Volunteer Screening Blog

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.

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.

While the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) has been in place for more than 20 years, many non-profit agencies think it does not apply to them, or are confused about which aspects of the law do.

Here are some facts about the ADA:

• The ADA gives rights of equal access to places of public accommodation, including non-profit organizations.
• Places of public accommodation must give persons with disabilities equal opportunity to participate in and benefit from their services.
• Small employers are not subject to ADA. This includes those with fewer than 15 employees.
• Employers with 15 or more employees may not ask whether a person is disabled when interviewing for a position, and must make reasonable accommodations for a worker’s disability.
• Making accommodations can be as simple as providing a foot stool to a volunteer with a disability, allowing a volunteer with lupus to take rest breaks or changing the orientation of a desk to accommodate a wheelchair.
• Temporary conditions, such as broken limbs or illnesses, are not covered under the ADA.
• You may choose a non-disabled volunteer over a disabled volunteer, according to qualifications.

About 20% of the U.S. population is disabled, and if you have not yet welcomed volunteers with disabilities into your agency, you may be missing out on a wealth of talent and skill.

For non profit organizations, every fundraising event needs to pay off. The amount of time, money and volunteer effort invested in a fundraiser can’t be wasted on a mediocre turnout and less-than-stellar take.

If you’re in charge of gathering ideas, volunteers and resources to put on a fundraising event, here are a few tips that can make it memorable and moneymaking!

Make it special: People attend events in search of something a little different. They can walk into any number of restaurants and find something good to eat. At an event, they’re after a different feel. The objective isn’t just to feed attendees; it’s to promote the culture and work of your organization. Personalize it, make it special, and make an emotional connection to your audience, and they’ll remember your event—and your organization—for months or years to come.

Make sure you have enough food: There are few worse things than a food event that runs out of food. You can avoid this disaster with proper planning. Make sure that your caterer or food vendors are absolutely clear on the number of attendees you’re expecting. Keep checking on the RSVPs and ask for caterers to be flexible enough to accommodate extras on the day of the event.

Make sure you have enough servers or serving stations: Nobody likes to see or stand in endless food and beverage lines, even if it’s for a good cause! If your lines are too long, or if folks are not served promptly, that’s what your event will be remembered for.

Make sure you have enough volunteers: For planning, ticket selling and help on the day of the event, you’ll need plenty of volunteer help. If you’re new to recruiting volunteers, keep in mind that putting the right folks in place can take time. If your volunteers will have any access to your clients, will drive your organization’s vehicles, or otherwise put your non profit at any risk, they’ll need to undergo be properly background screening—so be sure to plan ahead for that important step.

Give everyone a job, and train them to do it: Connect with your volunteers well before the event to assign duties. Encourage them to ask questions and if you don’t have the answers, get back to them ASAP. Show them how they can be of the greatest help to you, and what a successful event will look like. Paint a picture of smoothly flowing lines, fast ticket sales, answers to every guest’s question and every problem solved.

If you’re a nonprofit volunteer coordinator, you may be responsible for coming up with volunteer news or other nuggets for your organization’s newsletter. Interesting news that also encourages people to volunteer is even better.

If you could use a few good volunteers, here are a few good reasons to entice them, all related to a healthy, happy life (and who wouldn’t want that?):

• Volunteering is good for your health. Research done by the Mayo Clinic indicates that 40 to 100 hours of volunteering per year can help you feel younger, live longer, and lower your risk of heart disease.
• Volunteering is good for self-confidence and quality of life. Research shows that volunteering creates a “helping high,” which you can feel when your body releases neurotransmitters into your system. It’s also been shown to keep depression at bay.
• New research has just begun, which will study links between volunteering and brain health through the aging process. The project will measure physical and social functioning and how volunteering may enhance older adults’ cognitive functions, such as memory and attention span.
• Baby boomers are going to be reaching age 65 by the millions in the next 30 years. So any research that proves volunteering can keep them healthy and alert longer is good news—especially to this group, which exercises, eats well and will try almost anything to keep from aging too quickly.
• Volunteering two hours per week can give people a new sense of purpose and enhance their social network. Older people, who are at risk of depression as a result of isolation and loneliness, especially need to feel needed and valued.
• Volunteering is a much better way to spend time than being parked in front of a television or on a park bench. It makes people feel like part of something bigger. It encourages camaraderie, team-building and community-building.
• Volunteering can be like a free education. Many volunteers pick up new skills and explore areas they were previously not familiar with. It improves communication and leadership skills, and can even lead to formal education and certification opportunities.

Congratulations! You’ve done a good job of getting the word out that your organization needs volunteers, and you’ve had 20 people submit applications. Now you need to choose one or two for specialized jobs, while the rest will be moved into more general work categories.

But how do you choose the best-fit volunteer for the work you need to do? After all, you don’t know if they’ll fit in or handle the job until they begin. Here are a few ideas to help increase the odds in your favor of picking the volunteer of your dreams!

• When conducting the volunteer interview, remember to keep emotions and feelings out of the process. You’re not interviewing for a new friend. Try to avoid allowing the chemistry between you and the potential volunteer—even if it’s great—be your sole decision-maker. It’s wonderful to get along well with volunteers, but even more important to determine if they have the skills to do a good job.
• Speaking of skills, try to remain open to different sets of skills and new ideas—even if they weren’t what you had in mind for a particular position. You may find you need skills you haven’t identified.
• Consider administering personality quizzes designed to help you place volunteers in the types of positions they’re best suited to. An introvert might not want to approach potential donors during fundraising time, for example. Going through these exercises can help you determine which potential volunteer you should bring in, as well.
• Finally, a thorough background and credit check can help you make a final decision. A volunteer who looks fantastic on paper, but has been convicted of theft, may not be a great fit for your organization—especially if there is money handling involved. And if your organization serves vulnerable populations, you’ll want to be sure to keep them safe by completely screening each potential volunteer. Call references, as well. Ask the potential volunteer to explain any discrepancies between their application and what references say.

Finding the right volunteer is worth the effort—especially when they get right to work for your nonprofit organization!

There are more ways to solicit donations, recruit volunteers and spread the word about your organization than ever before. While non-profit organizations are still holding walk-a-thons and bake sales—although the latter has been in decline, due to food allergies and liability issues—the emergence of social marketing and online networking means it’s far easier to reach much wider audiences.

Online fundraising tools like GlobalGiving and ChipIn make it easy for charities to solicit donations right on their websites. No custom programming needed! Facebook and Twitter allow non-profits to gain followers and friends to help publicize their events and needs in a flash. Facebook even helps with Causes, which allows fundraisers to ask for donations from their friends and contacts. It’s good for finding volunteers, too.

Dozens of other sites have popped up to help non-profits publicize their missions and raise money. But before you jump in the social marketing pool, the first thing to do is ask yourself a couple of questions on behalf of your NPO:

1. How Well do I Know my Organization?
2. How Well can I Communicate my Organization’s Brand?

Before you take advantage of the remarkable tools that now exist for marketing through social media (in other words, social marketing), make sure you’re ready. That means knowing your organization inside and out—and communicating the brand quickly and clearly.

Do you Know Yourself?
You may think no one knows your non-profit better than you. But can you put it into meaningful words? Can you express your best-fit client, your ultimate goal and your organization’s place in your community? What are the strengths of the organization, and where do you need help? What skills are you looking for in volunteers? Knowing your organization backwards and forwards makes it easier to make connections with people who can make a difference to your organization.

Communicating the Brand
Think in terms of what your organization does to change something that’s wrong in the world—that’s the brand. It’s what drives the organization, what makes it different from others—and what would be lost if it didn’t exist. Every person involved must speak about the brand in the same way in order for it to be most effective. A well-written tagline helps.

Once you know the organization and the brand, then set up a Twitter account, write blog posts, share them on Facebook and send targeted emails. Social marketing is all about educating your volunteers, fans, supporters and followers about what you’re doing and how they can help you affect change.

Now is a great time for recruiting top-quality volunteers. With the employment picture (unfortunately) remaining less than rosy, management-level talent is finding its way to more nonprofit organizations (NPOs) than ever before.

Whether you find yourself as a volunteer manager trying to tap into these new volunteers’ developed skills, or helping other volunteers develop their leadership skills, you’ll probably find a core leadership group can be quite an asset to your organization, with growth and sustainability not far behind.

How to Identify Potential Leaders
Analyzing volunteers as they work, as well as their skill set coming in, is the best way to determine if they’ll make a good leader. Make sure your volunteer application is set up to gather information like work experience, education level, areas of expertise, specific skills and areas of interest. Also, the application should give potential volunteers the opportunity to express themselves by asking open-ended questions. This way, you can judge communication skills.

What Qualities Do Leaders Possess?
Reliability: Volunteers who show up when they say they will, on time and ready to work their tasks, are potentially the dependable type of leader you want. Other volunteers will not follow a leader who they cannot depend on.

Natural Leadership: Watch your volunteers to see who exhibits natural leadership qualities. Teaching others, listening well, performing duties without much supervision, and a positive outlook are all traits that leaders possess.

Team Players: Leaders are seldom the loner type. They enjoy being around people, and others are naturally drawn to them. Often, leaders have groups that tend to gather around them at every event. If you have a volunteer like this, you’d better take advantage of their charisma and ability to attract more people to their cause!

After you Identify a Leader
Conduct an informal interview with all volunteers who posses the leadership skills you want. Ask how they see themselves contributing and growing with your organization. Identify the leadership qualities you see, and ask if they are willing to take on a leadership position. Have the new job description ready to clearly communicate expectations. You might be surprised to see how enthusiastic your new team leaders are!

Follow Up
Give your new leaders plenty of time to become accustomed to their advanced duties. Don’t pile on too much at once. And follow up often to see how they’re doing, what questions they have, and what assistance they need. If it’s not going as well as expected, cut back on their responsibilities and see how they handle a reduced workload.

When it comes to advancing volunteers to leadership positions, easy does it. You don’t want to scare anyone away, but rather bring them closer to help achieve your organizational goals.

Last week’s Volunteering in America report showed an increase of 1.6 million in volunteers serving in 2009 versus 2008. Managing all these volunteers—new and old—is the job of a volunteer manager or volunteer coordinator.

During the economic downturn, non profit organizations (NPOs) all over the U.S. have had no choice other than cutting staff to stay viable; many volunteer managers and volunteer coordinators have seen their positions eliminated.

Since volunteering is increasing, it makes sense that a position to recruit, train, and retain the right volunteers would be a high-priority position at most NPOs.

What does it take to be a successful volunteer manager?
Planning: Assessing the needs of the organization and the numbers and types of volunteer positions needed to meet those needs is key.

Goal Setting: Often, state and federal mandates must be met to receive funding. Setting goals for volunteers and comparing to actual outcomes is often the only way to keep funds coming in.

Defining Roles: Volunteers need to know why they are there, what is expected from them, and how they’ll know when they’ve been successful. Volunteer coordinators determine what work needs to be done, and ensure a safe, qualified volunteer is in each position.

Acting as liaison between staff and volunteers: This is a tricky and important task. Volunteer managers work with paid staff to encourage their support of volunteers, make sure communication is clear, and that toes aren’t stepped on.

Recruiting: Finding volunteers can be an endless job, depending on the size of the organization. Good volunteer coordinators always have their eyes and ears open for “new blood” to replace volunteers who quit, move, or want short-term commitments. Creative thinking is a big part of successful recruiting.

Volunteer Screening: It’s vital to have one knowledgeable person in place who can ensure the safety of clients, staff and other volunteers by screening volunteers’ backgrounds.

Placing: Matching the right volunteer to each position is vital to keeping him or her happy, productive, and retained.

Following Up: Constant check-in with individuals who’ve shown interest in volunteering but haven’t signed up, current volunteers, and former volunteers is a big part of successful volunteer management—and it takes time.

All of these factors point to the need in most NPOs for a dedicated volunteer manager or volunteer coordinator. Especially when times are tough, a volunteer manager saves an organization time and money by helping things run more smoothly with fewer paid staff.