Archive for September, 2012

Tips for Planning a Service Project: Focus on Your Community

Friday, September 14th, 2012

Do you want to create an impact in your community?  Do you see a need that isn’t being met and want to act to fix it?  Do you want to inspire and move people to act with you?

Do you know where to start?

Your first step is going to be working with your community to identify the issues that affect it the most.   While you may be tempted to simply plan a project without any kind of outside input, your project will have a greater impact if you involve the community.

You may already have a passion for a particular issue, such as education, the environment or the economy.  However, a community needs assessment is still an important part of designing a service project.  A community assessment can be as simple as taking a walk through your neighborhood or as involved as surveying the whole city where you live.

What’s most important is focusing on the community when you’re trying to identify a need to address through service.

There are a lot of different ways to find a community’s need.  You should select one that fits the scope of the volunteer project you’re planning.  For a one-day project, you may want to choose an assessment method that doesn’t require a lot of time.  For a long term project, devote a little more time to conduct an in-depth assessment to make sure you effectively use your resources.

Some ideas for doing a needs assessment:

Brainstorming

Gather volunteers and community members to talk about community issues or needs.  As a group, look at the causes and effects of the issue you’re trying to address, and then brainstorm potential projects that can address that issue.

Community Dreams

As you spend time in your community, talk to other members of the community about the kinds of change that they’d like to see happen.  What would they change if they had an unlimited pool of resources?  What would they do to make that change happen?

Community Walk

Invite members of the community out for a walk through the community.  On the walk, ask community members about the changes they’d like to see in their community.  Being out in the community can help to highlight the needs that need to be addressed.

Survey

Conduct a formal or informal survey of community members to identify issues or needs.  Ask questions like

  • What problems do you see in the community?
  • What are the most pressing issues in the community right now?
  • What types of service projects would be most beneficial for the community?
  • List two things you want to change in the community.

Finding out what your community’s needs are is the first step in making change sustainable.  If there isn’t community support for your project, all of the work that you’ll put into planning your project won’t have as big of an impact.  Learning what a community’s needs are and working to meet them in a way that is meaningful to the community is a great way to insure that your work will be supported after your project is finished.

What did you do to find a community need that you could address?  What were your first steps in planning a service project? Let us know in the comments!

Five Tips for Making Your Volunteer Program a Part of Your Brand

Thursday, September 13th, 2012

Dan Pallotta writes about nonprofit issues for the Harvard Business Review. He has written about the difference between a logo and a brand. A logo is something that is easily recognizable while a brand is something that permeates everything that your organization does. Your brand is even part of your volunteer program.

Your call to action in your volunteer program. It may seem obvious to have a call to action built into your volunteer program, but how does what you’re asking volunteers to do relate to your organization’s overall call to action? An animal welfare organization may have multiple volunteer positions, but if it can’t articulate how each of the positions relates to its mission, some of the positions may be harder to fill than others. Being able to demonstrate how each volunteer position supports the organization’s goal makes them more attractive to volunteers who support your organization’s mission.

Customer service in your volunteer program. You might not think of customer service when it comes to volunteer recruitment and retention, but it’s an important part of any volunteer program. From having an easy way to move from being interested in volunteering to being a volunteer, to knowing when to show up to volunteer, to simply being available to ask questions about volunteering, good customer service helps to support your volunteer program. Volunteers who have a a positive experience volunteering will tell their friends about their experience and be an advocate for your cause. Volunteers who have a negative experience volunteering will tell their friends, too.

How you talk about your volunteer program. How you talk about your volunteer program reflects on your organization. If your volunteer program is mentioned as an afterthought, then it affects how people outside of your program look at the program. It also affects how your volunteers look at the program. Highlight the work of volunteers whenever you can to show what an important part of the organization they are.

Your people in your volunteer program. The volunteers that serve with your organization are as public as any other part of your organizationYour volunteer program should have a deliberate approach to volunteer recruitment. There should be a screening process that ensures that you recruit volunteers that are passionate about your cause and are able to do the tasks that are asked of them. If they don’t know how to do the task, make sure you’re able to teach them how to do it well.

Your home for your volunteer program. Where your organization’s volunteer program lives reflects on your program and the organization. Do you ask your volunteers to work together with staff, or is there a “volunteer office” in a corner somewhere that staff don’t normally go? Is the volunteer office really a storage closet?

Your volunteer program is as much a part of the public face of your organization as any other part. Do you know a program that has a volunteer program that reflects its brand well? Let us know in the comments.

Eight Tips for Getting Prepared for Emergencies

Wednesday, September 12th, 2012

What do you when a disaster hits that requires evacuation, either before the disaster or after? What happens if you and your family get separated during a disaster? Preparing a plan of action in the event of a disaster is an important part of getting through it. Here are some steps you can take before a disaster to help make it through.

  • Make sure everyone in your family knows how to send a text message on a cellular phone. Text messages can often get around network disruptions when a phone call can’t get through.
  • Pick two places to meet outside of your home. One close to your home like a neighbor’s home, and one outside of your neighborhood in case an emergency forces you to leave your neighborhood.
  • Pick two out of town contacts for family members to call in case they are separated. Designate one a primary contact and the other a secondary contact.
  • Make sure everyone knows the contact numbers and has some way to get in contact with them. If your family members have cell phones, program the contact numbers into them as ‘emergency contact’ instead of their name.
  • Post emergency contact numbers near your phone. If you don’t have a home phone, post them somewhere they’ll be easy to find.
  • Identify the safe places in your home to take shelter during a disaster. The places might be different based on the type of disaster; your basement is a save place in a tornado, but not in a flood.
  • Keep the original version of important documents in a safety deposit box. Keep a copy of them in your disaster kit, and send a copy to be kept with a relative.
  • Practice your plan. Practicing your plan allows you to respond quickly and appropriately during an emergency. Try to practice at least twice a year. Practice not only makes the plan more familiar, but gives you an opportunity to check that everything in your disaster kit is up to date.

Visit these pages for more tips for keeping your family safe during a disaster:

FEMA’s Family Communication Plan

Sign up for emergency alert services

NOAA’s Family Disaster Plan

 

Remembering 9/11 Through Service

Tuesday, September 11th, 2012

Each year, millions of Americans come together on the 9/11 Day of Service and Remembrance to honor those lost and those who rose in service after the 2001 attacks.

Points of Light and HandsOn Network believes that bringing people together in service builds a permanent and positive legacy that rekindles the spirit of unity that existed immediately after Sept. 11, 2001. It brings together cultures, bridges differences and unites citizens of goodwill around the world.

Points of Light has awarded 9/11 Day grants to six HandsOn Network affiliates who will collectively mobilize 15,000 people in disaster preparedness training and building the capacity of nonprofit organizations to equip and mobilize volunteers in times of disaster. Grant funding was made available by the Corporation for National and Community Service.

  • HandsOn South Alabama will mobilize more than 3,500 individuals – including first responders, veterans and the business community – will join together in Mobile, Ala., to support those who protect us in times of emergency and learn the best ways to help the community prepare for a disaster.
  • Hands On Atlanta and its corporate volunteers will work in Atlanta Public Schools to train more than 1,250 students to prepare their homes and families for disasters. Students will also write and decorate appreciation cards and flower pots for local fire and police officers.
  • HandsOn River Region is organizing a corporate day of service to engage and inspire the community to start a long-term commitment to service. On 9/11 Day, volunteers will blanket the city to provide service to the city’s most vulnerable populations.
  • HandsOn Mid-Willamette Valley is creating community preparedness training for local nonprofits to learn best practices for disaster response, and for individuals and families to learn how to prepare and create an emergency preparedness kit. Local youth will also build 72-Hour Kits and distribute them to local veterans.
  • Volunteer Macon will host a Veterans Stand Down event to focus on the needs of returning service men and women and provide important information on disaster preparedness and community readiness. The organization will also host several training workshops for nonprofits, individuals and families to help them create sound plans of action for disaster.
  • Volunteer Arlington plans to canvass door-to-door to engage community members on emergency preparedness topics. Volunteers will discuss how to download the Office of Emergency Management’s “Arlington Prepares” mobile app, register citizens for Arlington’s Alert and have them sign up for ongoing volunteer opportunities.
  • HandsOn New Orleans is partnering with the American Red Cross to stage a Community Preparedness Engagement Day, where teams of volunteers trained to discuss hurricane preparedness and fire prevention educate the public. In addition, volunteers will visit low-income areas of the city to help residents prepare for disaster.

We here at HandsOn Network hope that you are able to take a moment today to find a way to serve in remembrance of the friends, neighbors and family that we all lost. How are you serving today? Please let us know in the comments.

 

Twelve Tips for Planning an Employee Volunteer Event

Monday, September 10th, 2012

Employee volunteer programs are starting to become important parts of companies’ business plans instead of just an afterthought in corporate planning.

Starting an employee volunteer program shouldn’t happen on whim. While it may seem easy enough to get a group of employees together for a volunteer event, some planning needs to go into your employee volunteer program or it won’t be as successful as it could be.

Try building a relationship with a local nonprofit and partner with them on planning your employee volunteer events. Work together with them to plan volunteer events where employees can have fun and can see that they’ve had an impact.

Make sure that resources are in place to support an employee volunteer program. Having a staff member whose responsibility it is to work with a nonprofit partner to ensure successful volunteer events is essential to the program’s acceptance and growth.

Here are a few more things to keep in mind when planning an employee volunteer event.

Planning

  • Verify all of the logistical information before sharing the information
  • Be sure to choose a task that doesn’t require any special skills, or plan time to train the employees before the event
  • Communicating with the partner agency is essential to a successful and enjoyable event

Project Design

  • Work with organizations that have projects where employees and their families can see and experience the impact of their work
  • Make sure the project meets a real community need and is seen as a benefit to the community
  • Don’t simply have the employees and their families do a task, turn the project into a learning experience

Management

  • Provide an orientation to the families prior to the project
  • Provide opportunities for the families to interact with one another
  • Explain to your volunteers the mission and goals for the organization and what is hoped to be accomplished as a result of the project

Risk Management

  • Assess the project site before the event for safety
  • Identify any equipment or areas of the project site that may be unsafe or a liability concern
  • Inform family members that they must report any accident or injury and to whom they should report

 

Tips for Connecting With Your Volunteers

Friday, September 7th, 2012

An organization’s ability to not only survive, but also thrive in the future is directly proportionate to its capacity to learn. People within organizations, both individually and collectively, need to develop the ability to reflect on their work and willingness to uncover, understand, and reconsider the basic assumptions that underlie the work.

Out with the old, in with the new.

Remain aware of the changing social, economic, and demographic realities of today as they have a direct bearing on your ability to attract and retain volunteer involvement. We are quick to recognize the need for change in how we raise funds, address personal issues, and conduct marketing, but more often, we are less likely to focus on updating their volunteer management strategies.

  1. Consider the possibility that some assumptions are no longer valid and limit the way you think and behave
  2. Welcome new ways to stay connected to volunteers through workforce diversification, volunteer feedback, and the use of technology.

Diversity as a goal.

In this increasingly multicultural world in which a variety of lifestyles, cultures, age groups and value orientations seek to coexist, leaders should speak knowledgeably and sensitively about the changing demographics in their communities.  Recognize the inherent importance of engaging people from all these groups as volunteers in order to remain truly responsive to the whole community.

Lend an ear to a volunteer.

Try to learn as much about volunteers as possible. Find out what motivates them, and the quality of their experience with the organization. Use these as clues on how the organization can better adapt and change in order to better sustain and support this vitally important human resource. Always keep in mind the volunteers are grassroots enforcers of the mission!

What do you do to build strong connections with your volunteers? Let us know in the comments!

A lot of this week’s posts were about building connections. In case you missed them, check out:

Five Tips for Awesome Volunteer Position Descriptions

Thursday, September 6th, 2012

Writing exciting volunteer position descriptions can be hard, but there are a lot of ways you can make your volunteer positions more exciting. Here are a few more tips to make some awesome (and fun) position descriptions. Your volunteer position descriptions should be as awesome as a Star Wars band.

Highlight the benefits.

Volunteering has a lot of great benefits. Of course there’s the great feeling you get while you’re volunteering, but there are a lot of other benefits people get from volunteering.

Volunteering can give you an opportunity to build a network, learn new skills, it can help give your resume a boost. You can meet new people and make a difference in someone’s life.

Try highlighting these things in your volunteer position description. Take a few minutes to think about what else your organization offers volunteers.

Make the position description fun.

How many volunteer position descriptions have you seen that have the word “volunteer” in them? While “Office Volunteer” might give someone a fairly good idea about what they’ll be doing, think about being a bit more creative with the title.

Don’t stop at the title, though. Do you need a crew of construction volunteers that have four arms so they can get all of the work done in half the time? Why not ask for it? What about someone to help socialize dogs that can be stretched in two different directions when one dog gets really interested in a rock, and the other dog ?

Don’t forget to revise them!

Your volunteer needs may change over time, and you want to make sure that your position descriptions reflect those changing needs. You don’t want your position descriptions to attract the perfect volunteer only to have them find out that they won’t be doing the kind of work they thought they’d be doing.

At least once a quarter take some time to look at your volunteer position descriptions to check that they’re still asking for the things that you need and that they’re accurate and a little fun.

Take just a little bit of time to be serious.

Sure, one of the tips was to have fun with the position descriptions, but it’s important to take a moment to be serious, too. Make sure to include a list of the types of skills you want a volunteer to have, or that you can teach a volunteer, so they can be great volunteers for your organization. Don’t forget to include specific information about how to contact your organization (like a contact person’s name) so they can volunteer.

Include a call to action!

Volunteering is a pretty big action, but if a prospectve volunteer is looking to give their time, why not ask them to engage in another way? Do you have a ? How about a ? Do you have microvolunteer projects available? What about a donation page? Include a link to these at the end of the listing for the volunteer opportunity and give people an opportunity to engage with your organization in other ways.

How do you make your volunteer position descriptions awesome? Let us know in the comments!

 

 

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5 Tips for Solving Any Problem With Your Volunteer Program

Wednesday, September 5th, 2012

No matter how well you plan a volunteer event or manage your volunteers, eventually something is going to happen that doesn’t quite go as planned. It’s important to address the problem quickly and professionally and getting back to normal.

Identify the Problem

Try to understand what has happened that has created some difficulty. Take a moment to reflect on the problem to try to find the root of it. What’s going wrong at the moment needs to be addressed, but there may be a deeper cause of the problem.

Face the Problem

After you’ve identified the problem facing your program, the next step is to face it.

While it might be easier to avoid the problem, avoiding it won’t help make it go away. Face the problem with resolve and try to solve it in a positive way.

Move On

Once the problem is solved, move on. Try not to dwell on the problem once it’s solved. Don’t keep rolling the situation around in your head, it will only make you anxious and stressed.

 

Remember the Lessons Learned

Moving on doesn’t mean that you forget that the problem happened, though. Make sure you understand what caused the problem and try to implement new practices that won’t let the same problem happen again.

Be Ready for Problems

No matter how well you plan a volunteer event or the processes in your program, something is eventually going to go wrong. Knowing that and understanding how to solve problems can make your program stronger and better able to deal with unexpected problems.

 

What was the biggest challenge you’ve ever faced managing volunteers? How did you solve it? What did you learn from it? Let us know in the comments!

Why Should I Volunteer in Schools?

Tuesday, September 4th, 2012

school volunteering

By now, school has started around the country, and while kids everywhere are heading back to classes, volunteers are heading back to school too!

Volunteering in schools can be beneficial for everyone involved: the students get to meet older students or adults from outside of the school, the school benefits from the skills and talent that the volunteer brings to the table, and the volunteer can grow their network and circle of friends!

Figuring out how to volunteer with a school is an important step in planning your volunteer role, but so is understanding the costs (mostly time) and benefits of volunteering.

Benefits for Students

volunteering in schools

Volunteers in schools can play an important role in the lives of students. They can be an important adult connection for students. Students who have involved adult volunteers in their school generally have better grades, better attendance, and higher graduation rates. Increased adult involvement also causes students to have more positive attitudes, more motivation, and higher self-esteem.

Volunteers may also help students by serving as a link between a school and a community. Students do better when schools, families, and communities work together, and involvement is strong.
Volunteers can be a strong advocate for the school they volunteer with. They can be a voice in the community for the school, helping to bring in needed resources or helping people to see the school as a positive force in their neighborhood.

Benefits for Schools

Schools can benefit from adult volunteers through:

  • Increased individual attention for students
  • Extra support on projects
  • Stronger ties to the community
  • Higher levels of parent-teacher communication
  • Increased capacity to better serve a wider variety of youth needs
  • Higher test/grade scores
  • Strengthened programs
  • Improved student behavior

Benefits for Volunteers

Volunteers benefit from volunteering, whether it’s from a closer peer-relationship with teachers and staff at the school or by building positive relationships with students. Volunteers benefit from their work with schools through:

  • Opportunities to meet new people
  • Improving communication, management, and interpersonal skills
  • Improving problem-solving skills
  • Increased self-confidence
  • A clearer understanding of school structure and curriculum
  • Gaining valuable job experience
  • The opportunity to serve as a role model for students
  • The chance to inspire, educate, and motivate future generations

Parents who are active in their child’s school can benefits at home, too. Parent volunteers can form tighter bonds with their children and often find themselves having more open discussions about life at, and outside of, school. Family members that volunteer aid their child’s transition from the home to school. By assisting in this transition, parents learn the structure and expectations of schools.

If you want to volunteer at your child’s school, get in touch with the school’s principal to find out where volunteers are needed in the school. If

Do you volunteer at a school? What benefits do you see from what you do? Let us know in the comments!

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