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Grant Writing for Beginners "No more struggling"
Be Sure to Count All Volunteers
by Susan J. Ellis, President, Energize, Inc.
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Are you keeping track of all the volunteer support your organization receives? Are you sure? In the course of a year, it is common for agencies to benefit from the donated services of a wide range of people, yet only those formally designated as "volunteers" are reflected in the reports of the volunteer program. This is a missed opportunity in a number of ways. There may be people who come to your organization in a roundabout way, bypassing the procedures of the volunteer services office. There are many examples, including:
Most organizations want to demonstrate that intangible called "community support." If the services contributed by such "special category" volunteers are continually under-reported, you aren't providing a true picture of how many citizens prove through their actions that they care about your work. Funding sources, politicians, and other social leaders ought to be shown the full scope of your community engagement. Further, everyone who spends time, even briefly, in your organization becomes a potential ambassador for you. This is a chance to orient and educate ever-widening spheres of influence, as different people come and go. Why not adapt existing volunteer orientation programs to interns, groups, consultants, or anyone else needing to be brought up to speed on the mission, context, and services of your organization? In light of today's risk management paranoia, it is important to ask anyone who comes into contact with clients to complete some sort of application form or at least a sign-in sheet, so that you have a record of who is in your building. There may even be a need for background checks. Given the recent publicity about clergy-related child abuse, even religious leaders ought to be cleared and approved. All contributed work deserves thanks. Whether for one-time service or hundreds of hours, members of the community ought to be properly acknowledged by the organization in a formal way. It doesn’t matter whether you set more places at the annual volunteer luncheon (though that might be nice), but anyone who has helped throughout the year ought to feel appreciated. In turn, they will have positive feelings about your organization and pass along that attitude to others they know.Here's a final note about all those relatives of staff and volunteers who are dragged into helping at a special event. Slap a button on them that says "official volunteer," get their names, and give them some choice as to what they'd like to do (rather than being a go-fer for their relative). Afterwards, say thank you to them. You might end up recruiting some genuinely willing volunteers! About the Author: Susan J. Ellis is president of Energize, Inc.(http://www.energizeinc.com), an international training, consulting, and publishing firm specializing in volunteerism. Susan writes the "Tip of the Month" for the free Volunteer Management Online Update, e-mailed monthly upon request. These tips are not published elsewhere and this "Quick Tip" selection has been excerpted from Updates distributed between 2000 and 2005. You can receive the free Update directly into your e-mail box every month and keep up with all of Susan’s tips. Go to http://www.energizeinc.com and submit your e-mail address using the form in the right hand column of every page or simply send an e-mail to update@energizeinc.com with "subscribe" in the subject line. |
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