Volunteer Management
Turning a handful of exhausted people doing everything into a larger number of people each doing something small, bounded, and clearly defined.
Timeframes run from the kickoff call to the finished report, and depend on how quickly your organization can get me what I ask for. Tell me your deadline and I will tell you honestly whether it is achievable.
- The same small group has run everything for years and is visibly tired
- Board seats go unfilled, or get filled by whoever did not step back fast enough
- Your volunteer bond or deposit system generates more conflict than volunteers
- Someone essential is about to leave and nobody knows what they actually do
- Parents say they would help, and then nothing happens
There is a moment in most volunteer organizations where a board member says, with real frustration, that nobody wants to help any more.
It is almost never true. What is true is that the jobs on offer are unbounded, undefined, and frightening. "We need a fundraising coordinator" asks someone to sign up for an unknown quantity of work, for an unknown length of time, with unknown consequences if they get it wrong. Most people decline that, sensibly.
"We need someone to run the raffle table at three home tournaments, two hours each, and here is the sheet showing exactly how it works" gets a yes. The person who says no to the first and yes to the second is the same person.
Volunteer shortages are usually role design problems wearing a costume.
What I look at
- Every role you rely on, including the invisible ones that one person absorbed years ago and never told anyone about
- How roles are described when you ask for help, and what that asks someone to risk
- The ask itself — a general appeal to a room of parents is the least effective recruitment method available, and it is the one almost everyone uses
- Onboarding — what a new volunteer is given, shown, and told in their first month
- The bond or deposit system, if you run one, and whether it is buying you labour or resentment
- Recognition — what it looks like, and whether it reaches the people doing unglamorous work
- Succession — what happens when your most load-bearing volunteer stops, which they will
What you get
A role description library covering every job in your organization: what it involves, how many hours, what time of year, who it reports to, and what it does not include. That last part matters more than it sounds.
With it: a recruitment approach built on direct, specific asks rather than general appeals; an onboarding sequence for a new volunteer's first month; a recognition practice that does not depend on one person remembering; and a succession plan for the roles that would hurt most to lose.
A word on burnout
If your organization is currently running on three people who cannot stop without everything collapsing, that is the first thing to address, and it is not a recruitment exercise. It is a redistribution exercise, and it is usually urgent. Say so when you call.