Posted 28Aug01
Submitted by Denni Wentzell, Coordinator of Volunteer Services with
Community Information & Referral Society, Alberta Canada
I am the Coordinator of Volunteer Services for the city of Red Deer,
Alberta Canada. In my position, I work closely with many voluntary
organizations in the city by chairing a monthly meeting for volunteer
managers to share information, ideas and resources. We develop committees
to do the actual hands-on-work for events related to National Volunteer
Week. One of the many conflicts we continually face is the workload
for each manager as they continue to work in their paid position with
their respective organizations. Many comments are received regularly
stating that much time is spent on things aside from their regular
jobs. This is true; however, NOT as a volunteer - these duties always
fall within working hours for which each manager is being paid by
the organization. My thought is that when we are asking others to
volunteer their time, we, as managers, must be willing to set the
example by volunteering our time - either for our organization or
for another organization in the community. But, as with this situation
regarding wage/salary comparisons, the primary concern is the wage
to be earned. I am finding that many potential funders are not pleased
to see so much of the money raised for the organization to be going
to pay an individual to oversee community volunteers.
Posted 08Aug01
Submitted by Lisa Coble, Manager of Volunteer Services, Newport Hospital,
Newport, RI USA
What an excellent "hot topic" this month. Susan had some excellent
thoughts on the subject of evaluation and measurement. This year I've
documented statistics on number of inquiries resulting in placements,
number of volunteers completing their minimum 3 month commitment and
number of hours served by month. Now I will at least have a base line
of information for comparison from year to year. I think having an
Exit Survey process is important to collect information on why people
are leaving their volunteer position. Any evaluations that can be
done to capture "what's working" and "what needs fixing" from volunteers
and staff is what you need to make improvements.
Posted 08Aug01
Submitted by Laurie Eytel, Volunteer Manager, Prevention Services,
Fairfax County Dept. of Family Services, VA, USA
I like the suggestion about not measuring volunteer "success" by looking
at % increases. However, how does one go about measuring success then?
For example, "enough qualified volunteers respond to 90% of the requests
made by the department" - does this mean if you put out 100 requests
and fill them with 90 volunteers you are then successful (assuming
they are qualified?) Or would retention rates be better? I am trying
to establish a new & improved method for measuring the success of
our programs (social service volunteer opportunities.)
Posted 06Aug01
Submitted by Colette Mandin-Kossowan, Volunteer Program Coordinator,
The Support Network, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
How timely for this discussion to come up now...right when I am posing
these questions about our agency's volunteer program. I agree with
all three suggestions. Measuring numbers of volunteers is about inputs
and outputs. Numbers, though, may not be the only factor in the actual
outcome of the program and the benefits to our clients. I also agree
that comparing unlike programs is an inefficient way to evaluate your
own. I work in a suicide prevention agency with a crisis line. It
would be ludicrous for me to compare my volunteer program with that
of a child care facility. Thank your for this topic, and the thoughts
on volunteer manager salaries.
Posted 06Aug01
Submitted by Louise Shivers, Coordinator, Volunteer Services at Monmouth
Medical Center, New Jersey, USA
You are so right! We had a vice-president who insisted we up our volunteer
force by 20% during a particular year and I found myself looking for
"warm bodies" instead of qualified volunteers. I am suffering now
with inappropriate volunteers and he is long gone! I also agree with
the comparison between "like" organizations. I coordinate a program
at a 526-bed hospital and in our system there are 11 hospitals. All
of the volunteer managers in the system get together and compare all
sorts of info, but it works because we all have very similar programs.
Posted 06Aug01
Submitted by Judy Rust, Director of Volunteers at Minnetrista Cultural
Center, Muncie, In
I agree with your statements about outside comparisons for volunteer
programs. But I do think that it is good to look to national figures
for general comparison. I did this and found that as the "national
average hours per week" declined ours did also. At the same time,
the national figures on number of people volunteering increased as
did hours. All this leads me to believe that more people are volunteering
for shorter amounts of time. For this reason, we need to do more focusing
on the short term volunteer and their needs. These revelations meant
a lot to our Board members. On the other hand, comparing us to another
organization was not possible. As with people, no two organizations
are alike.
Posted 03Aug01
Submitted by Joan Cardellino, Director, Volunteer Resources, Abington,
Pennsylvania
This is one of my favorite "hot topics". My salary grade is determined
(and has been for the past thirty years) by surveys of similar positions/job
duties OUTSIDE of my institution such as "Hay" salary studies. From
my own personal experiences, the figures that come back on volunteer
director positions are not pretty and force my salary (no matter how
extensive or meaningful the range of my duties are) into the lowest
upper level management pay scale in the nonprofit industry. I feel
it is unrealistic for volunteer directors to expect the upper level
nonprofit management to be grateful for all we do and then pay us
accordingly. That has never happened to me no matter how many times
I explain the variety of wonderful things I do for my individual organization.
Upper management's typical response to me has been "Show us the money/results/impact
on organization goals in upper management language" not "volunteerese."
I've actually begun to appreciate the wisdom of that response. Volunteer
directors are perceived and paid within the industry as secretaries/administrative
assistants. I can't help but wonder if this perception isn't actually
based in reality when I examine the uneven range of volunteer directors'
training, education and job duties in relation to standards for most
other nonprofit upper level management positions. The fact that volunteer
directors embrace such a such a diverse list of duties/titles under
the volunteer department is in reality hurting us, not helping us.
I feel we must we crack the upper management salary ceiling by reinforcing
a standard, upper management level set of Volunteer Director job duties/training/education
across the non-profit industry. {Editor's Note: For a discussion
on salaries, see the March 1999 hot topic.}
Posted 02Aug01
Submitted by Cheryl Morehouse, Manager, Volunteer, Community & Senior
Services, Saint Joseph Hospital, Nebraska
I agree whole-heartedly with the suggestions you offered to the initial
e-mail question, in particular suggestion number 2. I am very fortunate
to have an EXCELLENT group of peers in my field who have been a wonderful
resource and support. We meet on a monthly basis and usually have
a roundtable discussion about issues pertaining to our field.
Your suggestion number 3 is also a great practice to follow, because
no matter how similar your volunteer program may be to others in your
city, state, or nation, there will always be unique circumstances
and situations particular exclusively to your agency, facility or
program. "Amen" to your comment and observations that "increase" or
"numbers" doesn't always measure success in a volunteer program. I
would rather stay "lean and mean" with accurately placed and skilled
volunteers than deal with the unpleasant aftermath of bored, unfulfilled,
or difficult volunteers accumulated merely for the sake of numbers!
