Volunteer management

“A person who does something, especially helping other people, willingly and without being forced or paid to do it.”

Definition of volunteer by Cambridge Dictionary

We have talked about management in general, while now we are going to focus more on those unpaid asset of your organization – volunteers and how to manage them.

Up to this point you should have already decided according to your strategic plan whether your organization should or should not have volunteers. If your answers is “yes”, they next couple of lines you can find beneficial in that process.

We will bring you through:

• Planning and preparation of volunteering section of your organization
• Recruitment process
• Management of their everyday work
• Additional education and training.

If you are reading this page that most probably means that you recognized importance of volunteers for your strategic goal. Now you need to define how you are going to fit the into your organizational system.

Let’s start by defining your volunteer mission statement. Using the same methodology which was described in the Strategic planning chapter of this toolkit / Mission and Vision of your organization, you should gather your team and try to define a mission statement that will:

• State why your organization would like to have volunteers

• Clearly show your appreciation of volunteer work

• Inspire volunteers to join your organization

• Share main values of your organization.

Test your statement with some people who you believe can become your volunteers. If you like it, make as visible as possible so that everyone knows about it.

When you have your mission statement, it’s time to define a strategic objective of having volunteers. In most cases, you should decide from:

Having volunteers specialized / willing to be specialized in certain area of your organizational work

Having mass number of volunteers that will support your activities

Mixed model of previously two mentioned.

This decision depends from your strategic goal and how you think you should/could achieve them. Discuss about this with your team. Upon that you should made following decisions/actions:

• Appoint person who will be in charge for managing volunteer section of your organization. Make sure to be person who understands importance of volunteer work, is motivated to work with volunteers and possibly have higher social competences.

• Describe role/s volunteer/s will have within your organization. Brake it down onto activities and tasks volunteers will perform or it will be done for volunteers.

• According to the previously defined action plan, dedicate certain budget amount for these activities.