For our May book review, John Ramsey, Head of Volunteering at Age Concern England and Chair of the Association of Volunteer Managers, takes a look at book by US volunteering consultant Betty Stallings which examines 12 key actions of Volunteer Program Champions.
If you look at the origins of nearly all charities in this country you see a small group of committed volunteers, who saw a problem and wanted to do something to help. And yet the focus on volunteers seems to decrease as charities grow, despite the charity continuing to be reliant on volunteers.
12 Key Actions of Volunteer Program Managers reminds us all that not only does this need not be the case, but in fact success is reliant on it not being the case.
Betty Stallings spoke to 50 CEOs who were considered to be exceptionally supportive of their volunteer programmes and identified 12 key actions they had in common. Many of these actions seem quite obvious to those of us involved in volunteering but as Betty says, when she spoke to some CEOs, she was met with ‘Gee, I never really thought of that’.
The key actions resonate with the belief that volunteering cross-cuts an organisation both horizontally and vertically, for example volunteers should be involved at all levels of the organisation and there should be effective working between staff and volunteers.
Many of the key actions recognise the CEO’s own belief and understanding of effective volunteering. The first key action that Betty identifies is that the CEOs had extensive experience of volunteering themselves and a strong personal belief in the power of volunteering. From this comes the recognition both that the volunteer programme is essential to the organisation achieving its aims and that volunteer programmes are not free.
Of course, this is great for those volunteer managers who have CEOs like these, but what does it mean for the rest of us looking on with envy?
CEOs do not deliberately ignore their volunteer programmes, but often their attention is diverted by the other pressures of their job. It is up to volunteer managers to turn these actions on their head and show not just the success of their volunteering programmes but how much more successful the organisation could be if the CEO became a Volunteer Programme Champion.
Maybe the challenge for all of us is to start off with just one of these key actions and work with our CEOs to help develop them into Volunteer Programme Champions.
