Volunteering - Pet Conference St. Louis

Increasing Your Use of Volunteers Step-by-step tips and tools.

Create structure and supervision for a successful volunteer program & build it one step at a time. “ Establish a budget for the volunteer program that reflects the real costs associated with its operation.. … including items such as copying and printing, advertising, events, recognition and appreciation, technology tools like databases or websites for recruiting, and ongoing training for the volunteer manager. The return on investment in terms of hours of service and quality of care for the animals, as well as the benefits to the public, will be well worth the effort, and most volunteer programs really can be run on a relatively small budget.” – Megan Webb Community outreach program director Oakland Animal Services, California

What are your needs?
Involve your group’s current staff/officers
Select a Volunteer Manager or Coordinator
Write volunteer job descriptions
Multi-level approach to volunteer training and positions
Separation from staff/officers roles and volunteer roles
Set budget

Screening & Expectations
Interview volunteers, choose those that are the best fit
Explain minimum time commitments & scheduling
Provide volunteer ‘job’ descriptions to match skills to positions
Ask volunteers complete Skills Checklist of knowledge & physical requirements Sample checklist chart at animalsheltering.org/volunteer_skills

Orientation
introduce staff, current volunteers
review your programs, policies/rules, history, mission, and goals
distribute volunteer handbook – can be projected and then emailed to avoid printing costs
give a tour
*This can all be done online for online volunteers too!

Training
Schedule specific or group training sessions
Cover the 3 types of learners: hear, read, hands-on
AFTER training, volunteers are given their assignments – not all volunteers will be matched for there area of interest
Necessary liability releases
Volunteers under 18?

Communication
Keep volunteers informed
Volunteer Manager should have available voicemail and email
Positive word of mouth will expand all your programs
Encourage volunteer feedback for ideas, growth & change

Top Level Volunteers
How many people can 1 person manage - 10? 20?
Create a Top Level team of your experienced, people-oriented volunteers
Invite them to lead & organize volunteer training, orientations, events

Recognition
Recognize and reward good volunteers
If you can’t afford to buy your regular volunteers t-shirts, offer logo/volunteer-branded t-shirts for volunteers to purchase through Zazzle.com or Cafepress.com
Keep it simple – a handwritten note, a handshake, a personal thank you email
Contact volunteers that don’t show up for a shift

Using the . Volunteer Tool Connect with local volunteers who’ve registered to help you

Adopt-a-Pet.com Volunteer Tool

Search 1

Search 2

V search results

Mouse over volunteer name

Top of volnteer detail

Bottom of volunteer detail

Three National Animal Welfare Volunteer Studies
#1
by Steven G. Rogelberg, PhD, Univ of North Carolina Charlotte & Betsy McFarland, HSUS
- Surveyed 270 animal welfare employees
- 80.6% worked 30 hours a week or more (i.e. fulltime employees).

Q: What practices do you think are important for creating positive experiences with and retaining volunteers?

Study #2: Stickiness (volunteer retention practices)
By Adrian Goh and Steven Rogelberg
Surveyed 72 Volunteer Managers
Surveyed 4139 volunteers
On average, the surveyed shelters had
226 Volunteers
27 Full time employees
7 Part time employees

19 Stickiness Practices
1. Provides volunteers with the tools and supplies needed to do their volunteer service. (70.4%)
2. Allows volunteers to use services provided by the organization for free or at a highly discounted rate. (33.8%)
3. Has defined policies for dealing with conflict and concerns between staff and volunteers (e.g. writing up staff and volunteers for inappropriate behavior). (21.1%)
4. Provides an anonymous way (e.g., suggestion/concern box) of addressing problems that volunteers are too uncomfortable to bring to the attention of staff directly. (18.3%)
5. Organization has calendars showing staff when they will have volunteers in their area. (35.2%)

6. Organization formally advertises a need for volunteers to the general public (e.g. flyers, ads in the paper, etc.). (56.3%)
7. Impromptu orientations (i.e. tour of the organization and brief discussion of essential policies) for volunteers who are eager to start volunteering before the formal orientation meeting. (39.4%)
8. A regularly updated calendar that volunteers can access so they know when they are needed and can sign up for those times. (42.9%)
9. Contact volunteers when they do not make their scheduled volunteer appointment. (27.1%)

10. Supervisors identify specific volunteer job assignments that can be completed in 2-3 hour blocks of time. (38.6%)
11. Regularly meet with employees to encourage them to thank volunteers for good work. (24.3%)
12. Regularly survey volunteers on level of satisfaction, quality of experiences, desire to continue volunteering, level of stress related to volunteering. (12.7%)
13. Regularly survey employees concerning their relationships with volunteers, the volunteer program, and related issues. (13.2%)
14. Formal interviews before accepting potential volunteers. (18.3%)
15. Social events for volunteers to reward their efforts. (63.4%)

Thank you! Jennifer Warner Director of Shelter Outreach [email_address] RESOURCES and VIRTUAL HELP Service Leader (Virtual Volunteering Guide Book): http://www.serviceleader.org/new/documents/vvguide.pdf Association for Volunteer Administrators: www.avaintl.org CompuMentor: www.compumentor.org (nonprofit technology portal) Cyber Speaker: www.cyberspeaker.com/sevensteps.html Energize Inc.: www.energizeinc.com (general VPM resource) Net Aid: www.1-800-Volunteer.org.org/ov/index_html TechSoup: www.techsoup.org (nonprofit technology portal) Volunteer Today: www.volunteertoday.com (VPM monthly e-gazette) Netiquette: www.dtcc.edu/cs/rfc1855.html www.volunteermatch.org/nonprofits/learningcenter/ Free downloadable book: http://www.humanesociety.org/assets/pdfs/hsp/volunteer.pdf pdf pdf

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Volunteering - Pet Conference St. Louis

by calee1 on Aug 10, 2010

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