Episode #069: Why Are Volunteers Important … or Are They?
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, your your charity caused membership or Movement, I made this podcast just for you.
Well, hey, everybody. Welcome to another episode of the volunteer nation podcast. I’m your host Tobi Johnson and today I’m gonna ask a question and that question is why are volunteers important and part 2 is, or are they? I’m being a little bit controversial today just to have us test some of our assumptions.
You know, organizations today have slim resources, overwork staff, and a myriad of problems to solve. And so every Initiative that a nonprofit brings on or continues needs to be assessed on a regular basis to determine whether or not the return on investment is there. Because we are stretched so thin in today’s world, it really makes sense to revisit. And so I wanna revisit volunteerism. Why are volunteers important? And maybe even to have you assess whether or not they make sense for your organization.
Because if they don’t, then it’s time to let them go. It’s time to give them out into the universe and allow them to go find other organizations to support because I think volunteerism is an all in game. we’re either going to be all in and support our volunteers to the max or we’re not. And when we do this in a way that’s not as focused as we can, we end up creating volunteer experiences that are less than optimal. And when that happens, that ruins volunteerism for everyone because when volunteers are unhappy, they tend to make decisions and blanket the entire nonprofit sector.
Well, volunteering isn’t for me because I had a bad experience. And so we aren’t responsible as organizations. Each one of us, if we are involving volunteers, we’re responsible for being active and productive stewards of volunteerism because what we do with volunteers impacts other organization’s abilities to attract and retain volunteers as well. I know we don’t think about it that way. We don’t think of ourselves as an interconnected network but we really are.
And so it’s important for organizations to think about whether or not engaging volunteers make sense right now. It may be a legacy thing you’re doing. It may be something that, you know, is just something we’ve always done it this way. And maybe now’s the time for volunteerism to end at your nonprofit. Now, I know this probably seems pretty counterintuitive from a person who focuses all of her consulting practice on community engagement and volunteer. Is that right? What is she trying to do? Talk us out of volunteerism? No. I’m not. No. I’m not. But I want us to be clear on whether or not volunteerism makes sense. and also be clear on what the benefits are so that we can be very active and vocal advocates for this kind of community engagement.
So that’s what I’m up to today. I’ve been having lovely conversations with some of my Consulting clients, and I’m doing some keynotes and workshops lately where I really am talking a lot about the importance of volunteerism. So I know it’s on everybody’s mind. So let’s just get started. I have got 10 reasons why I think that volunteers are important. Why are volunteers important? The bottom line is that volunteers play a crucial role in the success and sustainability of nonprofit organizations of many of your organizations.
Now again, you may be an organization that for now, volunteerism doesn’t make sense. So assess when I go through these 10 and and see if they check the box for you. If they don’t, then it’s time to revisit. But I wanna share ten reasons why volunteers are important for nonprofits to engage. And as you listen, again, check to see if your nonprofit could use these types of supports or benefits that come from volunteerism or if they’re just not important to you. Again, I am being a little controversial today, but you know what? Sometimes we just have to ask ourselves in, you know, the tough questions.
So let’s start with 1. Number 1. The number one reason why volunteers are important is because of resource optimization. Volunteers supply their time and skills free of charge as we all know, allowing nonprofits to allocate their limited financial resources more effectively towards their core mission and programmatic activities. You know, when we have volunteers involved, paid staff can focus on their zones of genius, and free up more time for strategic thinking and action versus putting out fires. So when we have volunteers helping us, then we can focus more on working on our programs versus in our programs.
And we need to take that step back. I even encourage people who coordinate volunteers to include volunteerism inside the volunteer services department as volunteer welcome teams as volunteer training teams as volunteer advisory groups. All of the things that that volunteer coordinator or volunteer director needs should be supplied in part by volunteers. So resource optimization, we wanna have the right people with the right skills in the right seats. And having volunteers support you in that gives you more flexibility and allows your team, your paid staff to deploy their resources in the most effective ways.
Second area, why are volunteers important, expertise and skill sets, you know, volunteers bring a wide range of expertise from various and wide professional backgrounds, which can enhance your nonprofit’s capabilities to improve its operational efficiencies. So consider recruiting skilled volunteers like those from catch a fire to level up your communications, your strategy, your use of tech, anything in those areas can be leveled up with by including people with professional skills in those areas. So I will post a link in the show notes to catch a fire. You can book with them a 1 hour just info session, just just a question, a q and a conversation to see if they can help and consider what it would be like to have, you know, full on professional marketing or graphic design or web design or strategic planning that you don’t have to pay for. That’s pretty cool.
So think about those expertise and skill sets. The third reason why volunteers are important is expanded reach. With volunteers and nonprofits can extend their reach and impact by tapping into diverse communities is very important to us here at volunteer pro and around the world and at Tobi Johnson And Associates that we want to really support diversity, equity, and inclusion and justice initiatives. And sometimes your organization has not really connected with communities and volunteerism and community engagement go hand in hand and can be part of building those bridges.
Your volunteers can help you build those bridges in communities where they live and breathe. And so we can expand our reach and in inclusivity through volunteerism. Not to mention the fact that volunteers, when they’re working with people who are different than them, can bust some of their own myths about people in the community that might be different, that they might have opinions about that in the end are unfounded.
So it’s a way of also building a sense of community across divides. And I think that’s an amazing thing that volunteerism can do. Alright. 4th, fresh perspectives. Volunteers bring fresh perspectives, especially new volunteers. They bring Fresh perspectives, ideas, and innovative solutions that can help your nonprofit adapt to changing needs and remain relevant. So, you know, our volunteers keep us honest. They keep us connected to the community if we ask and listen to their input. So survey your volunteers regularly, include them in program planning initiatives, and include them in advisory groups because often they are your front line.
They are your most intelligent source of what’s happening with the people you’re serving, especially if they’re involved in direct service. And they can give you an alternate perspective from the community looking inside versus being inside and looking outside. And I think that is absolutely essential for our nonprofits to remain really relevant to the communities we serve. So fresh perspectives are awesome. 5th reason why our volunteers important to our nonprofits because they offer community engagement or opportunities for community engagement and evidence of port from the community, which is so vital to funding requests, strengthening our funding requests, not to mention offering robust resource matching for our our grant proposals.
So engaging volunteers fosters a sense of community support and involvement with your team as well. And it strengthens your organization’s ties with the community as well as building trust. You know, the more people who are in the community working on the inside in your organization stand your organization are ambassadors and champions for what you do, the more that connection is fostered. And, you know, funders like to see that. They like to see that you are in touch. And so volunteers can help you make and foster and continue in sustaining those connections. 6th reason, increased program delivery.
More volunteers mean increased capacity for program delivery. non profits can run more programs or expand existing ones to serve a larger number of service beneficiaries. You know, getting volunteers involved can help you actively reduce wait list for services and reduce staff burnout and turnover because they’re not asked to do it all themselves. This saves you time, money, and any decreased productivity. We’ve got to keep our nonprofit workers happy, resilient, refreshed, and volunteers can step in and help that. And, you know, there’s nothing more demotivating for nonprofit workers who see a huge waitlist of unmet need.
I’ve worked in nonprofits my entire career from the time even before I went to graduate school. I started as an unpaid intern the year the summer before graduate school and throughout my career until I started my consulting practice about a decade ago, a little bit over than that I worked in nonprofits and government agencies, both at federal and state level and in private charities. And I gotta tell you the reason I continued to work in nonprofits is because I believed in the missions I was supporting I wanted to make a big difference in the world. That was my life’s work and has been my life’s work. And I continue to do that.
But consider a nonprofit staffer who doesn’t feel like their work has meaning that they feel a sense of futility because there’s a long wait list of people that can’t be served because they you simply don’t have enough money or enough people. That doesn’t feel good to people, and they start to lose hope. So volunteers can help us by really honing in and involving them and reducing wait list. Now whether they’re doing the direct service or taking over some of the work administratively of a staffer who delivers direct service. Either way, it’s helping you serve more people. So consider that.
Alright. Let’s take a quick pause for a break from asking our question why are volunteers important to your nonprofit? And are they? Are they? So I’m I’m hoping so far you’ve been thinking through, are these important to us or not? If they’re not, then maybe volunteerism isn’t for you, and that’s okay because those volunteers can be released and go to another organization to serve, but maybe they are. Maybe these things are really important to you and you realize how vital volunteerism is your nonprofit sustainability. I don’t know. Let’s take a break and you can think on it.
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Okay. We’re back with our query. why are volunteers important, or are they? Yes. I’m being a little controversial today. it’s probably a little counterintuitive that I’m out gig of volunteers are important, but let’s do it anyway. It’s a great thought exercise. So I’ve got 3 more actually for more reasons that I want you to consider and think to yourself whether or not these are important to your organization. So number 7, diverse network. Volunteers often have their own networks and connections. Their involvement can help your nonprofit reach potential donors, sponsors, or strategic partners. Think about all the volunteers that come to you that that have places of employment that often offer employee sponsored volunteering or community engagement efforts, funding, etcetera.
They bring valuable community capital and organizations need to expand their networks beyond simply what they can generate through staff outreach. You know, I started my nonprofit career as a regional outreach coordinator, and I was out in the community connecting with people off of across a 6 state region. So it’s a big geography for me to cover. and I knew that I couldn’t do it by myself. So I started to enlist others across our organization to help. Now, you know, volunteers are part of that community capital and, you know, they can open doors that maybe you can’t because they’re friends or coworkers or relatives of people who can really step forward and offer you real value to help you move forward. So, you know, they can open sometimes volunteers can open the doors that you can’t.
And I’m not just speaking about your governance or boards of direct volunteers. That’s part of their job. Right? But there are many volunteers that if you ask and if you investigate a little, you’ll find that they have some pretty deep network in your community that they might be willing to share with you. Also, think about how collective philanthropy you might connect with collective philanthropy. You know, we did an episode episode 60 with Sarah Lomalin on giving circles and collective philanthropy, and we talked about how giving circles often with diverse women who are coming together and deciding which organizations to support, and they will lend their network capital, they’ll lend their sometimes their volunteer support.
And often, obviously, as the name says, giving circles, their financial contributions. And so that’s a way where an a baked in network can help your nonprofit. So that’s let’s take a listen to that episode 60. It’s fantastic. Okay. Advocacy and awareness. Here’s another reason why volunteers are important. Engaged volunteers can become passionate advocates for its cause, raising awareness in their circles and attracting more supporters. Rate for word-of-mouth marketing. When people are advocates and passionate They are great word-of-mouth marketers for you, and they can add credibility to your calls to action. You know, it’s one thing if you yourself as a nonprofit staffer makes the call and makes the ask. Of course, people know you’re asking on behalf of the organization, but consider the difference when a community member makes the ask and makes a compelling one. There’s just a little bit more credibility there. I hate to say it, but there is.
And they’ve done research on this. They’ve done research and actually found that direct service is considered in in this one study I read, direct service is considered more quote unquote authentic — when it’s delivered by volunteers because the direct service beneficiaries realize or think to themselves, hey. These people have no in the game. They’re just doing it out of the goodness of their hearts and paid staff are paid to do this. So there is a different kind of credibility that comes with and ask that’s made by a volunteer.
And when they are prepared, trained, and supported in making these asks, they can your organization can go far. So advocacy and awareness. Also advocacy politically, if you’re doing any advocacy see with lawmakers, decision makers, etcetera, for a specific point of view or cause, then volunteers you definitely wanna have along with you when you have meetings. Alright. Number 9, long term commitment. You know, volunteers may come and go. But if you nurture them properly, some volunteers may eventually become long term donors or even staff members.
Some of our volunteers While we don’t engage volunteers specifically to find paid staff, sometimes they end up becoming paid staff members. At and as they develop a deeper connection and understanding of your organization’s mission, there are expanded ways they want to support you And some and I’ve had conversations with some of my friends about this, even include large requests in their state planning. Sometimes That volunteer who comes in every Wednesday, you have no idea that they’ve already made a plan to leave their estate to your organization or leave a large part of it. And I know that this has happened. I’ve had conversations with friends where, like, I couldn’t believe it. I had no idea.
So we also know that volunteers are donors and donors are volunteers. There’s fair amount of overlap between financial contributions and giving of time and talent. These happen often hand in hand, and people are more likely to give to the organizations where they serve. And so while I don’t believe that terrorism is a necessarily a key fundraising strategy. It is a fantastic benefit or side benefit. And then let’s just talk about my final reason why volunteers are important So why are volunteers important again, or are they? I hope you’ve been checking these off. And I I hope, you know, I have a hidden agenda here. Of course, I hope that you are seeing with your own eyes or with your own ears hearing. Wow. Oh, yes.
These are all important to my nonprofit, and I can see the between our engaging our community and making these things happen or at least making more of these things happen. So last thing positive organizational culture. A robust volunteer program contributes to a positive organizational culture. You know, being near acts of selfless giving feels good for everyone. You know, we have mirror neurons. We will feel what the people around us are feeling. Humans are very empathic. Otherwise, we wouldn’t go to movies and cry when someone on the screen is crying. We actually can feel what other people in front of us are feeling. And so there’s a halo effect that happens when volunteerism is going on where, you know, volunteers are happily going about their work.
They’re feeling good about what they’re doing. Provided you have a bot you fostered a positive volunteer culture. And that also boosts morale amongst staffs and fosters a sense of pride in being part of a mission driven organization That engages the community. You know, I’ve been around organizations that are proud of their community engagement, and you know what? Their teams are pretty happy. They’re excited about the work they do. Deep community engagement can help even paid staff feel like they are working for something larger than themselves. which can generate deep satisfaction in work even when it’s challenging.
And the work is challenging, isn’t it? Our work in nonprofits can be very challenging, especially in today’s world. I worked in nonprofits again, my whole career, and I know how hard the work is. And sometimes it just helps to have comrades in arms, right? People from the community that believe in you and that continue to believe in you and that can help with positive organizational culture. So in summary, why are volunteers important?
My bottom line is volunteer isn’t just noble. It’s necessary. It’s necessary to our nonprofit’s sustainability. You know, volunteers are the lifeblood of many non profits, and I know people say that a lot and it feels like a catchphrase, but think about the 10 things I just shared. They provide invaluable support, expertise, and passion that ultimately helps nonprofits fulfill their missions and make a meaningful impact on society. And they really help our teams do more with less. And isn’t that what we’re all asked to do on a weekly basis in our organizations.
So I hope that’s given you something to think about. I hope it’s giving you some information if you’re advocating for volunteerism or you’re thinking about the kinds of resources you need to bring on If you’re thinking about leveling up your volunteer strategy, these are some of the reasons or the return on investment If you’re ready to level up your volunteer program and you have staff who need to learn more quickly, I recommend that you enroll them in the volunteer pro, volunteer management fundamentals course. It’s atvallpro.net volpro.net/begin.
And in 5 modules, learned at your own pace, with tons of downloads and tools and templates, you can get going as quickly as possible on leveling up and bringing your volunteer program to the level it needs to be at to be as effective as possible to realize all of these benefits because we’ve gotta have a a well functioning program to to recognize and to, realize these benefits. So Again, thank you for joining us for this week of the volunteer nation. And if you liked it, would you share it with a friend And, also, please rate and review. That helps us appear in searches. It helps us reach more people who are interested in engaging the community more effectively in their missions. And I hope to see you next week. I’ll be here same time same place on the volunteer nation. Take care, everybody.
Thanks for listening to this episode of the volunteer nation podcast. If you enjoyed it, please be sure to subscribe, BRAKE, and review so we can reach people you who wanna 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 install of volunteer nation.