Volunteers are the lifeblood of your sport. You know that. But do you know how you are going to keep that lifeblood pumping? How does your governing body of sport keep your volunteers happy? Do you know what external factors your governing body needs to take into account when planning for the long term growth of your sport? Do you factor in volunteering and the influences on volunteering when you plan strategically? Does your CEO have someone senior reporting to her or him directly about strategic volunteering? How much do you invest in your volunteering?
All tough questions.
Here are some answers to the question of "how does our governing body of sport keep our volunteers happy?"
Here are five things your governing body can do to keep your volunteers happy; plan for the vital resource of volunteering and make sure your governing body is at the forefront of sport:
1. Board level volunteer planning
Make sure volunteering is led at board level - it is a vital strategic function of your organisation and it needs to be planned for at the top levels.
2. What is happening with your volunteering?
Think about what you know and don't know, and what you really need to know: Objectively find out where you are now with your volunteering and volunteer management. Decide how you will evaluate at this early stage.
2. Be the best
Sign up to achieve Investing in Volunteers, and use the Good practice bank to support your good practice work. Train your teams, board and volunteer managers with the Excellence in Volunteer Management suite of training and learning opportunities.
4. Get your sums right
What percentage of your work is delivered by volunteers? How much do you spend on training your paid staff to fully understand and training in volunteer management
Implement your plans with a named, clear lead on volunteering across the organisation (either as a specific volunteer management, or with volunteering responsibilities sitting across all relevant departments) – this could involve Excellence in Volunteer Management, ensuring that your networks are aware of and working with Volunteer Centres, keeping in touch with the latest good practice in volunteer management through the Information team.
5. Evaluate your volunteering plans
By working with the Institute of Volunteering Research, or the Impact of Volunteering Toolkit, and see the sport specific tools created from this generic toolkit.
Finally, some more suggestions to improve your volunteering:
Below are some suggestions to your organisation about keeping volunteers happy, and stopping them being unhappy. These suggestions include:
