Theres No Crying in Volunteer Management Planning ahead

There’s No Crying in Volunteer Management Planning ahead for volunteer engagement, meaningful service, and acknowledgement. Southern California 1

A League of Their Own, 1992 Southern California 2

Volunteer Engagement Guide 3 / Special Olympics Southern California

Memories of Volunteerism • Describe your personal experience with volunteerism • Was it positive or negative? • What made it positive or negative? 4 / Special Olympics Southern California

Volunteer Lifecycle Creating a new volunteer role Evaluation and recognition Cultivating volunteers Support Screening and placement A picture paints a thousand words Training 5

Steps of Volunteer Engagement 1. Conduct Organizational Needs Assessments 13. Review Application 2. Develop Volunteer Program Purpose Statement 14. Screen Volunteers 3. Evaluate Risk and Create a Risk Management Plan 4. Develop Policies and Procedures 15. Run Appropriate Criminal and/or Motor Vehicle Background Checks 5. Identify Appropriate Positions and Develop Volunteer Position Descriptions 16. Check References 6. Create Budget and Secure Resources for Volunteer Position 18. Orient Volunteers 7. Create Agency/Volunteer Agreement 17. Sign Agency/Volunteer Agreement 19. Train Volunteers 8. Train Staff to Work With Volunteers 20. Place Volunteers in Positions 9. Create Volunteer Application 21. Supervise Volunteer 10. Develop Outreach & Marketing Materials 22. Conduct Agency/Volunteer Evaluation 11. Create a Recruitment Plan 23. Recognize Volunteers 6 12. Recruit Volunteers

Poor Planning Poor volunteer engagement leads to poor volunteer retention. The New Volunteer Workforce Due to poor engagement of volunteers, more than onethird of those who volunteer one year do not donate their time the following year at ANY nonprofit 7

Time = Contributions Source: Volunteering and Civic Life in America Report http: //www. volunteeringinamerica. gov 8

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5 Volunteers 10 / Special Olympics Southern California

Benefits & Challenges Groups 1 & 2 Groups 3 & 4 • For [SOSC] volunteers, what are the challenges of volunteering? • Why involve volunteers? What are the advantages of working with volunteers that you may not get working with paid employees? • For SOSC as an organization, what are the challenges of engaging volunteers? • What are potential solutions to some of these challenges? 11 • If you had all the money SOSC needed, for what reasons would you still engage volunteers? • What would happen if volunteers were not involved in SOSC?

Challenges of Engaging Volunteers For Organizations: • Appropriate resources, money and time • Recruiting the right volunteers • Matching volunteers to appropriate roles • Providing appropriate level of support and supervision • Organizational risk 12 / Special Olympics Southern California

Benefits of Engaging Volunteers • Community outreach and input • Help meet and advance mission • Gain additional human • Help maximize financial resources • Increase number of community advocates for agency and • Demonstrate community mission support for program resources and expertise • Act as a conduit to other groups • Provide ability to react to shortterm crises • Provide community mentoring • Allow agency flexibility to react quickly to changing community conditions 13 • Supplement staff resources and experiences

Remember Just because we do not pay our volunteers, does not mean they are free 14 / Special Olympics Southern California

A League of Their Own, 1992 Southern California 15

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Creating Meaningful & Strategic Volunteer Roles Southern California 17 / Special Olympics Southern California

Needs Assessment What questions should you ask yourself or others when considering new (or reoccurring) volunteer roles? • What are the problems and challenges your division/department is currently experiencing? • What is your department currently doing that you would like to increase, replicate, or expand? • What is an area in your division/department that is always underutilized or understaffed or seems constantly overloaded? • What specific skill or resource would your department’s team need to fulfill its dreams? To meet its challenges? 18

Appropriate Roles Tasks Enter into agreements with businesses and entities Represent agency in the community Type reports for vol. manager, other staff Process payroll checks Deposit money into agency bank account Serve wine during a fundraising event 19 Fine as written Questionable Needs clarification Inappropriate for volunteers Why did you rate it this way?

Remember Meaningful service equates to meaningful best practices. The more you prepare for a volunteer opportunity, the more impactful it will be 20

Volunteer Roles & Risk Management We will create and recruit for a volunteer position if and when. . . A volunteer position must: • Meet the needs of SOSC • Have an associated risk management strategy that we are comfortable with • Require a reasonable amount of training • Others? 21

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Design the Position Description 23

Tools You Will Find in the VEG • How to design a volunteer description with templates • Needs Assessment • Checklist for designing new roles • How to request a new volunteer – Coming Soon! 24

Upcoming Trainings Southern California 25

Questions & Answers 26 / Special Olympics Southern California

Thank you! www. sosc. org/intranet/VEG 27