VolunteerPlainTalk

New Manager of Volunteer Services position and then boom: Covid. How do you nurture volunteers when you can't engage them traditionally?

Hi and hope you enjoy this podcast as much as I did! Wes began his new job as manager of volunteer services in December 2019 and as the new head of volunteer services, had to almost immediately send volunteers, ones he didn’t get to know well, home. In part 1 of this interview, Wes chats about his experiences, including: That initial shock.The suspension and not knowing what would ultimately…

Sustainability not only applies to volunteers, it applies to the person leading the volunteers. If the volunteer engagement expert feels like they are choking, begging for sustenance, depleted of energy, starved for nutrients, they will wither and quit.

Economist William Forster Lloyd, in his 1833 “Tragedy of the Commons” speculated that when pastureland (the commons) is hoarded, over-grazing occurs, dooming the commons to depletion. Volunteer sustainability is radically different from volunteer retention. Sustainability, unlike retention is the ability to maintain a healthy balance while avoiding depletion. Sustainability, as it is being…

In this VPT podcast, check out team versus #volunteer of the year awards, the nonprofit smoke alarm and grumpy volunteers-they serve a purpose.

In part 2 of our catching up podcast Laura discusses: Inspirational volunteers who support people knowing they cannot change circumstances.Volunteer appreciation-do we need a luncheon or even a week? Where should our focus be?Evolving volunteer recognition.Team nomination vs. volunteer of the year. (update, it worked!)No one, including staff gets there on their own.Person of the year? What’s the…

VPT Podcast: Catching Up with Laura Rundell a Year Later Part 1

In Part 1 of a 2 part episode, I catch up with Laura a year after our first podcast. What has changed? What is the same? Laura discusses: Are volunteers returning?Change means an uptick in needsPaid staff are scarcePre-pandemic models vs. post pandemic modelsWhere does the program go moving forward?Navigating a shifting landscapeGetting volunteer buy-in upfrontMaking volunteer roles…

Here's the dichotomy: We tell volunteers how valuable they are. So, if they are so "valuable," how can we be so "understanding" when they need time off?

What incentivizes a volunteer to stay or do more? Does it matter if volunteer incentives differ from employee incentives? Do we want them to be the same? We want volunteers treated as an integral part of the nonprofit workforce (oftentimes the biggest portion), but the reality is they are treated as separate in most ways, including incentives. And the more volunteers are separated from staff,…

Gig Volunteering and Intellectual Property: Do We Own Volunteer Work?

How much do we “own” volunteer work? Is it all about the legal (and don’t we know, when it comes to anything bad happening on a volunteer’s watch, legal becomes oh-so important). But what of the talents and abilities a volunteer brings? This viral story on TikTok about a woman who watermarked her work (because her boss kept stealing it) has a different lesson, hidden under the obvious one:…

If impact is the heart of a mission, then connections are the circulatory system's arteries. Arteries carry the mission goal out and return with the resources the mission needs to grow, thrive and meet objectives.

How do we show volunteer value? In the old days, (way before Covid) we, volunteer engagement professionals, used three basic value indicators: touting number of volunteer hours given listing number of active volunteers calculating money “saved” by incorporating volunteer help Since these methods were basically a bunch of numbers without any causality, they never showed: how those volunteer…

Photo courtesy of Gratisography Lip service. Gotta admit, I’ve been guilty of patting myself on the back by parroting all the great things I believed in to further volunteerism and volunteer management. But, was some of it lip service? Did I just spout stuff without backing it up with actions? For instance: I believe in the glorious future of volunteering: Well, give me a medal. But what about…

It’s Time for Volunteer Fresh

Is there a soft bias towards volunteers because they only volunteer once a week or month? Volunteers can’t be as committed, as knowledgeable, as valuable or impactful as staff who labor 40 (wait, who are we kidding, like 60-80, most uncounted) hours a week? But in reality, less time spent by volunteers is a gift.  Volunteers are not burdened by the stress of working for us full-time. Volunteers…

#Lovols, help your executive director choose the perfect holiday gift for you.

“What can I get my non-profit staff, especially that mysterious volunteer manager, who seems to run around a lot?”  You, my dear ED or CEO have come to the right place. Forget that self help book, “Criticism is Our Way of Showing Our Appreciation.” Forget that subscription to “How to Be a Team Player by Keeping Opinions to Yourself” digest. Never Mind that “Quotes to Make You Humble” of the…

Who Gets to Define Excellence? IVMDAY

Happy IVMDAY 2021! November 5th is International Volunteer Managers Appreciation Day. The theme this year is “What is Excellence? Pushing Us Beyond the Ordinary. What a great question! What is volunteer manager excellence anyway, and more importantly, who gets to define it? Volunteers? Staff? Community? Your neighbor? Whose excellence are we seeking? Would I, a volunteer manager tell a…

The Invisible Lines of Connection

Electric Waves Trio On a trip, mesmerized by the pure sounds of a trio of musicians, I approached them, telling them how much I enjoyed their haunting music. We struck up a conversation that wove in and out of days. I learned about their lives which made me appreciate them more. During their performances, I was riveted, connected to their music. Why? What was it about them? This makes me think…

I'm Not Nice. Not Really. Bet you're not either. #Lovols #volmgmt

Photo by Dziana Hasanbekava on Pexels.com There’s a long-term epidemic plaguing our profession: It’s the idea that Leaders of Volunteers are nice. Like fluffy, sweet as birthday-cake-fudge nice. Like dismissible, non-serious, inconsequential nice. Been reading this great post (Abandoning Niceness in Volunteer Engagement) from Sue Carter Kahl and recalling Rob Jackson’s rousing keynote address,…

Volunteer Time Donor or Time Investor?

Just revisiting this post about volunteer investors from 2017. Semantics aside, we need to change the deep conceptions/misperceptions surrounding volunteers. Why Time “donors” Time=Money. We all say it and that’s why we call volunteers “time donors.” They donate their time, skills, expertise, talents etc. But is that what they really are? Donors? Maybe there’s a more descriptive word for our…

Sometimes there are lies and well, more lies.

I think we, leaders of volunteers hold ourselves to this inner higher standard. Not that we think we’re better or more noble, but because we believe the volunteers and our missions deserve a steward who believes in higher purposes. But sometimes, well… So, there’s senior managers and then there’s favored senior managers, right? Maybe they’re legacy managers because they’ve been around so long…

Information Spreading: Are You a Steel Trap, A Sieve or A Spigot? #Lovols #volmgmt

Working for a nonprofit, I quickly learned that unless stuff was written in a memo, information was pretty much filtered through the staff person or volunteer sharing it. I also learned the hard way, whom I could trust and who blabbed upon leaving my office. I actually identified 734 different types of info spreaders, which I compiled into a book entitled “The Industrial Psychology of Spreading…

Photo courtesy of Gratisography There’s a quote out there I hear all the time, attributed to different sources that basically says, “if you love what you do, it’s not work.” Sigh. I’ve always detested that saying/quote. Clearly, whoever said this, never followed a leader of volunteers around for a day. What we do, what YOU do, is hard, hard work. It’s not easy. It’s not fun a lot of the time,…