Volunteer Screening Blog

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.

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.

Non-profit executive Nancy March found herself playing the role of volunteer coordinator as staffing cuts made her volunteer manager a thing of the past. “I need easy ideas to help me more effectively manage both the non-profit and its volunteers,” she said recently.

Here’s what volunteer coordinators know about keeping volunteers motivated and clients happy:

How you say it is more important than what you say. It’s all in the delivery. Communicating critiques or instructions well requires knowing how, when and where to do it. Especially when it comes to handing out necessary criticism to volunteers—who don’t have to be there—it’s important to gauge the person’s feelings before you start. If you need to correct a volunteer who’s failing at a task, make sure she’s not having a bad day already. Ask how she’s doing and listen closely. You may need to wait until another day.

Offer compliments more than criticisms. Catch volunteers doing something right—and offer immediate praise. Keep track of how often you do it. Karen Awashka, a volunteer coordinator in Madison, WI, starts her day with six dimes in her pocket. Her goal? To transfer each of them to the other pocket before the day is over. Each time she compliments a volunteer with “you’re such a help to our organization,” or “I really appreciate the way you reorganized the bookcase,” she transfers a dime. Why dimes? “Because they’re small, light and they don’t clang together too much,” said Karen. The idea is to find a way to remember to balance criticisms with compliments.

Lead by example. Don’t put off tasks onto others that you can do yourself. Don’t compromise on quality of service delivery or on the brand promise of your organization. When volunteers see leaders digging in and working hard alongside them, they are reminded they are part of an important team.

Ask for feedback. Lauren Bailey, volunteer manager for a youth services organization, suggests asking volunteers what three things could be improved in the organization. “I try to ask each volunteer this question at least once per quarter,” she adds. “It gives them a sense of ownership that we are all looking for solutions to our common problems. And they have great ideas!”

According to the report Volunteering in America, 4.4 million teenagers, ages 16 – 19, volunteered across the country in 2009. They gave nearly 390 million hours of service, mostly to education and youth service organizations.

That number totals 26 percent of all people in their age group—which is just slightly lower than the percentage of Americans overall (26.8%) who volunteer. 26% is great—but it’s down from a few years back, when over 30% of all teenagers volunteered some time in their communities. They raised funds, provided general labor, collected and distributed food, and mentored youth.

If you manage volunteers for a non-profit organization and need help, perhaps you should focus your efforts on the teens in your community, who may not know about your organization, its mission and its needs.

1. Boost your social networking presence: Kids receive information through new ways—the internet and social networking, not phone books and newspapers. If your NPO does not have a well-designed and updated website, and isn’t on Facebook, you could be turning off a wide audience—including teens.
2. Ask. Teens are much more likely to volunteer if they are just asked to do it.
3. Ask some more. Ask for referrals. If you already have young volunteers, ask them to recruit their friends. A text from a friend is all many teens will need to jump on board. Ask older volunteers to mention the need to their young family members or neighbors. Ask everyone you see if they know a teen who would like to volunteer.
4. Contact schools, youth groups and scouting organizations. Many are looking for places their kids can volunteer. They just need to know where kids are needed!
5. Contact the National Home Education Network to reach homeschooling families.

When young people volunteer, everyone benefits. It’s a big confidence booster for them, and with the fresh ideas kids bring, it could even change the direction of your organization.

Every non profit organization (NPO) needs a volunteer strategy. Whether it’s for recruiting board members or office helpers, a plan is essential to finding, retaining, and training volunteers. And, it can make the volunteer manager or executive director’s job much easier!

Why should NPOs have a volunteer strategy?

Volunteer strategies allow volunteer programs to run more smoothly. Planning is the first step to any successful endeavor. If your NPO is embarking on a volunteer program without a plan, it could fail, putting the entire organization further behind on its goals.

• They make recruiting volunteers much easier. A volunteer strategy should identify the best-fit volunteers for the organization, including demographic information (age, gender, occupation, residence, etc.), level of involvement and needed skills. Once the various groups of potential volunteers are identified, it is much easier to find them, reach them, and recruit them.
• To help focus orientation and training efforts: A well-trained volunteer is a better volunteer. Defining roles, supplying job descriptions, and identifying staff or volunteer trainers is essential to properly orienting and training volunteers. How can training be accomplished correctly—and replicated—without planning?
• To keep volunteers engaged and help avoid burnout. Another important aspect to volunteer strategy is retention. It’s usually not a good idea to recruit volunteers and then ignore them. Keeping them interested in the mission of the NPO, demonstrating appreciation, and soliciting their feedback are all vital pieces to the retention puzzle. And there are many more—which should be explored when creating a volunteer strategy.
• To enable NPOs to develop leaders out of volunteers. If an NPO’s executive or volunteer director is not focused on the volunteer strategy, there is a huge potential for loss, both in the simple numbers of volunteers (who are not being successfully retained) and in the loss of potential leadership. When a strategy has been established, everyone is more focused. Seeing the leadership qualities in volunteers becomes an everyday thing. And those who could help take the NPO closer to its goals will not fall by the wayside, unnoticed and underappreciated.

Every businessperson knows the importance of planning for the future and strategizing on how to get there. The non profit sector can take this page out of the business playbook and use it to successfully run volunteer programs!

Nonprofit volunteer managers are sometimes inundated with offers from corporations—especially around volunteer “holidays” like The National Day of Service and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. While no NPOs we know would turn down volunteers who are willing and qualified to help, sometimes too much of a good thing can make for headaches.

Every volunteer manager has had unusual requests from corporations. From custom-designing a volunteer opportunity just for them, to dictating who will show up and when, and what their employees will and will not do, companies can be “overeager” with their requests.

Some companies want only group activities—are they working on their team-building? What if you have more tasks that require only one person or two-people teams to complete?

Other companies want opportunities that will teach their employees a skill, or enhance their existing skills. What if your needs do not match this desire?

NPO managers are not required to satisfy their corporate volunteer programs’ needs. NPOs do not have to invest tasks and projects to meet their requirements. If you have work that matches what a company wants for their employee volunteers, then great. Let them go get it done! If not, offer an alternative.

You’re in charge—there’s no need to fill someone’s made-to-order volunteer desires. Ask for their help in getting your goals met. Offer alternatives that might make both sides happy. Break up large projects into smaller ones that can work over a longer term. Alternatively, group smaller projects into a work day that a corporate team can attend together.

Finding ways to fulfill both sides’ needs is important when corporate volunteer programs come calling. NPOs can’t alienate supporters, but they also shouldn’t let them dictate the terms of engagement.

Pre-screening volunteers is vital to the safety of non profit organizations’ (NPOs) finances, clients, staff, and volunteer base. How can NPOs make screening volunteers a regular practice?  It’s simple: think like a for-profit company, and “hire” your volunteers as if you were hiring a paid employee.

First, write a job description for each volunteer position. Clarifying expectations and duties is highly beneficial for both the organization and volunteers.

Don’t hesitate to let potential volunteers know that the organization requires volunteer screening, and to what extent. Send a clear signal to clients, supporters, volunteers, and the community that you are serious about safety and professionalism.

If you don’t already, create a volunteer application, along with an authorization to conduct background screening. Have the potential volunteer sign and date both.

Interview volunteers. Formal interviews will increase the quality of your volunteers, enable you to place them in the ideal position, and determine if the NPO and volunteer are a good fit for each other.

Ask for—and follow up on—references. Just as when hiring an employee, you can learn a great deal—good or bad—about an applicant’s character, work habits, and personality by speaking to their references.

Once the volunteer has passed all of these steps, submit their information to a qualified, professional background screening service provider.

After the volunteer comes aboard, institute a probationary time, when both you and the volunteer observe and learn about each other. Provide adequate training on duties, expectations, policies, and procedures. Help your volunteers succeed!

Conduct feedback sessions. Just as you would do performance checks with employees, check in with volunteers to see how they are doing, what they need to perform their job well, and what suggestions they have.

Recruiting volunteers is like hiring employees. Do your homework and proceed with caution prior to bringing them on. Then show them appreciation and give constructive advice, and they will thrive in your organization.

The top ten rated U.S. cites for volunteering are: Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN; Portland, OR; Salt Lake City, UT; Seattle, WA; Kansas City, MO; Columbus, OH; Oklahoma City, OK; Hartford, CT; Denver, CO; and Washington, DC.

Numbers range from 38.4% of all residents volunteering in Minneapolis-St. Paul (908,900 volunteers) to 30.9% of residents (1.3 million volunteers) in Washington.

The top ten rated US states for volunteering are: Utah, Nebraska, Minnesota, Alaska, Iowa, Montana, South Dakota, Kansas, Vermont, and North Dakota.

Here’s how the state numbers break down: from Utah, with an average annual volunteer rate of 43.5% and 817,200 volunteers to North Dakota, with an average volunteer rate of 35% and 174,800 volunteers.

The top activities performed by volunteers were fundraising, collecting and distributing food, general labor, tutoring and teaching, mentoring youth, and management.

The bottom five states? Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, Nevada, and New York. Their numbers range from 20.9% to 18.7% of their residents volunteering.

National trends show 60.8 million volunteers, for a rate of 26.2%. The total number of hours volunteered is estimated at 8.1 billion. The places with the highest number of volunteers are religious organizations (35.7%) and educational or youth service organizations (26.7%).

As the economy continues its climb out of recession, volunteers will continue to serve a vital role in the work and success of U.S. non profit organizations.

Source: Volunteering In America

Volunteering appears to prove the saying, “’tis better to give than to receive.” While most volunteers’ intentions are solely to help others, researchers say that the benefits to the volunteers are also numerous.

Studies indicate a high correlation between health and volunteering. Volunteers have lower mortality rates, greater functional ability and lower rates of late-life depression than individuals who do not volunteer.

Older volunteers seem to receive the most benefit, likely because they are more likely to suffer health problems in the first place. Volunteering provides physical and social activity, as well as a sense of purpose. This is imperative to seniors, because those aspects of their lives tend to wane as we age. And the more one volunteers, the higher the level of benefit!

This is important to non profit managers and volunteer recruiters because the Baby Boomer generation is now reaching retirement age. This group is all about staying healthy and living a full life. So, advertising the fact that volunteering has numerous benefits could help in recruiting volunteers—especially in the Baby Boomer group.

The study even showed that chronic pain sufferers experienced lower levels of pain and depression when they began to serve as peer volunteers for other chronic pain sufferers.

Better health leads to higher rates of volunteerism; volunteering leads to better health. The cycle continues and sustains itself—good news for non profit organizations that need volunteers!

The study also indicates that the benefits of volunteering do not start to kick in until a threshold of one to two hours per week is reached. So, tout the health benefits of volunteering in your outreach efforts—and be ready for your phone to start ringing!

Tap into a group you might not have considered for volunteers: kids! Many parents and guardians are encouraging their children to volunteer during their downtime. More and more high schools require volunteer projects to graduate. Community giving days and National Volunteer Week focus attention on nonprofits. Is yours ready to take advantage of the increase in younger volunteers?

Nearly any charity can use the skills and time of young people. Certainly, if your nonprofit’s mission is driving seniors to appointments or delivering furniture to the needy, you won’t naturally think of using kids to perform your routine tasks. But thinking outside the box can spur ideas to involve kids. And the more ways you find to teach kids to give of themselves, the more ways your nonprofit can benefit.

What are some ways younger people can help? Basic tasks are best for the smallest children. Older kids can take on more responsibility. Here are a few ideas:

Sorting: most kids can handle sorting at an early age. Do you have donations from a clothing or coat drive sitting in piles? Ask kids to group them in whatever way you need: size, season, gender. Look around your offices and warehouse areas to see what needs organizaing, and have a kid sort it out for you.

Boxing: Kids can handle boxing up food from a food drive, supplies for the homeless shelter, or even stacks of paperwork for year-end storage.

Light cleaning: Put a broom in a child’s hand and let him or her go to it. Have a youngster clean the glass door to your facility. Hand a kid a dust cloth and ask them to wipe down the common areas of your office. Keep things safe: no lifting, ladders, or use of chemical cleaners. Kids might not do as thorough a job as you would like—but the idea is to encourage them to give of their time and use up some energy.

Serving clients: kids can bring smiles to your clientele and other volunteers, just by offering to help. Older kids can help serve meals; baking cookies is a great way to involve the little ones.

Reading: if your charity serves youth, perhaps you can arrange for older kids to read to groups of your kids. Conversely, older folks enjoy visits and reading from kids, too.

Everyone benefits when young people catch the volunteer bug. And just knowing they’ve helped out can be a huge boost to a kid’s confidence. You never know how many lives you can change by reaching out to younger volunteers!