"Segmenting" Your Volunteers: How to Avoid The Dreaded "Dry Spell"
By Susan Moscareillo, C.V.M.
Director of Volunteer Services and Community Relations
Baltimore Ronald McDonald House
Jun 12, 2002, 16:14 PST

Small businesses often fail for one specific reason: the business loses its big-spending customers who comprise a small percentage of their customer base.

So do volunteer programs. Volunteer programs risk failure when they rely on a small number of hard-working volunteers to keep programs productive and fulfilling their mission.

If your volunteer program has been functioning effectively and the number of hours contributed has dropped unexpectedly, you may have hit what sales professionals call a “dry spell.” For your volunteer program this translates into gaps in your program’s ability to provide service. Unless the reason is obvious, you will need to play detective immediately.

Sales professionals segment their customers, ranging from the top percentage (“heavy users”) to the bottom (“light users”). You can do the same with your volunteer staff before your program experiences a dry spell. Segment your volunteers by hours worked and analyze the demographics for the weaknesses that will lead to service delivery problems that will be time consuming to correct.

As you analyze volunteer hours contributed, you might choose to define your volunteer staff in terms of heart committed and time committed. Heart committed volunteers believe in your mission; time committed volunteers support that belief by donating their time and skills at your agency. For example:

• Heart and Time Committed: These volunteers believe in your mission and commit their time generously. They’re generally involved in more than one volunteer project and as program managers we’re always tempted to call on them at the last minute.

• Heart and Time Committed to One Project: These volunteers contribute their hours on a predictable basis to one on-going project and occasionally can pitch in at the last minute.

• Heart and Limited Time Committed: These volunteers have a very limited amount of time and their schedule is not flexible. For now they’re not able to do anything more than what they’re doing.

• Not Heart or Time Committed: These volunteers are not committed to your mission but are involved in an annual project of limited duration at your agency. Generally they won’t say “call me if you need me” but “see you same time next year.”

What will happen if a Heart and Time Committed volunteer becomes ill or moves away? Before this happens, examine the demographics of this group to avoid the “dry spell.” Perhaps one of these volunteers is approaching retirement age or has begun to experience health problems. Begin now looking for their successor and introduce them to the current volunteer as a possible substitute for when the current volunteer goes on vacation.

Practice “continuous selling.” It’s easy to become dependent on that group from a local business that volunteers three or four times a month. But a “dry spell” is just around the corner if these employees are laid off or moved to other assignments and become unavailable to you. Keep prospecting for new volunteer groups that can fill in or supplement Heart and Time Committed volunteers. Encourage the new group to mentor these new volunteers.

Play detective as you look at the demographics of your volunteer staff (i.e. age, gender, geographic location). Comparing the type of volunteer assignment may help you detect trends, such as an increase in family volunteering from churches in a certain community. This could give you a lead in your “continuous selling.”

Segmenting your volunteers will help you anticipate those dreaded “dry spells” and keep your volunteer program functioning efficiently and fulfilling its mission to your agency and clients. You’ll also avoid burning out your Heart and Time Committed volunteers that you value so much.