Posts Tagged ‘Project Planning’

9 Tips for Successful Group Projects

Tuesday, September 18th, 2012

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.

 

Related articles

Tags:
Posted in Volunteer Management | No Comments »

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!

Related articles

Tags: ,
Posted in Volunteer Project Development | No Comments »

Motivate Volunteers by Understanding Their Needs

Tuesday, August 21st, 2012

What makes people volunteer? This question often runs across the minds of nonprofit organizations when trying to recruit volunteers for service projects. It is important to understand these motivating factors to recruit more dedicated volunteers to your cause. When individuals have a strong tie to your organization, they are more likely to return for service again. They feel that their needs and feelings are being respected when they are included in project planning.

How can you better serve your volunteers? Check the top six factors that make individuals volunteer for your organization.

  1. Social: Individuals are often motivated by social factors when choosing whether or not they should volunteer. Social factors include statements such as “My friends volunteer” or “People I know share an interest in community service.” These individuals tend to choose organizations they have heard about through word of mouth. Word of mouth is one of your best recruitment strategies. Provide great service experiences so that volunteers want to talk about it and get their friends involved in your cause.
  2. Value: Other individuals are motivated by their core values when choosing their ideal service projects. Value reasons include, “I am concerned about those less fortunate than myself” or “I feel it is important to help others.” It is important to reinforce your organization’s core values in its recruitment message to attract this type of volunteer.
  3. Career: Volunteers can also be motivated by their career paths and goals. Volunteer work is a great way for people who are looking to expand their professional network to find new connections. It is also a great outlet to gain new skills or utilize skills they may not have used  otherwise. This type of reasoning includes “I can make new contacts that might help my business or career “or “Volunteer work will look good on my resume.” It is important for your organization to include the personal benefits to volunteering, as well as the overall community benefits from volunteer work.
  4. Understanding: Volunteering to gain a better understanding of the community and its needs is essential some individuals. These individuals may ask your organization “What can I learn more about the cause for which I am working?” Volunteering allows individuals to gain a new perspective and understanding of their community and its members. It opens new doors for new information that can be used to better serve the community.
  5. Protective: Volunteer work is a great stress reliever. It makes us feel better about ourselves and our current situation when we actively help our community. These factors should be highlighted, when recruiting volunteers, as well. This reasoning includes “Volunteering is a good escape from my troubles” or “By volunteering I feel less lonely.” Volunteering forces you to step out of your comfort zone and find new meaning and perspective.
  6. Esteem: When we help others through volunteering it makes us feel that we serve a purpose and we are an important part of the community. Highlight this aspect in your recruitment message. Let your volunteers know that they are making a huge difference in the overall health of the community in which they are serving. If possible, cite results from the actual project to let volunteers know the  magnitude of their service.

Which one of these factors applies to you? We would love to hear your comments and suggestions in the section below!

Related articles

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Volunteer Recruitment, Volunteerism | 2 Comments »

5 Tips to Better Volunteer Communication

Monday, July 30th, 2012

As a volunteer manager, it is important to keep your volunteers up-to-date and in the loop with important information regarding your organization. Communication is also a key step to project management and it should be an essential step in every service project planning steps. What is the best communication strategy for your organization?

Check out our communication suggestions below and decide which one will work best for you!

  1. Social media: Our culture is increasingly becoming more reliant on technology. This heavy reliance makes a social media strategy essential for any emerging business, including the nonprofit sector. If your organization can secure funds to make a social media team possible, it will be worth every penny! Your organization can use social media to communicate important event dates and details, new resources, service projects, nonprofit news, and project tips. Social media can help your organization market itself at a low cost, which will help your organization attract a new audience.
  2. Newsletters: A great way to keep your volunteers informed is to publish a frequent newsletter. Newsletters can contain a variety of information including upcoming projects, organizational news, and volunteer spotlights. Your organization can save money by distributing these newsletters via email lists. The best way to begin compiling email lists is by collecting personal volunteer information on project days.
  3. Telecommunication: Utilizing cellular phone technology is another way to reach a large number of volunteers without taking a lot from your annual budget. Choose a text-messaging program that volunteers can opt into to receive organizational updates and service project information.
  4. Volunteer orientation: Prior to service projects, assign times for volunteer training/ orientation. At volunteer orientation, inform your volunteers about your organization’s mission and purpose, important information regarding the upcoming project (attire, transportation, specific requests), and explain project expectations. Allow volunteers to give input and meet organizational staff and other volunteers.
  5. Volunteer resource guide: Publish your organization’s volunteer resources online for volunteers to access, when needed. These guides can serve as information for volunteers who wish to plan their own projects. These guides should communicate every necessary detail for volunteers so that they know what to expect at each planning and execution step.

 

Project communication is essential to the success of your project. Make sure that you make this step a priority within your organization. As you can see there are many different communication tools that your organization can use that do not cost a great deal of money. It is important for your organization to choose a communication tool that will fit your organization’s style.

How does your organization communicate with its volunteers? We would love to hear your tips, insights, and questions in the comments section below!

Related articles

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Social Media, Volunteer Management, Volunteer Project Development, Volunteering, Volunteerism | 1 Comment »

3 Steps to a Successful Volunteer Project!

Tuesday, October 11th, 2011

Are you looking for a new way to volunteer? Have you thought about planning your own volunteer project? Volunteering in a group project brings highly motivated people together for a common mission. Here are three steps that can make your volunteer project a success.

Establish Goals, Plan, and Budget: 

Establishing goals at the onset of your group project, allows for you to measure the outcomes of your project. Consider these questions: Is there a current event that has emotionally affected you or might have emotionally affected others around you? What change would you like to see in your community?

Once you’ve established goals, accomplish them! Will you need any supplies, transportation, volunteers, etc? How much money will you need? Contact foundations, private businesses corporate donors and local merchants for funding and in-kind donations. Consider these expense categories: postage, printing/copying, telephone/fax, space rentals, refreshments during your volunteer project, and planning meetings.

Recruiting Volunteers

Find volunteers or contact other local nonprofits that can help provide volunteers. If your project is important to the community, you will find many people eager to be involved. Place flyers at your local post office, park, grocery store, school, community bulletin boards. Volunteer recruitment will also help make people aware of your group project. Social media outlets will also help with volunteer recruitment. Websites such as , , , and a personal blog can easily reach a wide range of people.

Here are some more tips for finding and recruiting volunteers:

Thank You!

Remember to thank your volunteers! Thank your volunteers so that they can feel appreciated and want to volunteer for future projects. Whether it’s a hand-written note filled with a simple message and encouraging words or talking to your volunteers individually-thank them! If you’re not quite sure how, we have a few tips for saying thank you.

Have you planned your own volunteer project? What did you learn from it? Tell us about it in the comments!

Tags: ,
Posted in Volunteer Project Development, Volunteer Recruitment | No Comments »

10 Ideas for Identifying Community Needs

Friday, October 7th, 2011

There is more than one method to identify community needs. Remember to involve residents from the community in the selection and planning of a group project. You may also decide to build upon and help improve ongoing community projects. Some methods to identify your community’s needs include:

Brainstorming

  • Call an easily accessible town meeting of community members and project team members. Brainstorm challenges facing the community and select one as the top priority.
  • Explore the root causes of the problem identified in the brainstorming session. Investigate the effects on individuals and the community.

Use Surveys

  • Contact a local Volunteer Center for information on community needs.
  • Contact the government or public policy program at a local university or college. Ask students to survey the local residents about their concerns.
  • Check with the local Chamber of Commerce or City Planner’s office for a community needs assessment survey.
  • Conduct your own small survey of your partner organization’s members.

Watch the News

  • Bring a week’s worth of local newspapers to a team meeting and discuss the impact of community events.
  • Pay close attention to your local news and think about ways to make negative stories into positive ones.
  • Cut out articles in the newspaper that create feelings of sadness, anger, or that inspire a need for change.
  • Have team leaders make a similar list of stories from television news.

When you’re finally ready to select a project, be flexible and choose a project that can easily be scaled up or down, depending on the number of volunteers you are able to attract. Be sure to have a contingency plan for a low volunteer turnout, and one for excess volunteers.

Set your goals and be realistic, but plan to accomplish something tangible. Volunteers feel good about giving time and resources when they see results. Finally, remember that quality counts more than quantity. An effective small service project that gets things done, and is a joy to its volunteers, is more powerful than a poorly run, large-scale project.

Have you planned your own volunteer projects? What were your first steps? Let us know in the comments!

Tags: ,
Posted in Volunteer Recruitment | 1 Comment »

4 Tips For Incorporating Neighboring into Existing Programs

Tuesday, September 20th, 2011
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.
You can implement Neighboring as new, locally identified programming. But you can also incorporate the principles into existing programs and program models.
Take a look at your current practices for community engagement and define the communities your current initiatives
and programs’ impact. The definition may be geographic—a neighborhood—or it may focus on a stakeholder group, such as a school or nonprofit partner organization.
The Neighboring principles of asset identification and community engagement and empowerment can be incorporated into many aspects of your organization. Think about
  • Who is on your Board or advisory group? Do residents of the under-resourced community your organization impacts have an opportunity for input about your priorities and goals?
  • Do you know the local community leaders for the community you’re working in? Do they know you?
  • As you create a new project or continue an existing one, do you consult community residents for project focus, activities, and overall plan?
Service projects. Do representatives of the partner organization’s client base provide input into the program model? Do they sign on to volunteer?
  • Example: Adult ESL tutoring program. Residents who will participate offer their priorities for learning and provide input about their learning styles, the best location for tutoring, and preferred times. Local community leaders who learned English as a second language participate as volunteer and project leaders along with external volunteers.
Days of Service. Have residents of the community to be served participated on planning teams, provided input into the projects, and signed on to volunteer on the day of service?
  • Example: MLK Day. Community residents from a priority neighborhood are supported in identifying one-day service project priorities, neighborhood leaders support recruitment efforts, and a project is developed to clean a local park and build benches. Volunteers come from the local community as well as the city at large.
Youth Service Learning. Are youth engaged in asset mapping exercises before developing their service projects? Are parents and other local community members engaged in the project?
  • Example: Students from a fifth grade class conduct an asset-mapping exercise for their school community, identifying the skills of teachers, parents, and students. They decide to develop a lunchtime reading program, which will engage parents, teachers, and students in reading with one another, developing skills in parents and students simultaneously.
Financial Stability. Have local community members identified financial stability as a priority area? Have you partnered with local institutions (faith, schools, nonprofits, government) to develop the new programs? Have those institutions identified community leaders to engage as advisers, program developers, and volunteers?
To effectively weave Neighboring principles into existing organization practices, initiatives, and programs:
  • Invite community residents from the under-resourced communities your organization impacts to provide advice and feedback into organization goals and priorities.
  • Engage community residents in project planning. Ask them to provide feedback into current projects.
  • Get to know the community leaders for the communities you work with.
  • Define the community geographical, by client base (via a partner organization), and demographically.
  • Engage community residents to volunteer. Don’t run your program with volunteers who are all externally based.
Have you built neighboring into already existing programs? Let us know in the comments!
Related articles

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Neighboring | No Comments »

Five Steps to Organizing a Service Project for the 9/11 Day of Service and Remembrance

Wednesday, August 17th, 2011

Thinking about organizing a service project for the September 11th National Day of Service and Remembrance but not sure where to begin? Here are five easy steps to help you plan a service project, and don’t forget to register your project on 911day.org!

Step 1: Identify a Project

Ideas for volunteer activities can come from many places: staff and volunteers inside your organizations, faith communities, local partners, neighborhood associations, or from previous service activities.

As you work to identify your project, consider the following:

  • Brainstorm about the needs in your community.
  • Make a list of ideas.
  • Ask if your project addresses a real need in the community.
  • Be aware of the amount of time needed to achieve your goals.

Step 2: Plan Your Tribute Activity

Bring together your ideas for your service project. Decide on your goals and start planning how you want to achieve those goals. Create an activity plan that includes the different tasks in the project and the number of volunteers needed for each task.

  • Don’t forget to think about the skill level needed for tasks.
  • Should there be an age limit for the service project?
  • How much time will different tasks take?
  • What supplies will you need for the service project?
  • Make sure there’s an easy system for registering volunteers.
  • Don’t forget to plan to have fun!

Step 3: Recruit Volunteers and Volunteer Leaders

One-day service projects can be a meaningful experience for everyone involved. It’s important to have a system for volunteer management in place to help make sure everyone has a positive, meaningful experience.

Recruiting experienced volunteers as volunteer leaders that can help guide volunteers through the different parts of a project, and who can help to make sure the volunteers they’re working with are having fun is an important part of a successful project. Think of volunteers that you’ve worked with before and who know your organization, asking them if they’d like to help lead a project is a great way to get them more involved in your organization.

Step 4: Manage Your Tribute Activity

Planning a successful service project means balancing logistics, time, and people. The first thirty minutes or so of your project are going to seem like nothing is going right and you’ll never get anything accomplished.

This is a great time to take a deep breath and remember that the beginning and the end of service projects are usually the most hectic. This is the time when everything seems to be spiraling out of control.

Don’t hold on to a set plan and schedule. Being flexible is an important part of managing a group of volunteers. Focus on the most important things – bringing everyone together, making sure everyone checks in, a short orientation to make sure everyone knows what they’ll be doing and how to stay safe, reflecting on the work that was done – and let everything else happen.

And don’t forget to have fun while it’s all happening.

Step 5: Wrapping Up

At the end of the project, there’s a lot of logistical matters that need to be addressed.

Cleaning up goes a lot faster if everyone pitches in. Taking the time to thank volunteers for participating is a must. Reflecting on the meaning of the work that was done and the meaning of the day moves a volunteer project from something you did on an afternoon to a project that had meaning and purpose.

And even though you said thank you at the end of the project, it’s always nice to take a minute to write a thank you note to your volunteers for coming out.

 

Do you have any tips for planning a service project? Let us know in the comments!

Tags: ,
Posted in Volunteer Project Development, Volunteering | 1 Comment »

9 Quick Tips for Successful Group Projects

Thursday, February 3rd, 2011

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.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Impact, Mobilize, Volunteer Project Development | 1 Comment »

9 Tips for Planning a One-Day Volunteer Event

Tuesday, December 14th, 2010
  • Give yourself plenty of time to plan. Eleven weeks of planning for a large community-wide event with multiple partners is a realistic time-line.
  • Gather a team. Who can help with publicity and planning?  Who can help organize and recruit a large number of volunteers?  Who best knows the community and its needs?  Who has a high level of energy, enthusiasm, and really cares about the community?  These are the people you want to help you to plan a volunteer event.
  • Bring in community partners. Community partners should be a part of the project selection process so they can help to create a sense of community ownership of the project.  The more community partners that you involve, the more the community will feel ownership of the project, and the more meaningful the project will be for the community.  Group partnerships allow you to reach a larger audience, too.
  • Get off to a good start. Make sure your project team has tasks and responsibilities right away.  Make certain that the tasks have set deadlines and that the tasks are distributed evenly among the team.
  • Think about the size of your project. While you might want a small army of volunteers to create massive change in a community, it might be better to have a small, high quality service project that gets a lot done and is fun for the volunteers rather than a loosely run large-scale project
  • Select a meaningful project. A volunteer project ought to have a tangible benefit to the community.  Members of the community should see the work as important to how the community functions.  The volunteers should learn something at the project, too.  Something about the task, the community, or the people that they’re working with.
  • Have a contingency plan. It’s important to remember that things might not go as planned on your project day.  If you choose a project that’s easily scalable, then you can adjust if too few or too many volunteers show up.  Planning a project with tasks for multiple skill levels allows all of the volunteers to do tasks that they’re comfortable with.
  • Recruiting Volunteers. There is no sure-fire, guaranteed message that will make someone say yes when you ask them to volunteer, but a well crafted recruitment message helps turn a “why should I care” or a “maybe” into a “sign me up!”  Recruit more volunteers than you think you’ll need in case some don’t show up.
  • Volunteer Briefing and Debrief. Make sure your volunteers are introduced to the work that they’ll be doing and the impact their work will have on the community.  Don’t just tell them what to do and leave it at that.  If your volunteers realize that they’re having an impact, they’ll be more likely to come to your next project.  Be sure reinforce what kind of impact their work has on the community, both on their day of service and into the future!

What tips do you have for people planning a one day event?  Are you planning an event for MLKDay?  Have you downloaded our Volunteer Leader Toolbox?

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Volunteer Leader, Volunteer Project Development, Volunteer Recruitment, Volunteering, Volunteerism | 3 Comments »