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Where would your nonprofit be if its corps of dedicated volunteers up and quit tomorrow? "Out of business" is the only honest answer that thousands of American social-services agencies could give.
That's why retention is key for volunteer managers -- the paid staffers supervising the efforts of unpaid folks who contribute their time and skills to a cause they deem worthy. Keeping volunteers happy means more than throwing an annual appreciation party or brewing a bottomless pot of coffee. Retention is a process that begins before volunteers report for duty.
Selecting Volunteers
You can retain a higher percentage of volunteers if you bring on the right people in the first place. For many agencies, that means recruitment must be selective.
"We tell everyone when they come here to audition that 50 percent of them are probably not going to make it," says Betty Hersey, executive director of Reading & Radio Resource, a Dallas nonprofit with 300 volunteers who help create audio versions of print materials for people who are visually impaired or who have other disabilities. "We make it very clear that if we train you, we expect you to be here a certain number of hours."
Start Off Right
Next, volunteer managers must keep in mind that first impressions are critical.
"The way we can retain volunteers for the long term is to give them a good experience initially," says Trudy Seita, a consultant to nonprofits in Vienna, West Virginia. This requires advance planning and some resources.
"The very first day of volunteering is probably the most significant make-or-break time," says Nancy Gaston, president of the Association for Volunteer Administration in Richmond, Virginia. Gaston says that volunteer managers need to ask themselves: Can people find their way around? Did someone greet the volunteers and point out the coat rack or closet?
Define Roles
To stay satisfied, volunteers must know what they're expected to do, and where their responsibilities end and the paid staff's duties begin.
Volunteers have "clearly defined roles and responsibilities," says Debbie Ford, a spokeswoman for the Greater Boston Food Bank, whose 10,000 volunteers help get salvaged groceries to soup kitchens and shelters in Eastern Massachusetts. "The paid staff doesn't sort and inspect the food."
Timing Is Everything
Volunteer managers face a particular retention challenge when times are tough: Potential volunteers who are either overworked or unemployed.
"In a challenged economy, many people volunteer while they're doing a job search, so retention isn't a possibility," Gaston says.
Those with paid jobs are often willing to volunteer, but only now and then. So volunteer managers must rev up their organizational skills to graciously accommodate the ever-changing availability of their time-crunched unpaid staff.
Make People Connections
Many volunteers use their service as a way to meet new people or interact with others in a common mission driven by a motive higher than profit. Volunteer managers must create an environment that fosters camaraderie.
"We're really homey," Hersey says. "Everybody just feels good about being here."
Demonstrate the Contribution
Finally, volunteer managers should always keep in mind the unifying motivation of volunteers: To make a positive contribution to a community beyond their friends and family.
Bringing this fact home to volunteers shouldn't be complicated. "Volunteers really gain an understanding of how they're making a difference," Ford says. "They are told how many meals they've created from the food they've salvaged in three hours."