Secrets of the Nonprofit Ladies Luncheon League: What "They" Won't Tell You About Managing a Volunteer Program
By Susan Moscareillo, CVM
Director of Volunteer Services and Community Relations
Baltimore Ronald McDonald House
Jun 25, 2003, 20:26 PST

We have read all the books and articles. Taken the classes that tell us how to recruit and train and keep volunteers. Knowledgeable and enthusiastic, we begin our careers as managers of volunteer programs thinking that if we follow all the formulas we will be successful in reaching our goals.

Psst -- it doesn't work that way. It's more complicated than books will tell you. So if everything isn't going as smoothly as you thought it would, it's probably that you haven't yet learned the "tricks of the trade" that experience will teach you. 

Observations from a recent meeting of my "Nonprofit Ladies Luncheon League" (all battle-tested managers of volunteers) inspired this list of the things "they" don't teach you in school:

• Accept up front that no one in your agency will understand the job you do and the unique and powerful combination of skills you bring to your job. Cultivate your own ego in order to thrive in this sometimes un-nurturing environment.
  
  Your lifeline to staying sane consists of your friends in the volunteer management community. With them you can "vent," compare notes (you'll discover common frustrations and be reminded of what a good job you're doing) and share your worries and fears. You cannot be insular and be effective in this field.
  
  
• Conundrum number one: even as you bond with your peers, you must continue to strive to be better than everyone else. Competition for potential volunteers is fierce, and most people investigating volunteer possibilities aren't just looking at your agency. As you prospect, think about what would make you want to volunteer for your agency.
  
  Conundrum number two: there are a few unethical managers of volunteers who will try to pirate members of your staff away. I've seen it twice in four years and both times my volunteers were told that our staff was so big that we didn't "need" so many volunteers!
  
  
• So it goes to say that the most important skill you bring to your job is your ability to relate to your staff. If your volunteers like you, they will forgive your stupid mistakes and return. Build good will for those rare "not so good" times.
  
  
• You will inherit, at least once in your career, a program that is in atrocious condition. See VMR Editor Michael Lee Stills' article "Building a Volunteer Management Legacy" (April 16, 2003) for insights on why this never should happen.
  
  
• You will always be fighting time to get everything done in a timely fashion. There is a window of opportunity for every project that will pass and close. Unfortunately there are probably five projects that need your attention at one time. Organize! Delegate! It is especially difficult to relinquish control when you have been rebuilding, but eventually you must begin.
  
  
• Politics are part of the job and will drive you crazy, especially as you fight time. When a board member or donor phones or arrives on your doorstep with a niece or nephew who needs a large number of service learning hours for school in a brief period of time, you will want to pull out your hair. Please smile instead - remember how much you love your job - in the good times as well as bad.
  
  
• Some supervisors will interfere with your ability to do your job well and properly. Heaven help you if you have one, as one of my friends does, that tells you that you must accept anyone who applies to be a volunteer. She has a volunteer she strongly suspects of stealing and is emotionally disturbed; her supervisor told her to be "more understanding."
  
  
• Budget cuts are occurring everywhere and will probably change your job description and the demands placed on you and your staff. Be prepared to re-arrange priorities and feel increased stress from situations developing beyond your control. If you start to hate going to work in the morning, you may be experiencing an early stage of burn-out. See Nan Hawthorne's excellent VMR article, "Avoiding - Or Surviving - Burnout" (May 8, 2002).
  
  
• It takes six months or so to learn your job and longer to see results if you program was deficient. If your supervisor or board members are pacing the floor expecting unrealistic results, your ninety day performance appraisal could be your first and last at your agency. Work from clearly written goals that you and your supervisor will agree upon in writing.
  
  Of course, some agencies pay no attention to the managers of their volunteer programs or the volunteers. You exist because the board wants to "save money" or just "expects" a volunteer program to exist for appearances. They will nod politely and stifle their yawns when you make your quarterly reports to them.
  
  
• Finally, you must take care of yourself and keep your emotional and physical batteries recharged. If your management style offers your volunteers a comfortable chair and a sympathetic ear, you will be more than a manager to them - they may perceive you as a leader or a friend. My volunteers have shared stories of broken engagements, failed marriages, unemployment and troubled children. 
  
  

A good manager cares and understands his/her staff - but don't let it take an unmanageable emotional toll on you.