By Karen Bantuveris, founder and CEO VolunteerSpot, DOING GOOD just got easier!
Spring marks a new season of volunteering as nonprofits, schools and faith groups of all types ramp-up their fundraising and service activities. These 4 common volunteer management mistakes can derail your projects and worse, cause volunteers to lose interest in your organization. Here’s how to identify them and suggestions for avoiding them.
Supersizing the Schedule: It’s hard to resist scheduling a few ‘extra’ volunteers in case someone forgets or cancels at the last minute. Sometimes we even leave the schedule wide open thinking ‘the more the merrier’. Unfortunately, supersizing the schedule sets up a vicious circle – it works like this: a volunteer takes the time to come help and finds that her efforts aren’t really needed because the shift is over-staffed. Next time she’s asked to help, she doesn’t, assuming the organization already has plenty of helpers and she won’t be needed. When it’s time for the leader to set the volunteer schedule again, additional spots are added to compensate for no-shows.
The Fix: Ask for the right number of volunteers and work to ensure the people scheduled show up. VolunteerSpot.com’s free online sign up sheets make it easy to sign up just the right number of people for each job or task and send automated reminders to help people keep their commitments. If volunteers ask to bring their friends, steer them towards openings in the schedule or have a few ‘anytime’ projects on hand so everyone can have meaningful work to do.
Missing Metrics: Coming back to the same situation over and over again without seeing progress is disheartening and emotionally draining. If you don’t know whether your volunteers feel like they are making a difference, you’re missing the key metrics that speak to their enthusiasm and your program’s success.
The Fix: Take the time, every time, to explain to volunteers why they’re there and what will be accomplished today. Speak on both the mission-level of the organization, and more tactically, what’s to be accomplished during this shift.
Handcuffs instead of Handrails: Micro-managing work by giving volunteers too many directions or rigid guidelines can create an extremely frustrating and demotivating volunteer environment, one volunteers don’t return to.
The Fix: Ask yourself, “Why is it important to do it this way?” Unless absolutely necessary for security or safety purposes, encourage volunteers to exercise their own creativity in performing tasks and accomplishing goals. Participating in decisions, even small ones, builds ownership in the work at hand and ultimately strengthens a volunteer’s commitment to your organization.
Mirror Mirror: Only inviting volunteers to participate who are like you or who are your friends. It may seem fast and easy to involve your inner circle, but you run the risk of burning out your friends, making your program appear cliquish, and denying new people the chance to develop a relationship with your cause or organization.
The Fix: Cast a wide net when it comes to inviting volunteers to participate and include those who have expressed interest in your program that you don’t know personally yet. Not only do you gain fresh perspectives, you’re building a broader volunteer base and future leaders. Online volunteer coordination tools like VolunteerSpot.com make easy to invite people to sign up in a variety of ways – via a link on facebook, your program e-newsletter, a website and even messages.
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Say goodbye to juggling Excel spread sheets, clipboard sign up sheets and reply-all email! VolunteerSpot’s free online sign up sheets and scheduler saves time and gets more people involved! Get more tips and ideas about volunteering on VolunteerSpot’s blog.