159 – How to Hire a Future Proof Volunteer Coordinator

April 24, 2025

Episode #159: How to Hire a Future Proof Volunteer Coordinator 

In this episode of the Volunteer Nation Podcast, Tobi Johnson breaks down exactly what it takes to hire a future proof volunteer coordinator who can lead with confidence and adaptability. Given how vital this role is in representing your organization and engaging your volunteers, hiring the right person matters more than ever! 

Tobi walks you through eight essential steps to build a strong hiring foundation. From understanding volunteer coordination best practices and deciding if the position should be paid or volunteer, to writing a compelling job description and offering a fair wage. She also dives into how to assess both credentials and those often-overlooked people and paperwork skills. 

You’ll also learn why emotional intelligence, clear boundaries, and smart use of technology are game changers in this role. Plus, Tobi shares helpful resources like her free hiring guide, insights on the CVA credential, and access to the Volunteer Pro Impact Lab to support your search. 

If you’re looking to build a thriving volunteer program, this episode is your go-to guide for hiring a future-proof leader who’s ready to grow with your mission.

Volunteer Coordinator – Episode Highlights

• [00:50] – The Importance of Hiring a Future-Proof Volunteer Coordinator 
• [03:38] – Understanding Job Titles and Definitions 
• [07:48] – Why Future-Proofing Matters 
• [12:21] – Eight Steps to Hiring Success 
• [31:08] – The Role of Credentials and Emotional Intelligence 
• [39:08] – Supporting Your New Hire 
• [44:01] – Free Hiring Guide 

Helpful Links

• VolunteerPro Impact Lab 
• Volunteer Management Progress Report 
• Volunteer Nation Episode #93: The 5 Phases of Successful Volunteer Coordination 
• Volunteer Nation Episode #96: Volunteer Work or Staff Position How to Decide 
• Volunteer Nation Episode #026: Hiring? What to Include in Your Volunteer Coordinator Job Description 
• Volunteer Nation Episode #119: Volunteer Manager Salary & Career Paths with Megan Vixie  
• Volunteer Nation Episode #055: How to Get Your CVA Credential with Faiza Venzant  
• Volunteer Nation Episode #67: How to Set Up a New Volunteer Coordinator for Success 
• Volunteer Nation Episode #145: Build Your Program with the NEW VolunteerPro Volunteer Impact Lab! 
• FREE Hiring Guide – How to Hire a Kick A** Volunteer Manager  

Contact Us

Have questions or suggestions for the show? Email us at wecare@volpro.net.

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Episode #159 Transcript: How to Hire a Future Proof Volunteer Coordinator 

Tobi: Hey everybody, it’s Tobi Johnson and welcome to the Volunteer Nation Podcast. You know, hiring is not easy. I have hired many people over my career, both in my business and in many of the programs that I’ve run, built from scratch, organized, managed, et cetera, and it’s been quite a journey to learn what works and what doesn’t. And today I want to talk about how to hire a future proof volunteer coordinator. 

Your volunteer coordinators are so important to your organizations. If you’re an executive who’s listening, or a person who is. In charge of hiring. It’s important to take care when you’re trying to find the right person. There’s a lot of reasons for that, and I want to give you an overview today, sort of a comprehensive guide. 

On how to find the best candidates, and I have a step-by-step process. Also, at the end, I’ll share with you how to get your hands on my free hiring guide, how to hire a Kick Beep volunteer program manager. So, I didn’t want to call a podcast episode that because it’s a little spicy, but you can go on our website. 

I’ll tell you how to get that. I also have so many links to past episodes. I started looking through our library and we have so many things on hiring and salary and volunteer coordinator, job descriptions and CVA credentialing. We’ve got so much value here in the podcast in our library, and I’ve had these wonderful guests on that have helped guide us and I want to make sure that I also call them out and share all these links in the show notes as well, because I’m going to be talking about a lot of other resources at other podcast episodes. So don’t worry about writing these down. They’re all in the show notes. And you can grab them when you need them. 

But you know, it’s just hiring isn’t easy. And we are in a very competitive job market, and we don’t have huge unemployment rates, although they’re going up now because people are getting laid off and we’re getting cuts at the federal level. So, it’s bound to cause some churn in our employment outlook. But it’s also difficult in the nonprofit sector when we only have a certain pool of people to pick from. And when there’s relatively low unemployment rates, it means that most people are working. And if you are lucky enough to secure someone who is future-proofed. And it is solid gold for your organization. You also don’t want to let them go. So, we’re going to talk a little bit about how about how to keep that top shelf employee that you’ve hired, that top shelf volunteer coordinator as well. 

So, let’s get started. And first off, I want to talk a little bit about vocabulary or definitions here. First, I called this episode purposefully how to Hire. A future-proof volunteer coordinator because that is the most used term to refer to a leader of volunteers, and this plays out in all our volunteer management progress report surveys. 

When we ask about job titles and what words are and job titles, this is the job title that folks mostly use, however. I would say that one of the things you want to think about when you’re looking for your next leader of volunteers, you want to question whether coordinator is the right job title. And I’m going to give you a little bit of information about that. 

The way we’re defining coordinator, which is generally an entry level position requiring one to three in years of industry experience and a bachelor’s degree, they work on teams or on their own to coordinate aspects of a project and usually report to the volunteer manager, director, or another program manager at the organization. 

A coordinator often is required to come to their manager with questions rather than make executive decisions. So let me call this out. ICI called the title of this podcast episode, how to Hire a Future-Proof Volunteer Coordinator because that is a commonly used or the most used phrase for a leader of volunteers, or job title I should say. 

1. However, if you are hiring a volunteer coordinator and your expectation is that they’re going to run a very effective volunteer strategy across your organization, you’re probably marketing the wrong job title. And so I’ll talk a little bit more about this later. The title of this episode’s a little misleading because we’re really talking about people that have three or more years of experience, so at the manager or director level.

So, I’m not going to be talking about hiring volunteer coordinators. I hope you don’t feel like you’ve been misled. But I use that term because people use it, and I wanted people to get to not think that they weren’t going to be able to get value here in this session, but that’s the first tip I have for you is really, or just a big sort of framework to think about or lens to look through. 

When you think about hiring that person who’s going to lead your volunteers, or maybe they’re part of your team and they are coordinator and you’re a volunteer manager or a volunteer director who’s listening. If that’s the case, these tips will help you as well. So, I just wanted to call that out. Then, the other definition I wanted to. 

To quickly talk about was future proof, this idea of future proof. Now, my idea of future proof when we’re talking about nonprofit staff is that they are not conducting themselves in a way that they will burn out. So, burnout really it is in a lot of ways controlled by us. Now, there are specific, we as people can set boundaries. 

We can focus on our wellness, et cetera. Now there are certain situations where people don’t have, or they have an illness. Or they have events happening in their life or they’re in an emergency type of job, emergency response job where burnout is common and even though the person’s working against it, it still happens. 

But future proofing is a high likelihood that that person will not burn out, that they won’t quit their first week because it feels overwhelming, and that they’ll be able to grow with your organization. Bring new ideas to the table when it comes to engaging the community. That’s what I mean by a future proof volunteer coordinator. 

Volunteer manager, volunteer director. Okay, so I just wanted to start us off with those clear understanding of definitions and what I’m really talking about. Alright, well let’s get into our step by step. But before that, I want to talk quickly about why it is so important that you secure a future proof person for this job of volunteer coordinator. 

Again, I’m using the phrase volunteer coordinator very loosely right now. The occupational definition of it is an entry level role, but we’re using it very loosely, so I hope you go with me on that one. So. Why is it important for this position to hire someone who’s future proof? First, you don’t want a lot of turnovers in this role, and here’s why. 

Because your volunteer coordinator is the face of your organization to many people in your community. Now, they may not be supervising volunteers’ day to day. They might be, they may not be, but they are the person who’s engaging. New volunteers. So they’re often the first or one of the first people that they meet as they meet your organization. 

So, it, you cannot have a revolving door there because sooner or later, if your volunteer program is running well, your strategy is working, people are having a good time, they feel like their work is meaningful with you, then they’re going to want to refer friends. And if you start changing the person in that role, people are going to stop referring. 

The other thing is volunteers form attachments to people that they work with in nonprofits, whether it’s fellow volunteers, the volunteer coordinator, or. Other staff and if you have a lot of turnovers, particularly in that top position in the, the person who’s responsible for volunteerism, when that person leaves, that loyalty may go with them and volunteers may leave. 

I’ve seen this happen where folks are like, what? We’re outta here. Especially if people are let go because the volunteers don’t know behind the scenes why performance was an issue or why that person was not right for the job. If you want your volunteers to stay loyal, they’re not loyal as lo much loyal to an organization as they are loyal to people, to fellow people. 

So, we want to make sure that we don’t have high turnover in this role. Another reason we want this. Position to be future-proofed is that your volunteer strategy and programming will be more effective because you’re not going to be suffering from fits and starts and restarting, and then people are digging through trying to figure out what’s happening and where are we at in this. 

A lot of times stuff doesn’t get. Documented. There’s a lot of intellectual history that goes when employees go. So, it’s really, your organizational impact will be affected if there is high turnover in this role. So, we want it to be future proof. We want people to stick around. And then the other thing around V Volunteer loyalty is the more engaged volunteers are, the more they’re likely to contribute time, talent, and treasure in terms of individual donations. 

And right now, we really need support from individual donors. Individual donors are one of the highest aggregate groups of contributors financially to nonprofits. They eclipse. Foundations, they eclipse corporate funding. They don’t eclipse government funding, but they might, might soon. Who knows? So, they’re the force and power of individuals contributing to your cause. 

If you are out there asking is on aggregate, at least in the us Very, very powerful. And so, we want to make sure we’re keeping those friends and. Who knows more about what your organization needs, especially in times of uncertainty than the people who work in it intimately with you, and those are your volunteers. 

So those are some important reasons why you want to future proof the person you hire. So, you don’t want to do this haphazardly. You want to do this with purpose. There’s also issues around equity. There’re issues around doing this, the right and legal way. You know, your HR department has a lot of you have your policies and procedures. 

I want to talk about more of the wisdom around hiring. Your nonprofit has its hiring practices. I hope they’re fair. I hope they’re equitable. I’m pretty sure they are. But this is more, today we’re going to talk about the wisdom behind hiring a future-proof volunteer coordinator. So, let’s do this in eight steps. 

All right. So, the first thing is to familiarize yourself with the best practices in volunteer coordination. I’m not asking you to learn all there is to know. I’m not asking you to learn. Read a 400-page book, but I do. I want you to as the person hiring, even if you’ve been a volunteer coordinator yourself, maybe you currently are one. 

It’s just a good idea and, and you may already know, and you may have a clear picture of this, if you don’t admit it to yourself that you don’t, hey, I don’t know what best practices look like right now. Volunteer coordination. This is a specialized position. It takes multiple skills. In fact, I don’t know any other role in the nonprofit sector, and I worked in public sector and nonprofit organizations for 25 years before I left and started my consulting practice 15 years ago. 

I was in it to win it for a long time, and I can tell you this job of volunteer coordinator is so multifaceted that it’s hard to find people that have this, this wide breadth of skills. There’s data analysis, there’s recruitment and marketing, there is training and development. There are supervisory skills, there are change management skills, there is report writing. 

I mean, you name it, there is so much to this job. It’s almost, and I’ve questioned this in the past, are there too many skills sets for this job? So, it’s not an easy job to fill. But it takes a solid strategy as well. So, this person needs to be strategic, so you need to know what the best practices are, sort of on a high level, so that when you’re interviewing, you can ask about some of these things. 

This is not. The type of role that’s a fill in or accidental or a side job for someone at your organization. It’s important for you to have a broad knowledge, just an overview of what it really takes to engage and lead volunteers, especially in today’s world. And the good news is I’ve got podcast episode. So, in about 45 minutes or 30 minutes, you can get an overview and it’s Volunteer Nation episode 93, the Five Phases of Successful Volunteer Coordination, and you’ll get a quick overview. You’ll understand from our model, we’ve created a model called the Volunteer Strategy Success Path, and you can just listen to the podcast and then be prepared to be able to ask questions. 

The other thing I would recommend is try AI. Go to ChatGPT and describe in your prompt what it, the job you’re trying to hire for, as well as what are the key challenges for that position and maybe some of your goals. And ask it to suggest some interview questions. And you’ll be surprised, you probably won’t use them all. 

And often they don’t put questions in the right order and the right flow so you can switch ’em around. AI never gives us the full answer, but it will give you ideas. So, check that out. All right, step. Two. You want to also decide, and this may be a no-brainer, and you’re already, you’ve already made your decision, but I want to call this out anyway, decide whether the volunteer coordinator role should be paid or volunteer. 

I think this needs to be a conscious decision. You need to have the budget to be able to hire this person, and it needs to be understood by everyone if it is a paid position. Recently, I was on a call with an executive director of a small new nonprofit who wondered if she could find an unpaid volunteer coordinator, and so I asked her a few questions. 

It’s not that I don’t think a volunteer would not have the capacity, but do they have past experience? Because, as I said before, this is a complex role. And I asked her, well, how many hours a week do you think you’d want that person to volunteer? Or a month? She said, “I don’t. 10 to 12 hours.” I said, “10 to 12 hours a month?” 

And she said, “no, 10 to 12 hours a week.” And I said, Hmm. And I had to let her down gently because to find someone, and it’s possible – maybe it’s a retired volunteer coordinator who wants to keep volunteering, but that’s a needle in a haystack, y’all. So, you know. I do volunteer engagement as an expert, and it’s not what I do with my volunteer time. 

I can tell you that what I do with my volunteer time is get out and talk about gardening. That’s a whole different thing. I don’t want to do my work when I’m volunteering, but I had to let her down gently and say that’s, that’s like a part-time job. Occasionally you can find an amazing unicorn volunteer who wants to do that much work, has all the skills for the role, and can make it happen in their lives, but most don’t, and that doesn’t mean that. 

Some of the job tasks for a volunteer management can’t be spread across different people, different paid employees in your organization. For example, volunteer recruitment could be the purview of the marcoms person. I. Right. Volunteer training might be the purview of the person who will be supervising that volunteer team, et cetera. 

So, there’s a way to not say, okay, we might only have money for a part-time volunteer coordinator, but don’t expect. If you’re hiring a part-time volunteer coordinator, they’re going to be able to do it all themselves on a part-time basis. Just doesn’t, doesn’t play out unless you’ve only got about, I don’t know, 20 volunteers, but that’s not where we want to be. 

We want to grow, and so this person must have the hours to make it happen. That also doesn’t mean, however, that the volunteer coordinators shouldn’t have volunteers working with them and contributing to their projects, initiatives, et cetera. I often recommend to our volunteer Pro Impact Lab members that they form volunteer teams like volunteer welcome teams, volunteer training teams, et cetera, volunteer, DIY, audit teams. 

We’ve got all kinds of Volunteer teams go and have them help build capacity rather than trying to take that on all yourself. When we say whether the volunteer coordinator role should be paid or volunteer, I believe, unless you’re a very tiny organization and you have somebody with skillset and you have a very small group of volunteers to begin with, then it might be a volunteer position. 

But the level of complexity and the amount of time it takes really makes it more difficult to have it be an unpaid role, but. That said, I think it would be helpful if you’re really wondering about this, if this is a big wonder for you, check out volunteer episode 96 where I talk about volunteer work or paid staff positions and how to make the decision. 

So you can go through that decision making process with me in that episode and you can make your decision then. Okay, so that’s step two, step three. Create a job description that attracts the right people. So often we just kind of do our job description and we just sort of list out 1,000,001 things. 

We’re not very strategic about it. Well, remember, your job description is your way of marketing this role to potential talent, and so make sure number one, that you know. The skills you’re looking for, the most important skills, not all the skills, the ones that are most important. You don’t want to make these 25 pages long. 

Go back to step one. You can rewind this a little bit and go back to step one and talk and really think through the best practices of volunteer coordination. A couple of other things that I think are super helpful because they help people decide whether this role is right for  them. One is to describe the key roles and objectives around volunteers for the coming year. 

We’re looking for a volunteer coordinator to come in and increase our volunteer team by 25% or so. If you have specific goals you’re looking for, put them in your job description. So that the right talent that is challenged by that and interested in that is going to raise their hand and say, I’m interested. 

People that aren’t interested in that, people that are going, oh, volunteer management, that sounds fun. It sounds like an easy job gang, but it’s not. But people who’ve never worked in it don’t realize how challenging it is. So, we don’t want to track those people that, that for them, it’s a fantasy. A role. We want professionals. 

We want to attract future professionals that aren’t going to run away after the first week or first month of challenges. The other thing is. I think it’s important to include how you plan to support this role, particularly if you are listing some of the goals and objectives for the role in the coming year. 

If you have big plans for volunteer program development and you want somebody to shepherd those plans, you need to also communicate how you’re going to support them in that. You don’t want it to feel like, well, guess what? We’re going to hire you and you’re on your own. And I know many volunteer managers. Feel like that and it’s difficult to do this work alone. 

And in today’s world, people need support. So, you need to be able to share with them what if you have big like BHAG, big, hairy, audacious goals, then make sure you are also sharing how you’re going to support people through that role. If you check out, Volunteer Nation episode 26, hiring What to Include in Your Volunteer Coordinator job description I also work through in that episode the differences. 

Between the different job titles. Volunteer coordinator, volunteer manager, volunteer director. So, if you’re wondering, well, what should I call this position? That guide will help you think that through. All right. Okay. Step four. This is a big one, and I know this is tough to hear right now, especially since organizations are facing uncertainty when it comes to funding. 

And we are in a crazy time right now and people are nervous, but if you’re going to hire a future proof volunteer coordinator, you need to pay them a fair wage. I’m calling this out y’all, because there are gross inequities. In our sector around what volunteer coordinators are paid and what other staff who have equitable or equal levels of responsibility. 

Volunteer coordinators have very high levels of responsibility. They’re the face of your organization. They are. They’re. Engaging in kind resources through volunteer talent that is an in-kind resource for your organization. Their work is essential if you rely on volunteers. So, if you want the right people, you need to pay them a fair wage. 

Now we all know working in nonprofits, I mean, my career is work, was working in nonprofits, and I remember my mom used to tell me, why don’t you go work in corporate America and work in advertising? You would make so much more money. I never could because I loved working in nonprofits. I loved helping improve the world. 

I love working with people who are making a difference. I could never see them working elsewhere. It’s just not who I was or who I am now. So, we all know when we go to nonprofits that we’re not going to get paid as much as we might get paid in a corporate job, but they do need to be paid. Volunteer managers and coordinators and directors do need to be paid a fair wage. 

I’m talking about equitable. So, you know, gone are the days where you can get quality staff for a pittance. It’s just magical thinking. Don’t rely on the fact that you’re a nonprofit. Don’t rely on the fact that you have a compelling cause impact area or the fact that your organization has a great reputation. 

While those might help a little, they’re not going to attract your top future-proof talent. The job market is competitive in terms of finding the right talent. You are competing not only against other nonprofits, but you’re also competing against people who are making the choice between nonprofit work and private sector work. 

And some people are leaving nonprofits and going into private sector work. I wrestled with that from time to time and I never could do it. I just couldn’t. It wasn’t part of who I was, but people are doing that and they’re making decisions for their needs, their family needs, et cetera. Also, when I talk about inequities, I’m talking about the comparison. 

Just look at what at your organization, what you’re paying, your development or fundraising folks that have the same level of responsibility as your volunteers. So, if they’re doing fundraising and your volunteers are doing fundraising, I have to say, I, I know my fundraising folk are going to not like what I have to say. 

I’m going to say it anyway because it, it’s true. But you know, it’s only from my perspective what I think is true, but I do think it’s harder to engage somebody. To come to your organization, take time out of their busy lives, get trained, go through your gauntlet of whatever application and onboarding requirements, sign up for shifts, month in, month out, and show up consistently. 

I believe it is harder to get someone to do that than it is to get somebody to pull out their credit card. And type it in a computer and make a decision. Am I making a one-time donation? Am I making a recurring donation? And how much am I donating? To me, those are wildly different and both are important. 

I’m not questioning value right here, but I’m, what I’m questioning and calling out is equity and pay equity. Imagine how difficult it is to be a volunteer coordinator in terms of engaging and influencing folks and making these big asks of time and talent. It’s not easy. So, I want us to think as nonprofits, are we offering a fair wage? 

And the way to look at a fair wage might be to just compare it with your development department. And there has been research in the past. In the recent past, I know Mava did a study, Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration. I was part of a committee that worked with that group. And they found that volunteer coordinators were significantly paid lower than development staff. 

So, if you want a future proof person who’s going to stick around and help you grow your volunteer program, you must pay them a fair and equitable wage. And there’s no need to guess on that what people are being paid. Volunteer Nation episode 119, I interviewed Megan Dixie and she talks about volunteer manager salary and career paths, and the research that Alive did. 

The Association for Leaders in Volunteer Engagement, they did around salaries and mapping out job titles. So again, I would also look at that study and then also look at what you’re paying your development staff. Okay, let’s take a quick break from our discussion about how to hire top shelf future proof volunteer coordinators. 

And after the break, I’ve got four more tips and steps as well as info on how to grab that free hiring guide we’ve got for you. That’ll give you much more information about how to hire that fantastic volunteer coordinator. We’ll be right back.  

Volunteer Pro Impact Lab 

Hey, are you looking to upgrade and modernize your volunteer program? Or maybe you’re building one from scratch and you’re just not sure where to start. If so, we’ve got the perfect resource for you, the Volunteer Pro Impact Lab. Having built several direct service programs from the ground up, I know that it doesn’t happen by accident. It’s a clear process that takes careful attention with a focus on impact. 

In the end, you need a system in place that’s clear, standardized, efficient, and that gets results. In addition, and maybe this is the most important, you need a volunteer. Program design that directly contributes to your organization’s most critical goals. That’s where the Volunteer Pro Impact Lab comes in. 

When it comes to effective volunteer engagement, our bespoke volunteer strategy, success path model which is the heart of our resources and strategic advising will help you transform your volunteer strategy from fundamental to a fully mature what’s working now approach and all in less time. With our online assessment, you’ll quickly gain clarity on precisely where to focus your efforts and will provide recommendations for the exact. 

Steps needed for sustainable growth regardless of how large or small your organization is or what your cause impact area or focus is. Our program development and implementation support model will help you build a strong foundation so volunteerism can thrive at your good cause. If you are interested in learning more, go to volpro.net/join and we’ll share how to get started and what’s involved. 

Okay, we’re back with our discussion about volunteer coordinator hiring strategies and how to find that absolutely exceptional person that is going to be the front face of your organization, that’s going to build your volunteer core, that’s going to be able to take your organization’s impact to a next level. 

That’s what a, an exceptional volunteer coordinator can do. So, let’s talk about step five in this process. So, let’s re-review real quick so we know where we’re at. Step one was to familiarize yourself with best practices and volunteer coordination. Step two was to decide whether the volunteer coordinator role should be paid or volunteer. 

Step three was creating a job description that attracts. The right people and step four was pay a fair wage. So, let’s go on to step five, and that is to check their credentials. Now this is a fantastically simple way to understand people’s level of expertise and that is by checking to see if they have what’s called a certified in volunteer administration or CVA credential. 

I got my CVA credential, not when I was working in nonprofits, but when I started focusing on, in my consulting practice on volunteer engagement, there were lots of things I could do training on. There were lots of things I could consult on. But at some point, I decided to focus my energies on volunteer engagement because I could see that it was such a need in nonprofits, and so that’s where I focused my energies. 

After 25 years working in all kinds of jobs in the nonprofit sector, I focus on volunteerism because it’s just that important. There are about 1300, roughly more or less people with the CVA credential around the world. This is the Hallmark credential. Our professional practice. If you can find a person with a CVA or better yet, ask for a CVA in your position description or in your job posting, you will have found someone with proven skills in volunteer engagement. 

I’ve thought I’ve renewed my CVA twice. I think I’m in, we renew it every five years. I think I’m probably in my 15th year. No, 13th year maybe, but I keep renewing it. Because I think it’s that important, and I know that they’re updating every. Five or so years then, or six years, they update the credential. So, they try to keep it as best to focus on best practices. 

You have to pass an exam, and you must update your credential every five years by showing that you have engaged in specific types of activities around professional development, around volunteerism, around leadership, et cetera. So, it means people are knowledgeable and committed. The thing about the CVA credential though, is you must have at least three years active work in volunteerism and volunteer engagement before you can sit for the CVA exam. 

First you apply for it and then you sit for it. This isn’t for entry level folks. So, if you’re looking for an entry-level volunteer coordinator, you cannot have this expectation that they’re going to have a CVA because they’re not going to have one. But if you want a higher-level future-proofed volunteer coordinator, volunteer manager, volunteer director, look for that CVA. 

Even ask for it. Let people know. May maybe not make a requirement because there’s so few of us around the world but ask them if they say that. You could say in your volunteer posting, volunteer manager posting. That you would prefer someone with a CVA. And if you get somebody and they don’t have a CVA, why not encourage them to get the CVA once they’re hired? 

I paid for one of my community managers a few years ago who was working with me. I decided to cover her CVA credential and by her, the book, because I wanted her to get that level of. Expertise and prove it. Check their credentials. Step five, and you’ll have this proof of it is the hallmark of our professional practice. 

And so those folks who have a CVA after their last name means they have done the work. They have put in the work. So, check out and if you want to learn more about the CVA credential, check out Volunteer Nation episode 55, how to get your CVA Credential with Faiza Venzant my good friend. She is fantastic. 

The CCVA, the Council for Certification and Volunteer Administration is a wonderful organization that I’ve supported over the years and am so happy to be one of those CVAs that’s proud of our credential and our field. All right. Step six, check to see if they can do it. Now this is part of your interviewing process. 

Maybe your reference checks. Looking over their experience. I want to call this out as a skillset in general. So, check to see if they can do people and paperwork. People and paperwork, and I’m going to give you a hint. People are more important. You can always use technology to manage paperwork, and you should be, you should have technology that saves you time on paperwork, that is managing volunteer records, et cetera. 

This should not be done at this day and age on an Excel spreadsheet. No, no good. It’s really a waste of time. You’re wasting this person’s talent, so you can use technology to save time and do the paperwork side of things. People, on the other hand, are very important. This person needs emotional intelligence. 

It is essential for this role. Your new volunteer coordinator will need to adeptly manage a wide range of stakeholders. Think about it. They’re working with volunteers, they’re working with community partners, they’re working with fellow volunteer coordinators and other organizations. They’re working with the departments where they’re placing volunteers, if they’re placing volunteers in departments, et cetera. 

They’re working with a lot of different people, and they’re middle managers, so they’re answering to people above them, and they’re working with people below them. I, I don’t know if those are the right terms, but on the org chart, let’s just say that on the org chart, they have a lot of connections with people. 

And so they must be, have good emotional intelligence. They must be flexible. They must be calm in a crisis. Organizational skills are also just super vital because this position, as I talked about earlier, is so multifaceted that if you don’t have a good handle on separating what’s important and, and what’s urgent, important, et cetera, from what’s. 

May or you may or may not do, and strategically focus their time and efforts, it can become overwhelming overnight. So, this future-proofed volunteer coordinator knows how to separate the wheat from the chaff and knows how to say no setting boundaries. Not pleasing people is also a key to battling burnout and overwhelm in this role. 

So we cannot, it’s a skillset and it might be something they have to learn, but setting boundaries is so essential, so essential to this role because everyone is going to want to have a piece of them and their time, and they have to be able again, to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff and also set boundaries with people. 

Sometimes those boundaries have consequences too, and it’s not an easy role for to do that. People are pleasing sometimes when we’re out hiring, oh, these people are so personable. They would be great with our volunteers. Are they a people pleaser? In that case, you might want to ask some behavior-based questions about specific, you know what, if you had these variety of priorities and someone came up to you and they wanted you to stop everything you’re doing and do, do, how would you manage that? 

You want to really figure out do they know how to set boundaries and how do they go about it? Because it is that kind of role that needs that. If you want to know more about setting that volunteer coordinator up for Success check out Volunteer Episode, volunteer Nation, episode 67, where I talk about how to set up a new volunteer coordinator for success.So that’ll give you additional information, but again, it is all about people skills. It’s not about people pleasing. There’s a big difference there. And in fact, setting good boundaries is a great people skill, right? All right, step seven. Step seven, help your new volunteer coordinator if you want to future proof them. 

You do not want to go through all of this process. Bring somebody on board only to have them quit in a week. That’s not future proofed, right? So, let’s help them get off to a high impact. Start. If you have plans, again, uh, I talked about this earlier for revamping or building a successful volunteer strategy, be sure you get them off to the right start, that they’re not fumbling around because that’s going to decelerate your growth. 

You want to accelerate your growth, so this can happen more quickly with targeted support, time-saving resources, and a peer community of action takers. Our Volunteer Pro Impact Lab is that kind of resource. So, it’s an affordable way to get people off on the right foot without the high cost of hiring a consultant to come in and work with them, or time lost hunting and pecking for solutions, et cetera. 

And so, whether you enroll them in the Volunteer Pro Impact Lab, which I think is. Helps people just get off to a great start. We have an assessment tool. First, we have a focused model that applies to any type of organization. We have so many different types of organizations. Anything from animal welfare, uh, to arts and culture to disaster services to you, you name it. 

Mentoring, hospice, I mean, you name it. Hospital volunteering. Gardens, I mean, you name it. We have volunteer pro members in all kinds of different organizations. They use our volunteer strategy success path model, as well as our online assessment tool to figure out where they are in terms of their program maturity. 

So, we have our basic level, our mid-level, and our high level of maturity. So, they can go through our five pillars. So, they can pinpoint exactly as soon as they start the membership, they can go in, take the assessment. Quickly pinpoint where they’re at and then take the next steps. Because the assessment results, link them to the next steps, they should take training resources, et cetera. 

And so, it’s very focused so people can get going right away. They know exactly what to do to get to the level they need to get to. The other thing is that every month we have our member huddles and folks can bring whatever challenges they’re coming up against and we all brainstorm together. What the solutions might be to those challenges. 

It’s a very fun way to get peer support, but also to get direct advice from me. So, it’s a great resource. Whatever you decide to do, make sure you have some type of resource, especially if your organization has some big goals. We also think about professional development. Folks look at the Impact lab and say it’s, well, it’s professional development, not quite professional. 

Development is more for the individual, and the organization also benefits from our support. For this resource, we have other resources as well, courses, et cetera. But for the Volunteer Pro Impact Lab, it’s implementation support. So, it’s program development support. So, its primary purpose is to support the organization strategy and secondarily. 

The members also develop their own leadership skills and professional development. So professional development is first for the individual and then helps the organization. Implementation support helps the organization first and then benefits the individual. I hope you can see the difference there. 

It’s hard. People think training is training is training. I’m like, no. It’s not, not when you have a model and you have assessments, and you have resources and, and you have, everyone’s moving forward in program development, that is different than going to random webinars and just kind of taking trainings so that for training’s sake, that’s not what this is. 

So just think clearly about how you’re going to provide that support. If you want to know more about the Impact Lab, check out Volunteer Nation, episode 145 where I actually, outline how to build your program with the new Volunteer Pro Volunteer Impact Laband that episode is 145 and that was right when we, we transitioned from our volunteer pro membership community to the Impact Lab. 

So, there’s new features and benefits to that program. So, if you want to learn more about it, you can go there. Step eight. This is where I help I, I tell you about our free guide. So, we have a free hiring guide. It’s called How to Hire a Kick, beep Volunteer Manager I can’t, this is a rated G podcast, so we don’t, we don’t swear on this podcast, but you know what I’m getting at, right? 

So, in this free hiring guide, we go more in depth about how to hire these new volunteer coordinators or volunteer managers. So go to volpro.net/hire and you can pick up that free hiring guide and really look at getting more into the hiring process itself. 

Today was more about the big picture wisdom. So, I hope that those resources, as well as the resources I mentioned for the other podcast episodes, as well as this hiring guide, I hope all these resources help you find your top shelf, future-proofed, volunteer coordinator, manager, or director. So that’s my show for this week. 

I hope this episode has helped you consider how to approach hiring your next volunteer coordinator in a new way or a fresh way, so that you get a candidate who sticks and who really helps your organization grow. If you like this episode, please share it with a friend or colleague who might need a little extra help in their hiring process, and I hope to see you next week, same time, same place on the Volunteer Nation. Take care, everybody.