How to get the best from your volunteer work force
February 15, 1995; Canadian FundRaiser
Guest lecturer Bruce Raymond made a case for the care and feeding of volunteers while speaking at a recent NSFRE luncheon. Addressing volunteer burnout (how to detect it and what to do about it), he offered professional fundraisers and volunteer chairs the following tips:
- Assign someone, either staff or volunteer, whose sole responsibility is making certain that volunteers are properly and quickly thanked when the campaign is over, or on a regular basis (no less frequently than once per quarter).
- Make volunteers believe that your campaign is their campaign.
- Take enough time with volunteers to ensure that they know, in some detail, the use to which the money they raise will be put.
- Involve volunteers as much as possible in setting their own fundraising targets.
- Avoid comparing volunteers or teams of volunteers with each other. Compare the results of volunteer effort against targets, not other volunteers.
- Be available, or see that someone is available, to give immediate attention to volunteer queries during a campaign.
- Assign volunteers to work in areas in which they will look good.
- Avoid lengthy meetings. Ensure that meetings at the end of a day be set to last no more than three hours.
- Don't let your staff become involved in the politics of volunteer groups or individuals.
- Let criticism of volunteers be doled out by volunteers, never by paid staff.
