Volunteer Fundraising

The Volunteers Lament

(taken from Charles Handy - Understanding Voluntary Organisations)

"I am committed sincerely as a person, I deeply believe in what we are doing, so do all the others I am quite sure. Many of us work here for nearly nothing, others for not much more because the task is so important and so urgent. Why then is it so frustrating, why then do I feel angry, used, ineffectual. Why do we seem to spend so much of our time talking or doing menial jobs, like putting papers into envelopes or arguing about trivia, even bitching about each other and complaining about how things are done or not done? How can such good people create such bad work?"

Does the above ring any bells? I've certainly felt parts of the above to be true as a paid employee in a charity. I would imagine that the volunteers that I have got to stuff envelopes have also felt that way. What is needed is some sort of management. However merely using the term management annoys me. I do the work for the charity because I believe in it and the idea of being managed sits rather uncomfortably on my shoulders. I feel that we are all in it together and that ranks are quite a dangerous thing to have and should be clear in that they are helping the process not the individual. Perhaps we need to step back and change the language. I am not so sure anyway that we should be heading down the commercial language of our commercial counterparts. Maybe we need to talk about culture not management. Create a culture in which people can work effectively and efficiently.

How do we do that?

We need to look at how people relate to each other as individuals and how they relate to each other as groups. There have been many theories on how individuals and groups work. However I would like to approach this is in a different way. Let us just look at ourselves - and try to work out how we relate to the world around us because we are basically all the same. We need to think how we become more effective and efficient. The culture we should be aiming for is one that helps people to do their job better. If you are in management you should be looking at ways to help your people do a better job - this implies that they are most likely to have the answer to that question.

One thing that is apparent to me is that it is terribly important that people are excited about what they are doing and enjoy the job at hand, even its ups and downs. Obviously from this will come an enthusiasm and energy to what they do. That is what you are aiming for: Excitement, Energy, Enthusiasm and Effort.

There will never be one answer as to how we achieve that and different organisations will have different ways of trying to achieve that. The main thing to remember is that when you are dealing with volunteers, they each will have a different reason for being drawn to the charity and it is very important to look at those reasons and if you can have the time, deal with those persons on an individual basis.

Charles Handy who is a bit of a guru regarding management of organisations says in his book Understanding Voluntary Organisations that:

'Consistent research shows that people who are encouraged to set themselves specific targets, that is to work out the calculus for a particular area of work, not only are more committed but those goals but actually achieve them'.
'People who achieve their goals set higher ones next time and those who fail to meet them set lower ones'
'Continued success increases the desirability of the goal'

Handy suggests that voluntary organisations, should by definition operate under co-operative psychological contracts, but it is not always easy to remember that this contract also gives people the right not to do something. So let's translate what this means to us as a voluntary organisation employing volunteers. Certainly I have never sat down and thought about how to use my volunteers. Usually it is because I am in a crisis and I need them to do a very mundane job like…. stuffing envelopes etc.

Firstly we have to recognise that we do have to satisfy the volunteer's needs. Perhaps that means not just calling them in to do the envelope stuffing, perhaps that means that we need to organise ourselves a bit more and get a group of volunteers to be at the beginning of the project so that they feel part of the project, which of course will entail the boring jobs as well. From reading Handy's book I must admit he discusses things that seem obvious to me but I must admit I have never looked at the volunteer to thoroughly.

He also suggests the following paradoxes:

Don't try to tell people what to aim for; it is better that they work out the goals themselves; do emphasise that they must work out some precise goal by which they can measure their level of success or progress.
Don't shout at people who make mistakes - do insist that they learn from their mistakes and set new goals for next time. Forgive the sinner, but condemn the sin.
Don't assume that everyone is like you as they may be there for quite other reasons. Do encourage people to be explicit about their psychological contract, what they expect to give and what they expect from their work.
Don't give any negative feedback it will diminish people's self-confidence or their view of you. Do find every excuse to praise work well done - stroking is good for good work, create only dependent pigeons and you will get locked into never-ending promises.
Do make sure that people know when their work is good, are there obvious signs of success/progress, which people can read for themselves.

Summary

As a fundraiser you know that fundraising is not easy, that there is a lot of trial and error needed to allow you to grow. We need to find out more details about people who want to volunteer for us and try and incorporate their aims into the projects we need their help on. We need to be clear about their roles within the project and what we need from them and what we are able to give to them.

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