Here’s another one! As part of a partnership with Top Nonprofts, we’re sharing some easy, one page guides for getting a nonprofit started. Today’s resource focuses on creating mission and vision statements.
You can download the guide for your own use, too! Don’t forget to check out the other great resources from Top Nonprofits!
What do you think of these guides? Do you love them? Is this one helping you to have vision when the rest of the world is wearing bifocals? Let us know in the comments!
A few days ago, we talked about how to get started on a community needs assessment. Today, we’re proud to share the first in a series of guides for creating a volunteer management program.
The guide comes from a collaboration between HandsOn Network, Points of Light and Top Nonprofits - who have some really great resources to share with nonprofits that are just starting out or have been around for a while. We’re really proud of the resource and we’re looking forward to sharing more of them in the future!
Be sure to tell us what you think of the resource in the comments and let us know what you’d like to see next!
You can download the image as a PDF from Top Nonprofits and check out more of their resources on their site!!
On Monday we offered some tips for volunteering with schools. Today, we offer up some more tips for getting volunteer projects off of the ground. Have you ever planned a volunteer project in a school? Do you have any tips to share? Let us know in the comments!
Use Community Resources
Schools are often short of resources. If you are running a sports program, arts club, or any other project that requires materials, you will probably need to solicit donations. Local businesses and restaurants may be willing to contribute. Community centers may have supplies or meeting space to share. Large projects can have fundraisers and donation drives to support their needs. The Volunteer Spot blog has some great ideas for fundraising.
Follow Through on Commitment
Once you start a project, teachers, staff, parents, and students will become dependent on your work. It is important to carry through with your promises and commitment. Never bite off more than you can chew and be honest about your time commitment and availability. If you begin to feel overwhelmed, remain open and honest with those you are working with and work together to seek a solution.
Evaluate Outcomes and Measure Success
As a volunteer, it is beneficial to evaluate your work and consider areas for improvement. Speak to teachers and school administrators beforehand to discuss appropriate benchmarks. There may be tangible measures of success such as improved grades (although some school policies don’t allow grades to be shared), test scores, knowledge level, or attitudes toward learning.
Or you could simply observe that you engaged a group of students, completed a large product, brought children safely to and from school, or filed a large stack of papers.
Recognize Everyone Involved
Throughout your involvement as a school volunteer, make sure to show appreciate to all those involved. This might include fellow volunteers, teachers, staff, or students. Below are tips:
The best way to recognize students and volunteers is to treat them with respect and give them support and praise throughout the project.
It’s vitally important to say thank you during the project and once the project is complete. Check out Eight Tips for Writing the Perfect Thank You Note
Reflect, Evaluate, and Move Forward
Reflection is strongly encouraged after every service experience. Reflecting as a group, with all the participating students and volunteers, can create a stronger sense of accomplishment and connection. This group conversation can often deepen student’s and volunteers’ understanding of the social issue your project addresses and increase their commitment to service and learning.
Here are some sample reflection questions to help facilitate a reflective discussion about the service project:
In addition to reflection, it is important to evaluate the project. This means reviewing the effectiveness of the project components: the planning, coordination, delivery, implementation, logistics and management.
At the end of a project, solicit feedback from students, volunteers, parents, and teachers. Feedback is a gift – use it as an opportunity to reflect on the overall management and implementation of the project. You can provide a feedback form (this is probably best if you are leading volunteers or students), or have less-formal conversations.
Let’s face it. High fives are awesome, but they’re not always the best way to let someone know you care about them and appreciate their work.
An effective recognition program with the right mix of formal and informal recognition systems and that truly functions as an integral component of a volunteer program can honor and motivate volunteers for their contributions.
Formal volunteer recognition can include certificates, plaques, pins, or dinners to honor volunteer achievement.
Informal recognition occurs in the daily interchange between volunteers and the organization when its staff conveys appreciation for the volunteers’ work.
Volunteer recognition programs help to:
Answer these 10 questions to help your organization develop and implement an effective volunteer recognition program:
1. How much staff time can be devoted to administering the recognition program? Will it be administered from
the organization’s headquarters or local offices? (Okay, that’s two questions. Quit being so literal!)
2. Who should be included in the development of the program?
3. How will senior management or program leadership buy-in be secured for the recognition program?
4. How can the recognition program help to meet the volunteer program objectives and overall organizational
needs?
5. What are the best practices of similar organizations’ volunteer recognition programs?
6. Is there an existing recognition program that can be adapted and customized to suit the needs of the organization (For example, see the President’s Volunteer Service Award or the Daily Points of Light Award.)
7. How do your volunteers want to be recognized for their community service? How can you incorporate recognition mechanisms that work for different types of volunteers (e.g., long-term and short-term volunteers)?
8. What will the award criteria and eligibility rules include? Who will judge the award nominations?
9. How will the volunteer award(s) be announced (e.g., special ceremony)? What communications vehicles
currently exist to promote the award internally and externally?
10. Should external counsel and expertise be sought to help develop this volunteer recognition program? Are there
core functions of the program that should be outsourced?
What do you do to recognize volunteers? Let us know in the comments?
Are you looking to volunteer at your local school, but don’t know where to get started? You can follow these steps to find a volunteer role that suits you. Use them to determine how to make an impact, measure your success, and continue to grow and learn.
Conduct an Internal Assessment: What and How Can You Contribute?
Before approaching a school with your intentions to volunteer, assess yourself to see how you could put your skills, interests, and time to best use.
Conduct School Assessment: Identify Issues and Needs
After doing an internal assessment, conduct an assessment of the school. Are there already pre-determined opportunities for volunteers to help? If not, where does the school need support? How might a volunteer serve these students?
Outline a Volunteer Plan
After establishing the needs of the school, create a volunteer plan. Work with a classroom teacher, school principal, staff member, or club/sports leader to create your plan. Your plan should outline the expectations, time commitment, and knowledge needed for each volunteer position.
Outline Goals
After creating a volunteer plan, think of goals you want to reach through your work. A classroom teacher, school principal, staff member, or club/sports leader that you are working with can help establish these goals (he/she may already have goals in mind). What need are you addressing? What does a successful end result look like? When will your work be finished? What do you hope to achieve, both personally and for others?
Share Your Plan and Goals
Share your plan and goals with parents/guardians, friends, adults, and community members. By sharing these details, you may learn of specific tricks, tips, or further ideas on how to make an impact. You may also come across ways that others contribute. In sharing your plan, you may get other parents or guardians to volunteer with you!
Have you volunteered in a school? Was there a program in place or did you work with someone to build one? Let us know in the comments!
Neighboring is an asset- and empowerment-based approach that engages underserved and underresourced community members to find innovative, sustainable solutions to address local challenges. Asset-based refers to the acknowledgment that all members of a community can offer something to improve the community: talents, skills, knowledge, or resources. The resident-led approach primarily focuses on a specific geographic area (i.e., ZIP code, neighborhood, or street) in which the majority of the volunteers, activities, and organization come from within a community.
Volunteers are the lifeblood of many organizations, therefore it is important to keep them engaged in their work. To keep a volunteer engaged, it is vital to provide ample recognition, rewards, and opportunities to volunteers.
Recognize volunteers publicly and privately.
Whether you are working with one volunteer, ten, or a few hundred, it’s important to recognize their efforts. There are many ways to recognize volunteers, from giving them a hand written thank you note, or one of many other ways to say thank you. Getting to know your volunteers will help you to know how they would best like to be thanked for their work.
Reward volunteers with creative gifts and gestures.
Gifts for volunteers don’t have to be big and they don’t have to be expensive. The best gifts for recognizing volunteers are things that will be useful to them.
Give volunteers opportunity to grow.
It is important to check in with volunteers on a regular basis to make sure they are still interested in their tasks or want to change their responsibilities. Volunteers might want to learn and grow by doing new tasks over time. Make time to meet with volunteers a few times a year to catch up on both personal and volunteer related topics.
If you think a volunteer would work really well in a paid position that’s open, ask them to apply for it. Even if they can’t take it, it lets the volunteer know that you and your organization appreciate their work.
Provide food at volunteer functions.
Providing something to eat, in addition to a well planned event, is a key way to draw volunteers to events. Rather than offer the same cookies and punch at each event, keep it interesting with theme related snacks. Don’t forget to check if your volunteers have any dietary restrictions so everyone can enjoy the food!
Give volunteers a break.
It’s important not to tax volunteers by overloading them with difficult or strenuous tasks that they didn’t initially agree to do. At the same time, try to realize that volunteers’ might not want to do the same task for the entire time they’re working with your organization.
Check in with your volunteers to make sure they’re happy with what they’re doing, and let them try something new or take some time off if they want to.
Say thank you.
At the end of the day, most volunteers just want to know their work is appreciated and they’ve done well. Strive to say a genuine “thank you” to volunteers whenever you get a chance.
Highlight volunteers’ work.
Do you have an annual report? A newsletter? While you’re highlighting all of the great things your organization has done, don’t forget to point out the importance of what volunteers do and give some concrete examples of what volunteers have accomplished with your organization!
What’s your favorite way to recognize the work that volunteers do? Let us know in the comments!
Whether you represent a nonprofit organization, volunteer center, corporation, community foundation, community of faith, or other group, these guidelines can help you thoughtfully approach and organize a successful partnership, thereby playing a key role in strengthening neighborhoods and families.
Building Trusting Relationships
Learn about the neighborhoods in your community. What are they issues they face? Which neighborhoods have projects with resident involvement emerging or already underway? Who are the community’s leaders? Are they interested in partnering with others?
Explore Your Organization’s Motives for Partnering With Communities
What goals or anticipated outcomes are you pursuing through partnership? What do you hope to gain? Why is it important that you establish a partnership? What is your long term commitment to low-income neighborhoods and to partnerships? What assets do you offer? How can you add value to the community’s work? Have you heard residents’ voices?
Learn About How Community Members Come Together to Address Issues and Concerns
Meet with key community leaders or invite community representatives to forums where they can participate and become informed about resources for the neighborhood. Develop connections with leaders and residents that foster sustainable activities to address the issues they want to work on in their community.
Identify Potential Partners
What other organization or individuals in the community should you involve in the partnership? Which partners are essential to the success of the project? Is the local Volunteer Center involved? Which businesses in the community have an interest in this neighborhood? Is the community Foundation involved? Are other organizations already working with the community? If so, which ones?
Establish a Partnership Plan with a Realistic Timetable and Realistic Expectations
Develop a shared understanding of the partnership and what you hope to achieve together. How will each partners contribute to the overall action plan and, ultimately, to its success? What is required to build trusting relationships with the community and its leaders and how will this impact your timetable?
Expect and Plan for Setbacks
Identify the likely challenges and barriers that may influence the partnerships’ success. How will you deal with changes in key project personnel or community leaders? What financial and other resources must be raised?
Learn From the Experience, Pause to Reflect, Evaluate, and Celebrate Your Shared Accomplishments
What will successful partnership project look like? What will be accomplished? How will the community change? How do you plant to measure your success?
What have your experiences been with community initiatives? Feel free to add your suggestions in the comments.
Planning a volunteer project for a group of people can be difficult. There are a lot of things to consider; from what the project should accomplish to how to ensure the project has a lasting impact. Here are some quick tips for planning successful group project:
1. Define Your Goals
Develop a set of expected outcomes for your volunteer project. These form the base of your planning. For example, if your goal is to help improve youth literacy in a local school, your plan is going to develop differently than if your goal is to help your community plan and prepare for a disaster.
2. Create a Project Team
Gather together a group of people to help get the project off to a good start. Inclusive projects start at the planning stage, so create a team that is made up of people with a wide range of abilities and experience.
3. Select a Project
Good group project ideas match real community needs with the skill level of volunteers. With a little bit of forethought, you can find a partner organization and project that could not be done without the added energy and dedication of volunteers.
4. Plan the Project
The planning process can help bring members of your project team together and create a sense of ownership of the project. Be sure to think about who will handle what tasks and the logistics involved in executing the project and getting volunteers to the project site.
5. Recruit Volunteers.
Volunteers help people change their lives and transform communities. Group projects give citizens a special opportunity to demonstrate caring and sharing, and encourage more people to give their time and skills to the issues of their choice.
6. Resource Development
What resources are in place to support the project, and what will you have to get to support your project? What type of equipment is needed to support the project? Will it need to be purchased or can you partner with an organization that already has equipment that you need? Don’t forget to think about what will be needed after the project day - thank you notes and follow ups with your project volunteers.
7. Engage the Media
Get the word out. Group projects can make a big difference in your community and can be a powerful signal for positive change. The good news is that publicity for your project is often free. Making an investment of time in publicity and working with the media can help to spread the word that volunteering helps solve serious social problems and helps to build communities.
8. Implementing the Big Day
The key to success on the project day is good management and planning. The more that people know about what is going on, the more likely it is that things will go well. Make sure that the project organizers and leaders are easily identifiable and have some way to communicate with each other.
9. Sustaining Service
Just because the project is complete, doesn’t mean that it’s all over. You may find that you and your team want to continue planning projects in the community. Take some time to reflect on what you’ve learned through the process and start planning another project. If the team doesn’t want to plan another project, encourage everyone to continue volunteering as individuals to help support the work that was accomplished on your project day.
SUPER BONUS TIP
Don’t forget to have fun. Planning a group volunteer project is a lot of work, but there’s a lot of opportunities in the process to make it a great experience for everyone that’s involved from the project planning team to community partners to the volunteers.
The secret to mobilizing and engaging volunteers to bring about sustainable, positive social change…
…is the development of volunteer leaders.
Volunteer leaders provide vision and they inspire, recruit and lead others.
You can play a role in mentoring, coaching and encouraging potential leaders to build the skills they need to take on leadership roles that drive social change.
First, identify individuals who have consistently demonstrated their ability to collaborate and work well with others in productive, long-term relationships.
Through mentoring, you can help new leaders recognize their own ability to manage a team and make effective decisions that result in progress toward objectives, which will improve the community.
Here are eight ways you can develop leaders from within your volunteer ranks:
1. Provide opportunities within your organization for emerging volunteer leaders to develop and practice their skills.
2. Encourage your volunteers to take on challenges that will foster their own growth and development.
3. Make it safe for them to make mistakes by treating them as learning experiences.
4. Support initiatives that your volunteers may come up with themselves rather than insisting on your own (to the degreethat you can). Volunteers will be inspired to pursue efforts and topics that are of particular interest to them rather than what you feel is best.
5. Recognize individuals frequently for their contributions. Recognition that is low-key, frequent and personal is generally more meaningful to people than a big, annual event (although doing both is even better).
6. Send volunteers with leadership potential to a training or take them to conferences.
7. Remind yourself that a progressive increase in responsibility coupled with improved skills helps build leaders.
8. Believe in everyone’s ability to reach higher and achieve more.
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