On this page are ideas to help you work more efficiently with volunteers. There are tips on recruiting, engaging, coordinating, and managing the work of volunteers.

~August 2009~

• Infrastructure: Position Descriptions
• Social Media Use by Nonprofits

Infrastructure:  An Essential to Surviving in Uncertain Times

         Infrastructure:

1. An underlying base or foundation
2. The basic facilities needed for the functioning of a system
   Riverside Webster’s II Dictionary


     Position Descriptions

         Whether you are a paid staff person managing volunteers or a volunteer trying to round up people to help with a school carnival, you need position or task descriptions for volunteers.  Part of a healthy infrastructure for a volunteer program is that people know what is expected of them.  This is true for long-term traditional jobs or those that are short in duration.  Skip this step can create loads of problems. You can drive people away by what appears to them as a lack of organization, impact their view of how important the job and their service is to the organization, or have volunteers doing things they should not.  If you need to “fire” a volunteer the position description is always the starting point.  Volunteer Today is providing you with a worksheet to develop descriptions for long term continuous serving positions or for the episodic volunteers.  Click here for the worksheet. 

 

Interested in assessing your Volunteer program? Use One of the Volunteer program Evaluation Series Assessments Recruitment Risk management Volunteer and Staff Relations Screening Volunteers Volunteer Program Evaluation Series.

 

---

Return to the Menu

Social Media Use by Nonprofits

         A study by University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research shows that nonprofit organizations are ahead of business in the use of social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and blogs.  89% of nonprofit organizations are using some form of social media.  57% said they use blogs
         It is surmised by the researchers that the low cost of the social media tools allows nonprofits to reach volunteers, and donors without using direct mail or phone calls.  To read the report go to http://www.umassd.edu.cmr

A Service of MBA Publishing-A subsidiary of Macduff/Bunt Associates All materials copyright protected ©2011
821 Lincoln St., Walla Walla, WA 99362 (509) 520-0244 FAX: (509) 526-5595 EMAIL: mba@bmi.net
Twitter: http://twitter.com/NLMacduff

The content of all linked sites are beyond the control Volunteer Today and the newsletter assumes no responsibility for their content.