Volunteer management is important. Volunteers account for approximately one percent of gross domestic product, or GDP. This doesn't sound like much, I know. But, as the saying goes, a million here, a million there, pretty soon it adds up to real money. Since gross domestic product can be on the order of a trillion dollars, for large countries, that means the contributions of volunteer work, for such a country, can be on the order of ten billion dollars. When you look at the world economy as a whole, the number is that much greater.
The bulk of volunteer work is put in by approximately four percent of the population. This four percent seems to be remarkably consistent. Four percent of the population does all the volunteer work, four percent of the population provides the vast bulk of blood donations, and four percent of the population also seems to be the persistent criminal class. (No, it's not the same four percent, but the fact that four percent keeps on coming out, consistently, in all of these types of studies is interesting.) It also has an important point to make about volunteer management.
Finding and managing that four percent is not easy, but it is important.
Volunteer management gets short shrift in the literature on, and studies of, management overall. In the available source literature about management, you will not find much mention of volunteer management, as a specialty. And it definitely is a specialty. Those items that you can find about volunteer management primarily seem to have been written by those with experience in volunteering, and not necessarily those with experience in management. So I thought that I would do a little bit of exploration on my own, and hopefully produce something that might be useful to those of you who find yourself in the position of managing volunteers.
A couple of observations about those who find themselves in the position of volunteer management. I very much doubt that you had any particular dream of managing volunteers. Few people do. Mostly, organizations that rely upon volunteer work are rather desperate to get someone to manage the volunteers, and, all too often, will pick anyone who sticks their hand up. Anyone who hears a call for the managing of the volunteer corps is probably *in* the volunteer corps, and then we are back to the same problem that I have just observed: those who are managing volunteers are primarily those who have been volunteering, and not necessarily those who have ever studied management, or managed anything else, in their lives.
I have worked in volunteer positions, and volunteer organizations, for as long as I can remember. This work goes back at least six decades. But, in the interim, I have also had a, possibly rather oddball, set of experiences in management. And I have managed offices, and departments, and organizations. Most of them have been business entities, but some have been volunteer organizations. I have researched management, in a variety of ways, some of which were particularly surprising to me. And, for over twenty years now, I have taught management. So I hope that this material is useful to you. Even more, I hope that it is useful and benefits the organization or cause for which you are working.
Table of contents:
(Work in progress, but will be updated at the original posting at
Volunteer management - VM - 0 - introduction and table of contents
Volunteer management - VM - 0.01 - management importance
Volunteer management - VM - 0.02 - assets
Volunteer management - VM - M - 1.02 - motivation, basics
Volunteer management - VM - M - 1.04 - motivation, know staff
Volunteer management - VM - MB - 1.20 - benefits of volunteering
Volunteer management - VM - G - 2.02 - governance - policy
Volunteer management - VM - G - 2.04 - governance - organizational roles and structure
Volunteer management - VM - G - 2.05 - governance - volunteers vs paid staff
Volunteer management - VM - G - 2.08 - governance - support requirements of enterprise
Volunteer management - VM - G - 2.12 - governance - planning levels
Volunteer management - VM - G - 2.13 - governance - requirements
Volunteer management - VM - 4.04 - operations - check volunteers
Volunteer management - VM - CS - - case study: how *not* to change leadership
Volunteer management - VM - CS - - case study: *my* experience
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