Managing Volunteers in Small Organizations with Camara Chambers

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Volunteers are the bread and butter of our sector that helps make our work possible. But with great volunteers also comes great management. This week we sat down with Camara Chambers, executive director at Volunteer Toronto, to give us actionable tips and tools that your organization can use today.

Volunteer management can be a tricky subject for small nonprofits because while we do need and value them, it can be easy to accidentally make more work for our staff. With limited staff resources, I’m sure we all wonder how can we leverage our volunteers to truly carry out our mission. What’s the most effective way to do this is to guide our volunteers? Through a volunteer stewardship journey.

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THE VOLUNTEER JOURNEY STARTS WITH YOU

Your journey starts at the very beginning, right before you start seeking out volunteers. It’s a common habit to create jobs for your volunteers, especially if they are ones that have developed a great relationship with your organization. Instead, Camara suggests that you sit down with your staff and decide on what’s really needed in your organization. Look at your programs, your operations, how you work and determine areas where your volunteers can not only support your mission but also have a meaningful volunteer experience as well. What are the roles that your organization needs to be filled, that can’t be filled by staff? Creating a wish list can really help with targeting the talent you need from your volunteers and ensure that you attract the right ones. 

Before you begin to recruit volunteers, it’s also important to have a really good sense of what type of person will be good for that role. What qualities does your ideal volunteer have? In addition to your wish list, you may also consider what types of skills are needed or what kind of experience would make someone a good fit. It’s easy to create a volunteer position for someone who wants to help you, even if you don’t necessarily have a need for their skills. Clearly laying out what you’re looking for, what the roles and responsibilities are within that can help make screening your volunteers easier and to actually make workloads lighter for your staff. 

ASK THEM WHAT THEY WANT (WHAT THEY REALLY, REALLY WANT)

Volunteerism is a two-way street. Not only do we want to attract the right volunteers, but we also want to make sure that they are getting value out of their experiences with us too. So how do we make this happen? Well, we simply ask them what they want. Camara starts off her conversation with your volunteers by directly asking them what do they want out of their experience. Whether it’s a new experience, making friends, getting to know their city better or simply just wanting to give back, it’s important to know what their expectations are in order to manage it.

THE VOLUNTEER PROCESS

After you’ve screened your applicants and spoken to them about their expectations, it’s time to prepare them for the work. Camara strongly encourages everyone to develop a training program for your volunteers, just as you normally would with your staff. You can guarantee that your volunteers know what to expect in terms of their rights and responsibilities, dress code and how to quit if they come to a point where they don’t want to do it or can no longer do it. It’s also important to have policies in place that clearly state how you might dismiss a volunteer.

Worried about training being too time-consuming? There are efficient but still effective ways to properly onboard your volunteers. Camara likes to use PowerPoint presentations that are sent electronically to volunteers to read on their own time, at their own pace. She found that writing their volunteer handbook and having it available in a PDF format was not only easy and efficient but also cost-friendly. In the end, she has volunteers sign a short letter that says “yes, I’ve read and understood the handbook” and makes herself available to answer any questions they might have.

ENGAGING WITH YOUR VOLUNTEERS

After you’ve on-boarded your volunteers, it’s time to get them to work! It’s important to check-in with your volunteers to ensure that they know what we’re doing and to be available if they need any extra clarification or help. If you’re not able to supervise them, a simple phone call asking if they’re enjoying their role or if there is anything the organization can do to make it more meaningful for them can reaffirm how much you value them. This is also a good opportunity to provide and receive feedback to solve any issues and to ensure that both parties are benefitting from this partnership. If you do notice that a volunteer’s behaviour isn’t matching up with what is expected of them, it may be best to keep a record to ensure you had a clear understanding and recollection of what’s happening when it comes to their performance.

SAYING THANK YOU FOR A JOB WELL DONE

Thanking each and every one of your volunteers is a great and inexpensive way to recognize your volunteers! This can be in the form of a thank-you card, taking a volunteer out for coffee, or simply having someone in senior management personally recognize and acknowledge them. If you have the budget, you can also consider getting them a small gift like a mug. 

Don’t wait until the end of their volunteer experience to say thank-you! Expressing your gratitude for your volunteers is not only a great way to keep them active and engaged, but it also shows them the impact of their work. Letting them know what compliments other staff members have mentioned about them can really make a huge difference in the way they work! If your organization has the capacity, you may also consider collecting statistics on their individual impact and publish the information in your annual report. 

From recruitment to onboarding to continued management, your volunteer program should be built to ensure that both your volunteer and your organization find value within each other. Huge thank you to Camara for giving us actionable tips to improve our volunteer journey! We hope you join us in the next episode!

Want more information? Be sure to check out Camara’s top resources for nonprofit organizations on the Volunteer Toronto website. Have a question that didn’t get answered in the episode? Feel free to email Camara at info@volunteertoronto.ca

Thank you so much for tuning in! Let us know what your thoughts are and what you’ve learned by 

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