Current Challenges in Non-Profit Volunteer Recruitment

Introduction 

The Canadian non-profit sector is an economic driver; charities and non-profits contribute $192 billion dollars in economic activity to Canada annually, and account for 8.3% of our country’s GDP. The sector employs 2.4 million people, which is more than the mining, oil and gas sector, or agriculture, transportation, and retail. Women make up the majority of the sector’s workforce. Key highlights: 

• Employs 2.4 million people (1 in 10 Canadian workers)

• Contributes 8.3% of Canada's GDP – an estimated $192 billion

• Women represent 77% of workforce

• 13 million volunteers give close to 2 billion hours per year

Alberta’s diverse non-profits and charities have a critical impact on the economy and health and wellbeing of people across the province. They offer valuable programs and services ranging from childcare, housing, and health to arts, employment, and education. The non-profit sector in Alberta contributes 6.6% to the province’s GDP, constituting $22.3 billion in economic impact. 45.7% of Alberta residents volunteer, contributing a total of 227 million volunteer hours annually. 

The number of employees working for the nation’s non-profit organizations is only a portion of the required workforce. Volunteers make up the difference. Many non-profit organizations are dependent upon their volunteer workers. Volunteers serve in providing direct service to the non-profit’s clients (e.g., hospice patients). Volunteers serve in administration (e.g., board members). Volunteers serve in fund-raising (e.g., United Way). Volunteers serve in supporting duties (e.g., preparing newsletters). Without volunteers many non-profit organizations could not provide their services, forcing the government sector to provide these services or forcing society to live without these services. 

Non-Profit Volunteers During the Pandemic 

There is no doubt about it – volunteerism has been hit hard by the global COVID-19 pandemic. Across the board, the capacity of volunteer-driven organizations has been significantly affected. Available volunteer opportunities, numbers of volunteers engaged, and total volunteer hours per month have all declined significantly over pre-pandemic levels. Volunteer managers around the world continue to adapt to their new context, seeking new ways to keep the community engaged in service. Many are also steadily adopting new technology tools to solve their biggest problems. 

Many non-profit volunteer programs lapsed during the pandemic; some adapted and thrived. Volunteerism had been declining for years before Covid-19, and the pandemic sent many charities' volunteer programs into disarray. As many as 30 percent of managers of volunteers got reassigned or laid off in the six months after Covid struck, according to a 2021 report by VolunteerPro. With fewer people around to coordinate activities, the volunteers drifted away. A 2020 study by Fidelity Charitable found that two-thirds of volunteers decreased their activity or stopped volunteering entirely after the pandemic began. 

Jennifer Bennett, director of education and training at VolunteerMatch, a non-profit that helps other organizations recruit volunteers, says charities that made few efforts to remain connected to volunteers in 2020 and 2021 will spend years rebuilding volunteer programs. "That's a hole that we're looking at in the field," Bennett says. "It's not just a lack of institutional knowledge, but a rupture in the relationship. Charities that laid off volunteer managers and didn't have a strategy for keeping the communication lines open with volunteers are back to starting from scratch." 

It's also a missed opportunity, some experts point out. The return on investment in a strong volunteer program -- primarily, the donated work that organizations might otherwise have to pay for -- often far exceeds the money they spend on oversight and salaries for volunteerism professionals. And a talented cadre of volunteers can help depleted charities continue to serve clients at a time when many organizations are struggling to fill open positions. 

The disruption hasn't been all bad -- some charities did stay in touch with their volunteers and responded to the pandemic by revamping programs that had grown stale, providing new opportunities for people to get involved. Some of those charities now have more volunteers than ever. "It's a tale of two cities," says Jude O'Reilley, VolunteerMatch's CEO. "You have non-profits that because of their lack of resources or the nature of work were not able to turn in time, and they became nearly or entirely dormant on the volunteer aspect of their work. And then you have other groups that have adapted and even thrived." 

Kari Aanestad, associate director of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, says charities should be doing all they can to keep volunteers at a time when many are having a hard time holding on to paid staff members. The council has conducted five surveys of its members since the pandemic began, and the results from the most-recent report find that 46 percent of charities are experiencing work-force shortages and hiring challenges, while 40 percent say they don't have enough volunteers. "When you look at the work-force and hiring challenges for non-profits, it's intimately connected to volunteering because of the compounding impact," Aanestad says. "If half of organizations don't have enough staff, and 40 percent don't have enough volunteers, then there's a big capacity concern there." 

Neglecting volunteer programs is also short-sighted, many experts say, because the programs often provide a high return on investment. UJA-Federation of New York, one of America’s few grant makers that directly support the creation of volunteer programs, began a campaign seven years ago to encourage grantees that provide human services to expand their use of volunteers. So far, the UJA has provided a total of $10 million to 30 organizations. 

In 2021, the UJA made grants worth $1.3 million to pay for the salaries of volunteer-engagement professionals, software, and training at 14 organizations. Volunteers contributed a total of 124,600 hours at those organizations. Using Independent Sector's estimated value for a volunteer hour in New York -- $33.17 -- that yields volunteer contributions of time worth $4.1 million, or more than three times the size of UJA's grants. 

Robust volunteering programs are also valuable because of the close association between volunteers and donors. A person who becomes familiar with an organization through volunteering is likely to eventually become a donor. "People who volunteer donate more often and at a higher rate," says Betsy McFarland, a volunteer-management consultant. 

Stuck in the Past 

Experts say there were plenty of problems with volunteer programs even before the pandemic hit. Many programs have struggled to attract low-income volunteers and volunteers of color. Critics say one reason for that is that the vast majority of volunteer-engagement positions at charities are held by white people, typically women, and have no emphasis on diversity. 

Another challenge: Too many charities are stuck in the past, pushing volunteers to commit to a regular time slot and perform tasks that are boring. Today's volunteers don't want to spend years working toward a recognition pin. Many people, especially young volunteers, want short-term opportunities where they can see immediate results for the organization or its clients, preferably while they employ or develop skills that might help them in their own careers. 

"Our volunteer-engagement system in this country is embedded in a process that was built in the 20th century by Silent Generation volunteers who believed in loyalty, duty, and patience," says Beth Steinhorn, a volunteer-engagement consultant. "Showing up every Tuesday from 1 to 4 and sticking with it to make your 10-, 20-, or 30-year pins." 

The rapid growth of the Develop for Good charity shows that an innovative idea can shake up the sleepy world of volunteerism. The organization assembles teams of college students majoring in computer science and other tech fields to create or revamp websites and apps for non-profits. Founded by two Stanford undergraduates after the pandemic hit, the charity has already deployed 1,200 volunteers and worked with more than 100 organizations. Each project is overseen by an experienced technology professional who serves as a volunteer mentor. Students get a chance to develop "soft skills" working with the rest of their team, can point to a successful real-life project they have completed, and use their mentor as a job reference. 

Little Investment 

One reason volunteer programs are slow to evolve is underinvestment -- by non-profits, foundations, and the government. Within charities, volunteer-engagement leaders have much less clout than directors of development, programs, and other areas, who typically are much better paid and are higher up in the C-suite. 

Sources of New Volunteers 

Volunteer program managers (VPMs) can attract volunteers directly or indirectly. Direct volunteer recruitment activities are those endeavors that individuals within non-profit organizations may take to appeal to prospective volunteers (or prospects) to volunteer. Such activities may include appealing to prospects using mass communication (e.g., advertisements, publicity, events, public speaking engagements) or interpersonal communication (e.g., person-to-person recruitment). Indirect recruitment activities are those actions taken by other institutions to recruit volunteers for a target non-profit organization. 

Many communities have volunteer referral centers. These centers encourage community volunteering and maintain information about volunteer needs with local non-profit organizations. Local residents can contact the referral center and find out about various volunteer opportunities which may appeal to them. 

High schools and especially colleges are encouraging service learning, in which they offer students credit or recognition for volunteer service in community non-profit organizations. Other organizations may also be available. Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) is a government sponsored non-profit in the U.S. which acts as a volunteer clearinghouse for seniors. Other frequently overlooked sources of volunteers are non-profit organizations that have a service component to their missions. Examples are fraternities, some youth organizations, local Lions Clubs, churches, and so forth. Many companies also have programs that encourage employees to volunteer. 

Effective Retention Reduces Recruitment Demand 

Non-profit organizations are increasingly adopting marketing practices in recruiting and retaining volunteers with the realization that marketing, rather than being incompatible with their mission, can help improve their performance with respect to overall goals. This approach is further strengthened by the realization that non-profit organizations (just as for-profit organizations) are operating in a competitive environment. As more organizations seek to recruit volunteers, potential volunteers can be more selective in their choices. Although motivation to volunteer is a complex phenomenon, it is necessary for the non-profit organization to include it in their marketing strategy. The challenge is how to identify the right consumer (people most likely to volunteer), attract them (get them started volunteering), and keep them loyal (continue volunteering for as long as possible). As a result there is a growing interest in the factors that influence volunteer behavior. This includes the stage at which a volunteer is at in terms of working for an organization and its impact on their experiences of the volunteering process and their overall level of commitment to the organization. For instance, motivation to start volunteering has been found to differ from motivation to remain a volunteer, and therefore it is important to consider not only how to initially attract and recruit volunteers but also how to retain them. 

One problem many non-profits have is a high volunteer turnover rate. High turnover demoralizes current volunteers and consumes managerial energies that could be better spent elsewhere. Exiting volunteers must be replaced. VPMs must locate, recruit, select, place, orient, train, and supervise novice volunteers. If turnover can be reduced, volunteer recruitment could be more selective and more energy could be given to managing the retention of existing volunteers. 

Recruitment and retention tactics form a complementary relationship. Poor recruitment practices lead to increased turnover. Volunteers who are recruited ineffectively may have incorrect impressions of the volunteer experience or may be a poor fit for a particular volunteer assignment. Weak retention practices lead to increased turnover, increasing the recruitment load for the non-profit, which may lead to improper selection of new volunteers and so forth. 

Antecedents of Recruitment 

Before recruitment efforts are initiated, the manager should determine why the organization needs volunteers. An environment in which volunteers are recruited because the organization cannot afford paid employees may create a negative culture, making recruitment more difficult and increasing turnover. If, however, the organization values the benefits volunteers bring to a non-profit, then a positive climate supports recruitment efforts. 

Next, meaningful job assignments need to be designed. Some jobs require low level skills (e.g., like data entry or stuffing envelopes) while other jobs may require a professional from a specific field (e.g., business, legal, computer science). Without knowing what skills are needed by the non-profit, recruitment will suffer. Volunteers placed in inappropriate jobs will be dissatisfied and quit. It is important for people to be recruited for jobs they are suited for and which they find meaningful. Designing appropriate volunteer jobs precedes recruitment for this reason. Once VPMs have arrived at a consensus about why volunteers are needed, once meaningful volunteer jobs have been designed, then managers (i.e., VPMs) need to better understand volunteer behavior. Just as corporate VPMs must understand consumer behavior in order to make better decisions about how to attract customers and win their loyalty, non-profit VPMs must understand volunteer behavior in order to make better recruitment and retention decisions. VPMs need to know who is likely to be the best prospect for recruitment. They need to know what appeals and tactics are likely to be most effective in recruiting prospects. They need to understand influences that affect a person’s decision to volunteer. 

Model of Volunteer Behavior 

Link to model.

Figure 1 depicts a model representing the determinants of volunteering. The model takes into account personal influences on behavior, interpersonal influences, attitudes, and situational factors. Personal and interpersonal influences stimulate a general disposition regarding volunteering as well as preferences for volunteering in specific areas like youth development, arts and culture, religion, or health care. Target non-profits which meet preference criteria are screened by a person’s attitudes, which may be directed toward the non-profit itself, the non-profit’s cause/mission, or the clients served by the non-profit. Situational factors also influence volunteer behavior. A person may decline a request to volunteer for a non-profit if that person feels he or she does not have sufficient time for volunteering, if the volunteering occurs at a too distant location, or if personal safety cannot be guaranteed. All these types of influences affect a person’s intention to volunteer for a non-profit. 

Personal Influences 

Personality. There is generally not a common personality profile which typifies volunteers. However, in studies in which volunteers have been compared to control groups of non-volunteers, volunteers were distinguished by higher levels of empathy and self-esteem. Self-Esteem. Self-esteem is the overall affective evaluation of one’s own worth, value, or importance. Most volunteers, but certainly not all, have at least a moderate level of self-esteem. This enables them to perceive they have adequate self-worth and competence to make a meaningful contribution as a volunteer. People who feel that they are unable to contribute to the collective good produced by the organization are unlikely to volunteer. 

In previous research, self-esteem has been positively linked with helping behavior. There is much written in the literature to suggest that self-esteem is positively correlated with helping behavior. For example, individuals having high self-esteem perceive themselves as helpful people. There is a strong relationship between helping behavior and volunteering, and, therefore, between self-esteem and volunteering. Volunteering is a prototypic form of nonspontaneous, sustained helping behavior. 

Empathy. Whereas self-esteem has an enabling effect by influencing a person’s perception of his or her ability, empathy has a motivating effect by influencing a person’s psychological discomfort at the misfortune of others. The affected empathetic person is motivated to reduce the psychological discomfort. Empathy evokes an altruistic motivation to help others in need. Helping others in need helps the empathetic person to maintain a self-image or identity of a good, caring, or helpful person. Empathetic persons can provide help on an emergency or spontaneous basis or on a non-emergency, sustained basis (i.e., volunteering.) 

Previous research has demonstrated a relationship between empathy and prosocial or helping behavior. One study found that empathy was positively related to helping. The researchers concluded that all implicate empathy as a candidate for an inherited capacity closely allied with the evolution of altruistic tendencies. 

Values. Values guide behavioral choices. People’s priorities are determined by their value systems. Therefore, understanding what values current volunteers have give VPMs insights into what values the non-profit shares with its volunteers. Then VPMs can look for prospects with similar values. Not only does value analysis help identify shared values between an organization and its volunteers, value analysis also suggests benefits which can be embedded in volunteer recruitment appeals. A closer examination of values and volunteering follows. 

Values offer promise in understanding volunteering because: (1) there are relatively few values, (2) values determine attitudes, (3) values have a motivational component, and (4) value changes are relatively enduring and affect behavior. Values have proven to be good discriminators of volunteers from non-volunteers. Volunteers tend to place more importance on prosocial values. Studies which report that volunteers are purely altruistic have been controversial, as academicians argue whether volunteers are demonstrating pure altruism or are acting from mainly self-interest. Agreement for a moderate position on this discussion is centering on perceiving volunteers as demonstrating both altruistic and egoistic behaviors. 

Volunteers who want to help others also want volunteering to result in a rewarding experience. Volunteering for a non-profit provides an individual with a means of expressing important values as well as a means of reinforcing those values. Since each person has a value system, what distinguishes individuals is the relative importance placed on specific values. Most people think volunteering is a good thing to do. However, some people feel strongly enough about a situation that they take action instead of letting others do the volunteering. One study examined the values of student volunteers and non-volunteers and discovered the importance students placed on certain values in their personal lives was the best predictor of volunteer interest. 

The highest ranked values within an individual’s value system will have the greatest influence on attitudes, intentions, and behaviors. Volunteers and non-volunteers alike would probably agree that helping others is a good idea. However, volunteers would probably rank helping others higher than non-volunteers. Volunteers frequently report a sense of moral responsibility or a sense of duty as a motive. Studies have found that non-profit board members reported it was their civic duty to volunteer. Some have reported finding that volunteers feel a moral obligation or a sense of duty to participate. 

Opportunities to express religious beliefs and values are provided through many volunteer roles. In a national survey of charitable giving and volunteering, the third highest ranked motive was expressing religious beliefs or responding to a moral obligation based on religious beliefs. 

Personal Experiences. Personal experiences play a role in helping people to develop and reform their value systems. Many non-profit organizations have been started by individuals who found themselves confronted with human privations of which they previously were unaware. An academic study examined the motives of 63 hospice volunteers in multiple hospice organizations. Many hospice volunteers reported that they learned about the hospice when their terminally ill loved one received hospice services. The experience of having one’s dying loved one receive compassionate care from a hospice volunteer had a major impact. After their loved one’s death many survivors responded to their experiences by becoming hospice volunteers. 

Another type of personal experience which influences a person’s propensity to volunteer is early exposure to volunteering. Young people who are given volunteer experiences can assimilate the experiences into their value systems. If the experience was positive, children and adolescents are likely to view volunteering as a positive behavioral choice when they become adults. 

Life Stage. People pass through several phases as their lives progress. The stage of life one is currently in influences values and priorities. Generally speaking, age, marital status, occupational status, and age/status of children indicate life stage. Parents of younger and school age children are likely to choose volunteer opportunities related to their desire to care for their children. When adults enter a new life stage in which their self-perceptions change, this change will create a period of introspection in which they will find new ways to find meaning, purpose, and a positive self-image. Many volunteers began their volunteering after retiring, their children left home, they divorced, or a spouse died. Several literacy volunteers also had careers as librarians and teachers, which provided the volunteer an opportunity to maintain their professional identities into retirement. 

As the wave of baby boomers begins moving into retirement, social scientists, policy makers, and organizational leaders have become keenly interested in exploring the ways in which organizations can manage and prepare for the related loss of talent, experience, and institutional knowledge. Some scholars have proposed that it may be possible to offset the loss of talent and knowledge via bolstered volunteer participation. Although a growing base of research on volunteering describes some of the factors that shape whether and how much people volunteer, a more nuanced understanding of how multiple dimensions of life phases shape the forms of volunteering people choose may support more effective recruitment and retention efforts. 

Factors that shape which and whether people take on different volunteer roles change at different points in the life course. Studies have pointed out that key features of life phase —including age, marital status, parental status, and work force status – predict if and how people volunteer. The effects of these life phase factors are attributed primarily to two key factors: social network and motivation. 

It is not simply exposure to different social networks, however, that explains the impact of life phase factors on how people volunteer. The decisions people make about how they volunteer are also related to the motivation to support a particular organizational mission. Motivation to engage in different ways is shaped by time horizons. Younger adults, who tend to be preparing for their career (typically via education) or are in the early stages of their careers, tend to engage more heavily in volunteerism that is related to development of skills or career opportunities, donate more time helping political organizations, and they are more likely to engage in civic and community oriented activities relative to other age-groups. People in the middle of their adult lives tend to engage more heavily in community-oriented and youth-oriented volunteering, perhaps because they are simultaneously focused on their growing families and advancing careers. Relative to other groups, older adults are more likely to engage in organizations that support other older people (typically charitable organizations and religious organizations and least likely to engage in civic organizations). Perhaps this is related to the fact that older adults are motivated to engage in activities that facilitate positive emotions. In addition, volunteering just prior to retirement may help to identify an alternative role to replace work after retirement and meaningful activities that facilitate generative transfer. 

Interpersonal Influences 

Facilitation. Facilitation refers to the level of social connectedness an individual has to others who are already serving as volunteers. While there are individuals so motivated to volunteer that they seek out opportunities to serve on their own, most people become volunteers after being asked to volunteer from a friend, family member, or associate who volunteers. A recent national survey found that 42 percent of people who reported volunteering during the year said they learned of the volunteer activities through personal contact, and another 35 percent of volunteers reported learning about their volunteer activities through organizations with which they associate. Current volunteers are available to provide friends they recruit with social support (i.e., emotional support and task-oriented support) to ease the transition into volunteering and to make it a more rewarding experience. 

Social Norms. Social norms are those customary patterns of attitudes and behaviors that social groups accept, maintain, and enforce. Some social groups share strong political beliefs, strong feelings about the environment, strong feelings about social welfare, and so forth. These social groups may expect their members to participate in the political process, environmentalism, social welfare reform, and so forth as volunteers. Social groups exert varying degrees of influence on their members. Some social groups encourage volunteering for causes they support. 

Parental Volunteering. Parent’s attitudes about volunteering influence their children’s decisions to volunteer as adults. Volunteers are more likely than non-volunteers to have had parents who were themselves volunteers. Teenagers whose parents volunteer are much more likely to volunteer than teenagers whose parents do not volunteer. Children learn from their parents what values are important, what attitudes they should adopt, what behaviors are acceptable. Although this learning may be modified as the child matures into an individual adult, parental influence can have lifelong effects. When parents model volunteering or include their children in their own volunteer service, children learn that volunteering is valued and important. Situational Factors 

Even though individuals may have the motivation to serve, situational factors may impede volunteer service. Many people are experiencing time poverty. They fail to consider volunteering because they feel they simply lack the spare time. Lack of time is the number one reason people give for not volunteering. When prospects feel they do not have the spare time, there can be several reasons, some may be dealt with effectively during recruitment appeals, some may be insurmountable barriers. There are numerous possible other situational factors that serve as barriers to volunteering. A person may live in a rural area or in a distant suburb which offers no reasonably close proximity to a non-profit in which the person would like to serve. The person may feel unsafe, either because of the locale where the volunteering occurs or because of the clients served. Some of these barriers can be overcome by effective recruitment tactics, some may not be overcome. 

Who is Attracted to Your Non-Profit? 

VPMs can gain insights into what type of people are attracted to their organizations by external and internal methods. External methods represent marketing research techniques, such as surveys and focus groups, that can be used to assess non-volunteer attitudes towards a non-profit and values relating to volunteering. Internal methods represent assessment of an organization’s volunteers with the assumption that current volunteers can be profiled (e.g., values, beliefs, activities, attitudes, life stage, age, education) and that the best prospects for recruitment are others who share similar profiles to current volunteers. 

People can consume their time in an infinite variety of ways. Although the competition is intense, some people choose to consume some of their time volunteering. If VPMs want to persuade prospects to volunteer for their organizations, they must understand what personal values can be expressed by serving in their organizations. Interviewing current volunteers provides VPMs with insights about the values their non-profits can help people express. 

Developing and Delivering Recruitment Appeals 

An old advertising adage is “people don’t buy products, they buy benefits.” This reminds managers that consumers are not as interested in the product the company is selling as much as they are interested in the benefits the product can provide them. This analogy is helpful in recruiting volunteers. Before people agree to volunteer, they want to understand the benefits of volunteering. After all, just as consumers exchange their money for product benefits, volunteers exchange their time/labor for other benefits. 

Volunteers derive benefits from working for a cause they feel is important. A recruitment message should emphasize the importance of the non-profit’s cause. People who feel the non-profit’s cause is very important will want to support it. This is why volunteers frequently resign when they feel what they are doing for the organization has little significance. Volunteers who do not feel their jobs are important in helping to advance the non-profit’s cause fail to derive a value expressive benefit from their service. 

If the media format allows, other benefits of volunteering can also be communicated to prospects. For some volunteers, particularly seniors, retirees, widowed, and the disabled, feeling useful and productive is an important benefit. So is the social interaction that occurs between volunteer and staff, volunteer and other volunteers, and volunteer and client. 

The Five Biggest Volunteer Management Challenges Faced by Charities, Non-Profits, and Organizations, and How to Overcome Them 

Despite widespread recognition of the immense value of volunteering, the process of managing volunteers effectively can be challenging. Juggling massive workloads, ever-shrinking budgets, and a constantly changing team of volunteers puts a lot of pressure on volunteer managers across every sector. On top of that, to truly get the most value out of volunteers, organizations need to devote sufficient time and resources to set up a volunteer management plan and have a dedicated team to manage it. After all, attracting and retaining the calibre of volunteers who can become real assets to an organization is not as easy as it sounds. 

So let’s take a look at the five biggest volunteer management challenges: 

1. Recruitment 

It’s probably no surprise that volunteer recruitment is one of the most common volunteer management challenges. With so many other organizations competing for volunteers’ time, it can be hard to attract good volunteers who will become assets for your organization. Make sure to have clear volunteer job descriptions. That way, when you start posting your open positions, potential volunteers will know exactly what to expect from your volunteer opportunity. Encouraging your existing volunteers to recruit their friends and family is another popular strategy. Simply ask them if you know anyone who has the time, energy, and inclination to get involved and you should get some great referrals. 

2. Volunteer Burn-Out 

Unfortunately, volunteer burn-out is an all-too-common volunteering challenge. Much like in the workplace, volunteers can experience burn-out for a number of reasons. The most common issues and challenges for volunteering include being overworked, undervalued, and stressed. If your organisation is facing a high turnover rate, it might be time to conduct a volunteer survey to identify any common themes or issues and begin fixing them. 

If volunteers are feeling overworked, perhaps you could recruit more volunteers to share the workload. For volunteers who are feeling undervalued, focus on improving your reward and recognition program and set up regular occasions to thank volunteers. If stress is causing volunteer burn-out, consider introducing a mentor or counsellor who can regularly check in with volunteers and debrief. Sometimes talking about a problem is the best, and simplest remedy. 

3. Disorganization 

It’s easy to become disorganized when managing a group of volunteers as you juggle a million competing tasks and requests. Taking advantage of volunteer management software will allow you to streamline admin tasks, shift management, and communication. Centralizing volunteer data in one digital platform helps build transparency within the organization and reduces data loss in the event of staff turnover. 

4. Volunteer Retention 

Retaining volunteers is the number one way to improve the effectiveness of your volunteer program. Instead of spending time recruiting year-on-year, volunteer managers will be able to spend their time focusing on more impactful activities. At the same time, the knowledge, passion, and understanding of the program that long-term volunteers accumulate is priceless, so it’s important you do everything you can to retain them. 

Common volunteering challenges include feeling disengaged from the organization's goals, undervalued or unsupported, which can in turn see volunteers leaving organizations. To overcome these challenges, volunteer managers need to develop a clear plan of engagement and recognition of volunteers. From a thorough onboarding process, where volunteers are encouraged to ask questions and complete relevant training, through to the recognition process with genuine rewards, volunteer management software can help with the entire process. 

5. Availability 

Finding enough people who are available for shifts is a common volunteering challenge. Automating your volunteer scheduling is the simplest and most effective way to solve the big volunteer management challenge of availability. 

By understanding the volunteer management challenges your organization is facing, you can focus on improving volunteering opportunities and engagement in order to achieve a mutually beneficial volunteer program and facilitate an all-around positive volunteer experience. 

Maximising Volunteer Retention 

Research shows that adoption of volunteer management practices is important to the operations of most charities. By investing in these practices and by supporting volunteer involvement in other ways, charities enhance their volunteer management capacity and their ability to retain volunteers. But volunteer management practices are only part of the picture. In addition to adopting certain management practices, charities can provide a culture that is welcoming to volunteers, allocate sufficient resources to support them, and enlist volunteers in recruiting other volunteers. All of these practices help charities to achieve higher rates of retention. 

Administrators of volunteer programs are not without tools to recruit and retain volunteers. As volunteer administration has become more professionalized, public and non-profit leaders, agency managers, and field experts have turned their attention to improving the capacity of host organizations to accommodate volunteers. In a report prepared in cooperation with the Points of Light Foundation and the Association for Volunteer Administration, the UPS Foundation advocated adoption of 23 volunteer management practices: 

• Written statement of philosophy regarding volunteer involvement

• Written position description for all volunteer roles

• Written policies and procedures for paid staff working with volunteers

• Periodic needs assessment to determine how volunteers should be involved to address mission objectives

• Liability coverage or insurance protection for volunteers

• Reimbursement for work-related expenses incurred by volunteers

• Multiple media outlets (e.g., internet, direct mail, recruitment fairs) used to recruit volunteers

• Volunteers are sought based on having skills that match specific position requirements

• Formal volunteer screening and selection process (applications, interviews, etc.)

• Orientation for new volunteers

• Ongoing training and development for volunteers

• Training for paid staff on how to work alongside volunteers

• Paid staff new hires are told about why and how volunteers are involved in the non-profit’s work

• Volunteer administrator provided resources for professional development

• There is a designated administrator responsible for overseeing the management of volunteers (such as a Director of Volunteer Services)

• Volunteer administrator is involved in top-level organizational planning

• Level of autonomy afforded to volunteers

• Each volunteer has a designated supervisor (could be one supervisor for multiple volunteers)

• Formal conflict resolution and grievance procedures for volunteers

• Volunteers are provided information about organizational issues and events

• Newsletter for volunteers

• Rewards and recognition activities for volunteers

Rewards and recognition activities for paid staff in their support for volunteers

In general, the practices center on providing funding to support volunteer involvement, especially for a designated leader or manager to oversee volunteers, and having a set of appropriate practices and procedures to administer the volunteer program. 

Other studies echo these views on effective means for supporting and retaining volunteers. Experts identify three elements as crucial to the success of any volunteer program: screening potential volunteers to ensure appropriate entry and placement in the organization; orientation and training to provide volunteers with the skills and outlook needed; and management and ongoing support of volunteers by paid staff to ensure that volunteer time is not wasted. 

Management Practices that Charities Say They Practice  to a Large Degree or to Some Degree 

Link to chart.

The current trend in the charitable sector is for organizations to adopt the efficiencies of management that have been developed in the business sector. Although many charities resist the culture of becoming more businesslike, funders and board members often demand that charities adopt modern management methods. As evidenced by the number of charities that are adopting volunteer management practices at least to some degree, the professionalization of volunteer management is clearly underway. The costs, benefits, and consequences of adoption of volunteer management practices should be a subject for managers and policymakers alike. 

What Factors Explain Whether Charities Can Keep Their Volunteers Coming Back? 

Retention is a goal for most charities, as well as an indication of the success of its volunteer program. For charities that engage volunteers mainly in episodic or short term assignments, retention may not be quite so high a priority. Even in these cases, however, most charities would likely prefer to have their volunteers take on new tasks as assignments are completed. Recruiting volunteers is an expensive and time-consuming job, so charities generally like to maximize retention. Retention is also important because volunteers may become loyal financial donors to the organization as well. 

Three Ideas for Volunteer Retention 

1. An underlying issue that most organizations do not understand today is that volunteers have changed. Not only are they different from what we have come to expect, they are demanding a different volunteer role. They are not prepared to do much of the “work” that organizations have available. 

If you are having a hard time recruiting for a particular position, start by looking at the work you are asking someone to do. Many youth, Gen Y, Gen X, and definitely baby boomers are not prepared to do many of the traditional jobs that are offered – the mundane, stuffing envelopes, or grunt work that many organizations have offered for years. The volunteers who have done this work faithfully in the past (called veteran volunteers) are a dying breed. You owe it to yourself to learn about what is happening with volunteerism in Canada. Here are a couple of resources to help: 

• Listen to the discussion by Paul Reed of Statistics Canada and Linda Graff about volunteering in Canada.

• Volunteer Canada recently launched the web site www.volunteer50plus.ca, which looks at how to better engage this age group.

2. Take a hard look at your total volunteer program and roles of volunteers. This requires an open mind, assessment, and often some strategic planning. Look at all 

the roles of volunteers and examine which ones are the hardest to fill based on information that you now know from step one above. How can you do the work differently or more creatively? Can you package it differently? Is it critical to the mission of the organization? Should some roles be dropped? Are there new opportunities to engage youth (who are seeking skills, fun and job experience) or baby boomers who may want to use the skills they have in a limited time frame? 

3. Having clear volunteer position/opportunity descriptions is still important. Even if you are creating a new opportunity based on a discussion with a boomer about what they might like to do, begin to frame out the work. Get them involved in developing the guide or outline of what the work is, when it will be completed, how it fits with the mission of the organization, where the work will be done, and what support they may need. 

Conclusion 

Researchers have found that the best ways to ensure that employees and volunteers feel a sense of purpose boils down to three simple things: They need to have opportunities to grow; to build relationships with employees and others involved in the work; and to create something greater than themselves. 

In terms of understanding the notion of willingness to volunteer, the discourse on volunteering is characterized by a number of interrelated facets including motives and benefits. Motivations associated with volunteering include utilitarian, altruistic, egoistic, and social-exchange aspects. Utility is generally discussed in terms of who benefits — recipients, givers (volunteers), and/or the community or society at large. Altruism, based on concern for the welfare of others and underpinned by a sense of a need to help, is commonly linked to volunteering. Volunteers are also found to exhibit higher levels of emotional empathy than non-volunteers. In addition to altruistic reasons, egoistic motives are linked to volunteering, with research showing that most people believe that helping others is also a good way to gain self-fulfillment. Social exchange motivation is commonly expressed as "paying back" to society for the good fortune in one's life 

Many organizations have a training period in which volunteers are taught skills they will need to provide direct service to the non-profit’s clients. When new volunteers enter training programs with realistic expectations of the nature of the volunteer work, when the training programs are motivating, and when new volunteers have social support, attrition rates are reduced substantially. 

VPMs must give thought to creating excellent orientation programs for new volunteers. New volunteers need to be given proper supervision, information, and social support in order to be successful, remain motivated, and receive rewards from their volunteer service. Proper social support is critical for successful volunteer programs. New volunteers need to be assimilated into a community of volunteers who support each other and recognize each others’ times of difficulties as well as achievements. Social support is a key factor to attracting a more diverse volunteer force. 

No matter how well intentioned volunteers are, unless there is an infrastructure in place to support and direct their efforts, they will remain ineffective at best or, worse, become disenchanted and withdraw, potentially damaging recipients of services in the process. Successful volunteer recruitment programs are the result of a well-planned, properly executed series of activities. It is also important to remember that recruitment and retention enhance each other. Excellent recruitment practices improve retention. Excellent retention practices reduce the demand for new volunteers. Everyone in the organization should see recruitment as part of their duties. Recruitment to support an important cause is part of furthering the non-profit’s program. Although some prospects will reject a recruitment appeal, it is important to remember that people are flattered when they are asked to volunteer. Even if prospects reject a request to volunteer, they may support the organization in the future (e.g., by volunteering or making a donation). Recruiting is not a discrete event, it is a continuum of activities. Your recruitment appeal, even though initially rejected, may cause the prospect to think earnestly about volunteering, facilitating future volunteering. 

Volunteerism is facing unprecedented change and challenge. Across the country, there are significant challenges: volunteers not returning, difficulty recruiting volunteers, and the tapped capacity to engage volunteers are evident. Critical issues can be found around volunteerism and capacity of organizations to transition roles, recruit, and train volunteers at a time when there is a clear response that the decline in volunteers has affected organizations’ ability to deliver programs and services. Volunteers are a powerhouse fueling communities. They lead, fundraise, drive, advocate, mentor, coach, they invest in their community, they are changemakers and empathy in action. Volunteerism, civic action, contributing to community, helping your neighbours are valuable threads that connect us. From random acts of kindness to ongoing volunteer commitments, together our contributions strengthen our community and provide essential support to grassroots groups, non-profits, and charities. Managing volunteers is every bit as challenging as managing paid staff, perhaps even more challenging in some ways. Non-profit staff members supervise a constantly changing cast of volunteers and must react quickly when a need develops in the organization. Identifying common challenges can help you prepare plans and strategies to handle any type of issue that arises. Volunteering can be a tremendously rewarding experience, both for the individual who offers her time and for the organization to which she gives it. Many people are willing to help out if they feel that their contributions will be well used and useful. By developing a plan of action for involving volunteers, you will be better able to tap into this rich resource. For further information: 

Contact

E-mail: info@vitreogroup.ca

Website: vitreogroup.ca

Telephone: 403-210-3157 

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