Episode #061: Training for Nonprofits – How We’ve Got it All Wrong
Hey, welcome to the Volunteer Nation Podcast, bringing you practical tips and big ideas on how to build, grow, and scale volunteer talent. I’m your host, Tobi Johnson, and if you rely on volunteers to fuel your charity, cause, membership or movement, I made this podcast just for you.
Well, hello everybody. Welcome to another episode of The Volunteer Nation Podcast. Today, I’m going to talk about a troubling topic, a trend I’m seeing that bothers me a little bit. I’m not really going to call this a rant, but I am going to give you a little bit of tough love if this is happening to you. I want to help you think about it in a different way.
I’m going to talk about training for nonprofits and how we’ve got it all wrong. Most recently we had a promotion where we were doing enrollment into our volunteer management fundamentals course, and when we do launches and promotions, we will ask our audience of followers why they didn’t buy. We want to know what are the barriers that our community of leaders of volunteers and volunteer driven organizations are coming up against when it comes to enrolling in something that can help them get traction and gain better results.
Really, that’s what we’re up to. And this year time around the answers just really broke my heart, so I wanted to share these with you. So we pulled our audience and these were the top challenges that folks are coming up against, and maybe you’ve come up against these challenges as well when you’re thinking about training for your nonprofit or when you’re thinking about training for yourself.
Number one was that I would have to pay out of pocket and I don’t have the money. I would have to pay out of pocket and I don’t have the money. Okay, we’re going to talk about this later, but that is like a knife in my heart, right? So, I’d have to pay out of pocket. It just, I’m just like, okay, let’s have a conversation about this and we will.
Number two, no budget for professional development. No budget for professional development. So our organizations have not set aside any budget to support their employees. Again, we will get to this in a minute. Number three, I don’t have enough time, so there’s not time to make improvements to the work I’m doing.
don’t have enough time. Number four, my supervisor did not approve, which is sort of like we don’t have enough budget, right? My supervisor did not approve, so I’m not getting the support I need. So, let’s start with number one, paying out of pocket. So, who should pay for nonprofits and their staff? Who should be responsible for that?
Well, my number one simple rule is this. Anything that benefits your nonprofit, your nonprofit should pay for. So, if you’re an executive director or a supervisor that’s listening, if your employees are getting involved in a type of training, coaching, consulting, support, any type of mastermind, whatever it is, if it’s benefiting your organization, that they’re skill building and their changes in their strategies or tactics are benefiting your results, you should be paying for that.
That’s my simple rule on that one. So when folks are telling me they have to pay out of pocket, there’s either one of two things going on. Either they know that their nonprofit will always say no to these requests, or people have a mindset of scarcity. And that mindset is that because I work for a nonprofit, I must sacrifice and pay out of pocket.
Now, I know that many of our nonprofits are struggling right now because we are in an economic downturn, and there’s a lot of uncertainty. I also know that sometimes nonprofits are working with limited margins. I know that because I worked for 25 years in nonprofits. However, supporting your staff and improving your results need to be part of the equation in order for your nonprofit to succeed.
And so when we have a scarcity mindset where we do not make any investments for the long term, and we only focus on what’s happening right here and right now in front of our faces, we just simply, with that kind of mindset cannot scale.
We cannot scale because we have to invest in order to grow. It’s just how it works. In order to get out of our comfort zones, we need sometimes other input. And I can tell you, I know this from firsthand because I invest for myself thousands of dollars every year in growing my skills and expertise.
Now I have over two decades of experience working in nonprofits. However, the world is changing. Marketing is changing, mindset is changing. Technology is changing, strategy is changing, and so in order for me to keep up to speed and also learn from others, I get involved in masterminds. I have a business coach.
I do trainings online. I. And you know what? You all benefit from that. You all benefit from what I learn and how I grow as a human, who I am and what I know now is very different than who I was and what I knew when I started my business. And I am really lucky to be able to bring you all along for the ride.
So when we think of not investing in our employees in a nonprofit sense, then we are really holding our organization back from success. I absolutely believe in this and I live and breathe it. So, who should pay for training for nonprofits and their staff? Simple rule. Anything that benefits the nonprofit, the nonprofit should pay.
Now if it’s a credential like the CVA that the employee takes with them when they leave the nonprofit, now certainly anything they learn in training, they’re going to take with them as well. You might consider asking the employee to pay for that because it’s a credential for their own professional development.
That said, the CVA credential makes you look good as an organization, it also helps your employee grow because to study and learn and pass the CVA exam, you need to be on point. I know I did it right, and so maybe it’s a 50/50 split when it’s a credentialing type situation. And then because the employee does benefit and the organization does as well, I got to be honest about this a little bit bums me out when people say, I’m not participating in skill building because I have to pay out of pocket.
That’s not where we need to be as a sector. We need to support our employees. All right, so let’s talk about that support and when do we decide when to invest in training for your nonprofit? Now, obviously we’re a training provider here at VolunteerPro and Tobi Johnson and Associates. We train folks on community engagement and volunteer engagement.
However, this is in general, this applies to any types of support and training you’re looking at. Doesn’t have to be with my firm, it can be with any firm. I just want to make sure people are leveling up their skills because today’s world requires it. It really does. So, let’s decide, how do we decide when to invest in training for your nonprofit?
Well, first of all, the first criterion, I think, is when you want to make your resources go further. People don’t think about that. They don’t think about that. They’re like, training costs money. We don’t have money. And I go, actually, if you want your resources to go further, then you need to have good training to help you reach your goals faster and more directly with less trial and error.
So certainly, things can become and are learned through experimentation and experience, but doing so waste time and generates high levels often of frustration because people are hunting and pecking for answers when they could have just enrolled in a course or enrolled in coaching and gotten their way faster.
And then they can move on and do something else to get results. So if you want your resources to go further, you need to reduce the time that folks are spending, whether it’s you or your employees are spending trying to get an answer to get a result. So training helps you extend your resources. Another criterion for figuring out when you’re going to invest in training for your nonprofit is when the opportunity cost is greater than the cost of the training.
You’re probably wondering what I mean by that. Let me explain it. So when the organizations evaluate whether to invest totally on a cost basis, they often miss out on the opportunity costs related to inaction. Okay? So imagine the opportunity cost of not recruiting 50 more volunteers because you haven’t invested in learning today’s tactics.
Now those volunteers may also become donors. They certainly, if you have 50 more volunteers, you’re not having to hire potentially more part-time paid staff. They might help you. The talent they bring means you may not have to hire a paid consultant for something. There’s all kinds of costs related or investment opportunities.
So if the opportunity cost is that, if my team doesn’t know how to do volunteer recruitment properly, and therefore we are not able to recruit these 50 more volunteers, then that’s an opportunity cost, right? It’s the cost related to inaction. In action, right? Because good training results in behavior change, results in new strategies and tactics that can get you results faster, right?
So another time to decide when to invest in training for your nonprofit is when you are concerned about keeping high value talent at your organization. So there, the common understanding in HR circles is that it costs about 30% of an employee’s salary to replace them. So 30%, if you think of your employees, if you are a supervisor, 30% of their salary, that’s the cost of rehiring.
So if you can improve satisfaction, decrease the possibility of burnout, and support your volunteers. Give them a place that they feel supported through training. And training is often one of the things that helps give meaning and purpose. People feel like they’re making progress that’s going to help you keep that high value talent.
And in today’s world, it’s highly competitive to find the right staff and keep them coming back. And so we’ve got to invest in them. They are investing their time and energy in our nonprofits, we need to in turn, invest our resources into them, our employees. So if you’re concerned about employee turnover, offering training can sometimes help build back satisfaction and improve culture and cohesion.
Another time to decide or how to decide when to invest in training for your nonprofit is when you know what you’re trying to solve for. So what I mean by that is training is not a panacea and it cannot solve every problem. We know that, and I’ll talk about that in a minute.
There are many challenges that plague our organizations and that we’re all grappling with. Sometimes we think training, we’ll just do training and don’t fix it. Well, it doesn’t always fix it, and I’ll talk about how you know if it’s going to fix it or not. But training should be geared at a key problem that’s standing in the way of your organization, your program, or the individual employee success, and when training really helps solve an organization problem, it’s a very good investment. It’s a very good investment.
And so for example, hey, we need 50 more volunteers and our volunteer recruitment isn’t working, then you know what the problem is you’re trying to solve for. So if you don’t know whether or not training’s the answer, let me give you a quick framework to check to figure that out.
I’ve been doing training, instructional design and training presentation for decades now. And I’ve seen people want to throw training as the answer to everything, and it’s not, so let’s look at whether or not it is the answer. So you need to understand what are the gaps. So what are the problem you’re trying to solve for, but what are the gaps?
Why isn’t it happening? So if the problem you’re trying to solve for is we need 50 more volunteers, and our volunteer recruitment strategy currently is not getting us there. Then we need to understand why. What’s the gap? And so we need to do a little bit of investigation, right? So there are different types of gaps.
There’s five different types of gaps when we’re coming to decide, we’re trying to decide and evaluate whether or not training’s the answer. The first gap is knowledge gaps, not having the right information to make decisions. That’s a knowledge gap. Skills gaps are not being able to do something or do it well enough to get the result you want. The motivation gaps when knowledge and skills are present, but the learner isn’t successful because they’re just not motivated to make it happen.
Environmental gaps are when there’s something blocking performance, like it might not be enough time to do the work because you don’t have the right software tool or support, et cetera. So that’s an environmental gap. And then communication gaps, the instructions aren’t clear or they are contradictory.
So the employee is not getting the right or you, if it’s you, it’s not getting the right information. It’s contradictory. So those are the different gaps. And here’s the deal, is only knowledge and skills gaps. That’s what training can fix or solve for, knowledge and skills gaps. If it’s a motivation gap, an environment gap, or a communications gap for the employee that’s trying to create this result, training isn’t going to do it.
Motivation comes from culture, it comes from the design of the job, it comes from the support from the supervisor. It doesn’t, another training program will not change the motivation, not very often anyway. Environmental gaps. If someone doesn’t have the right software, if for example, they’re trying to manage hundreds of volunteers using a spreadsheet rather than software, more sophisticated software, I should say.
That’s not going to solve the problem because people are still going to be stuck hours and hours sitting in front of that spreadsheet. So that’s an environmental gap. That doesn’t matter how much training you give somebody. If they’re using a tool that’s really inefficient, they’re not going to be able to do it much more quickly.
And then communications gaps. If the supervisor is not communicating properly or the instructions aren’t clear, then no amount of training is going to change that, except if the supervisor goes to training. So if the supervisor goes to training. So I hope that’s helped you understand my discussion so far about how do we determine whether or not training’s the answer.
Why should we train? What are the opportunity costs if we don’t, and when should we decide to invest in training for our nonprofit? After the break, I want to talk a little bit more about five clues that training for nonprofits is needed. So maybe you can self-assess, do we need training right now? And I’ll do that right after the break. So let’s pause and take a quick break from our discussion on training for nonprofits. I will be right back.
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Okay, we’re back with our discussion about training for nonprofits, and I am going to launch into five clues that training for your nonprofits is needed. Let’s start with the first clue. Employees are stuck in a, we’ve always done it this way, mentality.
So this might feel like a motivation issue. And I know before the break I told you motivation, someone’s lack of motivation cannot be solved through training, or not very often, but it may indicate a deeper problem. The employee may be hesitant because they simply don’t know a better way. In this case, training can help.
So if people are stuck in the we’ve always done it this way, and it’s not because of their motivation. They love their job, but they’re afraid or they don’t feel confident, and training can help. Okay? So that may be a clue that training is needed. Another clue, despite diligent work, the team is unable to get traction or improve results.
So sometimes, people keep trying the same thing over and over again and they just don’t have the appropriate interventions to get to their result. Training can help uncover new ways of it approaching a problem and better tactical methods to get results. We really find this particularly true when folks employ old school volunteer recruitment approaches.
For example, hey, can I design a better flyer and put it up at my local grocery store? And I say, that’s not a good use of time because you’re not going to get anything out of that. So let’s talk about who’s carrying that flyer and who they’re going to give it to and what they’re going to say. Now we’re in business, right?
So sometimes your team is working so hard or you are working so hard and you’re just not getting traction. So you need a new way, and training can help get that. Here’s another clue that training for nonprofits is needed. Employees are new or have accepted a new role in the organization. So anytime transition happens, folks need to know what’s working now, types of strategies.
And sometimes when someone starts a new opportunity, they have an opportunity to see that role or that strategy with fresh eyes. And if they are equipped with training that can help them implement what’s working now strategies right away. And that in combination with those fresh eyes can really build momentum and, and get results much more quickly.
So when there’s a change, giving someone some focus training to kickstart their success in this role, their new role can be really, really helpful. All right. Let’s talk about one more clue that training for nonprofits is needed. The current context for work is rapidly changing or uncertain. Can I get an amen here?
I mean, that’s happening right now, right? I don’t know anybody who’s certain about the future right now. It feels really uncertain right now. So changing times aka, a global life-threatening pandemic, that’s on its way out, we hope. But what about the economy? What about, what’s going on in our communities?
You don’t know. So there is a lot changing tech. There’s changing strategies. I know with marketing, just marketing. It has changed so much since the times when I started VolunteerPro, for example, in 2015. The kinds of tools I use nowadays versus what I used in 2015 are very different, and I have to stay on top of these things and so does my team.
So when things are uncertain, it requires new innovations and out-of-the-box approaches. So sometimes, training from an expert can help staff see the force through the trees and find a new path forward with greater clarity and focus.
So this is a primary reason why I work with a business coach. I’m part of a mastermind. I take online courses, you name it. I am constantly improving because I know how uncertain our world is, the pace of change is just so fast now. So context of work, rapidly changing or uncertain? Yes, it’s time to train more. It’s time to train more, not less. We don’t want to hunker in the bunker.
We want to get out there and understand what’s happening in the context around us. Okay. My final of my five clues that training is required or training for your nonprofit is needed. The organization has bold goals for the future. Similar to being unable to gain traction, sometimes employees are unable to scale fast enough with their current set of knowledge, scales and abilities.
So when you make a targeted investment in a specific approach through training or coaching, it can generate faster rewards than simply trying it out, seeing what happens. And then, if that doesn’t work, try it again. Now, there is a little bit of trial and error, especially in volunteer recruitment because you’ve got to get to know your audience and what they react to, but you can get there faster and employees are more likely to embrace change and those ambitious goals that you’re setting with them when they feel confident in their ability to pull it off.
In these cases, training can help. I often encounter nonprofit staff, including executives that undersell their promise of what they can get done. They’ll set their goals very low, and I’ll say, why did you, why do you set your goals so low? Because I’m not sure we can get to that hard goal. And I go, well, what if you had some training and had some strategies and frameworks, would it increase your confidence and your ability to get those higher goals?
So, that’s another reason we should invest in training for your nonprofit. So I hope this has helped you think through a little more deeply. I’m involved in learning and development and have been for a long, long time. It’s what my company does, and it breaks my heart when we send out a poll and we ask people why they didn’t enroll, and they tell us I couldn’t pay out of pocket.
My boss said, no, my supervisor did not approve it, or I didn’t have enough time. And when people say they didn’t have enough time, then I wonder, you don’t have enough time to save time through better strategies, instead of running around and going on the internet and trying to find a hunt and peck for an answer?
So depends on your goals. And now might not be the time to reach those goals, but at some point it should be. Now, I haven’t talked anything about choosing a training provider, but you can think about what your organization needs. You can think about the ways that the training is delivered.
You can think about the past experience of the person who’s facilitating the training. You can certainly think about cost, but I also encourage you to think about cost as an investment and what’s the opportunity cost of not doing anything, especially when you need to get results.
And around volunteers, I like to think about volunteers as an investment because volunteers are donors, and donors are volunteers. When you have broad community support, it makes you more competitive to grantors, to funders, and you bring in expertise and skillsets that you may not already have on your team. So there’s so many reasons to invest in growing your volunteer program.
So whether you decide to explore training with my company or another company, by all means, please explore it. It’s the investment in training is so important and can help really launch your organization’s success and help get you to another level. So if recruiting 50 volunteers is part of your plan for the future, and it’s a big goal for your organization, and you’ve been struggling to really find that volunteer talent, I do want to let about our Volunteer Recruitment Boost Camp.
And it’s going to be starting the second week in July, and this is an eight week done with you implementation program where we’re all going to be working shoulder to shoulder as we build out our volunteer recruitment plans and we start to implement and we start to learn. And I’m really excited about this program because it’s very intensive.
And I’m going to be tailoring some of the content that I’m sharing with the group by asking the group, where are your gaps? Where are you struggling? Now, certainly we have a whole curriculum already developed, but this is an implementation program and I want to know what, where people are struggling right now so I can offer strategies for the right now as people implement out.
So this isn’t a passive learning program by any stretch of the imagination, we will be learning and doing together. So if you are looking for volunteers and you’ve been struggling and you haven’t been able to get the level of volunteer support you need, first of all know that volunteers are out there.
I know because I checked on the Google. I went and checked to see how many people are typing into Google searches for volunteering and volunteering opportunities and gang, they have not gone down. So there are people out there seeking places to serve. So we want to make sure your organization is one of those places that they consider.
So we will have more information on the Volunteer Recruitment Boost Camp in the show notes. We’ll also have information on our website. But give us a minute because we still, I just wanted to announce this, but it’s not, it’s, everything’s not put together yet. We don’t have the website up yet. Now, it might be by the time this post.
So definitely check our show notes if you’re interested. All right. Well, that’s the show for this week. I hope this has helped you think about or consider differently what training is really about, what its goals are. Of course, we have a good time sitting in training sometimes. There are some of us who are lifelong learners and we enjoy learning new things.
But when you’re a nonprofit that really is working on limited funds and you are, you want to be good stewards of your resources, your training has to do more for you. It has to solve problems, and it is worth the investment just for that. Because it is difficult in today’s world to solve problems by yourself.
Sometimes you need a little extra help. So I hope it’s been a help. If you think this is inspirational to others or you’d like to share this with a friend, please do. And if you would rate review, drop us a line, drop us a comment. We’d love to hear from you, and I appreciate you. Thank you so much for listening to this episode, and if you got to the very end, I know you are very dedicated to your professional development and your growth as a staffer in the nonprofit space. So hats off to you. All right? So have a great rest of your day, or evening or morning, and we will see you next time, same place, same time on the Volunteer Nation.
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Volunteer Nation Podcast. If you enjoyed it, please be sure to subscribe, rate and review so we can reach people like you who want to improve the impact of their good cause. Bring more tips and notes from the show. Check us out at Tobijohnson.com. We’ll see you next week for another installment of Volunteer Nation.
