Episode #080: A Sneak Peek of My New Book for Volunteer Leaders
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, hey there everybody. Welcome to another episode of the Volunteer Nation Podcast. I am your host, Tobi Johnson, and today I want to give you a little bit of a sneak peek of my new book for volunteer leaders. Yes, folks, I’m going to let a little bit of the cat out of the bag and share a little bit of the behind the scenes of what I’ve been working on. This is a very exciting project. It’s been years in the making to get me over the hump, to write a book, to create the space, to get the coaching, to find the community, to learn how to do it, to get the courage, all the things it takes to become an author.
I have written other things, but I’ve never written an entire book on my own. So it’s a new dawn, a new day, a new journey, a new adventure. And I thought I might just share a little bit about what I’ve been working on. The book will be out next year, in 2024. It’ll be available for preorder. Hopefully fingers are crossed if all things go according to plan in February, just in time for April’s global volunteer month. So we’ll have it open for preorder in February. It will be in production in March.
And you know, I have to say, part of the reason I’m saying all this is to keep me accountable to my goals, right? But this is the schedule that I’ve arranged with my publisher, so I know it’s a done deal. We’re going to make it happen. So you may wonder, why did I write a book for volunteer leaders? And I have to tell you, it wasn’t the book I was going to write. In fact, one night I woke up in the middle of the night, it was about, I don’t know, 02:00 in the morning and I had an epiphany. The book came to me and I knew I was going to write a book. I had it in my mind, in my plan for the year that I was going to start writing a book. And so I went downstairs and in my office I have a wall that’s all dry erase paint, so I can write all over it with dry erase marker. So I started writing out the outline for this book and I had this epiphany.
I said, this is it. This is the book. I’m going to make it happen. And the book was intended for people like you, the majority of our audience, which are volunteer managers and leaders of volunteers. And so that was what I decided to write the book about. And I had plenty of information to share as you can imagine, if you listen to this podcast at all, you see that I have things to offer, right? Ideas, challenges, questions, et cetera. And the funny thing is, once I had it all put together and I had found a fantastic book coach and started talking with him and my fellow authors, I got myself in a coaching group with other authors and we’re all working on our books, and we’re talking about what our books are going to be about, and we start doing all our ideation around our books. And I realized it wasn’t the book that I wanted to write.
And through conversations with my coach, I realized that the book I really wanted to write, the book that gave me the most passion, that got me most excited, was a book for volunteer leaders. People that are making differences in our community who give so much of their time and make sacrifices, the people who are our superhero volunteers, the people who give so much of their time every week to causes they care about. Those are the people that I wanted to write this book for. And so I took 180 degree turn and decided that’s what I was going to do. So it’s interesting. I mean, sometimes we think that middle of the night epiphany is the thing we must do and then we realize later, no, that wasn’t the thing. That was only the starting of the thing. So that book is what I’ve been writing and we are now in the editing process.
We go through several rounds of edits and I don’t even yet have a title. So this is a super sneak peek. So I decided again that I’d write a book for volunteer leaders. And you may wonder, why write a book for volunteer leaders? Well, first of all, there aren’t that many books out there for this fantastic group of people. There are books out there for folks leading in faith communities, but there just aren’t a lot of resources out there for the types of people that I work alongside and the people that I’ve known in other organizations that are making big things happen in their communities. And so I felt like that group of people deserve to have an inspirational resource that can help them reduce stress and basically bring more joy to their work because we need these folks. We need these folks. So I wrote it with some of my many of, you know, if you’ve been in any of my trainings that I’m a volunteer myself.
I volunteer in our local county master gardener group and some of the people I volunteer alongside are these volunteer leaders. So partly I wrote the book for them and so some of them will be reading it and giving me feedback on my manuscript, which is awesome. So shout out to those folks if they’re listening. Anyway, so let’s talk about why did I decide to write a book for volunteer leaders. Partly because there isn’t anything out there for these superheroes in our community. But I also thought to myself, imagine a world where every member of our community is actively involved in solving the most pressing issues of our time. And imagine if every one of those teams of volunteers could improve their collective impact by just 10%. By just 10%.
How might those shifts transform our ability to solve today’s challenges? It’s a big question, I know, but there are so many people making change in the community, working towards their causes, their charities, their congregations, their associations, all the different things that they work, their chapters to make things happen. What if, around the world, all of those volunteers involved in these good works could improve their work by 10%? What kind of impact would that have on our ability collectively as a human race in terms of leveling up what we can get done? Because we have a lot of challenges as a human race. We absolutely do. Things are not getting easier, not getting easier. And we know that millions of unsung heroes dedicate their time each year to causes they care about. You know, because you work with these fantastic people every day. Back in 2018, AmeriCorps in the volunteering and civic life study found that about 63 million Americans volunteered their time, contributing a staggering 8.1 billion hour per year. That’s about 920,000 years of service.
It’s nuts. So, to their communities, this volunteer work was estimated at that time to have a value of $167,000,000,000. In the US. That’s about $510 per person in terms of a value on that time. So imagine their time is worth, each person in the US. Giving $510. It’s pretty amazing. But the thing is, in 2021, once we got into the COVID-19 pandemic, this report found that 60.7 million adults.
So we went from 63 million down to less than 61 million adults. So 23.2% of folks were volunteering 4.1 billion hour, about 470,000 years equivalent, versus 920,000 years. So we’ve seen a big decrease in volunteering. So those hours, when you take 4.1 billion hour and you calculate it down to years, it’s about 470,000 years. So that’s a lot of time being contributed, right? And the economic value is estimated at 122.9 billion, which in 2018, it was 167,000,000,000. So the value of what folks are contributing, not the quality and not the importance and not the relevance, but I’m talking about the economic value has declined because volunteering rates have declined. And so this is bound to have an impact on what we can get done around the world because we simply don’t have in the nonprofit and public sectors enough resources to hire all the staff required. And we all know that volunteering and volunteers bring all kinds of other value to our organizations connections to community networks, knowledge, expertise, et cetera that our organizations have been missing to some extent because the rates have reduced.
And so we want to make sure that we are doing everything in our power to make sure that volunteers, and in particular people who are volunteers, unpaid people who lead other volunteers, are happy with their work. They’re productive and they feel supported. So I’m hoping that this book can help with that. So if you’re interested in more about the volunteering and civic life in America research, you can check out volunteer Nation episode 48 where I talk with Dr. Mary Hyde from AmeriCorps about the statistics from the most recent study and what they tell us. And I’ll put that link in the show notes so you can take a look at that if you haven’t had a chance to take a look at it so far. The fact is volunteers have been the driving force behind some of the greatest movements in our history. Just think about the civil rights movement, modern day advocacy for social justice and equality, direct service work, everything that you can think in terms of a movement has been started by and many of our nonprofits were started by unpaid volunteers.
And you may even work within a nonprofit as a volunteer yourself. You may have a small emerging nonprofit that has no paid staff so far. These good works don’t happen without and the progress we make as a human race doesn’t happen without the community being involved. And so we’ve got to do everything in our power to make sure that those folks are supported. And if you’re wondering how long these superhero volunteers have been around, just check out our blog. We did a pro roundup a while ago, five pioneering volunteer leaders to inspire you. If you’re wondering about the history of volunteerism, volunteers have been around for a long time. People have been engaging in community for a long time.
And I’ll post a link to that as well. So this is the reason that I wrote this book. We need volunteers. We need them to be active, happy. We need volunteering to promote wellness, to not create, burnout, those kinds of things. And I wanted to shine the light on the power of volunteerism and equip these unsung heroes with the tools they need to make an even greater impact. That is really the reason I wrote this book for volunteer leaders. So, you know, if you’ve been engaging volunteers for many organization in this quote unquote post pandemic world, people are finding it harder to engage volunteers and the community and their missions.
We need our community members to take up the challenge of leading change. And it’s helpful, obviously, to support nonprofits through financial contributions. But it’s not enough to meet the growing needs for services, advocacy, support and solutions. So we know that volunteers are an essential part of our global safety net and are part of our connective tissue that keeps our communities and our professional associations and our local groups tightly knit. We also know that contributing time and expertise can be an extremely joyful experience we also know that for some volunteers it’s starting to feel a little bit too much like paid work. We know that the time Well Spent spent Study the most recent and I’ll link to that in the show notes as well in the UK NCVO, they’ve run the Time Well spent study and then done shorter studies since 2019 or 2018 when the first study was done most recent. The real reason people aren’t volunteering is because it feels too much like paid work. They’ve got to bring the joy back to volunteerism.
And so when our community is disengaged, we suffer a lack of capacity and talent and we are at an increased risk of poverty, inequality, social isolation and all of the challenges in our environment, et cetera. If we don’t have a community working together, those things are going to suffer. We know that. And so we want to encourage our volunteers to step up and put their shoulder to the wheel of progress. That’s what the book is all about, is to equip those folks to keep with it even when it gets tough. So when I talk about volunteer leaders in my book for volunteer leaders, I thought I would also share just a little bit about who those people are. What do I mean by volunteer leaders? And when I’m talking about volunteer leaders, I’m talking about people who are unpaid, people who come from all walks of life, who take on a role to inspire others and coordinate teams, projects or initiatives within a nonprofit or public sector organization. So there are volunteer leaders out there that work in chapters.
There are volunteer leaders who are informal, who don’t have a formal title, job title. There are others who are voted in. There are others who are on boards of directors, project teams, et cetera. And through their work, these unique leaders and their unique role, they can significantly expand how much an organization can accomplish because they are working with teams. So they are helping their teams grow. And I know as a volunteer myself that these organizations and causes that volunteers support are very important to those volunteers, especially the volunteer leaders. And I know how hard they work to solve big problems and I know that they want to put their best foot forward because they genuinely care. I know because I work and volunteer beside these folks and I know that you all know who these people are.
You can probably think off the top of your head right now 2345 volunteers that whether they have a title of leader or not, are leading in some way in your organization and their work is fantastic. I also believe that anyone can lead, no matter their background, experience, language, neighborhood or lifestyle. If you have the heart to help, you can learn to lead. I think every volunteer’s lived experiences and commitment to their cause, charity, congregation, company or collective can have a really profound impact on other people and so I think we should also use this opportunity to open up the idea of leadership to volunteers of all kinds. Often we offer leadership to a special few, and I actually think there’s room for a lot of people at the leadership table when it comes to volunteerism. So I want this book to also help and teach community heroes how to lead better, how to make it smoother, and how to align their work with their most deeply held values and tap into their greatest desires and intentions to create a better world. So I know that sounds like a lot, sounds very aspirational, and it is. But I also want to give folks some frameworks to do this.
And so in this book, I’m going to talk about a variety of frameworks that volunteer leaders can use to lead more effectively and lead from what I call the inside out. And so I’m going to take a quick break, and after the break, I’m going to share with you one of the frameworks, the key framework, as a matter of fact, that I’m going to be talking about in the book. It’s a method, a framework I’ve developed, and I think you’ll find it interesting. It’s also a way that we are supporting folks from leading from the inside out. So let’s take a quick break from my sneak peek on my new book for Volunteer Leaders. I’ll be right back and I’m going to share with you my brand new framework. Don’t go anywhere.
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Okay, we’re back with our discussion of my sneak peek of my new book for Volunteer Leaders, which its title has yet to be. It has not had a naming ceremony. It has not been named. I’m giving you a super sneak peek cat’s out of the bag about this book.
But I’ll tell you, in this book I want to include some information and inspiration for leading from the inside out. It’s a really positive way of approaching leadership, and I think it is also a positive way for volunteers to approach leadership as well. It’s only when we start with a strong core foundation based on our own values and supported by a focus on keeping ourselves healthy, can we begin to lead others. I think we can all agree that people are tired. There’s a fair amount of burnout going around the world. So we have to start with ourselves first before we try to lead others. So once you are able to establish your foundation of your values, then you can move on to your team to make sure everyone stays healthy and works together. And you can create a synergy that’s buoyed up by a positive team culture.
And I love it when teams are fueled by joy that they just enjoy being together and doing the work together. After all, volunteerism is supposed to be fun, right? It’s something people do for leisure. People don’t volunteer because they want to work for free. They want to volunteer. And they volunteer because they want to change the world but they also want to enjoy their work as they change the world. So we also want our volunteers to be able to work well with their teams. And then we also want to make sure that their collective impact has bigger residents in the world and that their work is aligned with their organization in order to make that impact happen. So my method that I’ll be covering in the book is called the Star method and it’s a framework to describe the elements needed for effective volunteer leadership and teamwork.
And it is this inside out approach. So here are the key elements that I’m going to cover in the book. So the S in the Star method is for self care, focus and your personal mission. And so in the book I’m going to help volunteer leaders hone in on what is it that drives them, what are the values and personal goals that drive their work. Because we want to be clear about that. So we’re very well aligned with the organizations we choose to support and that will sustain us. Values don’t go away. Usually once we have closely held values that we care about, those usually don’t go anywhere.
And so if our volunteer work aligns with those personal values, we’ll have more sustainability and resilience in our volunteering. The second letter T in the Star method is for team, synergy and joy. So as volunteer leaders move from their own internal value set and their internal aspirations and their personal mission in this world, they want to also create team, synergy and joy. So a place where people are working together, they’re having fun doing so, they’re productive and they’re making things happen. So teamwork is also really important. And so I’ll be sharing frameworks to help volunteer leaders create better teamwork. The third letter in the Star method A is for alignment with your cause, charity or association. And so once we understand as volunteer leaders what our own personal mission and value set is, and we know how to build our team in terms of cohesion and synergy and joy, we also want to go outside from ourselves to our team, to then our organization, the organization we’re working within to make sure that our work is aligned well with those organizational goals.
We want to make sure that the work we’re doing is contributing to the larger goals of the organization because when that happens, it’s very, very powerful. And sometimes either organizations don’t communicate well to volunteer teams what the goals are, or volunteer teams get off track because they’re not clear on which direction they’re headed. So I’m going to give some tools and frameworks on how to keep that alignment, strengthen that alignment so there is more power in the work. And then the fourth letter in the Star Method R is for reach into the community and the world at large. We want to make sure that our work not only impacts our organization’s goals, but also has resonance further afield. So we start with ourself, then we go to our team, then we go to our organization, and then we go to the world at large. And that world at large, we may feel like we’re only making an impact in our small team, but if you think about it, every person who’s involved in volunteerism is also carrying anything that they gain from volunteerism into their own lives. So it may be increased mental health or physical health effects, it may be improved networks, it may be more preparation for career, et cetera.
And all of those things impact that person’s interaction with the rest of the world far beyond only that team. And so we want to make sure that those teams are able to have an impact and relevance in each volunteer’s life, but also that their work has impact in the community and the world at large. And so that’s the Star method S is for self care, focus and your personal mission. T is for team, synergy and joy, a is for alignment with your cause, charity or association and R is for reach into the community and the world at large. So this book for volunteer leaders covers each of these domains in succession and offers practical advice and inspiration for leading from the inside out. So I’m hoping that this will help volunteer leaders lead from themselves as volunteer leaders to their teams, to their organization, and to their community at large. So that’s basically in a nutshell what the book is about. I am very excited going through and working this process of editing with my editors and my publishing company.
I’m really excited to be able to announce at some point I will announce the name of the book and I’ll probably do it on the pod and I’ll talk a little bit more about give you an update on where we’re at with the book. But in the next, we’re now in the fall of 2023. For those of you who are listening, you know what, the book might already be out if you’re listening after 2023, but if you’re just listening now, I’ll be editing and working on the book and then it will be coming out early 2024. So if you’re interested in thinking about budget or plan for volunteer recognition for 2024, for National Volunteer Week or Global Volunteer Month, you might consider budgeting for the book. I will be offering some bulk discounts, some early bird. When that happens, I’ll let you know all my podcast listeners so you can go to that page and get your name on the list and then we can send you that information when it comes out. So give me a minute for that. Don’t have that web page set up yet, but I will soon as we wrap up.
I’d love to also offer you one more resource if you want to get started on developing your volunteer leaders. I have a Tobi Johnson and Associates article called how to Develop Volunteer Leaders with Ten Low Cost Activities. I also have another article. All you need to Know for successful volunteer leadership development. I’ll link to both of those in the Show Notes, because at this point, you’re probably all revved up. You want to think about how you want to develop and support your volunteer leaders. And you know what? I can’t get you all inspired and then not give you some information to help you take action. So check those out.
The Show Notes will have all these links to all these resources. So again, this book for volunteer leaders will be available for preorder early next year and later this year. I’ll let you all know when I have the information ready for folks to request or at least get on the list to learn about some bulk discounts. Want to make sure that if you’re interested in getting this out to your volunteer teams, that you’re able to and I think that’s all I got for now. When the book has a name, I think I will announce it first on this podcast. So stick around. Sooner or later, that’s going to come. So that’s my show for this week.
Thanks so much for sticking around and listening. I hope that you’ll find this book valuable when it comes out. If you’re interested in learning more about volunteer leadership and just perusing some of our resources, you can go on volpro.net. V-O-L-P-R-O.net. And look at our blog there. You can go to Tobijohnson.com and look at our archives of articles and we will start more and more to talk about volunteer leadership and I’ll share some other tips and tricks from the book as we grow and as we progress. So that’s our show for this week.
Thank you so much for joining me. I appreciate every one of you. If you like the episode or like the podcast, please share it with a friend. And of course, as always, we really encourage you to rate and review the show that helps us get found on Apple as well as other places where podcasts can be found. All right, so that’s it for this week. I’ll see you next time, same time, same place 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. For 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.