Why volunteer management requires specific skills

I came across some great writing on Volunteer management today thanks to a twitter prompt from Rob Jackson from Rob Jackson Consulting Ltd

Skills - Third Sector is an organisation based in the UK that helps to make sure that charities and social enterprises have the right people with the right skills to make a difference to people and their communities.
They believe that a thriving voluntary sector is crucial to building stronger communities and delivering good quality services.

Here’s some of what they say about Volunteer management in a position statement released on May 31st this year

“Skills – Third Sector champions the skills of volunteer management. From our research and experience we know that the nature of volunteering means that people who manage volunteers require specialist skills – skills that are distinct from those needed to manage paid staff. By skills we mean the knowledge, understanding and experience that someone needs to do their job well.”

I like this language on Volunteer management. They go on to say – “Managing volunteers is a skilled job that is different from managing paid staff. While the role has more in common with other management roles at a senior or strategic level, at the day to day level there are a number of important differences.”

They go on to list some of these and then talk about Evidence for specialist volunteer management skills

“Research on Valuing Volunteer Management Skills carried out by the Institute for Volunteering Research identified: “several differences between managing volunteers and staff including differences in terms of motivation, recruitment methods, attendance at meetings, taking holidays, boundaries between paid and volunteer roles and the need to deal with mental and physical decline as volunteers got older.”

The volunteer managers interviewed felt strongly that: “There was a need for volunteer management to be seen as a more clearly defined profession.”

Nodding your head? Are we not hearing this globally for some time now?


One of their conclusions states that “Not understanding the different skills needed to manage volunteers and how they differ from managing paid staff, can lead to poor quality services for the people who use the services and poor volunteering experiences for volunteers”

I felt that this was simply a well articulates position paper and something that should be adopted by professional associations for volunteer management firstly and secondly embraced by all bodies and associations involved in volunteerism.

A call for action as well as a wake up call.

At the very least please publish these types of articles and position papers on your websites.

To read the full article just click on this posts title.

Does it pay to manage volunteers?

I had an email from someone a few weeks ago saying that they felt they were not being paid enough. To help their cause they wanted to benchmark the industry on pay rates.

My thoughts are that this in fact could be counterproductive.

The fact is that no one knows what people leading volunteer teams should be paid.

We’ve had many debates over the years on this and related items for example “should a person managing 100 volunteers be paid differently to someone managing 15” that’s just one. However I’ve also noticed that we are most uncomfortable talking about such matters.

Let me straight out, from the start, inform you that I am talking about Paid Volunteer Managers. I have to say this because there are “volunteer” volunteer managers out there. I run into them at talks I give on Volunteer management.

I have to always emphasize that just because they are unpaid doesn’t mean they have the skills to do the job. People miss my point.
However we are unique as a sector that such people exist. We won’t hear too much about Volunteer HR managers for example. I won’t see too much of volunteer marketing or finance managers within organisations. And yes I do know that people provide services pro bono.

But over the last few years I have noticed a discomfort with pay and volunteerism. I think it even affects thought within the volunteerism industry.

This is a little elephant in the room and I will come back to it later.
“I am not in it for the money”

This is something I hear from quite a few in our sector. And that’s all well and good for those who perhaps have no desire for advancement of a professional sector.

This is where our huge conundrum lies – striking a balance between advocating for better and fairer remuneration in an area that engages people who do not get paid.

And therein lays our biggest failure of thought in my opinion when it comes to volunteerism and introduces our elephant: If we equate volunteering to saving money or economic value then we take from volunteering itself.

Please read Jayne Cravens blog on these matters.

Volunteering is NOT ABOUT MONEY! Volunteering is not UNPAID WORK! Volunteering is many dynamic things but not these.

I’ve had to say to audiences I’ve spoken to - “is it wrong to have a volunteer management role that helps pay my mortgage?” Good grief – we would not hear this in other sectors!

If a volunteer Manager states that they do what they do to be financially secure is this so bad?

Some of the best consultants on volunteering and volunteer management and not for profit governance I believe are ignored by certain high profile sections in volunteering because they try to make a living out of what they do.

As though that’s a sin.

Again, there is little discussion by volunteer management associations on this topic. I again and again wonder what exactly their brief is. I mean, is this not a bread and butter issue? Some will say that it is not. Some will think I am barking up the wrong tree again and say “what are you on about DJ?”

But there are those reading this blog who know exactly what I am talking about.

How terrible is it to find yourself with a huge responsibility for managing volunteers within your organisations and not to be fairly compensated for the huge role you undertake.

You know who you are. Take heart. There are a few of us trying to do something about this.

Because we believe you do an amazing job.

You need to believe it yourself too! And be fairly paid for what you do!

PLEASE VOTE FOR MY BLOG! CLICK HERE! THANKS!

I was delighted that this blog was nominated for the Best Australian Blogs 2011 Competition.

There is also a People's Choice Award and this is

where I am seeking your vote.

By clicking on the header of this post you will be taken straight to the voting page. Just scroll down to DJ Cronin :-)

Thanks for taking the time to vote and please spread the news!

Carey asks "Do you feel lucky, Volunteer Managers?"

I just stumbled across a great and honest blog written on Volunteermatch

In this article the writer Carey Fritz has written about the good, the bad and the ugly aspects of her experiences in volunteer management.

Her article in my opinion is brave, forthright and insightful. Its content and the content of the responses are indicative of the issues that the volunteer management sector face globally.

We need more perceptive writing like this. We need more people to share the Good the bad and the ugly of their experiences.

This is of course required reading for anyone interested in the volunteerism sector whether that be volunteering peak bodies or professional associations for volunteer managers.

How are Volunteer Managers coping on the ground? Really coping. Its very brave for someone like Carey to share her story because so few of us do it.

When I present on Validating Volunteer Management I happily share my story of emerging from the bad and ugly of being undervalued and or under resourced to the place of being respected as a professional with expertise in volunteerism within organisations.

I believe it all begins with validating yourself and your chosen career.
I plan to write more on this topic in the near future but for now I would like you to check out Carey’s blog. All you have to do is click on the heading of this blog and you are there! It would be great if you could leave a comment too!

Getting a look in..in Europe!

Here’s some news from Europe which is celebrating European Year of Volunteering at the moment

“European Year of Volunteering partners sharing £580,000 announced
12 Apr 2011

Volunteering England will lead the charge in the UK's efforts for the European Year of Volunteering after receiving £78,000 from a £580,000 pot provided by the Office for Civil Society (OCS) and the European Commission (EC) to help encourage volunteering.

The umbrella body will oversee activities undertaken by five organisations that will lead the key themes for the UK's participation.
Four of these five organisations, which will each receive £37,000, have also been announced by the Cabinet Office:

•Volunteering charity v and youth charity Catch22 will partner to lead the children and young people theme;
•Age UK will lead activity for health and social care;
•Groundwork West Midlands will lead on the environment; and
•Arts and Business will lead on culture and the arts.

The organisation leading on sports will be announced shortly, a spokesman for the OCS advised, as will the three further partner organisations which will each receive £67,000 to deliver employer supported volunteering, volunteer management and volunteering access for underrepresented groups. “

Source: wttp://www.civilsociety.co.uk

It’s encouraging to see Volunteer Management in the mix!

Volunteer Management Blog Nominated for award

Today I received a lovely surprise by email:

“Congratulations on being nominated for the Best Australian Blogs 2011 Competition, brought to you by the Sydney Writers' Centre. Offering over $7,500 worth of prizes and showcasing the Australian blogosphere, the Best Australian Blogs 2011 competition has 4 distinct categories and is also running a People's Choice award that you can opt into.”

This came from Rose Powell Communications Coordinator at the Best Australian Blogs 2011 Competition - A Sydney Writers' Centre Initiative

This came totally out of the blue and I’d like to thank the person who nominated me! I often talk about validating our colleagues in the Volunteer Management sector and here is the perfect example of how we can do such things.

I have opted into the people’s choice award as well as I feel this can be an opportunity to promote the Volunteer Management sector. I will be letting you know how you can support me with this via this blog and Facebook and other social media.

Valerie Khoo founded the Sydney Writers’ Centre in 2005, with a vision for it to be the kind of buzzing, dynamic and results-focused organisation she wish had existed when she was finding her feet as a writer. It is now Australia’s leading centre for writing training.

http://www.sydneywriterscentre.com.au/

Watch this space!