Posts Tagged ‘volunteer position descriptions’

5 More Tips for Writing an Awesome Volunteer Position Description

Thursday, August 18th, 2011

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.

Highlight the benefits.

Volunteering has a lot of 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 another .

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.

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 Facebook page? How about a Twitter account? 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.

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

 

 


Six Tips for Writing Volunteer Position Descriptions

Monday, June 13th, 2011

Position descriptions are an important part of the volunteer recruitment process. They let volunteers know what they’ll be doing with your organization, so it’s important to have a position description that accurately reflects what volunteers will be doing. Here are some tips for writing a volunteer position description:

Be clear about what you want people to do. The volunteer position description serves as an introduction to your organization and to what you’re asking volunteers to do. It’s important to have a clear, easy to read description of what volunteers will be doing with your organization.

Have an interesting title. When a volunteer is looking at a list of available opportunities, what’s going to make yours stand out? Are you looking for an office volunteer or a Chief Morale Officer? Are you looking for a community garden volunteer or an Urban Horticulture Enthusiast? The position title is likely to be the first thing a new volunteer will see, so make it something interesting that will make them want to know more about the position.

What’s the purpose of the position? Make sure your position description not only lays out what the volunteer will be doing, but why the position is important to your organization.

What will the volunteer be doing? Make sure to identify the specifics of what the volunteer will be doing. It helps the volunteer to understand what is being asked of them, and helps you to assign tasks for the volunteer when they start with your organization.

Training. Let the volunteer know what kind of training your organization will give to make sure they’re able to do the tasks you’re asking them to do. Even if it’s just an orientation to their position and the office they’ll be working in, make sure to let them know that they’ll have an opportunity to learn more about what they’re being asked to do.

Evaluation. Let your volunteers know how they’ll be evaluated and who they’ll report to. In addition to letting volunteers know what they’ll be doing, letting them know how they’ll be evaluated and by who lets them know there’s some accountability with their position and that it’s important to the organization. Letting volunteers know who they’ll be reporting to gives them a specific person to ask questions to and to learn from.

What are your tips for writing volunteer position descriptions? Let us know in the comments!