Today, the Points of Light blog asks whether partnering with a faith-based organization can help a secular nonprofit to attract older volunteers.

Certainly, partnering with a church or faith-based organization can add to the pool of older volunteers that you can attract. Faith-based volunteering has been a strong component of community service. Places of worship in your community may be open to exploring new avenues for members to engage in community service.

Exploring ways of building community connectedness and celebrating diversity through outreach to diverse faith and spiritual traditions, especially through interfaith service opportunities, can help to increase your pool of volunteers.

Places of worship can offer volunteers the opportunity to create shared meaning and experience through family-focused programs that strengthen generational connectedness. If your organization is looking to partner with a faith group, be sure to offer both volunteer opportunities as well as opportunities to reflect on the spiritual dimension of action.

When you’re looking to build a partnership with another organization, there are some things that you ought to think about before diving in head first.

• When planning the partnership, plan together, plan early, and include volunteers in the planning sessions
• There will be conflicts. The important thing is to keep channels of communication open so that they can be addressed.
• Reach agreements on the logistics of the partnership: frequency & location of meetings, the preparation of meeting agendas, recording and distribution of minutes, etc.
• It’s ok to agree to disagree on non-critical issues.
• Have an agreement on the partnership’s work—specifically what is wanted and how the results are measured. Having an agreed upon definition of “success” is critical.
• Reach an agreement on the role of volunteers as planners, implementers, resource developers
• Be aware of different cultures and working styles and decide how to bridge the divide
• Consider the ethical implications of the partnership—is there comfort with the reputation of the potential parent organizations? Is the branding appropriate for all of the partners? Will the volunteers be engaged ethically?

Has your organization partnered with another organization for a project or on a long-term basis? How did it change the makeup of your volunteer pool? Was the partnership successful? Let us know in the comments!