The Sky is Not Falling…Yet The Sky is Not Falling…Yet! Ten Strategies for Short Term Volunteers Presenters: Zeeda Magnuson & Sara Wessling 1 minute intro

Share: What changes are you seeing in volunteer time availability? 5 minutes Ask participants to share on what they are seeing with one other person. Have group report out what they were talking about.

“It is what volunteers want, let’s meet them half way.” Why address the trend? Top trend in MAVA’s Shifting Environment Survey Hear from members: “It is what volunteers want, let’s meet them half way.” “The writing is on the wall, yet no one else understands the impact other than the volunteer manager.” 1 minute

Session Objectives: Gain perspectives on options for addressing this trend Learn strategies from research and your colleagues Contribute your experience to build the knowledge base Commit to one action that you will take 1 minute

Discussion What do you find exciting about the trend of volunteers making shorter time commitments? What do you find perplexing about this trend? 4-5 minutes Have whole group discuss or call on 1-2 people to share

What about shorter term volunteering excites you? Volunteers connect the organizations with more people in the community. Volunteers create access to more skills, new energy and/or ideas. Critical work is accomplished. Forces the organization to think outside the box. Opportunity to meet mission in a way not previously possible. It is a way to involve busy young professionals who might not be otherwise involved. 1-2 minutes What we learned from a MAVA Focus group

What do you find perplexing? Creating meaningful experiences Developing effective training Determining an appropriate level of screening Fostering a relationship with the volunteer Convincing shorter-term volunteers to come back Feeling pressured to say “yes” to short-term volunteers Convincing other staff to work with short-term volunteers 1-2 minutes What we learned from a MAVA focus group

Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration (MAVA) Research Shorter Term Volunteer Commitments: The Trend and How Organizations are Responding

The definition of “short term volunteer” varies among organizations. Do you consider this type of volunteer “short term” in your organization? 79% One time 77% One time and then come back and volunteer again one time 67% More than one time, but for less than a month 43% One – four months 53% Group projects 46% Time limited project 12% Five – twelve months

Which categories of volunteers have you seen making shorter term volunteer commitments? 2 minutes Volunteers making short term commitments tend to be Millennials, job seekers, youth and Gen X.

What factors limit your ability to engage volunteers in roles that would take less than a four-month time commitment? 62% Staff time to train volunteers 53% Staff time to screen and onboard volunteers 52% Staff time to manage volunteers 49% Staff time to recruit volunteers ------ 13% Do not have barriers Time is the primary limiting factor in addressing the trend. Other limitations 39% The work we have to be done does not fit with short-time commitments 32% Staff being willing to work with shorter-term volunteers 32% Financial costs such as background checks 27% Too hard to manage volunteer expectations to have meaningful experience

When you do involve volunteers for commitments of less than four months, what is your motivation? 74% Hope that volunteers will return for longer commitments 69% Work that needs to get done 58% Want community to view organization as a place where everyone is welcome 61% Serves as a means to connect organization to the community 51% Bring skills to the organization that we need 42% Hope for a fundraising benefit The top reason for involving volunteers for commitments of less than four months is a hope these volunteers will return.

Does your organization assume…? 54% One time or shorter term volunteers will return again to do another shorter volunteer effort 49% Some of the volunteers from group projects will return for other volunteer duties 40% Do not assume that one time or shorter term volunteers will return 30% One-time volunteers or shorter term volunteers will become ongoing volunteers 14% Time limited volunteers will meet our needs and do not need to try to get them to come back However, most organizations don’t assume shorter term volunteers will become ongoing volunteers.

Three years from now, what change do you expect in how many volunteers will commit for four months or less compared to now? 34% Expect it to grow a lot 46% Expect it to grow a little 19% Do not expect it to change 1% Expect it to reduce “Many professionals are retiring and expectations are different as the baby boomers are not willing to commit to ‘every Monday from 8 am to Noon’.” 80% expect the shorter term volunteer trend to grow, at least a little.

80% of organizations are planning to make changes to address this trend “Hope to make a significant investment in staff time to create and manage short term volunteer opportunities and volunteer turnover.”

Strategies to Address the Trend START HERE From survey

Discussion What strategies have you tried to respond to volunteers making shorter time commitments? 5 minutes Have share a their table

Strategies 1. Design roles specifically for shorter term commitments. “Having specific beginning and end time for the commitment makes a big difference in being successful in recruitment of short term volunteers.” These are the strategies from the MAVA survey Examples: 50 blogs Tech audit

Strategies 2. Restructure roles for shorter term commitments “…work with recruitment partners to help them understand that positions can be filled by two or three separate volunteers vs. one full-time volunteer.” Restructure options include: volunteer job sharing, dividing long term volunteer positions into multiple shorter term positions, and splitting shifts.

Strategies 3. Simplify the application, training and scheduling For shorter term positions to keep investment of time proportional to the amount given by volunteers. Use technology to reduce time for scheduling, orientation, and training. Involve middle management volunteers in onboarding and training of other volunteers.  “Use online scheduling tools”

Strategies 4. Build in flexibility to meet the volunteer’s needs. “One size does not fit all anymore. If we want to continue to support volunteers then we need to change the structure of the opportunities to meet their needs.”

Strategies 5. Focus on roles that are low in risk and organizational investment. “We expanded our volunteer model to provide task based, one time opportunities on a specific date.” Exceptions may be when using highly skilled volunteers engaged in focused, time-limited projects.

Strategies 6. Develop organizational partnerships to help provide an ongoing supply of volunteers.  Take a new approach to recruitment that includes recruiting a larger base of volunteers to draw from and looking specifically for individuals to fill shorter term positions. “Recruit more volunteers knowing that many will not stay.”

Strategies 7. Develop staff buy-in to support short term volunteers. Often it is only the volunteer manager who knows that change is needed. It will take staff buy-in to support a model of shorter term volunteers and to develop time-limited volunteer positions. Train them to have a new perspective on the value volunteers can bring in a shorter period of time and in skills to work with shorter time commitments.

Strategies 8. Schedule specific times for one-time projects, or office hours for volunteers to drop in. “Drop-in events. We have streamlined a few of our tasks to allow volunteers to perform them with only 10 minutes of training, so they can show up for an event to volunteer at a moment's notice and we will train them on the spot.”

Strategies 9. Take steps to make shorter term group projects work better Examples: building ongoing relationships so the same groups return regularly, asking the sponsoring organization to do more training, and limiting groups to projects that have been identified as needed. 

Strategies 10. If short term volunteers cannot help meet your mission, clearly communicate that to the perspective volunteers “We articulate the reasoning behind our organization choice to not accept volunteers for shorter than a specified time commitment.” The key is that they understand why your organization does not accept volunteers for shorter than the identified time period.  

Activity

Plan 10 minutes in each group Work together to come up with one good strategy to address the question Write it clearly so others can read When you go to next table, read the strategy(ies) already down and come up with another strategy If have ideas for other strategies, leave on the index cards In last group – pick one person to read strategies

Questions What strategies work to build buy-in and convince organizational staff to work with shorter-term volunteers? What are the components of successful short-term group projects? How do you determine when a short-term volunteer activity is worth the effort and meets organization mission? What conditions make it possible to turn shorter-term volunteers into episodic or ongoing volunteers? What creates meaningful experiences for shorter-term volunteers? What types of volunteer roles appeal to short term volunteers? What type of volunteer roles work well for commitments of four months or less?

Wrap up Use a dot sticker to vote on the strategy you will implement

Thank you MAVA members for responding to the survey and being part of focus groups Short Term Volunteering Task Force & Report Contributors F. R. Bigelow Foundation for funding this initiative Sara Pennebecker David Miller Liz Erstad-Hicks Ryanna Jackson Joan deMeurisse Mary Quirk Sandy Bergeron Molly Frendo Scott Stivers Alan L. Kagan Krista Eichhorst Morgan Weis