Volunteer Managers wear at least twenty hats and probably more. Among your many roles, you are human resource specialists, marketers, facilitators, systems experts, and data analysts. That’s a broad list of skills to master, and we receive little formal training to bring us up to speed.
This blog is my contribution to the skill-building piece. If you search through these pages, you will find over 150 posts covering practices in just about every area of volunteer engagement. Here’s to doing your important work with more confidence and ease.
Note: 2021 is a special year, with all of the blog posts authored by practicing volunteer managers. Enjoy hearing directly from your peers!
Why you’re a relationship-builder first and a volunteer manager second
Don't drop your specialization. Just shift your focus. I’m thinking of offering a new workshop. This one would be directed towards nonprofits leaders rather than volunteer managers. It would be called “Deconstructing Engagement.” In this workshop, we would take away...
Guest Post: The Power of “Yes”
Here's what happens when a Leader of Volunteers accepts all offers of support. In August 2020, I joined many of my peers having to scramble to find a new job thanks to the pandemic. I wanted to stay in the same field, and I needed to be part of a mission I could...
Guest Post: Stories of Volunteer Managers, Technology, and the Pandemic
“None of us were ready for this. So I think, in many ways, for as often as everybody complains about technology and all the challenges, I think this past year could have gone very differently if we didn't have these platforms.” — Volunteer manager embracing...
Guest Post: Things to consider before engaging in corporate employee volunteerism
What's more important than engaging more corporate volunteer groups? Ensuring that their goals align with yours. It’s tempting to hastily say “yes” when employees from a reputable company inquire about volunteering. The excitement in some cases may even override one’s...
Guest Post: What Good Could Come After a No?
At home or at the office, you can transform a "no" decision to a "yes" by following this advice. Cicadas. It was 2020, and I was already getting nervous about the every 17-year invasion of cicadas these nasty insects, due in the Washington, DC area in 2021. I was more...
Guest Post: Transcending the middle with a metrics mindset
Measuring volunteer impact benefits more that your program: it empowers YOU The life of a volunteer manager can feel lonely. We have a primary purpose in our organization—the subject matter expert, you might say. This purpose often means we are the only ones in charge...