Why does one volunteer coordinator excel at leading teams while others struggle with it? While some people come by their leadership abilities naturally, it is a skill that can be learned; however, just like learning the piano, it takes regular practice.

Leadership Tips for Volunteer Managers

1. Get people excited about your mission: If you’re not enthusiastic about what your organization is doing, how can you expect your volunteers to be? The moment your drive lags a bit, someone will be affected by it—so do what you have to do to stay motivated.
2. Tap into volunteers’ needs: Find out why each person is there. For one volunteer, it might be to find a community. Others are fulfilling a spiritual mandate to give back. Still others are motivated by being needed. When you get to know your volunteers and their reasons for doing it, you’ll be better able to meet their needs.
3. Show you care: This is related to number two. While every volunteer might have a different reason for doing it, they all have one common need: to feel like someone cares. Showing an interest in your volunteers’ family and personal lives—without prying or becoming too familiar—is important. Remember that each individual will have a different comfort level regarding sharing personal information, so proceed carefully.
4. Show appreciation: Another common need among volunteers: to feel appreciated. When volunteers start feeling that the only thing you care about is that they show up to work, trouble can begin. If you start seeing negativity or bad attitudes in your formerly happy volunteers, ask yourself how long it has been since you’ve shown appreciation for their service.
5. Don’t waste their time: Find specific tasks or jobs that fit each volunteer’s interests and talents. This can be difficult, but it’s important to keep them productive and feeling that their time served was not wasted.

Keeping volunteers engaged is an importnat aspect of managing them—and it takes leadership skills to do it successfully. If you’re struggling with leading volunteers, these tips are easy to implement. Try all five and see how quickly your relationship with your organization’s volunteers improve.

If folks start making good on their New Years’ resolutions, your phone could start ringing with new volunteers looking for opportunities to help your nonprofit in 2011.

Volunteer managers know that, it’s most important to interview prospective volunteers, and then run background checks to ensure you don’t bring anyone with a criminal past into contact with employees, clients or other volunteers.

What’s next? Training.
Proper training can make the difference between volunteers who enjoy their service and stick around and those who stop showing up after a couple of days.

When conducting volunteer training, remember to start with the paperwork—yours! You’ll need to plan before implementing any type of training program, so take out your laptop, notepad, or tablet computer and develop a plan using these tips:

1. Develop goals or expectations for each volunteer role. This will help you fit the right person with the right job.
2. Find out what your volunteers need from you. Listen carefully and incorporate their wishes into their role. Also, ask your volunteers about their motivations. Some may just want to keep busy, while others feel a desire to give back to others. Still others might want the interaction of seeing and talking with people during the day. If a volunteer just wants to help and stay behind the scenes, you’ll want to find tasks that accomplish that goal. For an extrovert who loves interacting with people, try to avoid assigning tasks like filing or mopping floors.
3. Be sure to incorporate information about your nonprofit organization into your training plan. Don’t assume the volunteers know the mission, purpose and funding source of the organization. Share with them as much information as you can, so they can spread the word about the good your NPO does in the community.
4. Use the buddy system to teach new volunteers exactly how they should do their jobs. Pair them with a staff member or current volunteer, but don’t let them start their new job until you’ve supervised and approved them to begin. Remember, some volunteers will need more training than others.

According to recent studies, customers really respond when companies are involved in helping their communities, with a direct result to revenues. In this economy, with social funding being cut out of state and federal budgets, volunteers are more vital than ever to thousands of non-profit organizations nationwide.

Here are 10 benefits of implementing a corporate volunteer program:

1. Employee volunteer programs allow corporations to develop more personal relationships in their communities, by sharing their human resources with non-profit organizations in need.
2. According to a 2003 study called Good Companies, Better Employees, employees that participate in company-sponsored volunteer programs think more highly of their employers, with 63% calling it a great place to work compared to other companies.
3. The same study reveals that 67% of employees who participate in volunteer programs are fairly or very satisfied with their jobs.
4. These employee/volunteers also speak more highly of their employers to others, with 54% saying nice things vs. 49% of non-volunteers.
5. Volunteer activities strengthen work teams, build employee skills and contribute to professional development.
6. Employers see higher retention rates for employees who participate in volunteer activities. In addition, they are more likely to pursue promotion and development opportunities after volunteering.
7. Employers can enjoy a higher level of workforce skills when employees volunteer. A 1998 study showed competency improved 14 to 17 percent as a direct result of volunteering.
8. 51% of employees surveyed in 2007 said they believe an employee volunteer program is the greatest contribution a company can make to a non-profit organization. In contrast, only 37% named financial donations and 8% mentioned product donations as the greatest contribution.
9. Corporate-sponsored volunteer events raise visibility in the community. Businesses benefit from positive perceptions and free publicity. Good-news stories about employee volunteers often generate greater media coverage, too.
10. Employee volunteer programs help attract new employees. 62% of 18- to 26-year olds said in the 2007 study that they prefer to work for companies that provide opportunities for them to apply their skills to a non-profit organization’s benefit.

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.

Volunteers are just like any other staff member that comes into your nonprofit organization. They are usually unknown, unpredictable and will do the unexpected while working for your NPO. It’s important to know as much as you can about each volunteer before they can cause harm and it’s vital to the safety and strength of the organization to use the same background screening procedures you use for employees.

Why is it Important to Screen Volunteers?
To Protect the People You Serve: This is the most important reason to screen volunteers—to keep dangerous people away from your clients. Adults who work with kids or teens, elderly caregivers and home visitation volunteers should always undergo background screening.

To Limit Liability: If your NPO serves the public, the entire organization is at risk whenever and wherever a volunteer is placed—especially with at-risk populations such as children or the elderly. If harm is done to a member of the public, the NPO could be held liable for a volunteer’s behavior. Thorough background screening will weed out volunteers with arrests or other criminal activities in their pasts.

Because it Could be Mandatory: Nonprofits that depend on federal and state funding are usually required to perform background screening on employees and volunteers.

To Protect the Organization’s Reputation: Volunteer screening allows a nonprofit to enjoy a good reputation in the community, which can lead to more support. Having a “loosey-goosey” approach to placing volunteers can harm an NPO’s standing in the community.

To Discourage Predators: Often, just knowing your organization conducts background screening will be enough to keep away volunteers who might be seeking inappropriate contact with children. Conversely, a no-screening policy could look like an open invitation to offenders and predators to come right in and start working with vulnerable populations.
Volunteer managers and nonprofit organizations are vulnerable to financial loss and inappropriate or dangerous behavior of volunteers. Criminal background screening on all volunteers can protect your organization, staff, and clientele from harm.

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!

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.

Our previous volunteer retention post touched on an important aspect of keeping volunteers happy and productive—give them recognition and appreciation more often.

If you’re like many volunteer managers, you are always searching for creative—and inexpensive—new ways to recognize your volunteers. Whether you’re tiring of the standard “thank-you” banquet, or you just need some quick and easy ways to demonstrate your appreciation, here are several ideas that might just work for you!

Go beyond doughnuts: Sure, picking up doughnuts or bagels on your way into the office is pretty easy—and it’s always welcomed by staff and volunteers, right? Well, considering how many of them could be on gluten-free, sugar-free or weight-loss diets, maybe not. As an alternative, try stopping by your grocery store’s salad bar, and create a nice platter of fresh fruit and vegetables. Most everyone loves strawberries in spring and melon in summer, and it’s a healthy, sweet treat that won’t break anyone’s dietary restrictions. And they’ll know you appreciate them, too!

Give a book: As an alternative to plaques, why not give a gift that will be used and enjoyed, rather than gathering dust? A book that mirrors your nonprofit organization’s mission, interest, or purpose will bring even more meaning. Here are a few suggestions:

• Historical organizations:   America’s Historic Places
• Animal Welfare:    The Art of Racing in the Rain
• Social Services:    The Women of Hull House
• Volunteering in general:    Chicken Soup for the Volunteer’s Soul
• Education:    Three Cups of Tea

Keep it Relaxed: Instead of a formal affair at an expensive venue, throw a casual volunteer thank-you party at your house—or one of your board member’s homes. Fire up the Bar-b-Que, order a simple meal from a wonderful caterer, or prepare some homemade soups and breads. If you have a specialty dish you can prepare, even better—the personal touch and effort will not go unnoticed by your volunteers. Just give everyone the opportunity to relax and socialize in an informal setting.

Who needs sun? Bring a day of sunshine to the office in the middle of winter. Party stores usually stock beach-theme favors, so pick up a bunch of sand pails and fill them with goodies. Inexpensive sunglasses, bottles of bubbles, Frisbees, and water squirters, plus an ice cream sundae bar are sure to bring out the kid in all your volunteers.

And in addition to these great ideas, here’s another—and it’s the most effective, least expensive one: be sure to say “thank you” often and loudly to each and every volunteer.