Volunteer Screening Blog

You’ve successfully recruited and brought on some new volunteers for your nonprofit organization. Before you put them right to work, take some time to bring them up to speed. They’ll be happier – and so will you. And they might even stick around longer, too.

No matter what position you put your new volunteer in, you can’t assume they know how to do the work you expect from them. Other new volunteers come into a non-profit with great enthusiasm and ideas, and anxious to do a good job. Without clear direction, they may start making improvements or changes without understanding the organization. Both of these situations can lead to conflict.

A better approach is to invest some time to help new volunteers get off to a good start. Allow them to get to know your organization, meet paid and volunteer staff, ask questions and shadow other workers to see how things are done. Encourage them to observe the culture.

• While you’re working with new volunteers, make sure they hear about the “unwritten rules.” If whoever takes the last cup of coffee is supposed to make another pot, be sure they know that. If everyone brings in snacks on board meeting day, pass that along, as well as rules covering perfume, parking, and other etiquette issues.
• Designate a mentor for each new volunteer—someone they can go to when they have question or problems. Between yourself and the mentor, demonstrate what success at your organization looks like, so the new volunteer knows has a clear picture to work toward.
• Let your new volunteers take their time becoming oriented and integrating into your non-profit. Schedule a weekly 10-minute meeting for the first month, to check in and make sure they feel comfortable.

Putting in some extra time up front with your volunteers will pay off in higher productivity, less turnover, better morale and easier volunteer recruiting.

How do you know if your donors and supporters are getting what they need from their relationship with your organization? After all, you are competing for their support with every other organization in your community—and many around the world, as well.

Once you lose a supporter, you may never get them back. So it’s vitally important for non-profits to stay close with their supporters, ask their opinions, their advice, their preferences and more.

Determining if people are happy with the services you provide, your organization’s mission, and the value they feel they are receiving for their investment (donation) doesn’t have to be difficult. If you’re keeping good databases, you have several ways to reach each of your supporters.

Some people prefer face-to-face interactions. For these folks, an invitation to an open house would be a good way to get started. Once they’re in the door, ask them to fill out a short survey. Some supporters need a more personal approach, such as a one-on-one coffee or lunch. Your invitation could clearly state the reason for the meeting: “We need your feedback. Would you be willing to share your opinions about how we’re doing?”

Other supporters have no time for parties or lunches. Send an email. Still others want to do all of their interactions through social media sites, like Facebook. You could also lure these folks to your website by engaging them through Twitter. Once you have their attention, give them a short survey to fill out.

You can leave it to just a few questions:
1. Would you recommend that your friends donate to our organization?
2. Why or why not?
3. What suggestions for improvement can you offer?

That’s it. Ask your supporters if they’re happy, and they will most likely tell you!

Showing your volunteers that you appreciate their service shouldn’t be reserved for the holiday season. But the holidays are the perfect time to kick back a little bit and enjoy each other’s company. Why not treat your volunteers to a party—even if you have a very small budget? After all, with the tough times you’ve all been through in the past few years, you deserve a celebration.

Five Best Small Budget Volunteer Party Ideas

1. Recruit friends and family to help. Do you know a DJ who’d be willing to play some music for the party? Have a catering contact who might want to give you some food for the cause? How about the owners of your local bowling alley—would they give you a few lanes for an afternoon of fun for your volunteers? Keep in mind that certain business owners might be donation-weary by this time of year, so try asking a few who haven’t donated to your non-profit for awhile.
2. Host a potluck at your house. Having your volunteers in your home is personal and special. The best parties are often those where everyone provides their favorite dish. Sure, it’s a little more work for you, but you won’t have to prepare all the food; and it’s a very inexpensive option.
3. Remember to say thank you. Would a local business owner provide small thank you gifts or gift cards for your volunteers? Even a $5 coffee card or movie passes can mean a lot—especially when accompanied by a thoughtful, hand-written note.
4. If you have a budget for your party, you can save money by having a daytime event. Think lunch instead of dinner. Do your volunteers like Mexican food? Asian? These options are often inexpensive. The challenge could be in finding a cuisine that everyone likes and that caters to a variety of food allergies and preferences.
5. Don’t spend money on decorations. Stop by any Christmas tree lot and ask for cuttings. They’ll have plenty you can use to deck the halls with fragrance and natural beauty.

It’s not difficult to host a great volunteer party on a small budget. Try these tips to make it special and an event your volunteers will long remember.

Jerry Sandusky, the disgraced former Penn State assistant football coach, insists he’s no pedophile. Whether he engaged in “horseplay” or sexually abused children will be up to a jury to decide. Regardless of his claims, he certainly set things up to make it easier for young kids to become victims of his inappropriate behavior.

The details emerging in this case show that Sandusky used classic pedophile methods to get close to kids. Contrary to the stereotypical picture of an old man in a trench coat near the playground, pedophiles are skilled at building trust in kids so they have opportunities to abuse them. They “hide in plain sight” and are often known and respected by parents, teachers and other responsible adults. They are coaches, ministers, Boy Scout leaders and other volunteers.

Working on kids over a period of time, they build up trust and strive to separate the vulnerable from the adults or stronger kids who would be able to protect them.

Sandusky’s volunteer activities included running youth football camps and a charity he founded for at-risk youth. These activities gave him plenty of time with young boys. It gave him access to kids without a strong parental presence in their lives. It gave him opportunities to groom them into viewing the sexual abuse as normal, and blurring the line between good touching and bad touching.

When a popular public figure like Jerry Sandusky is the perpetrator, victims may feel even more hesitant to report abuse. They may wonder if the problem is themselves; they may think someone like Sandusky should be trusted—especially if his parents and others kids trust him.

When it comes to volunteers who have access to children or vulnerable adults, the best defense is an extremely strong defense. Conduct background screening of volunteers to keep criminals away from your organization. Run personality tests on potential leaders to determine if they have risky qualities that don’t show on the surface. And never allow an adult and a vulnerable person of any age to be alone.

Volunteer management can be a satisfying and rewarding career. If you’re thinking about joining the field, it may be helpful to know some of the myths surrounding volunteers and non profits.

1. Volunteers are free: Not true. While they do not receive wages or benefits, volunteers often do require resources such as training and supervising. The wages and benefits paid to any staff member involved with volunteers is a direct cost of having them. And keeping volunteers happy may involve buying gifts, throwing parties, or other forms of appreciation that will cost the organization money, as well.
2. Anyone can manage volunteers: Another myth. Volunteering is on the rise, and as more people seek ways to give back or gain experience in a down economy, more organizations find they need someone to manage them. And that takes a variety of skills. For example, state and federal funding, and private grants may require extensive reporting on volunteer hours and activities. Volunteers need to be communicated with, regularly and well. And recruiting volunteers takes yet another set of skills, with networking, interviewing and screening volunteer backgrounds and criminal histories.
3. All organizations can handle volunteers: Knowing that volunteers require management and can be a significant expense to an organization, it is worth asking if yours can take on volunteers. Ask questions such as:

• Do you have tasks that need to be done that would be appropriate for volunteers? Where will you use volunteers?
• Will volunteers further the mission of your organization?
• Who will manage them?
• What benefits will volunteers gain working with you organization?
• What problems can you anticipate and how will they be handled?
• And most important: Why should you bring in volunteers?

Volunteers are an investment and an asset to an organization. And while many people are suited to manage them, not everyone is. And not all non profit organizations are suited to bringing in volunteers. If you’re being recruited to be a volunteer manager, assess your skills and the organization’s needs before jumping in!

Is your non-profit organization ready for Make a Difference Day? It’s coming up soon—next Saturday, October 22. Here are five ways you can recruit volunteers and develop projects so that your community is ready to Make a Difference!

1. Go to HandsOnNetwork.org and download the Volunteer Leader toolkit. It’s full of great advice about assessing needs, and creating and managing community projects, from inception to completion.
2. If you haven’t done so already, register your organization at 1-800Volunteer.org. It’s a powerful online service that can help you recruit volunteers online, manage their time and schedules, and contact volunteers quickly and easily through emails and reminders. Signing up takes just minutes—and it’s free! Then, when prospective volunteers are looking for opportunities (as many will do in the next week as word of Make a Difference Day spreads), your organization and projects will be featured, and volunteers can sign up to help.
3. You might need to hurry on this one, but make an inquiry about possibility of writing a guest editorial for your local newspaper. If there is not enough time for an editorial, be sure to write a letter to the editor immediately.
4. Turn to social media to spread the word. Update your organization’s Facebook page with volunteer opportunities. Or, create a volunteer event and invite all of your page supporters to participate. It only takes a few minutes and could really help you spread the word about Make a Difference Day! Be sure to post something new every day to stay in front of your support base. And boost your efforts through Twitter posts as well. Refer people to your Facebook page so they can sign up and get all the information they need to volunteer for your organization.
5. Reach out to churches, schools, Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops, youth organizations, hospice care organizations, social service organizations and elder care homes to see what the needs are and to partner with potential groups of volunteers. Some worthy causes may have been overlooked, and would welcome your help. You may have more volunteers than you know what to do with next Saturday, so be sure to find something for them to do!

Millions of volunteers around the U.S. will be taking action on Saturday, October 22 for Make a Difference Day. Every project and every new volunteer can make a huge difference in a community, so get busy and make this a successful event for your organization!

Don’t skip the volunteer screening check when recruiting for Make a Difference Day. You can quickly and easily protect your clients and your organization by verifying the identity, checking the criminal history and reviewing the background of each volunteer applicant.

It takes money to make money. That’s an old saying that doesn’t usually apply to non-profits, but according to a new study, it should.

The results of a survey conducted by the Nonprofit Research Collaborative found that 60% of groups that spent more money on email and other internet fundraising efforts in the first half of 2011 saw a greater return in donations. But overall, only about a third of charities reporting actually increased spending on online efforts. The lesson: if you can increase your online efforts, you have a good chance of increasing your fundraising success.

Other results from the study were that participating charities were successful with a variety of fundraising methods, from seeking support from corporations and foundations, to events, direct mail and asking board members for donations. About 45% used social media and planned giving. Donors responded to every form of fundraising, with event donations up for two-thirds of the charities that produced them, and direct mail and major gifts up for 54% of the charities that invested in these methods. The lesson: Keep up the effort, no matter which form it takes.

Overall, giving was better in the first half of 2011 for nearly half (44%) of the responding groups; worse for others (30%), and unchanged for a large percentage (25%). Charities with large budgets—over $3 million—saw greater increases in giving.

Just because a potential volunteer doesn’t have time to commute to your location doesn’t mean you should pass them by. Remote and web commuting can help your organization boost volunteer contributions without adding to greenhouse gases.

How does remote volunteering work? Just like remote working. According to Forrester research, about 62% of the information technology workforce works from multiple locations in the workweek, from home, the office, on the road, or other locations. Like these workers, when volunteers have all the tools needed to access documents, email, and calendars, they can help your organization, regardless of where they happen to be.

Of course, if your organization is a food bank and you need help unloading a truck, you’ll need on-the-ground volunteers. But there are dozens of other volunteer duties that don’t require physical presence:
• Entering supporter information into a database
• Soliciting donations for a fundraiser
• Accounting duties
• Paying bills
• Maintaining or updating the website
• Writing blog posts
• Creating a newsletter
• Updating Facebook and Twitter accounts
• Researching possible events
• Outreach to new supporters

Especially for sensitive functions, such as accounting and banking, your volunteer will need to be fully vetted, with a thorough background check and credit check. Most organizations would only trust a long-time volunteer or board officer with these types of duties. Just make sure they have secure access to online banking. It’s a good idea to supply a paper shredder and training in proper security. And, thorough screening is still necessary!

Giving volunteers the option to work remotely will enhance your ability to attract top talent and retain devoted volunteers who are experts in their fields.

LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional social networking site, has recognized the value of volunteering to career development by allowing users to list their public-service efforts under a new section. The new “Volunteer Experience and Causes” feature encourages LinkedIn users to tout their volunteer work to help them stand out to potential employers.

According to a random survey of nearly 2,000 people, LinkedIn found that the vast majority (89%) had volunteer experience. But only 45% reported their volunteer experiences on their career profiles.

Some said they didn’t think their experience would be interesting to hiring managers, while others said it had just never occurred to them. However, 41% of respondents said they did consider volunteer work to be as valuable as paid work, while 20% of managers polled in the survey said they make hiring decision based on volunteer work.

So volunteer managers, how can you use this when recruiting new volunteers?

• First, use the survey information to your advantage. Demonstrating that you have a grasp on what’s happening in the recruiting/hiring world automatically makes you look like someone who’s worth knowing—and volunteering for.
• Post messages like “Volunteering with us is good for your resume” on your organization’s Facebook and Twitter feeds. Catch attention by citing statistics, and list your current volunteer openings.
• Remind volunteers to add their experience to their resume and LinkedIn profile. They will appreciate the tip, and the fact that they’re volunteering for a forward-thinking organization.
• Give volunteers career-enhancing tasks that improve your organization’s operations, marketing efforts, accounting, or outreach. For example, ask a marketing volunteer to set up a plan to increase your Twitter followers, or an easy way to update the Facebook page to keep supporters informed and engaged. The experience will benefit them as well as you.

When you bring on new volunteers, be sure to properly screen them. When volunteers have access to a nonprofit’s clients, financial information, sensitive records, property, and reputation, the risk of harm is too great to skip doing volunteer background screening, including criminal background checks and volunteer credit checks.

You don’t have to be a media or marketing maven to create a buzz around your non-profit. It does take some time, a little creativity and a willingness to try new things. No matter if your charity is saving animals, kids or trees, you can engage your audience and attract new supporters through a few well-thought-out activities.

Here are four ideas for creating buzz:

• Adopt a school. Partnering with an elementary, middle or high school is a great way to introduce young people to volunteering. At the same time, you’re educating a new generation about your charity’s work. And the kids are likely to tell their families and friends about it. It could take time to find a school willing to create a partnership, but it could be well worth the effort!
• Create a contest. Contests are a great way to create a buzz. Just solicit a donation from a business or supporter. Fun experiences, like a river rafting trip or hot-air balloon ride, or a product or service that ties into your mission, are all great ideas for contest prizes. If you’re an art museum, give away a painting. If you’re a youth services organization, have the kids create a sculpture. If you’re saving the environment, a great contest prize is a ready-to-plant raised vegetable garden. You can either sell raffle tickets or solicit entries on Facebook and other social media outlets.
• Enroll in classes and seminars. Your local community college, technical school or university probably offers free or low-cost classes in technology, web design, social media or marketing – or dozens of other business-related topics. You’re likely to meet other business people and business owners that will soon learn about your non-profit. If you don’t have time to attend classes, look for half-day or one-day seminars that will both teach you valuable skills and expose your charity to a new audience. And if you cannot find the time to attend, send a co-worker, or even a volunteer.
• Produce a simple event. Not a fundraiser—fundraisers are to raise funds. Other events can simply create buzz. For example, if you have a new building, hold an open house. If you’ve recently acquired a donation, find local groups who might be interested, and invite them to check it out. Or, contact an expert in any given field and ask them to give a presentation. Invite the public or make it a private event. Just reach out and inform people about your organization.

Creating buzz simply takes a little time, some creativity, and willingness to ask people for help. It can be a great way to spread the word about your non-profit!