166 – Train Volunteers with This Simple 4-Step Framework

June 12, 2025

Episode #166: Train Volunteers with This Simple 4-Step Framework 

In this episode of Volunteer Nation, Tobi Johnson shares a simple yet powerful four-step framework to help you train volunteers more effectively. Drawing on decades of experience in instructional design and facilitation, Tobi breaks down what makes training truly impactful and what to avoid. 

Whether you’re building a new training from scratch or refreshing your current approach, this episode will help you streamline your process, boost volunteer confidence, and focus on what really matters: preparing volunteers to take meaningful action. 

Train Volunteers – Episode Highlights

• [01:19] – Tobi’s Experience as a Trainer 
• [03:41] – Why Volunteer Training Often Misses the Mark 
• [04:33] – Before You Begin Training: Ask This Question 
• [06:01] – Three Types of Performance Gaps 
• [13:19] – Tobi’s 4-Step Volunteer Training Framework 

Train Volunteers – Quotes from the Episode 

Helpful Links

• Volunteer Management Progress Report  
• VolunteerPro Impact Lab 
• Volunteer Nation Episode #012: Training Volunteers What I Wish I’d Known 
• [FREE] Volunteer Skills & Training Feedback Form  

Contact Us

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

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Episode #166 Transcript: Train Volunteers with This Simple 4-Step Framework 

Tobi: Hey, everybody. Tobi here at the Volunteer Nation Podcast, I am pumped today because I’m going to talk about volunteer training, specifically how to train volunteers with a simple four step framework. I know many of you probably were never, I. Trained in instructional design or even delivery. You just learn by doing. 

And I luckily back in the day, was the beneficiary of some good instructional design training, and I’ve been doing training in front of audiences and online for oof, maybe 40 years. I mean, even when I started my nonprofit career, I was asked to step-up on-stage and. Train others. And one of my jobs in nonprofits was a volunteer, a regional trainer, and that’s what I did day in and day out. 

I was a subject matter expert when I wasn’t training. And when I was training, I was driving around the state and getting our volunteers up to speed every month. And so, Ben had hours, I don’t even know, tens of thousands of hours standing up. On stage and in small rooms, big and small audiences, just helping people acquire new skills. 

And so today I thought I’d share with you a very simple four step framework for how to train volunteers because I think we often really get it wrong and everybody, until we get training on training, which I hope this is for you, we’re just kind of. Guessing because it is a professional skill to do and engage in, in instructional design. 

It’s a professional skill to be able to facilitate. I was just a couple weeks ago training some leaders of local bar associations across the state, and a gentleman came up right after I was done and said, look, I, he goes, I study training. I’m obsessed with presentation. And he said, I was watching you. And I was watching all the things you were doing to engage with the audience, and he said, you’re good. 

And I was thinking to myself, what was I doing? Let me think about that. So, then I got kind of self-reflective about it. But you know, once you’ve been doing this for a long time, it’s sort of second nature. And if you’re an empath or a person who’s attuned to other people, I often change my training approach on the fly when I’m standing in front of a group because I can feel whether people were with me. 

Now in this. Case, the group was already with me, and we had a lot of fun together, and I think they walked away with a lot of new ideas and things that they were going to implement. That was really a humbling experience to have someone come to you and say, hey, you know what, I study training, and you got it nailed. 

So, I was like, all right, well good. Glad to hear it. That’s what you hired me for. Often if we as leaders of volunteers or nonprofit staff, we wear many hats and one of them might be to present or design training, and so I want to talk about this simple four step framework for designing training that has impact and doesn’t have to be overly complicated. 

I have helped many organizations develop their volunteer curriculum and I’m. Constantly working against a certain way. People want to approach it, and so I want to just give this to you as my gift to say, this is the way you should do it. Take it or leave it. I’ve been doing this for a long while though, and you’ll see why I do the things I do. 

I’ll explain why I do the things I do. Let’s get. Started, there’s a couple of things you want to think about before you even start designing curriculum or designing a module or a training or a lesson when you’re ready to train volunteers. First question to ask yourself, and people rarely do this is. Is training the answer to solving your problem? 

It’s either a performance problem or it’s a performance goal. Right? So, when even when we do volunteer orientation training, we are training people to be able to perform something. Training is about behavior change. If it’s about other stuff, then it doesn’t need to be training. It can be a fact sheet, or it can be a handbook, or it can be something somebody reads, or it can be a lecture. 

It’s not training. Training is about behavior change and yes. Our brand-new volunteers, we want them. The behavior changes we’re looking for is we’re looking for them to know and be able to speak about our organization with some knowledge. We want them to be able to understand the guidelines we have going. 

We want them to be able to meet and socialize with other people and build relationships. There’s behavior change happening in your orientations and, and when we do training, our minds change. Our synapses and things grow our dendrites. The tiny fibers in our brains grow when we go to and get strengthened. 

When we do a good training and using this four-step framework, they get strengthened even further. So first is training the answer to our performance problem or goal. It doesn’t have to be a problem. It can be a goal. There are gaps sometimes that folks want to fill with training, and when I speak with a client, I’ll look for these, because if these are present, then training’s not going to help. 

And they could invest a lot of money in training and then it doesn’t help. So, first, motivation gaps. Gaps, motivation and attitude gaps. People may have the knowledge and skills, but the learner isn’t successful because they’re not motivated. So sometimes when we’re doing in-service training or there’s a problem with volunteers and we’re like, let’s just do a training, it’ll get better. 

Well, maybe not. Maybe they’re not motivated. The second gap is environment gaps. When there’s something blocking performance, like maybe there’s not enough time to get it the job done, or maybe there’s not enough support, or maybe the tool is hard to use if people aren’t. Logging their hours. Maybe it’s because logging their hours is difficult, or they always lose their password and it’s hard to get a password reset or whatever it is. 

So, we want to always want to look at environment as well to make sure that the gap isn’t something that we need to fix, rather than saying it’s a training gap. The third area. That might be the reason performance isn’t happening is communication. Maybe the instructions aren’t clear or they’re contradictory. 

Maybe they’re getting contradictory instructions from different people. Maybe the supervisory skills aren’t where they need to be. You know, a good supervisor, the team is usually doing producing well for a good supervisor. Supervisory skills matter. Often people come to you, and they’ll say, hey, we need a training on this. 

And so, ask, well, what’s the gap we’re trying to address? What’s the problem? What’s the performance? What’s the behavior? And let’s make sure training is going to fix it. Because instructional design takes time and so does. The actual presentation of the training. So that’s a question you want to think about before you even get started. 

The other thing to think about is if training is the answer, have you established the exact behavior changes you want to influence or the thing you want your learners to do more easily? Do you know what it is? I surprisingly. I’ve worked with many clients. We want to do a volunteer orientation. Okay, what do you want people to learn and do and say, and think and feel? 

Now feel is a little bit, you don’t have control at it how people feel, but you can set an environment where people are more likely to feel a certain way, like inspired, committed, connected, those kinds of things. So, what do you want people to be able to do? And it’s not, no, everybody, I want them to know, blah, blah, blah. 

Nope. That’s not a, that’s not a do. So, becoming aware of your organization’s mission, that is not a do. That is not an action. That’s not an action-based learning objective. Being able to accurately describe. Your key services or your mission is an observable, an actionable learning objective. You could ask people, okay, tell me about our organization. 

We’re going to quiz you right now. Tell me about our, the, the key services our organization provides. If that person who is in your training can do that, then you know that they’ve learned, right? If you ask somebody, okay. Are you aware of our organization? And they’ll say, yes, course they will. They won’t say like, no, but you have no idea if they learn anything, right? 

Also, another little tip, sideline tip is if you’re developing these learning objectives, you only want to have three to four learning goals per hour of content. Now, I’ve done this for years and years y’all, and ask my volunteer pro impact lab members, I am constantly adding content and I’m always like, ah, I shouldn’t have put so much content in. 

This is like the bane of my existence. It’s the thing I still must learn. But I can tell you right now, I don’t write any. Learning descriptions. I don’t plan any learning with more than four learning objectives. It’s very rare because I know I will go over time if I do so. That’s just a little guideline. 

Also, check out Volunteer Nation episode 12. This is an oldie but goodie. This is from the beginning of the podcast. The first few months I was podcasting. It’s called training volunteers. What I wish I’d known, and I talk about some of my best advice on instructional design and training delivery, I talk about all the mistakes I made, so go check that out. 

But let’s pause for a quick break and after I’ll continue with this specific simple framework, the four step framework for how to train volunteers with greater ease. It’ll be easier on you, and it’ll be easier on volunteers. So don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back and I’m going to share with you that four step frameworks. 

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 we’ll 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’re interested in learning more, go to volpro.net/join and we’ll share how to get started and what’s involved. 

Alright, everybody, I am back before the break I talked about. A little bit about what you do when you’re thinking about developing training for your volunteers. 

The questions you want to ask is training the right answer. And then we also talked about developing those actionable learning objectives. Those are things to do before you ever break out the PowerPoint deck or whatever other tool you’re using. Maybe you’re not using a PowerPoint deck, maybe you’re just using notes and it’s, you don’t need to, not every training has to include PowerPoint. 

By far. It doesn’t have to. But let’s get into the step by step now again. So, number one, know that training is the answer to solving your problems or moving forward with something. And then number two, you’ve created behavior-based learning objectives and no more than four per hour of content. 

All right? This applies online on land, doesn’t matter. Remember that your volunteers time is extremely valuable, so is yours. So, make sure you do your best to develop, streamline focused ways to train volunteers for service. We’re going to give you. My four-step framework, I’m going to give it to you in a minute, but just make sure you’re thinking overall, you’re going to provide basic frameworks, helpful tools, and how to get help. 

That’s what you’re going to provide. Your volunteers, basic frameworks, helpful tools, and how to get help. Those are the three key things. And assume that this is going to be crazy. People are going to be like, what? No. Assume that much of what they’re going to learn will be learned on the job. Sorry gang. That’s how it happens. 

Most of what people learn in terms of being able to access knowledge from their brain that has gone to it’s their long-term memory. It’s not just in their short-term memory. They learn by reinforcement on the job. You cannot expect that your training is going to be the silver bullet that everybody walks out and they’re completely understanding everything, and they feel a hundred percent that they can do it. 

They’re going to learn a lot on the job. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be providing basic frameworks, helpful tools, and how to get help. Okay, so it doesn’t take the onus of training the responsibility off your plate but know that people will be learning a lot more on the job. They’ll be watching how everybody else does it. 

Let’s get into this. Remember also, one last thing I want to remind you. Remember that the time that you invest in training upfront will reduce your time answering questions and even retraining. And lost productivity if people don’t, are still confused in the future. And so, people will say, I only have this much time. 

You’re balancing train. The biggest decisions you’re making in training are what trade-offs are we going to make? Because you’re never going to be able to include all the content. And there are times you’re going to must trade this for that and. In our volunteer Pro impact lab, we have a training spreadsheet. 

It’s a training priority spreadsheet and it will take you through and help you decide what and separate out the need to know from the nice to know there’s a formula in there. And I have people put down all their training topics, all the brainstorm, everybody puts it in there because everybody has an idea about what they want in your training that you’re developing. 

Right. You get this laundry list and you’re like, what? We can’t do all this. Well, the spreadsheet we use, you write down all the training topics and then you use this little assessment that calculates and prioritizes. It’s cool. So you’ve got to separate need to know from nights to know, and I’m going to give you some ways to manage that information. 

So, let’s get into this simple four step process for how to train volunteers. Okay? So, step one to training volunteers set the stage. Okay, this is going to happen that you’re going to put this in your training design. First, you’re going to explain what they’re going to learn. I do this simply with an agenda slide, but the agenda slide talks about what they’re going to learn. 

Now, you don’t have to put in an agenda slide. You can, you can do this more creatively if you want, then. Tell them why. What they’re going to learn matters to the organization and to their experience as a volunteer. Now, the alternate to this, and what I don’t want you to do is to include a bunch of background information in organizational history. 

This is specifically related to volunteer training. Because I see organizations, they want to spend like a third of the training talking about the organization’s mission and all the things, you know, the history and who does what. And the org chart, you know what? We don’t have all that time. You can put that in something people can read. 

People don’t, people are not, they don’t need to be trained in this. You can put this on a fact sheet. Step one, explaining what they’re going to learn, what they’re going to learn how to do, say, think, feel. I’m going to explain that and then we’re going to tell them why it’s important to the organization that they learn this thing or these things, and why it’s important to them as well. 

Right Then why is it important to them? Well, because they’re going to be more confident. They’re going to make a bigger difference. There’s lots of reasons why a learner, they’ll have more fun. They won’t be so stressed. There’s lots of reasons why they want to learn these things. Step two. Step two. So that’s your kind of kickoff of your training. 

It shouldn’t take too long. Now, if you want to do advanced and you’re willing to be a little bit flexible, you could ask volunteers in the room, what questions do you have before we get started, and I’ll make sure that by the time we ends, I will have answered all of these. Now that is an adult learning principle that will get people’s attention. 

Right. And we are not reading slide speaker notes while we’re doing this training, right? We’re not using our slides as speaker notes either, right? Okay. That’s just an aside. Alright, step two to training volunteers. Illustrate or demo the process, the step-by-step. So, provide the step-by-step instructions and include a checklist that they can refer to later. 

Now if you are having a hard time with your training content, breaking the down into step by step, you must investigate whether this content is. Appropriate for training. Maybe it belongs in a fact sheet or a manual, or a tip sheet or a checklist, whatever. Usually not a checklist. Because a checklist is related to step by step. 

But if you’re having trouble, then you’ve got to go back to square one and go, you know what? Does this belong in here? If we’re not, we are training people to do, think, feel, say. Training people for action. If there’s no action related to this content, then why don’t we put it in something that they can read? 

Right. Okay. So that’s step two, providing the step by step. Step three is now that you’ve given them the framework you want them to practice and discuss. I know that there’s not a lot of time for this. Sometimes you must shorten this and not allow practice time but at least allow discussion time and q and a time. 

Now, the more you allow for people to practice, the more that people can really. Internalize that knowledge and be able to access it in their long-term memory. So, the less you’ll have to retrain or answer questions, uh, or have lowered productivity until people get up to speed, the faster they’ll get up to speed and the more likely they’re going to transition from learning. 

And training into active volunteerism because they’re more confident. So, the investment in time matters, but you must be really streamlined in the need-to-know information only. So, when you’re practicing whatever it, the step-by-step is groups of two diads or triads groups of three. Work well. 

Now, groups of three work really well if it’s a, a visual thing, and you can have someone, the third person be the observer and make sure they have that checklist that you used when you were training in step two. Here’s the checklist. Okay? We’re going to break you up into threes. We’re going to practice, let’s say we’re doing a client intake, or let’s say someone’s doing something at the reception desk or someone’s doing a data entry item or whatever it is. 

You can have them practice that. Third person’s the observer. They’re using the checklist that you already train them on and they’re giving feedback. Yeah, so that’s step three, step four to train volunteers. This is the wrap up, the debrief and wrap up. So once people have had a chance to practice, then you can debrief their learnings together. 

You can debrief their learnings together. So how did this make you all feel? How are you feeling now? Do you feel confident? What questions came up? What concerns do you have? And then if you had that flip chart of questions people had or topics you go through that, is there anything we’ve missed? Oh, let’s go through these few things. 

Right. And then you wrap up. I like to talk about next steps. What are our next steps, and then I like to wrap up one word that describes your experience today during this training. Now, if you’re going to do this online, of course you’ll have to set up breakout rooms for folks, but it’s still possible to do, but I like to go at the end. 

Wrap up. What’s one word that describes your experience? It kind of ties everything in a bow, and it helps you as the trainer get a sense of where your learners are at. Because if they go around the room and they’re like, I’m stressed, I’m confused. I’m okay, but I’m a little, then oops, we got to do more. 

Right. If everybody’s like, I’m excited, I’m pumped. I’m ex, I’m confident, I’m ready. Then you know that the training worked. Yeah, so it’s that simple. It’s really four steps. Step one, set the stage. Step two, illustrate or demo the process. Step three, practice and discuss. Step four, debrief and wrap up. And that’s it. 

That’s it y’all. Now if you create or update your volunteer training, make sure you also evaluate whether it is effectively closing the skills gaps that you intended, whether it’s new or existing volunteers. We have a free ready to use form to get feedback from volunteers on how to improve your training. 

If you go to the show notes, we have a training skills and training feedback form, or go to vol pro.net, V-O-L-P-R-O net freebie. Four slash freebie volunteer training feedback form with dashes between. It’s a lot easier just to go to our website, honestly. Go to, in the show notes, just go to Tobi johnson.com. 

The show notes are different than where the freebie can be found. We got two websites here. Anyway, I hope this has been helpful to you. The bottom line is this, what you think volunteers want to know is different when that, what they think they need to know. And you think they need to know this broad history and mission and all this. 

When volunteers step up and say yes, what they really need to know is how can I do this? I want to do the best job I can. How do I go about doing the best job I can? I. And your long history and mission of the organization and introduction by your executive director, all that is not helping them do the best job that they can. 

They need to know the practical steps and that other stuff is, while it is helpful, it, it’s something that you can provide them in written form. Now that said. If you would like it to be actionable, then train them on how to be a positive ambassador as part of your orientation. When people ask about you. 

The training can be, the step by step is when people ask about our organization, here’s how to manage that step by step. These are the three things to tell them. All right, let’s practice that. Right, and here’s a flyer that you can hand out, or a tri-fold brochure or a website to send them to right now. 

That’s a way to transition that stuff into something actionable. That’s the most important thing. Volunteers want to get up and go. They are doers. They wouldn’t raise their hand if they weren’t. And so, this is a population of people who are doers. Now we do get some people who ghost us, some people who don’t show up, et cetera, et cetera. 

But let’s not paint a broad-brush stroke over all of volunteerism, right? Plus, maybe your training was boring, and they didn’t come back because of that. If your training’s boring, then they’re assuming volunteering’s going to be boring too. So, make the training fun and make sure people are learning, even if they don’t come back. 

If you’ve trained them on how to be a good ambassador for your program and the training was fun, then at least they walk away with that. And if every anybody ever asks them, they know what to say. And when your funding appeal goes to them at the end of the year or whenever, maybe they’ll donate to you. 

So, it’s never a lost cause to train people on how to be a better investor. All right, everybody, I hope this has been helpful. If you think it would help anybody else, please share it with a friend, we would love to have a five-star review that helps us get seen by more people. So, if you could scroll down and give us a five-star review, that would be great, and I hope you’ll join us next week. 

Same time, same place on the Volunteer nation. Take care, everybody.