Volunteers: Love ’em or lose ’em

/in /by

hands in a circle palms upFive hands palms upLike death and taxes, volunteers and fundraising are among life’s inseparables.

Unfortunately, I’ve seen too many development shops flounder because they’ve recruited the wrong volunteers and spend too much time catering to their needs, following up on their half-baked ideas or generating mountains of reports that they will never. Or they’ve recruited the right volunteers and haven’t given them good direction, sending them to their own devices, which leads to the same outcome as recruiting a bad volunteer.

Here are some development volunteer Do’s and Don’ts to consider:

 

  1. Don’t ask them to serve on a fundraising committee. This all but guarantees you will recruit the wrong ones. Good volunteers are too busy to serve on committees and bad volunteers are drawn to the idea of showing up for a free lunch every month and offering their opinions and advice. Sharpen your ask on what you want them to DO, not where you want them to BE. If being part of a committee is a absolutely necessary, just don’t lead with it.
  2. Do ask them to help with a task. If you want your volunteers to help you make connections in the community and bring others into your fold, then make that crystal clear when you recruit them. And don’t leave it there; work with them on a plan to identify exactly who you’d like them to recruit and how. Show them a list of folks you’d like to get closer with. If they don’t know anyone on your list and can’t come up with anyone on their own, then don’t recruit them.
  3. Don’t ask them to ask for money. Asking a volunteer to raise money is like asking a bus driver to fly a fighter jet. Sure, it sounds interesting in the moment, but will said bus driver actually ever climb into the cockpit? Heck no! Even if you know that one-in-a-million volunteer who is actually good at asking for money, bring them on in a more general way, and gradually let them work up to that task. Experience has taught me that asking most volunteers to raise money will just scare them away or, worse, they’ll be too scared to tell you they’re scared and will never follow through.
  4. Do ask them to host a party. A volunteer willing to open her or his house to a gathering on behalf of your nonprofit is a great use of effort, time and expense. In fact, ask two volunteers to team up and do it together. I have attended quite a few house parties in my career, and I can scarcely think of one that didn’t go well. One that is well planned, executed and features your mission and leadership is a win-win all around.
  5. Don’t take them for granted. The focus of this piece is how to avoid recruiting bad volunteers, but most nonprofits are blessed with a solid core of top-notch volunteers who have great follow-through, positive energy and do what they say they’re going to do. All too often I’ve seen them taken for granted while we put our focus on the squeaky-wheel volunteers or try to recruit others. Make it a point to do something nice each year for your tried and true.