The Challenges of Volunteering  (Part 2)

 

 

Lazy nonprofits churn and burn volunteers

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In a previous column would-be volunteers were given tips on how not to make nuisances of themselves. This time, it’s the nonprofits’ turn to take it on the chin for how they mess it up with volunteers.

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Let’s start with the basics. There are three: supervisor, scheme and setup. Is there a paid staff member assigned to manage the volunteer? Secondly, is there a mutually-agreed project the volunteer will start and finish? Third, do you have a workspace for them? Their own desk? Their own computer? Asking someone to work full time, but job-share on the very tools needed to do the job is half-witted. Too many NGOs expect volunteers to come equipped with their own laptop, loaded to the teeth with the most killer design and publication software, audio speakers (more on that in a bit) and a portable hard drive with a terabyte of free space.

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Nail these three essentials and the rest is easy. Nonprofits aren’t inconsiderate, but certainly can be grossly ill-prepared for the reality of a volunteer once the initial relief wears off that one is coming in the first place. How on earth did that trilingual Ivy League master’s student in computational genetics know about us? The underfunded charity dances around the one-room office, fist-pumping the air.

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Keep up that enthusiasm when the volunteer arrives. The slightly overwhelmed social work volunteer didn’t fly 7,000 km to come make all the PowerPoints the charity guesses it will ever need for the next three years (naturally with animation sequences and soundtrack, hence those speakers). Nor should the local website design volunteer start tabbing her way through the multilateral donors’ finance report that’s due because the project manager jokes he’s 'kinda crap' with budgets.

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Conversely, I have seen volunteers ignored by the very manager who said yes, yes, yes to having them in the first place because now the manager is 'too busy with work'. How is a volunteer supposed to feel enduring a hastily arranged orientation because the HR manager decided to take leave on the volunteer’s first day and no one else knows what the volunteer is doing there in the first place? Another time, a volunteer’s six-month project disappeared mere weeks into their placement, prompting the supervisor to shrug his shoulders and give the volunteer photocopying to do, adding that it was 'probably OK' if the volunteer took long lunches from now on.

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It’s true, nonprofits love free labour because they typically don’t have enough staff and resources. But volunteers want and deserve to be mentored, assigned meaningful work, given challenges they can stretch with, lots of two-way feedback, made to feel welcome and appreciated. Thank them. Be kind. Volunteers are not here to do your job. Volunteers are here to help fulfill the organization’s mission because they are contributing something tangible you both agreed to.

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And if you’re really lucky and you treat them right with only a modicum of abuse and over-work, and don’t cheap out on the necessities like workplace snacks and after work beers, then you’ll get one that makes your organization look like a rock star. Thanks again, Marissa.

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Photo: rhondak-native-florida-folk-artist / unsplash.com

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This article originally appeared in Word Vietnam magazine and has been adapted.