Volunteer managers in every industry are under a lot of stress managing enormous workloads, continually decreasing finances and a staff of volunteers that is always changing. In addition, organizations need to set aside enough time and money to create a volunteer management plan and staff it with a committed team if they want to get the most value out of volunteers.
After all, it's more complex than it sounds to find and keep the kind of volunteers who can truly benefit a nonprofit. Now let's look at the top five volunteer management difficulties that nonprofits, charities, and volunteering organizations must deal with, along with solutions.
Recruitment
It should come as no surprise that finding volunteers is one of the most prevalent volunteer management difficulties. Finding qualified volunteers who will contribute to your organization can be challenging because so many other organizations are vying for their time.
We advise ensuring you have a detailed volunteer job description before you begin. This way, interested volunteers will be fully informed about your volunteer opportunity when you publicize your available positions.
Volunteer Burn-out
Unfortunately, volunteer burnout is an all too common volunteering challenge. Much like in the workplace, volunteers can experience burnout for several reasons. The most common issues and challenges for volunteering include being overworked, undervalued, and stressed. If your organization is facing a high turnover rate, it might be time to conduct a volunteer survey to identify any common themes or issues and begin fixing them.
Retaining volunteer
The best method to increase the efficiency of your volunteer program is to retain participants. Volunteer managers will have more time to devote to more worthwhile endeavors rather than wasting it on yearly recruitment. At the same time, you must take every possible measure to keep long-term volunteers because the expertise, enthusiasm, and understanding they accrue about the program are invaluable.
Feeling underappreciated, unsupported, or disengaged from the organization's goals are common volunteer issues that can lead to volunteers quitting organizations. Volunteer managers must create a detailed plan of engagement and appreciation for volunteers to overcome these obstacles.
Availability
Recruiting enough volunteers to fill shifts is a typical volunteer difficulty. Automatic volunteer management tools can handle your scheduling, rostering, and shift changes. Throughout the recruitment process, you can collect information about volunteer availability to identify any gaps in advance rather than rushing to fill open shifts at the last minute.
Volunteers can check in and out, accept or reject shifts, register their availability for specific shifts, and specify their preferred roles through the site. The technology can immediately alert other volunteers who can fill the shift if a volunteer cancels it.
Thus, you can focus on enhancing volunteer opportunities and engagement to develop a mutually beneficial volunteer program and support an all-around pleasant volunteer experience by knowing your organization's volunteer management problems.
