Instituting a new volunteer program or reenergizing an existing one involves a process that covers a wide range of management functions—from needs assessment, volunteer position development, and recruitment to supervision, evaluation, and recognition. These processes are independent, but together will create and sustain and environment that will either start or enliven your volunteer programs. Once instituted into effective volunteer organizations, your volunteer opportunities will perpetuate.
Planning volunteer organizations means changing standard practices and routines. Funds must be acquired and budgeted, relationships must be formed to link the volunteer program into the organization, job descriptions and working relationship must be modified, and policies created and approved to accommodate volunteers.
The first step in planning an effective volunteer program is to conduct a needs assessment of the local communities the program will serve, and making decisions as to whether the program can outreach and meet those needs. There are several ways you can conduct a needs assessment—interviews, surveys, and focus groups. Volunteer organizations will select a method to use based on available resources in the community. If an organization has paid staff, a volunteer coordinator should be selected to begin the process of creating volunteer positions within the organization. Volunteers tend to be best utilized when there is ongoing staff support from the organization. Coordinators should consult with other staff members to see what methods effectively work for recruiting and retaining volunteers and then pursue those methods vigorously.
Having proper support from paid staff is crucial in planning volunteer efforts. It’s not a bad idea to create a questionnaire asking the attitudes and opinions of staff who will directly participate in volunteer activities. Some questions may include: 1) “Have you ever supervised volunteers before?” 2) “Are there positions you feel volunteers should not be doing?” and 3) “Are there worries about loss of staff jobs?” These questions, along with any others you feel are appropriate would be good questions to ask your paid staff. You’ll have a better understanding of staff needs, and you’ll be able to manage your volunteer program more efficiently.
Once you’ve established your volunteer organizations, you should have a volunteer advisory staff which gives volunteer advice and support. This advisory committee should meet regularly to assess volunteer activities and go over training materials for the volunteer force. The advisory committee also establishes guidelines, rules and regulations that govern the volunteers. It is important to remember the advisory staff offers recommendations to volunteers, they don’t give orders.
Effective volunteer program planning begins with the mission of the program. It is the job of the volunteer coordinator to make the mission turn to action. The coordinator should recruit volunteers that will help contribute to and achieve the overall mission of the organization. The coordinator should also make sure the volunteers have the right vision to achieve the mission. Without having the right vision, volunteer efforts could be done in vain—achieving little or nothing.
It’s also a good idea to have a volunteer tracking system. This would include a database of volunteer names, addresses, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, and any other contact information. In addition, the tracking system would provide how many hours a volunteer has worked, what projects the volunteer has been involved with, what projects the volunteer is currently working, and what projects the volunteer is scheduled to participate in.
This is an infantile list of things to do when planning a volunteer program within your organization. Consider doing more research by contacting other volunteer programs to see how they were started, as well as finding more information on the Internet about running effective volunteer programs.
By John Ivie