Are you keeping track of all the volunteer support your organization receives? Are you sure? In the course of a year, it is common for agencies to benefit from the donated services of a wide range of people, yet only those formally designated as "volunteers" are reflected in the reports of the volunteer program. Who doesn't get counted? People who come to the agency in a roundabout way, bypassing the procedures of the volunteer services office - flying in "under the radar," so to speak. Examples include:
- Graduate students doing professional internships. Often the contact is made by the university program directly to the relevant department head (social work, nursing, etc.). Because these students are just about fully trained and are called "interns," welcoming them is seen as a professional obligation or courtesy by the staff, to whom it may seem insulting or irrelevant to treat them as "volunteers."
- Groups who help the organization collectively, perhaps for one visit a year such as caroling, garden clean-up, or running a holiday party. Here the contact may come through an activity or therapy office, or even directly through administration.
- Clergy who visit under various types of chaplaincy programs. These visits frequently go beyond an occasional friendly chat. They may be regularly scheduled and the clergyperson may, in turn, recruit others from a congregation to provide additional personal services. This is most often viewed as service to the client, rather than as service to the organization.
- Children of staff and board members. It is not uncommon for an agency to become surrogate child care, particularly for teenagers. "Helping out" after school or during long school holidays usually means coming to the office with mom or dad and doing a variety of odd, generally menial, jobs. Even more frequent is bringing along one's family members (of any age) to help at a special event.
- Advisors or consultants with special expertise who donate their professional services, generally directly to the board of directors or to the executive staff.
It doesn't really matter if these service providers think of themselves as "volunteers," nor is it necessary to use that word to describe them. But here is what they have in common with each other and with the more traditional concept of a volunteer. They:
- Receive no financial remuneration from the agency for their services (even if they are paid by their own employers, they are not reflected on your payroll).
- Come to the facility for short periods of time on a diverse schedule.
- Generally have no real understanding of how your organization functions prior to coming in to help.
- Need basic instructions to do their assignments properly (even the consultant needs to learn how to use your phone system or database).
Does anyone keep track of these time donors from an organization-wide perspective or are they largely invisible? Without a process for integrating such service providers into the volunteer corps, you won't screen them, have a record of their service, report their contribution, or even thank them properly. They will also miss out on support and appreciation, as well as invitations to contribute in additional ways.
Most organizations want to demonstrate that intangible called "community support." If you continually under-report the actual contributed services you receive by ignoring volunteers normally below the radar, you aren't providing a true picture of how many citizens prove through their actions that they care about your work.
One final note about all those relatives of staff and volunteers who are dragged into helping at a special event. Slap a button on them that says "official volunteer," get their names, and give them some choice as to what they'd like to do (rather than being a "go-fer" for their relative). Afterwards, say thank you to them. You might end up recruiting some genuinely willing volunteers!