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Setting up your volunteer management team
Chapter 1:
Getting your organisation volunteer ready
A dedicated Volunteer Management team
As your organisation grows in size, it is important to have a dedicated volunteer management team or individual to manage and support your volunteers. This team or individual is critical to foster a positive experience for your volunteers and acts as the link between staff and volunteers.
Who is suitable to be a volunteer manager?
A volunteer manager’s role is multi-faceted and requires several qualities. To begin, a volunteer manager should have the ability to manage a team or work independently to conduct effective programme management. In order to do so, the volunteer manager should also have the ability and willingness to communicate and work with others.
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Specific to the role, a volunteer manager should also have a good understanding of volunteer issues and hold a strong belief in the value of volunteer involvement. Other qualities that would be good for a volunteer manager to have includes the ability to multitask, presentation skills and good problem-solving and analysis skills.
What are the key responsibilities and initiatives of a volunteer management team?
The main function of a volunteer management team includes, but is not limited to:
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Developing, reviewing and communicating the organisation’s volunteer policies and procedures
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Assessing staff requests for volunteer involvement
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Recruiting and screening of applications
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Conducting volunteer orientations and ensuring that appropriate training is put in place
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Overseeing volunteer retention efforts
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Managing staff and volunteer relations
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Supervising, evaluating and recognising volunteer contributions
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Public relations and liaising with the public on volunteer matters
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Forming and retaining corporate volunteer partnerships
Model 1: Centralised Model
A centralised volunteer management team drives and coordinates volunteers across the organisation, working with different departments and / programmes to do so
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Benefits of centralised model:
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Allows for a holistic view and management of the organisation’s volunteer management needs.
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Clear point of contact for all volunteer management needs.
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Allows other staff within the organisation to focus on primary duties.
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Consistency in all volunteer management practices including tracking and reporting.
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Consistent set of policies and processes across the organisation.
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Provides economy of scale in volunteer management operations.
Model 2: Decentralised Model
Volunteer management is driven by respective departments / programmes in the organisation
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Benefits of decentralised model:
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Each programme / department have the flexibility to execute volunteer management based on their needs.
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Closer interaction between volunteers and department / programme staff which will foster a healthy partnership.
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Volunteer management needs are able to be addressed quickly in response to changes on the ground
Model 3: Hybrid Model
Some volunteer management functions are managed centrally by a volunteer management team, while some functions continue to take charge of specific volunteer management responsibilities.
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Benefits of hybrid model:
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Flexibility in meeting the organisation’s specific needs.
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Allows some consistency in setting policies and processes across organisation, balanced with flexibility on the ground in implementation.
How big should your volunteer pool be?
The ideal volunteer-to-staff ratio varies across organisations and depends on the size and function of your organisation. Each organisation should examine its own objectives and workload in volunteer engagement and decide on volunteer staffing accordingly.
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At the end of the day, effective volunteer management is an organisation-wide effort. Everyone within the organisation has a part to play in contributing to a positive volunteering experience!