When I started this blog, I hoped that it might help volunteer coordinators understand what it’s like to be a volunteer. I hoped that it might give them an idea of what volunteers like, what keeps them happy, and what annoys volunteers.
If you’ve read the blog from the beginning you know one of my biggest hurdles as a volunteer was getting in the door. It took me almost three weeks to get a full volunteer schedule going where I volunteer each day of the week. Now, that I’ve volunteered for a few months I have even more feedback about volunteers’ experiences.
Here are some “rules” for volunteer managers based on my experience thus far:
1) Always send out a timely thank you after an event, and don’t accompany the thank you with advertisements. Any self respecting Southern girl knows the importance of a thank you. People who are giving their time and energy to you and your organization deserve a proper and prompt thank you. You don’t have to send out a handwritten note (but that is nice); an email is completely appropriate and can actually contain links to a calendar of other volunteer opportunities. Some thank you emails include surveys, which I find annoying, but I understand as a necessary evil to improve volunteers’ experience.
Most of the folks I’ve volunteered for have been wonderful about sending timely thank you emails. However, not every group has been so thoughtful. The folks that put on Slow Food Nation over Labor Day Weekend didn’t send me a thank you email until September 26th, almost a month after the event. (Don’t confuse the event organizers with the totally awesome architecture firm that made the pickle pavilion; they emailed after each volunteer night). Of course, the email was a mass email to all of the volunteers which included a survey. However the most outrageous thing was getting an email a few hours later from the event management company advertising their services. You should never, ever, ever give volunteer emails to a third party who are going to send advertisements for services to them. Totally inappropriate.
2) If it is going to be a while before you can bring a volunteer on board, let them know why there is a delay and don’t be upset if they commit themselves elsewhere in the meantime. I’m a sad that I haven’t been able to volunteer with the California Academy of Sciences yet. I sent an application to them in mid-August, and they called two weeks ago to schedule my volunteer interview in November. I am frustrated that it is taking this long, but at least they have been straight forward with me about the delay. The Academy renovated its building and just celebrating it’s re-opening last week. When I applied in August, I had hoped that I could volunteer as they worked toward the opening, but I guess they didn’t need volunteers for that. Now, I’m waiting until November for an interview because the volunteer coordinator is on vacation for the month of October. Sadly, because of the delay, I’ve committed myself elsewhere and I will not have much time in my schedule to set aside for the Academy.
3) Ask volunteers the way they prefer to be contacted, especially about their schedule. I’ve also been frustrated with my inability to get in the door at KQED. I responded the same day to email asking for volunteers for a TV pledge drive at KQED in mid-August. Obviously, I don’t expect I response the same day about my schedule, but I think I’d get an email within the week letting me know if and when I’d been scheduled to volunteer. Instead, I got a mailed letter a few weeks later, letting me know that they didn’t need me to volunteer for the pledge drive. In the meantime I had the all of pledge dates marked off in my calendar, and I was refusing other opportunities because of it. Because I don’t go through my mail that often, I could have missed the letter altogether. An email would be much quicker, and I think more appropriate since all of the other communications were emails. I think all volunteer organizations should at least ask volunteers about the best way(s) to reach them. They should also find out if there is a way they don’t want to be contacted.
4) Give volunteers feedback in person about how their work has helped. I know lots of volunteer organizations send out newsletters or emails informing volunteers how their work has helped. I rarely read those emails and newsletters because they seem so impersonal. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t like to know the outcomes of my work. I have been really heartened to find out how my work has contributed when volunteer coordinators let me know in person the impact of my efforts. At Planned Parenthood’s No on Prop 4 phonebanks, the volunteer coordinator always lets the volunteers know how many No voters they’ve reached as a team. Today, my supervisor at the NSRC took me by another staff person’s office, so I could hear first hand how the facts I gathered on senior sexuality helped her write an article, and that they will be used in a board meeting.
5) Learn repeat volunteers’ names* and be personable. There are a lot of tutors and a lot of students at 826 Valencia each afternoon. Amid the chaos, the Thursday afternoon coordinator and the program coordinator quickly learned my name. They both go out of their way to speak to me (and every other tutor) each Thursday and often remember details of our conversation from the week before. I can’t stress enough the importance of being personable with your volunteers. I think volunteer programs, especially those that rely on repeat volunteers, work best if they foster a sense of community based on interpersonal relationships. Feeling like you are part of community makes working as a volunteer more enjoyable and it makes you feel more accountable to the group.
* You may notice that I don’t use names of fellow volunteers or volunteer coordinators in this blog. It’s not because I don’t know them. I omit names to maintain the privacy of folks I work with who don’t ask to be on the blog.
