Volunteer Management

Strategies for Greening Groups

Session One

Working With Volunteers

Recruiting Volunteers
 Volunteer Management:
Session One
Workshop Agenda

 Welcome and Introduction

 Introductory Activity
 Working With Volunteers
 Recruiting Volunteers
Photograph – Eliza Mitchell
Introductory Activity
Working With Volunteers
It’s one thing to know that your
organization needs additional
help and that volunteers are the
likely source. It’s quite another
thing to figure out how to best
involve volunteers.

– Norah McClintock, Volunteering Numbers

 Project Plan

 Goals
 Objectives
 Prioritized task list
Set Up Your System

 Volunteer coordinator
 Contact Person
 Tracking
 Determine and
Communicate Needs

 Project information
 How others can get
involved
Recruiting Volunteers
 Recruiting Volunteers

 Before You Begin to Recruit

 Identify Your Target Groups
 Target Your Recruitment
 Communicate With Your Target
 When Volunteers Step in the Door
… 73% of the total number of
volunteer hours contributed in
Canada is donated by less than
7% of all Canadians.
– Larry McKeown, Volunteering in Canada
Successful recruitment is getting
the right person in the right job
with the right skills at the right
time.

– Lynn Fels, Getting Started – Establishing a

volunteer program
 Before You Begin to
Recruit
 Know what you need volunteers
to do
– What skills do you require and
when?
– Develop job descriptions
 Before You Begin to
Recruit

 Design volunteer positions

for varying levels of
responsibility, commitment and
experience.
69% of Canadians who don’t
volunteer cited lack of time as
the reason.

– Norah McClintock, Quick Tips for

Volunteer Management
 Identify Your
Target Group

 Know who is most likely

to volunteer
 Who Volunteers?
 Canadians in their middle years (35-54)
 Women, but men will put in more
hours
 University educated: volunteering
increases with formal education
 Employed people, but unemployed
people will put in more hours
 Increasingly from the youth sector (15-24)
– Larry McKeown, Who are
Canada’s Volunteers
 Target Your Recruitment

 By activity
– Clubs, associations, and special
interest groups
– Specialty stores
– Universities and technical institutes
– Government organizations
Target Your Recruitment

 By availability
 By location
 Through volunteer-focused
programming
Target Your Recruitment
 By association

More than 50% of people who

volunteer do so because they are
asked to by a friend, co-worker
or acquaintance.

– Norah McClintock, Quick Tips for

Volunteer Management
 Communicate With Your
Target
 Develop a recruitment message
– What you have to offer
– Appeal to volunteer’s motivation
What motivates greening
volunteers?
 Doing something to improve the
environment
 Community connections
 Building employment
relationships/experience
– Evergreen, Hands for Nature: Community
Greening Volunteerism Survey 2002
Sample Recruitment Message

Friends
Friendsof
ofShady
ShadyGroves
Groves
Needs
NeedsYour
YourHelp!
Help!

Are
Areyou
youinterested
interestedin inkeeping
keepingyour
your
community
communitycleancleanandandgreen?
green?We’re
We’relooking
looking
for
forvolunteers
volunteersto tojoin
joinaa“green-up”
“green-up”team.
team.
Come
Comeout outto
toEastgrove
EastgrovePark Parkevery
everySunday
Sunday
afternoon,
afternoon,2:00-4:00,
2:00-4:00,to tohelp
helpwith
withpruning,
pruning,
raking,
raking,mulching,
mulching,and andplanting.
planting. No
Nospecial
special
skills
skillsneeded
needed— —just
justaadesire
desireto
towork
workhard,
hard,
have
havefun,
fun,and
andmeet
meetyour
yourneighbours!
neighbours!
Contact
ContactJeanJeanatat404-4400
404-4400for fordetails,
details,ororvisit
visit
our
ourwebsite
websiteatatwww.shady.ca
www.shady.ca

See you there!

 Communicate With Your
Target
 Face-to-face contact
 Network, network, network
 Contact your volunteer centre
www.volunteer.ca
 Make full use of advertising and
publicity
 
 
 

We are ready to break ground!!

 
 
The Ecole William Reid Naturalization Committee has selected Lovely
Landscapes Inc. to do the hard landscaping for our project and they will begin
on Saturday October 13th. To ensure the safety of students and the
community we will fence off the west entrance and enlarge the stockpile area.
 
The work is estimated to take approximately 10 days and will include:
 removing grass and creating a berm area in the existing stockpile location
 grading the site
 putting in a path and dry river bed
 planting 12 trees
 installing log benches and seats
 placing rocks for amphitheatre and stepping stones, and rocks along dry river
bed
seeding the dry river bed and grassed areas
 
We anticipate that there will be minimum disruption to the community.
 
Thank you in advance for your support and cooperation. We are all looking
forward to the completion and use of L’entrée au paradis/ A Piece of Paradise.
 
If you have any questions or concerns or can help monitor the area for the
safety of William Reid students during the morning (8:20 – 8:35), recess (10:15
– 10:30), lunch (12:55 – 1:10) and after school (3:15 – 3:30), please call Ms.
Nature 444-4444 or 111-1111 (cell).
 Communicate With Your
Target
 Make full use of advertising and
publicity
– Post flyers
– Free PSA’s, human interest articles
on radio, television, newspapers,
other publications
– Internet:
www.evergreen.ca/en/registry.html
When Volunteers Step in
the Door
 Screen
– www.volunteer.ca
 Interview
 Provide Orientation
 Train Your Volunteers
An invitation to volunteer is a strand
in the thread that connects. A
program that says ‘Welcome’ in
every way, over the phone, in
person, or in the mail, invites a
volunteer to be a part. Volunteers
who feel they belong, return.

-Sarah Elliston. As quoted in Volunteer

Management: Mobilizing all the Resources of the
Community
Resources on Recruitment

Hands for Nature: A Volunteer

Management Handbook
www.evergreen.ca/en/resources/
toolshed/hands

A Guide to Volunteer Program

Management Resources
-Volunteer Canada
www.volunteer.ca
References
Connors, Tracy Daniel, Ed. Volunteer Management Handbook. John
Wiley and Sons Inc., 1995.
Evergreen. Summary Report on Community Greening Volunteerism
2002. Toronto: Evergreen, 2002. Available to download at
www.evergreen.ca
Fels, Lynn. Getting Started – Establishing a Volunteer Program.
Toronto: Volunteer Centre of Metropolitan Toronto, 1988.
Hall, Micheal, Larry McKeown and Karen Roberts. Caring
Canadians, Involved Canadians: Highlights from the 2000 National
Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating. Ottawa: Statistics
Canada, 2000
Hawthorne, Nan. “Matching the ‘Thank-you’ to the volunteer.”
Canadian FundRaiser, June 30, 1998.
McClintock, Norah. Quick Tips for Volunteer Management.
Toronto: Canadian Centre for Philanthropy, 2002. Available at
www.nsgvp.org.
McClintock, Norah. Volunteering Numbers: Using the National
Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating for Fundraising.
Toronto: Canadian Centre for Philanthropy, 2000. Available at
www.nsgvp.org.
McCurley, Steve and Rick Lynch. Volunteer management:
Mobilizing all the Resources of the Community. Downers Grove,
IL: Heritage Arts Publishing, 1996. This is one of the most
comprehensive texts on involving volunteers
in organizations.
McKeown, Larry. Volunteering in Canada. Toronto: Canadian
Centre for Philanthropy, 2002. Available at www.nsgvp.org.
McKeown, Larry. Who are Canada’s Volunteers. Toronto: Canadian
Centre for Philanthropy, 2002. Available at www.nsgvp.org
Woloshuk, Jean M and Shirley C. Eagan. Beating Burnout. West
Virginia: West Virginia University Extension Service, 1993.
Wyman, Ken. Volunteer Management and Fundraising: An
introductory course (Course material). Toronto: Greenability, 2002.