Volunteers

Here are a few things today's volunteer has a right to expect from you — master these and you will have happy volunteers. Volunteers want you to be prepared for them, to feel welcomed, good training, to do interesting work, to know up front how much time the job will take, to be appreciated, you to communicate with them well and often, to know that they are helping to make the world a better place, to be socially connected, and to learn something.

Recent reports indicate good signs for 2014 fundraising. Despite the collective optimism for fundraising success, nonprofits must overcome a number of hurdles to get there. Here are some stats and three ways your nonprofit can drive giving gains this year.

Volunteering in the U.S. hit a new low last year, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. As of September 2013, 25.4 percent of all Americans 16 and older had volunteered with an organization at least once in the prior year, according to a new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is the lowest rate of volunteering the annual report has found since it was first conducted in 2002, and the latest year-over-year change is statistically significant, according to a BLS economist.

The truly unsung heroes of nonprofits are the volunteers. These caring and generous souls do not get paid for their work. In fact, they often give not just time but money to the nonprofit. So why are volunteers taken for granted by so many nonprofits? Here is my answer, via my experience as a volunteer coordinator, and I hope that it creates an “Aha!” moment for those who are in a position to make a change for the good.

Celebrate any opportunity that allows people to experience the joy and life-changing benefits of giving and to help meet vital needs! And let’s be sure to focus on nurturing giving as a way of life, not just an event!

Your job is to change the culture and mind-set in your organization that a special event is everyone’s responsibility. If you increase the importance of a special event in your organization, other positive results will follow!       

If you engage volunteer leadership in a campaign — and it dramatically increases your success if done correctly — you need the right strategy. This includes preparation, and it includes leadership that makes a leadership gift — whatever that means for your particular organization and effort.

Back in 2009, when current FS Editorial Advisory Board Co-Chair Jo Sullivan was senior vice president of development and communications for the ASPCA, she offered "Tips for Creating Cause Ambassadors."

The three most common ways to measure the value of volunteer time, as outlined by the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service at the University of Texas at Austin, are: Multiply the number of volunteer hours by the average hourly wage for a worker based on local or national statistics; calculate how much it would cost to hire paid employees to do the volunteer task; and calculate how much the volunteer would be paid at his or her regular job for the number of hours contributed.

I knew my new volunteer campaign leader “got it” when, at the first facility design meeting, she threw out the design and created one with the patients’ needs in mind.