Volunteer Management Progress Report [USA] 2016

01/03/2017

2016 Volunteer Management Progress Report.

Tobi Johnson & Associates LLC (VolunteerPro), February 23, 2016

Free and available at: http://volpro.net/2016-volunteer-management-progress-report/

(VolunteerPro, PO Box 23408, Knoxville, TN 37933-1408)

This is the report of an online only survey using the Survey Monkey platform from November 9 to December 21, 2015. A total of 1,068 volunteer administrators (paid & volunteer) from 13 countries chose to respond; 29 were disqualified because they did not work with volunteers, and approximately 950 completed most of the questionnaire. The employing organisations had incomes from $0 to over $US10Million.

A follow up survey report is expected in January 2017.

The survey asked respondents about:

  • The top challenges for today’s volunteer administrators (see page 20)
  • The current professional development needs of leaders of volunteers (see page 21)
  • How the structure of the job (job title, employment type, who report to, primary work schedule, job roles), su0ervisory responsibilities compare (see pages 11, 23, 25)
  • How the number of volunteers engaged compares across organizations of different sizes and budget (see pages 28-­-30)
  • What most programs are doing regarding frequency of recruitment campaigns, screening activities, volunteer reimbursements, and volunteer roles (see pages 32-­-34)
  • How volunteer managers compare on their work, satisfaction, and intent to continue in the field (see pages 36-­-38) 38)

 

"General Impressions

  • Leading volunteers is both challenging and rewarding.  Volunteer coordinators are inspired by volunteers themselves and the job of making a difference.
  • Many volunteer coordinators are seeking an advocate that can help them educate others about their challenges and needs.
  • Some volunteer administrators feel their work is unfairly undervalued and under-­-resourced when compared to colleagues with similar levels of responsibility, most notably development or fundraising departments.
  • Many volunteer managers feel a lack of clear professional identity or standards.  They often are charged with a wide variety of roles, in addition to volunteer management, that stretch them in ways that sometimes feel unreasonable.
  • Although overwhelmed, not all volunteer coordinators are aware of the free and low-­-cost support resources that already exist for them.
  • Volunteerism isn’t just a “feel good add-­-on” or a community relations exercise for organizations.   Leaders of volunteers feel very connected to the cause  for organizational identity.   They want to solve real community problems and want to hear stories and examples from others so that they can do even better." (Report, page 6)

 

This is useful for managers of volunteer coordinators and provides some excellent benchmarks and ideas for those responsible for setting the workplace culture.