigosa on Pexels.com
    • 2010 5 results
    • 2011 8 results
    • 2012 27 results
    • 2013 32 results
    • 2014 50 results
    • 2015 99 results,
    • 2016 140 results
    • 2017 119 results
    • 2018 242 results
    • 2019 245 results

    Ok, so the steady increase in articles mentioning volunteer engagement shows that engaging volunteers is becoming part of our lexicon. Good.

    “volunteer impact”

    Photo by Japheth Mast on Pexels.com
    • 2011 3 articles
    • 2012 3 articles
    • 2013 4 articles
    • 2014 6 articles
    • 2015 7 articles
    • 2016 6 articles
    • 2017 9 articles
    • 2018 28 articles
    • 2019 53 articles

    A bit of an uptick the past two years for the term “volunteer impact” is encouraging but there is much work to do because we are leaders of volunteer engagement and impact. We not only engage volunteers, but we guide and lead the impact that volunteers have on the outcomes. The two terms go hand-in-hand. When volunteers are engaged, they positively impact our missions and vice versa. These two terms have a symbiotic relationship which means one increases the other and to integrate volunteer engagement into our nonprofit culture, we must show volunteer impact in order to expect more volunteer engagement. I’d draw an impressive flowchart, but heck, it’s basically just a circle.

    “volunteer factor”

    Photo by Christina Morillo on Pexels.com
    • 2010 0 results
    • 2011 0 results
    • 2012 0 results
    • 2013 0 results
    • 2014 1 result
    • 2015 1 result
    • 2016 0 results
    • 2017 no results
    • 2018 1 result
    • 2019 9 results

    The term, “volunteer factor” sounds so right for us, doesn’t it? Factor’s definition includes “influence that contributes to a result or outcome.” Bingo! Think X factor. Or the “It” factor. Now think about hearing your CEO tell a reporter, “and now let’s talk about the volunteer factor.” We can make the 2020’s the decade of the volunteer factor.

    “volunteers impacted the mission“: no results, when removing quotes 368 results for the entire decade.

    Ok, so there’s work to do here.

    We’re on our way to making the 2020’s the decade when volunteer programs take center stage. The roots of change are already sprouting such as:

    • Research pointing to volunteering as a vital component of wellbeing.
    • Corporate entities looking to be socially responsible.
    • Grassroots volunteering taking hold.
    • Research showing employees want to have paid volunteering time.
    • Volunteers wanting to use their skills and talents in innovative ways.

    Here’s to the next 10 years. We are making inroads, but we have more work to do. And if there’s anything I know in my gut about volunteer managers, it’s that we are not afraid of hard work. As a matter of fact, we eat hard work for breakfast and throw it up by lunchtime. Wait, ewwww, that’s not right, is it?

    What do I wish to see by 2030? I’m convinced that together, our efforts will produce the results we want and all the volunteer manager conference themes for 2029 will no longer be “Time for Change,” but will rather proclaim, “Holy Hell, We Did It!”

    -Meridian

  • Volunteer Manager Strategy and CSR

    Volunteer Manager Strategy and CSR

    Photo by Recal Media on Pexels.com

    I urge you to read Jerome Tenille’s post on corporate volunteering, Corporate Volunteerism: Thinking “Strategic” Isn’t Enough My Friends as we need to have more robust cross-debate in our sector on everything from corporate volunteering to elevating volunteer programs. The more voices sharing experiences and thoughts, the more we learn and grow.

    I also encourage you to read Vu Le’s latest post, How corporate foundations and csr need to evolve to be more effective partners with nonprofits. His observations mirror many Leaders of Volunteers’ thoughts on CSR (corporate social responsibility).

    I firmly believe that we don’t discuss volunteer program strategy from a leader of volunteers’ perspective enough. (we can parse words and distinguish strategy from goals, objectives, tactics, mission, vision, etc but for this post, we’ll use strategy as thinking proactively to achieve a desired result). Many volunteer programs were originally set up as a support system without forward-imagining plans for growth or leadership. And we are at an awakening point where growth and leadership are happening.

    So much has changed and leaders of volunteers need to now think in terms of moving programs forward by showcasing leadership skills, volunteer contributions and innovative solutions. This includes embracing corporate volunteering. which is becoming a “thing,” not because it is new, but because it is being extensively covered in the media. And it’s not only large corporations who are creating a CSR plan. As companies, including local small businesses read positive stories about employee volunteering, they are looking to become more involved.

    And here’s the bigger benefit for us: By acting proactively and strategically, we volunteer managers will not only be prepared, we will position ourselves as forward-thinking leaders who are delivering organizational benefits beyond volunteer hours. We can concretely show through a successful business partnership, how volunteering begets advocacy, a new donation stream, partnerships and elevated community standing.

    It’s imperative to be ready for an onslaught of goodness when the local fast food restaurant franchise owner decides to pay employees to volunteer while the store is being remodeled. It happened here.

    Planning simply means being prepared. It means not being caught off guard. It means not saying yes and then regretting that decision while you scramble to make it all ok when it’s not ok. It means offering a program that works. A basic plan can look like this:

    1. Buy-in from administration: How does your organization view partnering with businesses? Sitting down with administration to formulate how and where volunteering fits into a partnering vision can give you the direction you need. If there is no formal vision, then ask that one be created. What are we looking for in a partnership? How will a partnership benefit the mission? Which departments should be involved in forming a task force to create a plan?
    2. A list of well thought out activities: What meaningful and beneficial activities are available? What departments can use extra help and are willing to be present during a corporate volunteering day? Saying, “hey, volunteering is everyone’s responsibility” will not be as well received as saying, “if extra help benefits our thrift stores, how will the thrift store managers be involved and have a say in what is accomplished?”
    3. Number of participants: Can you accommodate 20 people on a Saturday? Will a group of 5 be much more manageable? Putting 20 people on an activity that can only engage 5 means 15 people are pretty much standing around wondering why they gave up their free time to stand around.
    4. Time frame: What days and times work best for you (and I don’t mean conveniently, I mean what days and times offer the best experience)? When are the key department reps from maintenance or marketing (if the volunteering is done in their area) available?
    5. Alternatives: Do you have ideas for off-campus activities, such as conducting a food drive, or organizing a fund-raiser or participating in virtual opportunities? Not every activity has to be done on property to be valuable. Offer a list of activities that can be done quasi free-style. Some companies may prefer an off-property opportunity.
    6. Before, during and follow-up: We, volunteer managers know so well that engagement is what keeps volunteers coming back, so plan your engagement strategy. Who can speak to a local small business group while they are present? How can you best show the good work you are doing? How can you best prepare the group for volunteering? What follow-up will be most effective? A thank you letter from your CEO? Inclusion on an email list? A follow-up from marketing? An invite to conduct volunteer training on-site? A “check-in” call in six months?

    Partnerships can begin with small thoughtful actions. Putting a plan of action into effect means less chaos and less reactive running around. It means being selective in choosing who to partner with, just as we are selective when onboarding individual volunteers. Our business partners deserve an experience that does not waste their time, but rather creates a meaningful experience and a chance to do more good work.

    When leaders of volunteers have at least some control over volunteering, it succeeds. Everyone wins. Partnering means common interests are met. The business partner feels like they’ve done something that matters, our organizations see a partnership that can help in ways they might not have thought of before and the people we serve are better served

    It also means showing your potential company partner a volunteer program that delivers the most “bang for the buck” volunteer experiences.

    And delivering meaningful experiences is what leaders of volunteers do best.

    -Meridian

  • Removing the Headache from Corporate Volunteering

    Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

    We’ve all had that splitting headache. You know, the one that occurs when a
    corporate leader calls and wants to do a team building activity for a group of employees. Oh, and it has to be this Saturday. There are 15 people signed up, but the leader doesn’t really know how many will actually show. And she picked your organization from a list; the employees really don’t know what your mission is or what you do, exactly.

    Now, let’s add in something we seldom talk about: No one in your organization feels like they have to give up their Saturday because well, the word “volunteering” follows the word, “corporate,” so the
    responsibility falls on you, the volunteer manager. It’s your job. No one
    thinks beyond just placating the group for an afternoon. They don’t think about the potential partnership with a corporation that follows a volunteer activity. They don’t consider the donations that might pour in when a corporate group sees firsthand the good work being done. Nope, it’s “just” a one and done volunteer afternoon. Move along, nothing to see here.

    Corporate volunteering is becoming a “thing.” From the Starbucks
    initiative to the millennial generation wanting more involved companies, we are seeing an increase in participation by employee groups. This added volunteer role requires more time and skills from already stretched thin volunteer managers, especially when the volunteer manager is left to manufacture activities without organizational buy-in. What a short-sighted view of corporate volunteering.   

    Sure, volunteer managers can refuse groups but we all know that refusing is unrealistic. Why? Because senior management perceives our jobs as spending time and energy with anyone and everyone who even breathes the word, “volunteering.” To refuse is to be seen as inadequate, or negative
    which is worse than, well, just about anything in the non-profit world. Also,
    because positive volunteer managers never question the wisdom of old methods or suggest that there might be more efficient ways to engage volunteers. Positive volunteer managers don’t point out that volunteer programs affect every aspect of an organization, including community standing, resources, donations, staff satisfaction and marketing. Because being viewed as “positive” often boils down to accepting old ways without question.

    Are we stuck? Do we have to give up our Saturdays for headache inducing
    chaos with little to no return on our time and efforts? Or do we have to refuse to take corporate groups in order to save our sanity? Actually, there is a better way.

    I used to run around desperately trying to find a somewhat meaningful
    experience for corporate groups. It was exhausting. Then I realized how much time I was spending on activities that weren’t in my control. I couldn’t
    control what happened in our gardens. I couldn’t make changes to our programs, so I was stuck with very limited ways to engage corporate partners.

    Corporate volunteering is like having a group of strangers drop in on you at
    your apartment one afternoon, saying, “We need a buffet dinner and we want to be entertained.” You’re not set up for groups in your apartment, and you have no real control over your apartment building’s clubhouse, pool or game room.
    You have to run around, seeking permission to use facilities and even with
    permission, there’s no one to help you buy the food or cook or entertain. If
    the facilities are being used, you have to squeeze the group of strangers into
    your cramped living room while you rifle through your worn-out board games and try to rustle up a meal from your sparse refrigerator.

    As it exists now, corporate volunteering is trying to create a meaningful
    partnership with no time, no additional help and no control. And even if you’ve managed to pull off an exhausting afternoon, running around, trying to condense your mission into sound bites, making sure the members are not idle too long, you go home completely spent because you know there can be so much more.

    Our volunteer programs are like an apartment within the organizational
    building. We may be invited into other department’s apartments at times, but we are not allowed any control within those apartments. The lack of organizational involvement and limited availability for corporate groups make corporate volunteering so frustrating. Honestly, corporate volunteering is just one example of a much larger challenge: Volunteer manager control over volunteer programs and the integration of volunteer programs into organizational planning.

    Volunteer managers must be free to spend the bulk of their time on engaging key volunteers, advancing the volunteer program and positioning volunteer services to attract and sustain modern volunteers. Corporate volunteering has its place in a volunteer program only when the volunteer manager controls the strategic plan that benefits everyone.  

    The time to think about corporate volunteering is now, when no group has
    approached you. That’s when you can clearly plan for a corporate volunteering program that will keep headaches from happening. The critical part of a corporate volunteering plan is to first determine who, what, when, where and why. The 5 “W’s” will lay a groundwork the will help stop the soul-sucking corporate volunteering days from occurring. (and we all know there is plenty in volunteer management that suck our souls dry without adding in another crushing duty)

    Next time: What does a corporate volunteering program strategic plan look
    like and how do we determine the 5 “W’s?”

    -Meridian

     

  • More questions about the new Starbucks Service Fellows initiative

    Featured Image -- 18058

    On the 12th October Rob published an article raising five questions about a new corporate social responsibility (CSR) pilot from Starbucks in the USA. By happy coincidence, this appeared two weeks after Meridian Swift had published another article challenging leaders of volunteers to be aware of and engage with corporate volunteering. Both articles shared common threads so it seemed sensible to work together to develop the thinking further.

    Rob and Meridian got their thinking caps on and devised some further questions that they felt needed asking. These relate not just to the Starbucks pilot, but to employee volunteering more broadly as well. What follows is the product of Meridian and Rob’s joint efforts to try and provide some answers.

    How will this affect me, in my office, in my town, and what do I do about it?

    Meridian: It’s reasonable to think that since there are only 36 employees participating in 13 cities across the United States, it won’t really affect me at all. However, if you live in the areas served by this initiative, it might. The Points of Light (POL) network affiliates involved in this initial pairing are:

    HandsOn Atlanta; HandsOn Bay Area; Boston Cares; HandsOn Broward, FL; Chicago Cares; VolunteerNow (Dallas); Volunteer Fairfax; Volunteer Houston; HandsOn Miami; HandsOn Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul); HandsOn Greater Phoenix; Seattle Works; and United Way of Greater St. Louis.

    The affiliate organizations listed above act as clearinghouses for local volunteer programs. If your volunteer engagement program has a relationship with one of the above affiliates, it’s conceivable that your organization benefits downstream from this resource.

    Starbucks has plans to increase their volunteering commitment next year and if successful, they could extend it into other countries as well. In support of this first pilot cohort, the Starbucks Foundation awarded POL a grant and a portion of that grant provides each of the Fellows with an hourly stipend – much like a national service placement awards their living stipend. These 36 Starbucks partners spend up to 20 hours each week at one of the placement sites listed above.

    We must realize this initiative will grow and begin to prepare for future changes in how we cultivate and engage volunteers. We have become accustomed to corporate groups seeking one-time projects for team building and to increase their CSR (corporate social responsibility) visibility, but the Starbucks Service Fellows are a whole new level of corporate participation.

    Should we be prepared for more of this? Is this where corporate volunteering is going?

    Meridian: Oh, my gosh, yes. Consider this direct quote from Natalye Paquin, President and CEO of Points of Light: “We believe this bold program, designed in partnership with Starbucks, will redefine corporate engagement and the private sector’s ability to support civic engagement.”

    Others are already jumping on the bandwagon. A Chick-fil-A restaurant in Indiana recently made news when the owner decided to pay his employees to volunteer while his store was closed for remodeling.

    We are in a corporate volunteering pivotal time. No, I take that back. Due to societal shifts and social media, we are about to be hit by a tidal wave of corporate volunteer participation. The private sector is getting deeply involved, as I alluded to in my blog post in September. If volunteer engagement professionals do not get on top of this trend right now, corporations will become frustrated at our lack of preparation and ability to provide the level of engagement they are looking for in a partnership. The sad reality is, they will bypass us completely, and they have the talent and money to do it.

    Are there going to be businesses who admire Starbucks and want to be like them, so they will attempt to model this initiative?

    Rob: Almost certainly, yes. Here’s another quote from Natalye Paquin, President and CEO of Points of Light:

    “Starbucks’ investment in the 13 communities served by this initiative will not only spark positive change through more than 17,000 hours of community service, but it also serves as a model for an employer-led capacity-building program that Starbucks and other corporate partners can scale globally in the future.” 

    It’s important to remember that this pilot seems to be driven primarily as a way to attract millennial employees. As the UK’s Guardian newspaper stated in their coverage of this story:

    “18-34 years old are quickly becoming the largest group of employees in the workplace. Business owners, both big and small, are trying to come up with innovative benefits to attract the best and the brightest people of this generation to their company as well as keeping existing employees happy and motivated.”

    Furthermore:

    “According to the 2014 Millennial Impact Report, one-third of Millennials surveyed said that their companies’ volunteer policies affected their decision to apply for a job, 39% said that it influenced their decision to interview, and 55% said that such policies played into their decision to accept an offer.”

    Employers of all sizes and all sectors are facing the challenge of providing incentives to hire millennial staff. Baby boomers are ageing into retirement, leaving a shortage of labour thanks to the smaller cohort of Generation X. Competition for millennials will, therefore, increase and we shouldn’t be surprised to see businesses looking to volunteerism related options as a way of winning the recruitment battle.

    In fact, the question isn’t really whether we’ll see more of these kinds of initiatives from corporations, but whether the public and non-profit sectors might follow suit as they try to pry some of that millennial talent away from the private sector.

    What exactly are these “Service Fellows” doing? A regular volunteer’s job? A regular employee’s job? Or something that can’t replace anyone already there?

    Rob: Good question. Right now we don’t really know. However, as our colleague Jerome Tennille pointed out when commenting via social media on Rob’s blog post:

    “This model of service is similar to AmeriCorps, and most non-profits are familiar with how to integrate them in. The difference here is that it’s funded by a private entity.”

    If Jerome is right then we can expect to see Starbucks Service Fellows stepping into roles similar to those undertaken by AmeriCorps members.

    Back in March 2010 our colleague Susan J Ellis wrote an article encouraging managers of volunteers to engage with the then emerging AmeriCorps programme to ensure the roles provided didn’t have negative effects. Chief amongst Susan’s concerns was organisations would hire AmeriCorps members to lead volunteer management, rather than making long-term, strategic investments in this important function.

    We would echo Susan’s call today, eight years on. Leaders of volunteers have to engage to make this scheme a success for everyone, not just Starbucks. It is essential that volunteer managers at non-profits are part of the planning as these innovations in corporate giving develop. We need to make sure our voices are heard, influence these schemes for the good of our organisations and clients.

    In fact, Susan’s concerns are perhaps more acute for the Starbucks model where placement will only be for six months. Imagine getting a new (and possibly relatively inexperienced) service fellow coming into the organisation twice a year – would your organisation benefit or suffer from that turnover in the leadership and management of volunteers? Please don’t just dismiss these schemes as not volunteering, burying your head in the sand in the hope they will go away. Get involved, speak up or it may be your job that service fellows take

    Did they consult a volunteer engagement expert? What arrangements are in place with the POL affiliate nonprofits?

    Meridian: I have reached out to Starbucks press and a few of the local affiliate organizations who are recipients of the Starbucks Service Fellows, but haven’t yet had a lot of luck in connecting.

    I realize that this is a new program and they may not have enough good information to share at this point but what I have gathered is Starbucks and Points of Light are striving to change the way corporations think about employee engagement and the use of their human capital/resources to support strengthening nonprofits and communities. Since Points of Light is the world’s largest organization dedicated to volunteer service, they are experts in volunteerism, so my guess is there was a good deal of consulting between these two giants in their respective sectors.

    Since this is a joint partnership between Starbucks and Points of Light, it naturally follows that Points of Light would choose affiliate partners across the country. There are more than 200 volunteer mobilizing organizations or affiliates, which share a common mission, goals and approach. The affiliates may pair Starbucks Fellows with local non-profit partners, but that is yet unclear.

    Is this one of those lofty, not thought out edicts from above that will make a volunteer manager’s life a living hell because no input was asked for?

    Rob: As we’ve already noted, Starbucks are doing this because they want an advantage when recruiting millennial employees. Points of Light are doing it because they have affiliates who will “benefit from focused volunteer efforts that align with Starbucks’ global social impact priorities, with a focus on opportunity youth, refugees, veterans and military families, hunger, environment and disaster recovery.” 

    Whether we agree with those motivations or not (and who are we to judge?), that’s what we know.

    Boards and senior managers will rush to engage with corporations with the volunteer management professionals likely to be the last to know what they’ve been signed up for.

    This is especially true with CSR programmes where the impetus comes from fundraising colleagues – in the hope the corporate will make cash donations – or communications colleagues looking for a public relations coup.

    For schemes like this to be a success the volunteer manager cannot just be the poor schmuck who gets responsibility for making it work dumped on them. That may not have been the case in the Starbucks example, but we can see it happening in future, to the detriment of all involved. Non-profits need their leader of volunteer engagement involved from the get-go and we need to be making this case now, before it’s too late.

    Will volunteering be on-site or is it project based off-site?

    Meridian: We have no evidence at this time. Whether the service fellows will follow a prescribed national plan or will be allowed to meet local needs remains unclear. It appears they will volunteer in the areas that align with Starbuck’s philanthropic priorities, which include opportunity youth, refugees, veterans and military families, hunger, environment and disaster recovery.

    Hurricane Michael recently devastated the areas around Mexico Beach in Florida and according to the Starbucks press release, a Starbucks shift supervisor from Florida will work on hurricane preparedness and hurricane relief with HandsOn Broward. Their involvement may be according to local needs but we just don’t know yet.

    What role should bodies like Points of Light have in future, representing non-profits and Volunteer Managers?

    Rob: The role of a broker in corporate volunteering can be a really important one, as Dr. Joanne Cook and Dr. Jon Burchell highlighted in their 2015 paper, “Employee Supported Volunteering: Realising The Potential” (summary article available here):

    ‘The challenge is finding what people in the business will engage with, and the skills that the charities want, identifying this is the challenge and that’s where the brokerage comes in.’

    In the Starbucks initiative, POL played a brokerage role between the company and their own local affiliates, matching needs and priorities between both parties. Yet as schemes like this develop and spread the importance of brokers will grow, with a neutral party necessary to help match corporates and non-profits in a fair manner. Key to this will be supporting non-profits to assert their needs rather than just capitulating to whatever business requests. As in any volunteering relationship, mutual benefit is essential, so brokers will need to ensure a level playing field as both parties negotiate the details of corporate volunteering relationships.

    We also think brokers and intermediaries have a responsibility to ensure the volunteer management voice is heard in non-profits. As noted before, all too often the desire to work with business is driven by the lure of a cash donation, marginalizing the input of a volunteer engagement professional in favour of corporate fundraising priorities. This mustn’t happen! If volunteer managers are left out of the planning loop then they will struggle to deliver on what their bosses and corporate partners want and need, weakening the relationship limiting the potential for success.

    If we were Volunteer Managers on the receiving end of this, what would we like to know?

    Rob: OK, over to you. This is your chance to collaborate with us on this article and move the debate forward. Imagine your organisation is looking to get involved in something like the Starbucks / Points of Light initiative. What questions would you have; for the corporation; for your board and senior managers; for other paid staff colleagues in your organisation (e.g. HR, fundraising); and perhaps for your existing volunteers and those coming from the business?

    Leave a comment in the comments section below with the things you’d like to know and add your voice to the debate.

    We look forward to reading your thoughts.

    Rob and Meridian

  • Why Should We Pay Attention to Volunteering Trends?

    adult autumn beauty blue
    Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

    Have you ever stopped dead in your tracks and said, “I can sense it, it’s going to rain?” You felt the slight change in barometric pressure, or you heard the leaves in the trees rustle and you knew. You pulled up your collar or searched for an umbrella in your backpack.

    If we could see the coming volunteering trends, we could prepare for them, right? Thirty years ago, were there signs that volunteers wanted more episodic roles? Or did it sneak up on us, causing us to rethink our volunteering strategy? Should we even pay attention to trends? Do we need a volunteer engagement strategy umbrella?

    Can we spot trends by asking our volunteers, “Hey, what are you going to be doing differently 2 years from now?” Oftentimes, the beginning of a volunteering trend bubbles up in some pretty unrelated places. Not all trends first appear in volunteer management articles or blog posts. Rather, they evolve in other sectors and if we aren’t aware of them, these trends can rain down on us, catching us unprepared.

    One such rapidly expanding trend is corporate volunteering. Consider these recent articles, none of which appeared in volunteer management periodicals:

    Starbucks is testing a program that will allow some employees to spend half of their workweek at a local nonprofit

    The 50 Best Workplaces for Giving Back

    Why Paying Employees to Volunteer is Good For Business

    Or this article about a Chick-fil-A store owner who is paying his employees to volunteer while the store is being remodeled:

    Chick-fil-A employees in Plainfield to be paid for community service as location is closed for remodeling

    Or this article on millennial workers:

    Millennials Are Leading a Revolution in Corporate Volunteering Efforts

    The growing CSR (corporate social responsibility) trend greatly impacts volunteer managers, as more and more businesses look for avenues into volunteering for a non-profit. Where do they start? At this point in time, businesses are utilizing partnerships with non-profits to accomplish their corporate volunteering goals.

    If we wish to stay on top of this trend, it is imperative that volunteer organizations develop a corporate volunteering strategy to engage and partner with businesses who wish to increase their standing in communities. Why, we might ask? Why bother with employees who only give a couple of hours? Why take on another project that seems like babysitting? Why engage with people who are really just helping their company “look good?”

    Because, if we turn our self-righteous heads away and refuse to work with corporate volunteers, they will develop their own programs. And they have the money to do it.

    I am not suggesting that we drop everything and drool over any and every corporate volunteering request that comes our way. I’m suggesting that we need to develop a strategy that benefits our mission and works for the company we choose to partner with. By this, I mean:

    • choose a company that has shared goals and values and thoroughly understands what the mission is about
    • start with just one company and learn how to develop a solid partnership with that company before taking on another
    • control the participation as in how many volunteers you can take at a time, what they will do, when they will do it, how much onus is on them to bring any supplies they will need, etc.
    •  make impact on mission goals the primary focus, versus forging a partnership so that fund-raising can hit the company up for money
    • set guidelines or ground rules for participation and stick to them
    • follow-up to cement the relationship and plan for the future

    If organizers of corporate volunteering programs have poor experiences, or are continually turned away or can’t find anyone to partner with, they will quit trying. But here’s the scary thing. If they are really serious about volunteering in the community, they will just bypass us. They will turn their frustration into forming their own internal programs, leaving us in the dust.

    Corporate volunteering may seem like sketchy volunteering to the purist. We can dismiss it as not having pure intent, or not serious enough or existing only for show. But it’s exponentially increasing and we need to stay ahead of the trend and control it. We are the ones to shape it into the meaningful and impactful volunteering purity we wish to see.

    Think about this: When your CEO appears at your door and says, “I just got off the phone with the VP over at Expansion Architectural Designs and he said you told him we didn’t have a corporate volunteer program,” are you going to say, “But, but, corporate volunteering is just not real volunteering?”

    If we strategically embrace corporate volunteering, devise ways to successfully incorporate it into our hectic workloads and use it to further our goals, we will reap the following benefits:

    • increased organizational awareness through the partner company’s newsletter, employee word of mouth, possible press releases, etc.
    • increased donations from the satisfied partner company in the form of money, grants, in-kind donations or corporate matching (but again, donations are a bonus by-product of truly satisfied companies-we should never expect corporate volunteering to be a channel to money because that’s disingenuous)
    • increased positive word of mouth among area businesses
    • increased respect for volunteers in general due to the higher visibility of these corporate volunteers
    • more leverage when asking for an increase in volunteer budget, or additional resources, help, etc.
    • increased acknowledgement for volunteer manager creativity, skills and organizational worth

    We know volunteerism is rapidly evolving. Keeping up with trends can be daunting, so we must craft a strategy to control trend implementation and to work trends to our advantage by formulating a strategy umbrella.

    Because, it’s raining out there.

    -Meridian

    For more in-depth information on corporate volunteering from someone who has been on both sides of the equation and has workable solutions, please see Jerome Tennille’s excellent 2 part post on CSR and volunteering.

     

    View at Medium.com

    View at Medium.com

  • It’s That Time Again for New Words Added to the Volunteer Management Dictionary!

    This Year's New Words Added to the Volunteer Management Dictionary

    Well, it was the yearly meeting time again for the Committee to Define Volunteer Management. This year, the members decided to video conference instead of getting together in person because no one could scrape up the gas money to drive up and back. So, after three hours trying to get the program to work, they all finally called it a night and decided to email each other.

    Once again, none of them could really come up with a statement of less than 3,763 words to define volunteer management, so they decided to quit arguing over whether or not attending volunteers’ birthday celebrations constituted volunteer management and instead, they tackled item number 2 on their agenda and added new words to the volunteer management dictionary. Here are the terms added this year in no particular order of relevance: (or sanity)

    volsplaining: when someone who knows nothing about volunteer engagement but has a grandmother who has been volunteering for 31 years, explains that you “should go to the senior center and talk to those people. Ha, ha, they have nothing better to do.”

    voltriloquist: when a staff member speaks through a volunteer by taking advantage of the volunteer’s kind nature and manipulates the volunteer’s opinions so much that volunteer Betty says to you, “my gosh, have you seen how the records department is so overloaded? I can’t imagine how they get everything done. I try to help these poor, overworked people as much as I can. It’s such a pity they can’t hire more staff. You know, I should get a bunch of volunteers together and march up to the CEO’s office and complain. ”

    GVOAT: Greatest volunteer of all times-you know, you have one. And, sigh, you compare every volunteer to the gvoat. (yeah, wish they would all just be polite and earnest and have this twinkle in their eye when they speak…. oops, sorry, just thought about my gvoat for a minute)

    bogovol: Buy one, get one vol. Some volunteers travel in pairs; they might join as a pair or they might find each other during orientation. They just like to have a buddy to share in their experiences. The bogovol is great when filling requests for multiple volunteers. Also know as 2fervol.

    self-serve volunteering: Volunteering only to enhance a resume, pad a college application, or use the mission to further a goal. You know the ones. Their blinding white smiles and almost superhuman enthusiasm are too good to be true, but hey, you’re not one to judge so you just assume you’ve got a good one, and they arrive the morning of their first assignment, all perfect-looking and they slide a form onto your desk as they plead in their charming way, “can you just fill this out now instead of after I volunteer, it’ll save you time later and well, there’s a deadline to turn this in and I promise I will do everything I said I would do and time got away from me just a bit and besides, I know you don’t want me to miss my deadline, do you?”  Then BAM! No sooner has the ink dried on your signature, they’re out the door before you’ve dropped your promo pen back into your wizard pen holder. Also know as reputation robbers. There’s an old post about this topic here.

    volbot: pre-programmed robotic volunteer. Push the microphone icon, tell it what to do and blip, beep, they whir into action. Staff may not say it to your face, but, oh, they all want one. Need I say more?

    sVaddling: Babying a volunteer because she is friends with your CEO, or the niece of a board member so you’re stuck and you bend the rules and keep her all wrapped up in layers of protection. You can’t tell other volunteers that the reason you’re insulating her is because she will report you to higher management if her feelings are bruised so you just give her lots of slack. You say things like, “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure she turns in her paperwork, maybe it’s just hard for her,” and then you call her up and try to make her understand that paperwork is mandatory but she brushes you off and so you fill out the paperwork yourself. When the CEO passes by in the hall and says, “oh, hey my friend Annabelle likes volunteering but wants to know if she can change her day to Saturday, would you be a sport and come in this Saturday, you know, to make her fee welcomed,” you just clench your teeth and nod. Also know as kid glove volunteer.

    kudo-slap on the wrist: When wimping out of reprimanding a volunteer by setting a meeting and having all your policies ready and even your documented instances of the volunteer’s infraction of the rules and you’re wearing your best business suit jacket, the one you interviewed for this job in, and then Ba-boom! You’ve got the sandwich principle in your head, the one where you first compliment a person, then talk about their shortcomings, then end on a positive note, but you get started on the compliments and the volunteer is looking at you with those volunteer eyes so you go on about how wonderful they are and how you know their heart is in the right place cause gosh, they said that a new volunteer was dumb but trainable, right? You prattle on for so long while the volunteer’s face glows with the syrup of validation that you can’t bring yourself to actually reprimand them and instead, you hastily type up a commendation certificate which makes you end up in a worse place then when you started. (But the volunteer is happy as heck and proudly shows the certificate to all the other, stunned volunteers)

    vacant lot of praise: The throwing out of meaningless phrases like “we love our volunteers” and “we couldn’t operate without our volunteers.” (and when you point out that volunteers would like specific appreciation, you get a vacant stare.)

    egocorporate: A group of corporate vols who want to volunteer, but want you to arrange their involvement to benefit only them. Time-frame, task, juicy assignment all need to work for their day of volunteering. And so, you bend and bend and bend and then, on the day of volunteering, the 13 extra volunteers that show up because they were kind of shamed into coming, are standing around, checking social media and Ivan, a client’s family member who agreed to speak to the group about how the mission helped his family, can’t be heard over all the pockets of conversations and there’s not enough shovels to start that “garden of love” and half of the volunteers are in suits and high heels and it’s hot out and there’s not enough water so you run to your office and call a trusted volunteer who agrees to go out and get some water and then the corporate volunteers who are just standing around start leaving because they showed up, right and that’s pretty much all they agreed to and poor Ivan knows that everything he said fell on deaf ears and now you could kick yourself because you just probably lost this awesome speaker for future events and the garden is half dug and you have to clean up and now the water arrived, but everyone is gone, so your trusted volunteer is bummed and you missed your nephew’s birthday for this debacle and your brother is going to be mad, not to mention the “dirt hole of love” needs to be filled in.

    Well, there you have it! The committee called and asked me to include a round-up of last year’s words and you can see those words here.

    Thank you Committee to Define Volunteer Management. As usual, you did a great job! (wait, that’s a vacant lot of praise, isn’t it? I really should be more specific. Hey, committee, sorry, I meant you clearly have a talent for massacring words.)

    -Meridian

  • Is Volunteer Management a Science?

    Is Volunteer Management a Science

    In 1959, novelist and scientist, C. P. Snow gave a lecture entitled  The Two Cultures. Essentially Snow argued that the humanities and science were split into opposing cultures, each one not understanding the other.

    Most of us would probably categorize volunteer management as a humanity.  In the post  The Volunteer Investor I likened volunteers to humanity investors.  But while humanity is at the heart of volunteering, isn’t the management of volunteers a science? And, by treating it as a science, does that automatically remove the humanity?

    Well, what if we look at other science based professions that serve humanity?

    • Does the researcher seeking a cure for cancer not dream about the potential millions of people saved?
    • Does the engineer developing a new prosthetic not imagine the first time an amputee puts on that device and walks?
    • Does a safety engineer never think about the children she may keep safe?

    Re-framing volunteer management as a science will not remove the humanity. Instead, it will elevate the skills volunteer managers possess. 

    So, then how can we re-frame volunteer management to reflect the science of it? Do we stop talking about the heartfelt work volunteers do? Do we become invested in cold stats? Or, can we do both? Can we still convey the humanity while highlighting the precise steps taken to achieve outcomes?

    When we, leaders of volunteers separate the volunteers’ incredible outcomes from the systematic steps needed to achieve those outcomes, then we can begin to identify and speak to the science of volunteer management.

    How? Well, we can, as volunteer management professionals begin to:

    • Temper human stories with solution stories and the steps necessary to achieve results
    • Speak in management language when discussing volunteer engagement and challenges
    • Remove emotion when dealing with difficult situations and instead, utilize scientific methods such as observation, gathering of data, testing and logical thinking to solve problems
    • Re-evaluate programs based on priorities, time involved and solutions achieved
    • Re-think in terms of humanely leading volunteers, but managing projects
    • Tout the science of volunteer engagement in terms of strategies, social metrics and road-maps
    • Categorize the skills used to engage volunteers, such as motivating, knowledgeable delegating (not just delegation because anybody can delegate), problem solving, results orienting, relationship building, strategical planning, innovating and big picture thinking
    • Chronicle the methodical steps necessary to engage volunteers
    • Create data that leads to goals, such as maps, diagrams etc
    • Experiment and innovate

    The perception that we coordinate volunteers who require nothing more than a phone call negates the methods required to fully engage these investors in our missions.

    Do we do ourselves a disservice when we blur the lines between the hearts of our volunteers and the hard work we do? Do we sometimes become so emotionally invested in our volunteers’ humanity that we lose our management voices?

    The results of volunteer involvement is humanity’s crowning achievement but the skills, knowledge and sheer hard work is the science of getting to those results.

    If we project our profession as a science with a humanity outcome, we can then elevate the precise, nuanced methodology required to achieve our humanitarian goals.

    Lab coat anyone?

    -Meridian

     

     

     

     

  • Volunween. What Goes Bump In The Night?

    Volunween What Goes Bump In the Night

    Laurie sat at her desk, her finger running down the list of volunteers. Her watch read 7:30pm and she wasn’t any closer to filling that last-minute volunteer assignment than she had been six hours earlier when the office was humming. She sighed, thinking about the night before. She’d gone to the midnight showing of Halloween with her friends and giggling, they ate popcorn and jumped when Michael Myers’ got back up again and again.

    Yawning, she laid her head on the desk for just a moment. Suddenly, the lights went out. Her computer screen flickered off. It was pitch black. The stillness was unnerving. Laurie looked around, trying to adjust to the dark. As she blinked, the hair on the back of her neck rose. In the corner she could see a shape forming, its wispy outline undulating. Terrified, she watched it drift towards her, a watery face forming in the mist.

    Heart thudding, she pushed back away from the ghostly specter, her chair scraping the floor.  Its dead eyes fixated on her. “Why Laurie,” it whispered and the icy voice brushed her hair. “Why did all these volunteers leave?”

    One by one, transparent faces materialized, hovering in the dark, surrounding her. She recognized Juan, who never had the time to come to orientation. She saw Millie who couldn’t find a job that suited her. In the corner was Yuki, who quit volunteering to care for her sick mother. The faces bobbed and the specter hissed, “What could you have done to keep them? Now they’re gone.” Slowly, the faces dissolved.

    The lights popped back on and the computer rebooted with a whir. Rubbing her eyes, she couldn’t tell if she had been dreaming. She shivered, a cold tingling running down her back. Was there still a mist hovering near the door?

    The phone rang and Laurie jumped. It was a volunteer returning her call, telling her that he could do tomorrow’s assignment.

    Laurie stuffed the volunteer list back into the top drawer and grabbed her purse. “I’m not afraid anymore!” She said aloud as she got up and headed home.

    What is our volunteer manager equivalent of the things that go bump in the night?

    • The Vampire Volunteer who sucks the life out of us?
    • The Frankenstein Assignment where none of the pieces fit?
    • The Freddy Krueger Department who keeps shredding volunteers?
    • The Wolfman Staff who turn on us when volunteers won’t clean closets?
    • The Mummy Marketer who keeps all information under wraps?
    • The Episodic Gremlins, who run all over doing more damage than work?
    • The Corporate Dementor Group who must have contact with clients so they can suck their souls for a feel good experience?
    • The Ghosting Volunteers who just disappear?

    Some volunteer management areas can be scary. But when that cold spector breathes its icy voice of doubt into our ears, just remember: The reluctant hero in the monster movie always prevails.

    -Meridian

     

     

     

  • I Speak Volunteer. You?

    I Speak Volunteer You

     

    Are volunteer managers world travelers? Do we venture into exotic lands where the inhabitants speak a foreign language and do not understand the words we speak?

    If you’ve ever stood up in a staff meeting to give a presentation on volunteering and the attendees glazed over while checking their devices, you know what I mean. They don’t understand the odd, volunteer language coming out of our mouths.

    For example, what are common volunteer management phrases and typical staff responses:

    “Our selfless volunteers who are caring and compassionate.”  HUH? So what? I’m caring and compassionate too, but that doesn’t get the mountains of work done.

    “Our volunteers gave 6,000 hours last month making our clients lives better.” WHAT? Who gave $6,000 and why wasn’t I informed? I’m in charge of donations here! The nerve!

    “Volunteers give from their heart.” Yeah, that’s nice but I give from my heart too and I give my blood, sweat and tears besides. Who has time for this fluff?

    Broad statements and dry statistics are the twins of tune-out. So, do stats and heart-warming stories have any place at all? Yes, of course they do, but what is the impact of these stats and stories, other than the feel-goodery of volunteerspeak?

    As you step onto the stage for your moment to talk about volunteer services, think about your elevator pitch. Does my audience speak volunteer? How do I get their attention? And, most importantly, can I speak to them in their own language so that they understand?

    Let’s break this down:

    In volunteerspeak, we focus on our volunteer’s selflessness as in,  “One of our volunteers, Dave, gave up tickets to a sold out play to spend two extra hours with an upset client. Now that’s above and beyond. ” Nice, but well, this has no bearing on me.

    Instead, if we retell this story in a language our target audience speaks, and we focus on impact it becomes, “volunteer Dave stayed two extra hours, allowing our social worker, Alexis, to fully focus on her caregiver assessment while he engaged the upset client. This cut Alexis’ time in that home by half which gave her two more hours to get her work done.” What? Extra time? I’m listening.

    Forcing our audiences to understand ‘volunteerspeak‘ is a burden on them. Instead, if we want our voices heard, we need to learn to speak their language.

    What questions can help us find the common tongue?

    • What, at this moment is the most pressing challenge facing our organization? Time? Marketing? Money? Lack of market share? Competition? Complaints? Auditing? How can we craft our stories and stats into the ways volunteers help in addressing these specific challenges? For example, instead of talking in general terms of how volunteers support the mission, gather concrete examples of volunteers who donate money, in-kind goods and influence their neighbors to give. 
    • What departments are stretched, overworked and leaned on? In what measurable concrete terms do volunteers alleviate the load on these departments? For example, instead of pointing to volunteer hours given, flip it and speak to the amount of hours saved by staff.
    • What are some of the current organizational goals? Expansion? Partnerships? Social Media presence? National recognition? How are new volunteer programs leading the way in achieving these goals? For example, instead of pointing to a new program that will bring in more volunteers, show how the innovative program will more quickly lead to a specific goal.
    • What methods speak to my organization? Gathering stats? Big picture thinking? Connecting dots? Awards? How can I rework my presentations using these methods to show volunteer impact? For example, instead of equating volunteer hours to dollars saved, speak to examples of volunteers as extensions of departments and the work produced. Impact stats vs. hour stats.

    We can continue to praise volunteer goodness until we are hoarse. But if we don’t speak in the terms and language understood by our organizations, CEO’s, department heads and staff, it will fall on deaf ears.

    We can’t expect others to translate volunteerspeak. We must adapt the common tongue in order to show true, measurable volunteer impact.

    You know, because of volunteer involvement, we frequently travel to all corners of our organizations.  It really helps to speak the language.

    -Meridian

     

     

     

  • Taking Extra Care to Support Volunteers

     

    Taking Extra Care to Support Volunteers

    The recent spate of natural disasters has cast a light on incredible volunteers across the globe helping people in need.

    Although not always news worthy, volunteers daily walk towards a crisis instead of running away. In organizations everywhere, volunteers are doing the hard work, the emotional work. Because they feel so deeply, they are affected by the tragedies they witness such as in this story:  Volunteer shares harrowing account of how Hurricane Irma ripped toddler from woman’s arms

    In our training programs, we encourage our volunteers to have empathy (the ability to understand and share the feelings of another) so they can better serve our clients. But can empathy take a toll?

    I remember a new volunteer, Jenna and the first time she was present with a patient who died. Jenna had hours of volunteer training. She and I had talked at length about her strengths and capabilities. She was prepared… on paper.

    Minutes after she left the room, allowing family members to gather, she sought me out. I was in the middle of some urgent matter that I have long forgotten. I looked up and saw Jenna’s face and I knew. You can’t mistake a face that has been profoundly affected by what was just witnessed. It’s there in the tiny muscles that make up the eyes and mouth. It’s there, deep in the irises that reflect a life altering experience. It’s there in the reverent voice asking for “a moment of your time.”

    We found a private spot and sat for several long and quiet minutes while Jenna gathered her thoughts. It was difficult for her to put into words how she felt. She only knew that she felt changed, different, profoundly transformed somehow.

    And if you think about it, how does each volunteer cope with the things they witness? Does training and on-boarding take care of the emotional investment our volunteers make when accepting roles placing them in life’s most profound situations?

    Volunteers have an amazing resilience and ability to cope when faced with deeply personal scenarios. But what if a situation becomes more personal? In what situations can this happen to a volunteer, even if they have received excellent training?

    • a volunteer works with a person who reminds them of a family member (child, partner, parent, sibling)
    • a volunteer witnesses tragedy over and over and it accumulates
    • a volunteer is dealing with a crisis in their own lives
    • a volunteer is in a situation in which they perceive their help makes little difference (in outward appearance)
    • a volunteer gets caught up in the narrative of the situation
    • a volunteer feels the frustration of the client

    We can’t prepare our volunteers for every situation, story and person they will encounter. So, how can we provide extra support for volunteers in order to prevent burnout? A few of the things we can do are:

    • ask clinical staff to be on the lookout for signs a volunteer needs support
    • ask clinical staff to be available to speak with volunteers who may be overwhelmed
    • enlist experienced volunteers to routinely call the volunteers who are working with clients. Experienced volunteers are the perfect candidates to do these check-ins because volunteers are comfortable speaking to other volunteers. (This is a great assignment for volunteers who physically can no longer do the job-instead of “retiring” them, elevate them to mentoring status)
    • create a monthly coffee klatch or tea time and encourage volunteers to share tips, stories and feelings
    • use newsletters to offer tips on self care
    • incorporate stories of volunteers who experienced emotional challenges into training and emphasize that this is not a sign of failure
    • designate a portion of each volunteer meeting to discuss “what’s going on with you”
    • intervene when noticing a volunteer experiencing emotional challenges (this can be personal, professional etc.)

    If we make it clear that we are serious about supporting our volunteers, we will help them remain emotionally healthy and keep them from burning out.

    This is the irony of non-profit work: We want our volunteers to share in our clients’ pain (Empathy) in order to better support the clients. But that empathy can lead to our volunteers experiencing their own emotional pain. Let’s make sure we support them so it doesn’t get out of hand.

    -Meridian