What are your thoughts on volunteer roles which are there to lead / supervise / support groups of other volunteers, therefore allowing an organisation to engage more volunteers?
Asked by Janice Malone
Great question Janice, thanks.
Let me give four answers.
First, I think Volunteer Engagement Professionals should involve volunteers in our work leading and managing effective volunteer engagement. We would have a serious credibility problem if we tell everyone else why they should work with volunteers if we don’t practice what we preach.
This can be especially true when there may be concerns around job substitution. If paid staff colleagues are nervous about volunteers taking their jobs, we can show that by having volunteers working alongside us we can get more done without having our own jobs taken over by volunteers.
Second, as with all volunteering, if we can get the right people with the right skills / experience / abilities / talents etc. into the right role, then there is absolutely no reason why volunteers cannot do a brilliant job of managing other volunteers. After all, for nonprofits, a volunteer (the board chair) manages the Chief Executive, so why can’t volunteers play a management role elsewhere in the organisation?
Third, if we do engage volunteers in these leadership and management roles, we need to recognise that we are probably not looking at one person to lead / supervise / support groups of other volunteers.
Most of us will appreciate that being an effective Volunteer Manager is a (more than) full-time role. We can’t, therefore, expect volunteers to take on a full-time role working alongside us. So, we might need to look at teams of leadership volunteers, for example, a recruitment team, a screening team, an onboarding team etc. This is something Susan J Ellis and Katherine Noyes Campbell make the case for in their excellent book, “The (Help!) I-Don't-Have-Enough-Time Guide to Volunteer Management”.
Finally, there can be real advantages to deploying volunteers into such roles. Here are three:
‘Regular’ volunteers may feel more open about telling leadership volunteers what’s going well, what’s not working, what could be better etc. than they would be telling a paid Volunteer Manager. That is valuable feedback we can use to give an even better volunteer experience.
Having such leadership roles gives opportunities for ‘career’ progression for volunteers that want to do more, or take on extra responsibility.
A team of volunteers working with a Volunteer Manager can have more time available to them to get to know all the volunteers in a deeper way than just one paid Volunteer Manager can have. For example, one paid Volunteer Manager can’t possibly know all 200 volunteers they are responsible for well enough to produce a personalised thank you in Volunteers’ Week. But, if they have a team of ten volunteers working with them, those ten can all get to know twenty volunteers each, making for a more personalised experience and thank you when the time rolls around.
I hope that’s helpful.
Now it’s over to you.
How would you answer Janice’s question?
Leave a comment with your ideas and don’t forget to ask your own question by emailing Rob now — rob@robjacksonconsulting.com, with the subject line “Ask Rob Anything“
Such a topical question and a conversation I've already had twice this week with different colleagues! At Marie Curie UK, we have this to an extent through Chairs of fundraising groups but is something we're keen to explore so would love to hear what others are doing - we recently contributed to some research re lead volunteer roles in fundraising and looking forward to hearing those results.
Having worked in organisations that engaged volunteers either with specific skills and/or qualifications or trained them for key roles, the volunteer leadership framework was imperative and worked very well. Some staff could feel threatened by volunteers more skilled and experienced than they were and for example some refused to be trained or led by a volunteer. As the Head of Volunteering I emphasised that without the volunteers the o organisation couldn’t deliver its aims without the volunteers in all the roles and was in awe of the things the volunteers did, especially in emergency situations. Also admire how creative they can be E.g. fundraising, using technology, marketing etc. What would you rather have -a manager with little experience and knowledge ( apart from being a manager in the particular organisation) or a volunteer who was qualified, skilled, knowledgeable and experienced?
The volunteers have respected my role, the authority to make key decisions and understood the boundaries and limits of what they could do. In some cases more than staff colleagues! I was lucky enough to work with fantastic volunteers over my 40 + year career, many of whom led, co-ordinated, recruited, trained and supported other volunteers (many in groups/teams) in many roles across the country. One of the things I’ve always loved about managing volunteers is the freedom to create new roles, creating pathways for development, progression and embracing new opportunities E.g. during the pandemic all the changes, online/Zoom/virtual/digital champions and learning new things along the way. Volunteers rock! And good, passionate VMs facilitate it all for them 😁