Volunteer, Where Art Thou?

Situation

Client F, an established and popular nonprofit organization offering a broad-range of social services to individuals in need, found itself in need - of volunteers. Although the organization had built a strong base of loyal supporters and generous donors over the years, it had not been focused on volunteerism. Beyond its board members and event committee members, there was little additional volunteer engagement. The organization's forward-thinking executive team realized they were doing a disservice to the organization's future by not focusing on engaging volunteers in programs and other activities.

Intuitively Client F knew a strong volunteer program would strengthen their ties to the community, increase support for their programs and services and help cultivate future board members, but didn't have the staff resources or time to invest in building a strategic volunteer program. They looked to CCO for help in assessing their use of volunteers and developing strategic volunteer program.

Action

CCO's process included interviews with select staff, board members, volunteers and community partners and assessments of current volunteer engagement and management practices. CCO also researched best practices in recruitment and volunteer management among national and local organizations.

The results of the interviews and research provided the framework for a strategic volunteer plan that addressed:

•  volunteer recruitment and engagement

•  project development and implementation

•  collaborations with community partners

•  volunteer tracking and recording keeping

•  staff involvement and volunteer management skills

•  succession planning and leadership development

The plan also provided an implementation timeline and definitions of success.

CCO also worked with Client F to gain board support of the plan.

Results

For the first time, Client F had a clearly defined plan for engaging volunteers and step-by-step guidelines for implementing the plan. So thrilled was the board about the plan and the prospect of building this program that Client F received approval to hire a volunteer manager and they are now on their way to becoming their own best practice in volunteer programming.