HOT Codification

ABOUT POINTS OF LIGHT
As the world’s leading volunteer organization with more than
20 years of history and a bipartisan legacy, Points of Light connects
people to their power to make a meaningful difference by providing
access to tools, resources and opportunities to volunteer. In 2011, 4.3
million volunteers and 77,052 partners in 20 countries around the
globe were mobilized through Points of Light. Over the next three
years, Points of Light plans to grow that number significantly and help
broaden and deepen the ways in which constituents create
real and lasting change.

VISTA is an AmeriCorps program and a division of the Corporation for National and Community Service.
It is much older than CNCS, however. VISTA was the brainchild of former President John F. Kennedy,
passed into law during the Lyndon B. Johnson Administration as a part of the “War on Poverty.”
Therefore, VISTAs specific mission is to eliminate poverty in the communities where it resides and to
focus primarily on completing this through capacity building efforts to provide sustainable change to
communities.
For their year of community service VISTA members receive an enormous amount of hands-on experi-
ence across a multitude of competencies like volunteer management, project management, grant writ-
ing, fundraising, and many more. VISTAs additionally receive an Education Award amounting to the
maximum Pell Grant award for one year ($5645 in 2014).bout
ABOUT VISTA
VISTA has been on the
frontline fighting Poverty for
more than 50 years!
Today there are
VISTAs fighting poverty in all
50 states as well
as Guam and Puerto Rico.

Building upon Points of Light’s goal of equipping people to change lives, HandsOn Tech lev-
erages the resources of VISTA members, Skills-Based Volunteers and community partners
to create meaningful and sustained impact in communities.
HandsOn Tech builds the capacity of nonprofits through technology by utilizing
Skills Based Volunteers to provide trainings and deep dive services.
HandsOn Tech in its first three years at a glance:
ABOUT HANDSON TECH

MEET JENNIFER
This is Jennifer, she is a recent college graduate and is excited about joining the workforce.
She read about the exciting opportunities the AmeriCorps VISTA Program, had to offer and
the incredible incentives that accompany program participation. She loves volunteering and
one day wants to work in IT project management and thought that HandsOn Tech would be
an excellent opportunity to gain some experience in the workforce as well as impact a com-
munity in poverty through service.
You’ll see more of Jennifer throughout this
document as she takes us through the major
components of the HandsOn Tech Program and works
toward her goals for the year!

NONPROFIT TRAINING GUIDE - INTRODUCTION
Planning an event can be a very exciting, yet challenging task. There are many concerns
to cover when structuring successful training events for individuals and organizations.
When planning an event of any size it is often good to set some of the specific details of
the event first. The dates, times, and rough itineraries are good to have
drafted out before you plan the more detailed portions of your event so
that you can begin marketing early and you have an idea of your needs for
the event.
With trainings of all sizes, it is important to ensure
that you have an appropriate pre and post survey
to conduct at the training. This information will
give you insight into whether your training topic
was beneficial for the attendees and whether it is
worthy of repetition. Also allow time for
networking after any training is offered, which
gives opportunity to build relationships with nonprofit organiza-
tions and time to market resources, like, the Deep Dive program.

NONPROFIT TRAINING GUIDE - THE DETAILS
Before Promoting Your Training, Decide on the Specific Details
• Decide on a Training Topic, Date, & Time early in the process to help round out other
details of your training.
• Reserve a reliable training location and space that’s accommodating to the event
needs, date and time.
• Recruit Skills-Based Volunteers for presenters and other vol-
unteers for assistance.
• Prepare any materials and session supplies to distribute dur-
ing event including but not limited to: Pre & Post Surveys, In-
formational Flyers and Relevant Resources,
• Search for local businesses to secure refreshments and other
materials, through direct purchase or in-kind donations.
• Research the best strategies for marketing your event within your community.
• Determine the needs of the room set-up including tables/chairs, speaker location, re-
source area, refreshment area, sign-in area, etc.
• Determine the accessibility accommodations of your venue for any potential needs in
regards to wheel chair access, hearing assistance, etc...
• Provide tips to your facilitator, to set him/her up for success.

NONPROFIT TRAINING GUIDE - THE DETAILS
While each training session is different, when conducting an event, it is important to
give each one consideration about what the attendees will bring to and take away
from the training. Something that you may want to incorporate into any training mod-
ule are:
• Learning objectives
• Session agenda (timed out with recommended
timing for each section of the agenda)
• Assumptions (what we assume participants
know/have experienced related to the topic --
opportunity to check assumptions at session in-
troduction and maximize session relevancy)
• Recap of previous module (where applicable)
• Detailed activity instructions including set up, implementation and reflection/
discussion questions (what, so what, now what)
• Summary of learning objectives and recap of activities
• Preview of next module (where applicable)
• Facilitator tips (suggestions to set facilitator up for success)

NONPROFIT TRAINING GUIDE - TRAINING SIZE
There are three types of training group sizes you should consider when planning your
event. Depending on the topic being discussed, the audience should be considered
based on the size anticipated.
The training group sizes typically categorize themselves as Small, Medium, and Large. On
the following pages, you will find specifics on how to accurately craft a training event for
various audiences.
Current literature on effective adult learning shows that the class size that has the most
impact on attendees is 15. A training group, close to that number, can result in a clearer
understanding by the attendees and will increase the likelihood that new tools learned,
will be implemented.

NONPROFIT TRAINING GUIDE - SMALL EVENTS 0-20
There are many formats for a small meeting. It is important to make
the format of your meeting fit the needs of your attendees.
Try:
After Lunch Meeting? - Provide interactive learning to prevent mid-
day fatigue and boost energy
Morning Meeting? - Provide coffee and pastries to kick
start active concentration for the day ahead.
Think through the actual goals of the session. Make adjust-
ments for a more personable setting for
the size of the group. Be aware of special
accommodations needed for attendees of the event as
well as speakers or other volunteers.

Training in Series
Small trainings are an excellent opportunity to offer a series of trainings. If you feel like your
nonprofit community could use more in-depth discussion around a specific topic that would
improve their service capacity, then a series of multiple trainings will give an opportunity for
your attendees to go home and try out the tools that they learned in the first
training, before continuing on to the second part of the series.
Salesforce is an example of a tool that has varying levels of complexity depending upon your
needs as an organization. This can also be an opportunity to gather new
attendees. Many professionals will be perfectly comfortable with the
basics of Salesforce, but as you go deeper into its capabilities, new
attendees will register to improve their skills.
***********************************************************************************
Trainings in series will help a number
of users be able to really drill down
on a single topic.
This format can deter new trainees
from attending later sessions if they
don’t have the foundational knowl-
edge.

Brown Bag Sessions
A Brown bag session is perfect for an informal small lunch time meeting. This format is great for the busy
nonprofit professional who wants to have lunch and learn new work
solutions. Individuals can meet during their lunch break in an infor-
mal setting to get the training that they need. This format is excellent
for a meeting that is low budget or has no food available. The atten-
dees of a brown bag session will bring their own lunch.
Lunch Time trainings are
great times
to deliver valuable
information.
In order to get an effective panel dis-
cussion you may want to gather many
SBVs.
Lunch times may be limited based on
an individuals availability for lunch or
other time restricted events.

Beginning with medium sized training events (20-50 people), it is
important to begin to offer a variety of perspectives for the training.
This will keep your attendees active and engaged through out the
session/s. There are several ways to create variety in your topics
and still impact your attendees.
You can create variety by hosting:
Breakout Sessions
Panel Discussions
Technology “Speed Dating”
NONPROFIT TRAINING GUIDE - MEDIUM EVENTS 20-50

Panel Discussions
With panel discussions it is possible to get a large variety of output on a single issue. For
example, you can host an event on social media and host a variety of experts on social me-
dia outlets from Twitter, Facebook, Google+
and many others. This gives attendees an op-
portunity to compare/contrast a variety of
tools to select the outlets most relevant to
their organization.
Tips for a successful panel discussion:
• Moderate the discussion (prevents grandstanding/getting off topic)
• Direct questions to all panel members to gain a whole team perspective
• Provide a Q&A session and ask panel members to stay after to take direct questions
Panel discussions give a
variety of input on a single
topic. There is a large
amount of knowledge to
be shared and gained.
Providing relevant ex-
perts per subject.
Availability of many
persons at once for
panel discussion.

Breakout Sessions
Breakout sessions gives attendees the ability to select a variety of topics and pick
and choose which topics best suit their needs. This also breaks the larger crowd
down into smaller sizes making more attendees feel comfortable enough to ask
questions and contribute to the discussion at hand.
Tips for a successful breakout session:
• Make the sessions interactive to encourage learning
• Allow attendees the chance to rotate among multiple topics
• Provide reference materials for attendees to take home
Breakout Sessions are great for mul-
tiple topics at the same time.
Excellent way to break larger groups
into smaller manageable ones.
Breakout sessions are resource
heavy. You need multiple trainers,
multiple training rooms, and more
people to authentically manage the
group.

Technology Speed Dating
An opportunity to pro-
vide maximum exposure
to technologies, compa-
nies and tech gurus and
supporters.
Chance to leverage
tremendous expertise and
people power
-Ensuring attendees are present
-Keeping topics relevant

NONPROFIT TRAINING GUIDE - LARGE EVENTS >50
At this level of participation, you have the possibility of losing some impact
with your audience. The challenge becomes how to impact a large number
of people with limited resources. There are many ways to change up the
event so that you are delivering impactful information to an attentive audi-
ence.
When training large amounts of people, you can utilize meeting types like:
• World Cafe
• Open Spaces
• Trade Shows
• May also use any training type utilized for
the small or medium sized events (would
need to review for audience size adjustment
as well as resources available or provided
during the training event

World Cafe
A world cafe method provides a space for a large group
dialogue. In this method many round tables are set up
with one person at each table to pose questions/topics
to the group. There is a defined amount
of time at each table (20-30 minutes) and then
you have the opportunity to move on to
other tables to discuss other topics. At the end
of the world cafe there is usually time for reflection to
allow attendees to talk about what they learned.
World Cafe is a great way
for a large number of at-
tendees to gain insight
on the specific issues that
are important to them.
World Cafe requires a
large number of volun-
teers and a large amount
of space.
Difficult to get a signifi-
cant impact on the topics
in only 20-30 minutes.
CLICKHEREFOR
MORE
INFORMATION!!!!!

Open Space
Open Space is a format that will allow the attendees of the training to better grasp the
information in a more collaborative setting. It allows attendees to freely express them-
selves on the topic, respectfully, to others present in the space. Topics for open spaces
are defined by the attendees and attended by individuals who think that the proposed
topic is specifically suited to their needs.
Everyone in the space can come or go as they please whenever they are done with the
conversation.
This is a great format for
allowing attendees to address
specific concerns that interest
them.
Great for addressing common
issues that are shared with
lots of people.
This format is difficult to
Moderate and can easily lose its
impact. Open Space is prone to
getting off topic and can lead to a
negative experience for some at-
tendees.

Tradeshows
Trade shows are an excellent format for bringing a large number of various prod-
ucts to a large audience.
This gives the attendees the opportunity to select the tech tools that they would
like to learn more about. This format is interactive giving each attendee the op-
portunity to interact with a volunteer to learn about how the volunteer’s product
could help the attendees organization.
You can inform a large number
of people on a large number of
products.
Interactivity allows attendees
to get more out of the event.
Difficult to find a large enough
event space.
Information is usually only surface
level, difficult for attendees to get
a deeper understanding of the
products.

NONPROFIT TRAINING GUIDE - MARKETING
Once you get the details of your training planned, you will need to market your event. The
idea behind marketing your nonprofit training is find-
ing nonprofit professionals in your community with
great expertise in various nonprofits areas. Many host
sites already have a strong network of nonprofit part-
ners in their community. Other nonprofits are mem-
bers of nonprofit networking groups. Perhaps there is
a Young Nonprofit Professionals Network in your com-
munity or local nonprofit foundations.
However you do it, the goal is to find those profession-
als and show them that your trainings would add value
to their organization.

NONPROFIT TRAINING GUIDE - EVENT BRITE
Eventbrite is an excellent resource to market your event and track your registration ef-
forts. It offers many features such as the ability to pre-order tickets and register online.
There is a feature that also allows users to Facebook their friends to see others that have
registered for the event.
Once you have created your event on Eventbrite you can begin to market your event
throughout different mediums and there are tools within, that allow you to see how
most of your attendees are
arriving at purchasing tickets for your
event. With this information, you
know where your marketing strate-
gies are making the most impact and
how to expand ticket purchases in the
future.
Tips for Successful Eventbrite Usage:
• Place a map to the event on the Eventbrite page
Share your Eventbrite on your social media outlets/e-mail list
Encourage event registrants to share the event with others

NONPROFIT TRAINING GUIDE - OTHER MARKETING TOOLS
Twitter
• Getting relevant
professionals to retweet your
event announcements, provides
an opportunity to reach more
attendees.
• Twitter allows you to quickly
reach a large audience.
• Use a link shortened to pro-
vide more space for content
LinkedIn/Facebook
• Opportunity to create a
platform for promoting
Trainings and Workshops
on a particular area of fo-
cus.
• Trainers and presenters
can share articles, web-
sites and thoughts on
various topics
• Attendees can network
and partner with organi-
zations and individuals for
professional growth
Email
• Utilize your host organiza-
tion’s mailing list
• Make your emails visually
attractive
• Encourage your recipients
to forward the event infor-
mation to others

JENNIFER’S FIRST NONPROFIT TRAINING
Jennifer decided to make her first nonprofit training about Microsoft Excel. She
looked around her office and noticed that many of the office staff were struggling
with utilizing the basic features of the popular software.
Jennifer set a date for one month out, at 10 am, and decided that she would utilize
the meeting facilities available at her host site, which holds as many as 30 people.
Additionally, she reached out to a local university’s office of civic engagement. There
she posted a volunteer opportunity looking for someone with Microsoft Excel Skills.
Soon after, Elyse, an MBA student, reached out to Jennifer. She had lots of
experience in Microsoft Excel through her education and professional ca-
reer. She was excited at the prospect of utilizing her acquired skills to help
others in the community.

After recruiting Elyse for the training, it was now time to market the event and
get registrations for attendance., Jennifer created an Eventbrite page.
To drive traffic to the Eventbrite page,
she used Twitter and
Facebook!

The day of the event, Jennifer, made sure that she had a checklist of everything she
needed to acquire for that morning.
Although there was poor turnout, with 12 people present, the morning session training,
went quite well. On the bright side, those 12 attendees were able to get a good deal of
personalized attention in regards to their specific challenges with Excel.
Jennifer was also able to market the other pro-bono services that HandsOn Tech offers.
Additionally, she was able to get e-mail addresses from every attendee so that she could
market the rest of her trainings, hoping to get repeat attendees.
• Registration Form (Click for Example)
• Tables & Chairs
• Laptop and Projector
• Coffee
• Handouts

Ensure to create a registration sheet where attendees can leave their e-mail address!
You can use this information to continuously reach out to them and get
improved attendance at future trainings.
Be sure to hand out Pre and Post Training Surveys to attendees!
This helps make sure your trainings are meeting the need of your community!
The Day of the Event is here and the Crowd isn’t what you expected. What went
wrong? Make sure you check for conflicting community events or things that
might create traffic on the day of your event. Provide maps to your training upon
registration so attendees don’t get lost or stuck in
traffic!
Providing a biography about the trainer will help
validate the training and show your audience its value.
Register more people than needed, so you’ll have
some level of participation, since no-shows are possible.
“Providing trainings at multiple times of day will reach more organizations”
NONPROFIT TRAINING GUIDE - TIPS FOR SUCCESS

NONPROFIT TRAINING GUIDE - TOOLS FOR SUCCESS
Check out this sample previously used by HandsOn Tech Pittsburgh!
Example pre and post training survey !
Check out HandsOn Tech Pittsburgh’s training-in-series style curriculum here!
Eventbrite

DEEP DIVES
Deep Dives are the process in which HandsOn Tech volunteers enlist the experi-
ence of skills-based volunteers to assist nonprofit organizations in improving their
technological capacity. These projects usually work in a five stage process.

DEEP DIVES - BEFORE YOU BEGIN
Before the deep dive process even begins there are steps to take to ensure a successful
experience during your deep dive.
Marketing - Find nonprofit organizations, interested in undertaking a deep dive proc-
ess
Application - Once you have marketed your deep dive product and you have organiza-
tions that are interested, they will need to apply. The application process will give you
an idea of the needs of the selected organization and their needs.
Selection - After the nonprofit organizations complete the application for deep dive
services, the HandsOn Tech team must narrow down the applications based upon the
program requirements and balancing that with a realistic work-load level. Bear in mind
that if an organization meets the program requirements, they must commit to the im-
plementation, dedication and completion of the deep dive process.

Now that you have selected the organizations that you will be working with, it is time to get to
work! This is the period where you will meet with the key people that you will be working with
at the organization and learning a bit about their work-culture.
Kick-off Meeting - This is for you to meet with any key personnel from the organization that
will be influence the administrative decisions about, what tools you will implement for the or-
ganization.
Identify Priorities & Key Outcomes - From the application you should start to have an idea
of what capacity the organization is looking to improve with technology. In your initial discus-
sions, you should begin to get an idea of how work is completed in the organization and the
tools that they currently use.
Develop Technology Assessment - This is an overview of the current technology situation of
the organization that you are assisting, a review of what the organization’s current tech usage,
and finally, a review of the gaps between where they are and where they want to be and help
find the best solution.
DEEP DIVES - DISCOVERY

DEEP DIVES - PLANNING
Now that you’ve met with the partner organization and assessed their technology
needs, it’s time to plan how to deliver the nonprofits requested needs.
Develop Technology Plan - After the assessment is complete, you should develop a
technology plan that defines what tools will be implemented during the deep dive
process.
Identify solutions to meet priorities/key outcomes - Based on the Technology as-
sessment and plan that you have developed during your discussions with the non-
profit staff, determine what solutions will need to be developed for the technology
plan to succeed.
Recruit Skills-Based Volunteers - Once you decide on the desired tools to imple-
ment, you need to find volunteers with the skills to complete the project. This may
be one volunteer or require the skills of several.

DEEP DIVES - IMPLEMENTATION
Once you’ve developed a technology plan and recruited the Skills Based Volunteers that you
will need to deployment. It’s time to proceed with implementing the new tools that the non-
profit needs. To ensure that the project meets time and scope, it’s important to stay in fre-
quent contact with your volunteers!
Skills-Based Volunteer Implementing Project - During this time, the Skills-Based Volunteers
will be implementing the tools decided upon during the assessment process.
Manage project for completion and success - Ensure project is completed in a timely man-
ner. Make sure to set time frames early and involve your volunteers in the planning process
so that you are setting realistic goals.

DEEP DIVES - WRAP UP
Once the skills based volunteer has finished their project, it’s time to wrap up the process
and ensure that the nonprofit will be able to easily utilize the new tools.
Complete any needed training - For an organization to successfully implement the new
tools, the employees will need to be trained.
Follow-up support plan - Find out if the skills-based volunteer would be open to sup-
porting the organization in the future by providing support for the tools that were imple-
mented.
Transfer materials/resources/toolkits - Before finalizing the process, make sure any ma-
terials developed during the process are handed over to the organization. This can in-
clude training guides that will be used to train users in the future.

DEEP DIVES - EVALUATION
How did you do? After you’ve completed the Deep Dive, it’s time to determine the impact
your project has had on the partner organization.
Post-survey - Two months after the deep dive process is completed, conduct a post-survey
with the organizations that you completed the process with.
Evaluate adoption rate and impact towards outcomes - Look at the results of the post
deep dive survey and determine how the measures achieved compare to your goals, spe-
cifically concerning whether or not the tools that you implemented were adopted and how
those tools have impacted the organization’s capacity.

DEEP DIVES - COHORT MODEL
Some sites choose to do Deep Dives in a Cohort Model. This essentially involves hav-
ing a Deep Dive event with multiple partners simultaneously. This will happen in a
similarly staged process to the more traditional deep dives.
After the assessment is developed, the VISTA members will look for commonalities
among the assessments and develop learning communities. The goal should aim to
have 8-10 cohort members per learning community.
Each Learning Community works with Skills Based Volunteers, both in group ses-
sions ,and one-on-one, to build a technology assessment of the nonprofit’s needs.

DEEP DIVES - PEACHTREE FOOD PANTRY
After the Excel training Susan Baker, the Executive Director of
Peachtree Food Pantry stayed after a few minutes
and discussed her specific challenges with her Excel
Spreadsheet that she was utilizing for a
volunteer management form.
Jennifer encouraged Susan to apply for deep dive services.
Susan gave Jennifer her business card. Jennifer followed up
on the conversation with an e-mail, linking the application
for deep dives on the form.

After the Excel for Nonprofit’s Training, Susan Baker filled out an application
for HandsOn Tech’s Deep Dive Services. She described in detail the chal-
lenges her Food Pantry was facing with their website, document manage-
ment, and their volunteer spreadsheet.
Shortly after her application ,Jennifer gave Susan a call, stating that she
had been accepted for the pro-bono services. She then set up a kick-off
meeting with Susan, Peachtree Pantry’s Executive Director, and
Alan Walker, Peachtree Food Pantry’s Volunteer Coordinator, to
discuss the application and begin working on the Assessment.
Jennifer took a couple of days to thoroughly complete the assess-
ment for Peachtree Food Pantry, and set a meeting with Susan and Alan to
discuss her plans. From the assessment she identified three needs to carry
over to her Technology Plan.
Take a look at Peachtree Food Pantry’s Deep Dive Application and Assessment!

Once the Technology plan was in place and agreed upon by Susan and Alan, Jennifer
began to recruit Skills-Based Volunteers (SBVs) for the project. She needed three ac-
cording to the assessment.
One volunteer to handle the creation of Peachtree Food Pantry’s new website, another
to develop their volunteer
and constituent Salesforce
databases, and a final one
to complete a Google Apps
Migration.
Between the newly re-
cruited SBVs and ones that
her site had already devel-
oped relationships with,
Jennifer was able to find
enough volunteers to com-
plete the seemingly daunt-
ing task of this Deep Dive.

Learn more about recruiting
SBVs in the Next Section!
Jennifer recruited Tony, Cheryl, & Steven from a “Tech Volunteers Wanted”
advertisement, that she posted, to complete the Deep Dive.
They will complete a Google Apps Migration, a
New Salesforce Database and an updated WordPress website for
the food pantry.
Since this large project came with many varied components, Jennifer
created a project website to manage the processes.
Check out the project
management website,
here!
You can learn more about
Tony, Cheryl, & Steven and
why they chose to volunteer in the
following section.

After the project was successfully completed, and all of the new tools were successfully
implemented, Jennifer scheduled a follow-up meeting with Susan, Alan and the three
SBVs that implemented the new technology.
In the meeting, the SBVs created a training plan with the food pantry to train the staff
and volunteer leaders on the new tools. All log-in information that was created for the
staff was transferred, and all documentation was moved over as well.
Susan and Alan thanked the SBVs and Jennifer for their efforts and set out to utilize their
new tools!

DEEP DIVES - TIPS FOR SUCCESS
Set expectations early and write them down.
A memorandum of understanding helps guide the timeline and the scope of the
Deep Dive.
Keep in frequent contact with your partner nonprofit as well as your volunteers.
This will make sure that you are on track to meet your timeline.

DEEP DIVES - TOOLS FOR SUCCESS
Sample RFP/Proposal and Application Site
Sample Technical Assessment
Example of a Cohort Model
HandsOn Tech New York’s Project Management Website

Points of Light defines Skills Based Volunteering (SBV) as “service by individuals or
groups that capitalizes on personal talents or core business skills, experience or educa-
tion.” Succinctly put, SBVs or Pro-Bono volunteers utilize the skills that they employ
professionally to help their community.
HandsOn Tech utilizes this volunteer
model by harnessing the talents of Tech-
nology professionals as SBVs to create
lasting improvements in nonprofit organi-
zations that alleviate poverty in their com-
munities.
Skills Based Volunteers provide HandsOn
Tech VISTAs with their expertise in their
specific technology fields so that HandsOn
Tech may provide the nonprofit commu-
nity with the other portions of our pro-
gram like the Deep Dives and the nonprofit trainings.
SKILLS BASED VOLUNTEERING– SBVS AND HANDSON TECH

SKILLS BASED VOLUNTEERING - RECRUITMENT
Recruiting SBVs is becoming easier than ever, with the creation of new , accessible, online
tools and resources.
Check out:
All For Good, Idealist.org, and LinkedIn , Opportunity Knocks,
These are well-known sites, to find professionals with the skills you need for your projects.

It is very important to have effective Volunteer management infrastructure in
place before embarking on your first projects. This infrastructure would include
project management capabilities and evaluation tools.
Having these tools in place will make completing your first projects as smooth as
possible.
Chris Smith, Executive Director of HandsOn Suburban Chicago, provided the
following advice for implementing Volunteer Management Programs, during a
recent webinar, for HandsOn Tech AmeriCorps VISTA members, about volun-
teering::
• Lay the Foundation through mission and vision
• Combine inspiring leadership with effective management
• Build understanding and collaboration
• Be willing to learn, grow, and change
SKILLS BASED VOLUNTEERING - VOLUNTEER MANAGEMENT

SKILLS BASED VOLUNTEERING - EVAULATION
Evaluating the performance of your Volunteer Management program is important in ensuring
the success of your projects.
No volunteer management program is perfect, but understanding your strengths and weak-
nesses will go a long way to promoting sustainability.
Pre and Post project evaluations will help you understand:
• What Volunteers are looking for when they serve
• How you as a project leader can support the SBVs
• How you can improve volunteer retention

Over the previous sections, you became acquainted with the various SBVs that Jennifer re-
cruited for the project. Each of them chose to volunteer for their own reasons and come
from different places.
Recognizing these differences is important for understanding your volunteers’ needs:
JENNIFER MANAGES SBVS
Steven was
connected
through a
local Salesforce
User Group. He is in the
middle of a career tran-
sition and volunteers to
gain some more experi-
ence.
Cheryl is a certified Google
Apps Deployment special-
ist. She works for a com-
pany that encourages giv-
ing time to the commu-
nity.
Tony is a local inde-
pendent WordPress de-
signer. He works mostly
with small businesses,
but has a passion for
service.

Each of the three volunteers committed to the project for their own reasons. Each of them
had their own needs throughout the project.
Elyse, needed confirmation that she completed service hours for her degree program.
Steven on the other hand desired a job recommendation, based on his performance with
the deep dive.
Tips for Volunteer Recognition:
• Thank the volunteer for their service 7 times throughout
the project
• If your SBV needs letters of recommendation, provide
them or ask the nonprofit if they would be willing to
• Respond to SBV requests quickly
• Put yourself in your SBVs shoes, how would you like to
be recognized if you were them?

Time and availability is another important factor to attend to when manag-
ing SBVs.
Cheryl has a full time career along with the time that she committed to the
project. Things may come up with her job that create unexpected delays in
completing her portions of the deep dive.
In this case it is important to:
• Keep in frequent com-
munication with the SBV
• Allow the SBV to pro-
vide her own timeline to
complete the project
• Communicate with the
nonprofit to adjust ex-

Attracting the right SBVs starts with the skills you need. Be as specific as possi-
ble about what you are looking for to attract the appropriate volunteer!
Continuously thank your volunteers for their service!
Allow your SBVs to help set time frames. They know how they work; this will
help set a realistic time frame.
SKILLS-BASED VOLUNTEERS - TIPS FOR SUCCESS

Check out this report on the effectiveness and impact of SBVs!
HandsOn Network’s Volunteer Management Guide!
A Billion + Change’s Pro Bono Technology Resource Center
Linked In For Good’s Volunteer Posting Guide!
Sample SBV Tracking Tool
Microsoft Volunteer Manager Information!
SKILLS-BASED VOLUNTEERS - TOOLS FOR SUCCESS

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