Why nonprofits need volunteers

Strategic Planning for the Nonprofit Sector. Capacity Building in the Nonprofit Sector. Seven Ideas When Budgeting for Nonprofits. Founded in , Ohio University is the ninth oldest public university in the United States. Located in Athens, Ohio, the school serves more than 35, students on the 1,acre campus, and online. This esteemed institution is ranked by numerous publications, such as The Princeton Review , U. Ohio University has a long-standing reputation for excellence based on the quality of its programs, faculty and alumni.

If you are a professional who strives to align with one of the best, you need look no further than the esteemed on-campus and online programs offered at Ohio University. Skip to main content. Maybe you are passionate about animals and the environment; maybe you are an arts or music teacher and want to see more artistic opportunities for youth. Maybe you want to serve the elderly. Once you've determined where you would like to work, narrow the list down to the positions you would serve well and for which you are qualified.

Next, make use of your nonprofit network to create opportunities. Your uncle who worked for a nonprofit animal shelter, an old college friend who started a children's charity, a past co-worker who is now on a museum board of directors - call people you know or have worked or volunteered with in the past, and ask if there are any job openings coming up. Call, email, write and meet with people to discover job opportunities that can lead to fulfilling careers. Be persistent and polite.

There are many resources online that can help to determine the best organizations — matching your passions — to find nonprofit career opportunities. When on the hunt to find the organization with which you can do the most good, here are some places to start. Step 1. What can you do? Can you dig water wells or otherwise help improve infrastructure? Do you have a background in medical, law or small business? Step 2. Learn more about volunteer needs in your area: Volunteer Match.

Step 3. Start doing some research on the volunteer opportunities available throughout the world based on your interests, skills and goals. Learn more about questions you should ask before you agree to volunteer with a specific organization: Idealist Volunteer Questions.

Step 4. Learn more about short term volunteer opportunities abroad: Cross Cultural Solutions. Step 5. While some opportunities allow you to arrive and depart anytime, many are project based and require specific dates of commitment.

Learn more about choosing dates: Global Volunteers Dates and Fees. Step 6. Learn more about the cost and financing of international volunteering: Idealist-Cost. Step 7. Learn more about getting everything done before you go: Moving Worlds.

Idealist Matches according to skill, location and more. Volunteer Match finds volunteer opportunities in your community. AmeriCorps Lists domestic community service opportunities. Peace Corps Lists Peace Corps opportunities abroad. Senior Corps Connects citizens 55 years and older with community service projects.

Global Service Corps Matches students, families and more with global service projects. Global Volunteer Network Connects volunteers to overseas communities in need. United Nations Volunteers Connects volunteers with U. Volunteer Internationa Promotes access to global volunteer programs. World Volunteer Web Lists opportunities for worldwide volunteerism.

Do Something Matches students with causes they are passionate about. National Youth Leadership Council Develops youth leaders through service. Youth Service Opportunities Project Connects youth and college students with volunteer opportunities. Youth Volunteer Corps of America Offers community service opportunities to youth. Financial Services Volunteer Corps Connects financial professionals with communities needing help developing a financial infrastructure. Health Volunteers Overseas Connects healthcare professionals with training volunteer projects.

Not Measuring the Value of Volunteers. Most nonprofits do not measure the dollar value that volunteers provide to their organization. This reflects the lack of seriousness with which many organizations view volunteers and tends to compound the problem. If nonprofit leaders had hard data demonstrating the value of volunteers, as the March of Dimes does, they would be more likely to invest more time and money in developing volunteer talent.

Failing to Train and Invest in Volunteers and Staff. Volunteers need training to understand the organizations with which they are working, and employees need to be trained to work with volunteers. Nonprofits rarely invest substantial amounts of time or money in volunteer recruiters and managers.

For example, a youth service organization in Florida reported that at one time it had a busy receptionist managing several hundred volunteers. Unfortunately, the receptionist model of volunteer management is all too common. Failing to Provide Strong Leadership. Most nonprofit leaders are simply not taking the time to develop or support volunteer talent adequately—resulting in a poor or bland experience that leads to an unmotivated volunteer who has little reason to return.

Most nonprofit leaders do not place a high value on volunteer talent. If they did, they would dedicate more resources to the task—not assign it to a receptionist. One problem may lie with the term itself. It is often assumed that something free is not valuable. Maybe we should use different words—like fundraiser, project manager, or legal counsel—that describe the work performed and help erode outdated ideas about the value of the volunteer workforce. Volunteerism also suffers from being thought of as something that is nice, but not necessary.

When people think of volunteers, they often envision people spending a day cleaning up trash or planting flowers—projects that are helpful, but not essential.

If the volunteer had not planted those flowers, would the nonprofit have paid someone else to do it? When nonprofit leaders see that volunteers can do highly skilled work that the organization would have otherwise paid for, volunteering will begin to get some respect.

To capitalize on the opportunity presented by volunteer talent, nonprofit leaders need to expand their vision of volunteering, integrate volunteers into their strategic planning, and reinvent the way that their organizations support and manage volunteer talent.

More people need to understand that people will make time to volunteer if they are stimulated and engaged. Our research shows that the primary difference between volunteers and non-volunteers, when measuring what they do with their time, is the amount of television they watch. People who do not volunteer watch hundreds of hours of additional TV a year compared to people who do volunteer.

People do not volunteer because nonprofits do not provide them with volunteer opportunities that interest them enough to pull them away from their television sets. Rethinking Work Roles. Some organizations are elevating the roles of volunteers and blurring the distinctions between paid and nonpaid staff.

At the American Red Cross , for example, a volunteer chairperson runs the volunteer division and supervises paid staff. At the March of Dimes, people often move back and forth from senior paid positions to volunteer positions. Nonprofits also need to explore hybrid models of work and volunteering such as Experience Corps and ReServe. In these programs, people receive a modest stipend for their sustained and high-impact service, ensuring that people of varying income levels can participate.

Assigning Appropriate Tasks. Nonprofits must assign volunteers jobs that make the most of their skills and talents. For example, marketing experts from the consulting firm Deloitte were preparing for a traditional volunteer project—taking stock of donated inventory at a thrift store operated by Catholic Charities USA. But the Deloitte workers saw ways the thrift store could employ new merchandising techniques and offered pro bono consulting services to help make the changes.

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