Prioritizing Volunteer Operations

By Heather Klindworth, Partner

We are diving into a two-part series on my favorite non-profit AND campaign topic: volunteers! Volunteers are the lifeblood of social change organizations and campaigns. As we mentioned in our last post, developing volunteers should be a key component of long-term community investment, even on cycle-driven campaigns. Today, we’ll dive into the importance of systematizing volunteer operations, learn how to identify when it is being overlooked, and solutions for getting your volunteer operations in shape. 

Volunteers can do so much to contribute substantially to campaigns and nonprofits, including knocking doors, creating walk packets or silent auction baskets, making calls, raising dollars, running events, and being an ambassador for our vision. But when campaigns recruit volunteers into an experience that is chaotic or unstructured, they often don’t come back. If they have a lack of clarity of their role or tasks expected of them, it can lead to frustration from both staff and volunteers.

How do you know if your volunteer operations are under-prioritized? People often think of quantity of volunteers, but you should also be looking for: 

• Regular volunteers that disappear

• Low re-shift rates

• Underperforming volunteers

• Scrambling to find things for your volunteers to do

Campaigns sometimes treat volunteer operations as a set and forget or as an informal, the-more-the merrier approach. However, formalizing volunteer operations with clear plans, goals, and systems helps volunteers add to capacity — not take away from it. Remember to clarify:

Step 1. Goals

You can’t meet goals that aren’t set. Creating goals around your volunteer program allows you to get very specific about the direction you want. Remember that goals should be SMARTIE: Strategic, Measurable, Ambitious, Realistic, Time-bound, Inclusive, and Equitable.

Step 2. Plan

Just as with other projects, a clear direction for the work in written form is critical. This should include your goals and how you plan to achieve them, including strategy and tactics, timelines, benchmarks, and roles.
Step 3. Roles

Defining roles for volunteer operations are two-fold. Identify the defined roles your volunteers will fill and the internal project roles of your staff.

Looking for planning templates or strategic support in your volunteer operations? Book a consult with us today!