Valuing and Managing Volunteers

A Modern Approach To

Managing and

Valuing Volunteers

• How much is this woman worth to your organisation?

Why Place a Value on Volunteers?

• To compare the value of different types of volunteers

• To compare volunteer value to other types of supporters

• To make a case for investment in volunteers

• To understand which types of volunteers offer the highest

value to your organisation

• To understand which types of volunteer fundraising

activities offer the highest value to your organisation

• To understand how much you can afford to invest in

building relationships and supporting different types of

volunteers

Why Place a Value on Volunteers?

Instead of treating volunteers as an ‘amorphous

mass’ we need to:

• differentiate types of volunteers

• understand what makes each different

We then need to create a comprehensive list of

volunteer types for:

i.groups

ii.individuals

Making a start: Segmentation

Managing Volunteers

• Recruiting

• Managing

• Rewarding

Recruiting volunteers

• Clarity of request

• Job description

• Hours, location required

• Support, training offered

• Who they’ll be working with

• Interview, recruit

Optimising my volunteer’s time

How do I get them to focus their energies on what is most

important for the business?

Value Days

Assign a weighting to different activities undertaken depending upon their value to the organisation and the individual’s job

Monitor time against those activities

Calculate a weighted number of hours/days to measure performance

Set targets for the number of value days per month or per year

Value Days

Monthly Timesheet

Activity Value Time spent Value Target Variance

(Hours) Hours

Administration 0.1 10 1.00

Sending out mailings 0.5 9 4.50

Calling supporters 1.0 0 0.00

Attending HNWI events 1.5 5 7.50

Finding new supporters 1.2 4 4.80

Pledger/HNWI Care 1.5 2 3.00

Total 30 20.80 30 -9.20

Optimising my investment

How do we know where we should be investing our time

supporting fundraising volunteers?

Hierarchy of Support Framework

Band Social

Community

Groups

Informal

Crowds

Individuals

High

Medium

Low

value:support matrix

Used to plot the portfolio of community groups assessing their value (most often financial) against their required level of support. It can help organisations to better understand where each community group sits in terms of their actual performance relative to their support needs and how to assess what their future could be.

low

high

high

VALUE

SUPPORT

value:support matrix

low

high

high

VALUE

SUPPORT

value:support matrix

contribution:value matrix

The logical next step as it goes beyond cash… It is designed to help fundraisers place a value beyond financial on their community groups and can be used in two ways: • to assess actual value • to assess potential value

contribution:value matrix

To use this model effectively, an organisation must be clear about how it measures value. A key benefit of using this model is it enables the organisation to think about actual value as well as potential value. So before making use of it, you must be able to list value measures – both soft and hard.

contribution:value matrix

•To assess value, the fundraiser should: •decide how the organisation would measure value (e.g. income, time, activities etc.) •give each a score: 3 (high) – 1 (low) •you may wish to assign a relative value score •plot each measure •score each group

REMEMBER – this is about actual and potential value

contribution:value matrix

Value measures might be: • active campaigners • their status in the real/virtual community (e.g. mayor, celebrity) • confident public speaker • Sneezer • understanding of the cause / personal experience • self-sufficiency • loyalty • longevity

contribution:value matrix

Then offset value against investment in each group/individual, so follow the same process: • decide how the organisation would measure investment e.g. staff time, costs associated with the group e.g. travel / materials / resources • give each a score: 3 (high) – 1 (low) • plot each measure • then score each group against this

contribution:value matrix

Rewarding volunteers

• Why do I volunteer?

• Passionate belief in the cause

• Because I was asked by a friend

• I want to put something back

• I want to improve my CV

• The job looked interesting

Rewarding volunteers

• Thank them

• Celebrate

• Treats

• Anniversaries (personal and corporate)

• Social activities

• Lapel pins (silver, gold, diamante)

• Training

• Promotion