WHAT SEPARATES HIGH-PERFORMING VOLUNTEER PROGRAMS FROM THOSE THAT FAIL?
Ongoing support, evidence-based strategies, an empowered community of go-getters, time-saving resources, and a proven, road-tested path to create mastery.
If you're a nonprofit executive, program manager, volunteer services director, or volunteer coordinator looking to expand your volunteer workforce while building sustainable systems you can leverage now and into the future, then you probably already know that you need to modernize.
So, I’ll spare you the spiel.
No need to sound like a broken record and convince you of something that’s likely already kept you up at night.
You probably already KNOW modernizing your strategy to meet the needs of today’s busy volunteers – and reaching them where they’re at (AKA on their devices) – can be THE game changer that allows you to attract more volunteers, scale your nonprofit, and better meet your mission.
You’ve probably also heard volunteering rates are surging at a record rate, with one in three adults (30.3%) volunteering through an organization for an estimated annual value of volunteer service of nearly $167 billion. (Source: Volunteering in America, Corporation for National & Community Service)
Here's What You
Might Not Know
Even if you’ve been lucky enough to be able to meet your agency’s basic needs with qualified volunteer talent (lucky you) … having a refreshed, modern system for volunteer engagement can:
-
Attract New and Diverse Communities of Supporters
Even if you have a dedicated corps of volunteers, you may be wishing they were more diverse or better matched the community you serve – you may hope to involve more men, youth, retirees, ethnicities, multi-lingual, corporate, or daytime volunteers. When you’re equipped with today’s strategies you can use a process to pinpoint your ideal audience and set a solid plan in place to connect with them. -
Engage the Right Volunteers by Designing an Experience They Will Love
Modernizing your strategy means examining and optimizing every step of the volunteer lifecycle so volunteer needs are met and they feel energized and deeply connected to your partnership. By becoming an “architect of experience,” you can lay the groundwork for greater follow through, reduced no shows, less turnover, and better overall retention. -
Build a High-Profile Volunteer Department that is the Envy of Your Nonprofit Neighbors
Let’s face it, there’s competition out there for high-quality talent. Wouldn’t it be great if your agency enjoyed top billing as “the best place to volunteer” in your community? Forget about your recruitment worries – word of mouth marketing can fill a reliable pipeline of support. -
Build a Sustainable Foundation and a Positive Path for the Future
Sadly, many organizations simply haven’t taken the power of volunteerism seriously nor invested in this resource as a key driver of sustainability. Not only do volunteers offer extra hands to get work done, they also make cash contributions and are positive ambassadors for your cause. And, did I mention that funders LOVE the fact that your agency is making the most of their seed money with active support right from your community? -
Stem the Tide of Nonprofit Staff Turnover
When employees have regular support and are equipped with a proven road map for success they can be proud of, they no longer have to wing it. Everyone can start enjoying their jobs and stop worrying about filling the next vacancy.
Even though the reasons to modernize your volunteer strategy are a complete no-brainer, the process involved in actually doing so is anything but.
Modernize Our Volunteer Strategy? Awesome.
When I'm pulled in a ba-zillion directions,
where do I start?
Perhaps even though you wear many hats, even though you’re pulled by competing priorities, even in the busiest times, you’ve made a commitment to start. You’ve boned up on the latest management tips and trends by sitting through freebie webinars, consuming blog posts, and pecking your way through the internet. You may have even drawn up a laundry-list of goals, objectives, and “to-dos” and taken the first steps toward change. But, even with the best intentions, many nonprofit leaders get sidelined before their project gets off the ground. As soon as they get underway, their efforts were overcome by life events, constant interruptions, or fires that need to be put out.
Here’s why most staff abandon efforts to modernize their volunteer program:
Without a proven, step-by-step tactics that have worked for others, they lack the confidence to push through the “we’ve always done it this way” reluctance of co-workers. They begin to feel defeated, disempowered, and demotivated.
Here’s why this is a tragedy for mission-based organizations.
As an ultra-busy nonprofit staffer with people to serve and an important mission to fulfill, you literally cannot afford to veer off course. You simply don’t have the time to spin your wheels, building your volunteer strategy by trial and error and hoping for the best. And, when you feel you don’t or won't get the support you need from other departments, you lose hope and the will to keep trying. But, getting your volunteer strategy on track is one of the few things you NEED to get right in order to ensure a sustainable future for your nonprofit. Luckily for you, there are VERY FEW organizations out there that are doing it right. In all likelihood, your nonprofit neighbors are using “old school” volunteer management tactics and are losing ground. They are irrelevant (or worse invisible) to potential supporters.
Which means ...
Even if you’re late to the party, there’s still a golden opportunity for you roll up your sleeves and get real traction right now. That is … if you can avoid some of the deadly mistakes outdated volunteer organizations are making in today’s modern world.
The 4 Myths That May Be Killing Volunteer Engagement at Your Nonprofit
Myth #1
All You Need is a Group of “Super” Volunteers to be Successful
It’s a common belief that leadership and talent is innate; we’re either born with it or we’re not. The same belief goes for volunteers – there are “good” volunteers and “bad” volunteers. You just have to be lucky enough to find the quality ones.
The reality is that ANY volunteer can be successful with the right structure and support. In fact, the more diversity you bring to the table the better.
Collaboration is the new competition, and teams become successful by building social capital. Trust builds over time as we learn how to work together and challenge each other to grow.
When organizations invest in designing a success pathway for volunteers, they begin tapping the limitless potential of community.
Myth #2
Leading Volunteers is Far Easier than Supervising Paid Staff
I can’t tell you how many times I hear about someone who’s been tapped to lead volunteers but is given little support or guidance and expected to make it work.
Anyone who has had the privilege of leading an unpaid workforce – that can simply leave when things go awry – knows it takes sophistication and a little bit of magic to keep people coming back, even when things get tough.
Leadership skills are an essential requirement for successful volunteer management and are so often left out of training in favor of policies and paperwork.
But it’s the relationships we build with our supporters that get the job done.
Myth #3
Volunteers Don’t Have Needs and Motives
Although we think of volunteering as a purely altruistic act, plenty of research speaks to the contrary. In reality, each volunteer has a specific set of needs that must be taken into consideration in order for them to start and continue serving.
It makes sense for organizations to take purposeful steps toward understanding these needs and keep tabs on volunteers as they change.
So, a solid strategy for recognition and retention is necessary to drive ever-deepening engagement.
Myth #4
People Just Don’t Have Time to Volunteer
Although we might be tempted to blame our lack of volunteer engagement on mysterious forces or “flaky” community members, the data tells a different story.
The fact is that volunteering rates are higher than they’ve been in the last decade.
Young people are familiar with service from a young age, and many baby boomers have taken on volunteering as a “second career.”
There are plenty of people in your community right now who want to help. But you’ve got to reach them with today’s targeted, digital tools, not yesterday’s “spray and pray” tactics.
Pssssttt …. I’m going to let you in on a
Dirty Little Secret
Although volunteerism is booming, and there are people in every community brimming with energy and inspiration to give back, not every organization will get their piece of the pie.
Only a few organizations will grab the opportunity to meet today’s volunteers where they’re at and take the steps needed to create an exceptional experience.
The rest will continue to suffer, losing supporters month after month and scratching their heads about why people just don’t seem to be able to commit.
The main reason for this is that effective volunteer management isn’t a slam dunk. It takes time, care, patience, and EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT EXECUTION.
When volunteer engagement is done well, volunteers will be more eager than ever to help your organization succeed.
And, they’ll naturally share the word about your good works.
What’s more, your reputation as THE PLACE to volunteer in your community will soar, making past volunteer recruitment woes a distant memory.
The key ingredient to all of this is a modern, high-impact volunteer strategy.
And, with your permission, that’s what I’d LOVE to show you how to make a reality.
Introducing...
The path to establish your agency’s position as the “go to” place in your community to contribute time, talent, and treasures.
I’ve taken everything I’ve learned from 30 years of launching and upgrading successful programs for multiple charities and government agencies and channeled it into a comprehensive membership experience that includes step-by-step training and implementation tools.
Not only do I teach research-based theory that supports effective volunteer and nonprofit program management, I also focus on the actual real-world EXECUTION with step-by-step tactics.
The VolunteerPro Premium Membership Community isn’t so much a training program as it is an IMPLEMENTATION program.
Yes, you’ll learn the underlying strategies behind everything you do, but more importantly, you’ll have meticulous, step-by-step project plans to carry your vision forward.
The end result: Incredibly effective long-term systems and time-saving ASSETS ready to be deployed over and over again as you grow volunteer engagement at your nonprofit.
The VolunteerPro Premium Membership Community
Is the ONLY program of its kind that …
Helps You Design for the Right Structure and Support
Tap the limitless potential of community by building success pathways so every volunteer can bring their best to your agency at every stage of the lifecycle.
Teaches You How to Lead Volunteers with Confidence
Sure, we’ll help you build rock solid volunteer program policies, but we also help you improve relationships and buy-in with volunteers, partners, and co-workers to get the job done.
Focuses on Meeting Mutual Needs So You Retain Top Volunteer Talent
Align your volunteer management practices – and the work of volunteers – with your agency’s most critical needs and drive ever-deepening engagement with a strategy that satisfies their deep motivations to serve.
Sets the Stage for Ongoing Sustainability
Build a reliable, repeatable systems for generating a consistent pipeline of active, engaged, happy volunteers who are ready to take on new levels of leadership.
So, if you’re ready to finally to stop “hunting and pecking” for one-off solutions and want to double-down on road-tested volunteer engagement systems and strategies that work, here's how we’ll get you there:
Here’s How It All Breaks Down
As a VolunteerPro Premium Community member, you’ll get monthly access to the 4 essential elements that separate highly-successful volunteer programs from the rest …
- Proven Strategies for Growth
If you’ve ever been frustrated by training that’s full of vague “fluff” and conjecture about what might work, you’ll appreciate our focus on research-based strategies and my own years in the trenches as a nonprofit professional. - Time-saving Tools & Templates
When you log in to the community, you’ll have instant access to our entire library of tools, templates, and replay recordings so you can make major progress in your volunteer strategy right away. - Coaching
To truly go big, everyone needs a coach, mentor, or guide who’s already been there. But most nonprofits don’t have these funds.
With our group coaching calls, you’ll get the ongoing support you need to tackle the inevitable roadblocks and get on the road to success a whole lot faster.
Members love my direct, no-holds-barred pep talks that help them trade frustration for motivation and start living up to the potential on the other side of fear. - Community
I wish I would have had VolunteerPro when I was that lonely nonprofit leader trying to make change for the better!
Inside our bespoke community, you’ll find a strong network of peers doing big things and cheering you on while you do the same. We even connect you with organizations with similar structures and interests.
And, we check in regularly to add our two cents to the mix. So, every question gets a response.
As a member of the VolunteerPro Premium Community, here’s what you’ll get every single month:
A 60-minute action-oriented program development training session
with yours truly where we’ll dig into on step of a six-month series. I'll help you roll up our sleeves and get to work. Here’s what we have in store to kick off 2020 ...
The Total Growth Series
(Jan – June 2020) - Expand volunteer engagement exponentially with a focused, 6-month strategy
- January – Kick Off: Map Your 6-month Plan
Pinpoint exactly how you want to grow your volunteer corps in 2020 and learn all about where we’re headed in the series - February – Growing Your Community of Fans
Implement the key strategies you need to increase your fan base, so they are ready and willing to answer your calls to action - March – Your Ideal Volunteer: Where They Are and Where They’re Going
Design for the emotional triggers that move volunteers from “slightly interested” to “highly committed” - April – Your Volunteer Offer: What to Say & Where to Place It
Write irresistible ad copy to authentically convert the right volunteers, in the right place, at the right time without sounding “salesey” - May – Build the Momentum to Join through Info Sessions & Webinars
Create inspired online and on-land events that generate energy and cement commitment to your good cause - June – Onboarding for Quick Impact
Reduce the number of volunteers who don’t follow through with a highly intentional system that gets volunteers up to speed and making an impact stat!
A second 60-minute hyper-focused training session
with myself or a guest instructor where we’ll explore what’s working now in the world of volunteer management and focus on how you can implement these strategies at your nonprofit.
A live implementation group coaching call
for facilitated idea exchange where members can get an extra set of eyes on current projects and troubleshoot nagging hang-ups in a matter of minutes.
Instant access to our resource vault
with replay recordings and downloads of over 300 time-saving tools organized across the wide spectrum of volunteer management topics including ...
- Matching & Placement
- Orientation & Onboarding
- Outcomes Management
- Outreach & Marketing
- Program Design & Assessment
- Recognition & Motivation
- Recruitment
- Screening & Background Checks
- Staff Leadership Skills
- Supervision & Support
- Training & Development
- Volunteer Leadership Development
Focused communications
to help you stay on track:
- Weekly update newsletter for a quick, focused forecast of upcoming events. I also often share some of my musings on leadership and volunteerism in my weekly “love letter” to our members.
- Monthly study guide that lists all of our live events and topics to map out your month of learning and offer suggestions for deeper reading from our blogs
- Learning EXCELerator pathways with curated resources and suggested steps for focused learning on a core topic – choose the path that suits your needs!
- Research to practice briefs that condense current scholarly research into digestible bites with implications for practice
Limited Time Bonuses
This is a serious group of leaders of volunteers that are dedicated to getting traction at their nonprofit. Leverage the power of these three exclusive bonuses to assess where you need to focus your time and energy and turbocharge your growth as a professional with pride.
The Volunteer Management Competencies Self-Assessment
A $197 VALUE
Use this checklist to honestly evaluate your current strengths and challenges. This exercise will help you get started on the right foot with your VolunteerPro membership and give you some ideas on the most helpful resources. In the future, you can use this checklist to gauge where you’ve improved and what you still need to work on.
The Volunteer Program Maturity Model (coming in January!)
A $97 VALUE
Check your organization with our exclusive model and pinpoint areas where you are lagging, adapting, or maturing across all aspects of your volunteer operations.
CCVA CVA Application and Recertification Discount
A $35 VALUE
Our members get the special rate of $315 on the only global credential for volunteer management. The next application and exam windows open in March 2020, so now’s a great time to get started!
Our No-Risk, All Reward 14-Day Money Back Guarantee
The VolunteerPro Premium Membership Community is THE ONLY comprehensive professional network and implementation program of its kind for volunteer organizations who are ready to modernize their practices and engage consistent, reliable, high-quality volunteer talent in 2020.
Our highly-curated community is chock full of resources and movers and shakers bent on success. When you join, you'll be part of this special group.
Now here’s the kicker.
By the end of these 14 days, you will have received access to the membership community and our vault of replay recordings and actionable downloads.
Meaning you will have all you need to make plans to attack your biggest volunteer management headaches head on BEFORE making a final commitment.
If you don’t feel super confident and motivated that you’re well on your way to making robust volunteer involvement a reality at your nonprofit, simply reach out to me directly at [email protected] and I’ll refund your investment, no questions asked, and you can go back to searching and hoping for what you think might work.
Join the VolunteerPro Premium Membership Community Today and Get …
The FULL VolunteerPro Premium Membership Experience
(a $2,124 Value)
You’ll get access to two live masterclasses and one group coaching call per month, the community forum, and all the guides, tools, and templates you need to upgrade your volunteer strategy with confidence and ease.
Learn exactly what it takes to realize a consistent pipeline of active, engaged, happy volunteers who are ready to take you mission to the next level, even in today’s busy hectic world.
Generate renewed respect for volunteers and volunteer services and a deeper understanding of the value of volunteers to the organization’s sustainability.
Save time by implementing reliable systems and by developing empowered leaders to take on tough challenges and achieve more than they dreamed possible.
Cultivate teams that work together harmoniously to solve problems and achieve results, and realize strong retention rates and inspired word of mouth marketing that means less time spent on volunteer recruitment.
PLUS, get these limited time bonuses
- Volunteer Management Competencies Self-Assessment - $197 Value
- The Volunteer Program Maturity Model - $97 Value
- CVA Discount - $35 Value
When you add it all up, that’s a total value of over $2,400!
(ridiculously small when compared to the sustainable value you’ll be creating!)
Because I’m so excited to welcome you to a growing group of professionals that are taking control and making program decisions with confidence (the RIGHT way), I’m giving you the opportunity to enroll in the VolunteerPro Premium Membership Community at special promo rate of just ...
VolunteerPro Annual Membership
Access to the VolunteerPro Premium Membership Community
Free invites to all of our Live Masterclasses and Coaching Calls
The Volunteer Management Competencies Self-Assessment Worksheet
The Volunteer Program Maturity Model (coming in January!)
Discount on your CVA Application or Renewal
2 Payment Options:
Frequently Asked Questions
What our Most Successful Members Asked Before Joining our Exclusive VolunteerPro Community
I’m not going to lie. In order to bring about the full transformation your organization is seeking, you will need to put in some hard work. But we will help save you precious time by providing systems, templates, and plans you can use “right out of the box.”
If you rely on volunteers to meet your mission, meaning you can’t survive and thrive without them, then improving how you engage them makes sense – volunteer retention is an issue across the sector, but you can take proactive steps to make your nonprofit the “go to” destination for volunteers in your area.
Plus, volunteers are donors, so agencies that invest in volunteer program development reap double the rewards. My consulting clients pay tens of thousands of dollars to learn our secrets to success. You can do so at a fraction of the cost by joining today. Check out our Member Prospectus for a detailed rationale for investing. If you’ve got a team, we offer discounts when more than one person joins at a time.
Maybe your boss is recommending you develop new trainings or systems. Let's face it, it takes a TON of time to research and find examples that you’re not sure will even work. Our “done with you” step-by-step training, tools, and coaching will help you scale more rapidly, rather than hunting and pecking for systems that might work.
You have two choices. 1) go without and keep struggling or 2) invest in the next best thing to high-priced volunteer program development: expert training and systems that can get your agency traction, all while building skills along the way
Our training and coaching are chock full of “what to say” messaging and includes masterclasses focused on training your co-workers and gaining the buy in you need to succeed. Remember, I’ve been there, so I’ve developed a slate of change management practices that I will share with you. Yes, you can be an agent of change and inspire others to welcome them with open arms (or at least accept they are highly-supported forgone conclusion).
That's where an immersive membership community is so different – one-off webinars or workshops leave you high and dry. With our community, we’re there every step of the way to help you troubleshoot your implementation with sage words of advice and encouragement, based on years of experience. We also poll our members to find out their greatest needs and develop our training accordingly. Finally, our content is constantly evolving with advances in technology and the field of volunteerism, so you can keep pace with current trends and best practice.
"To be quite honest, VolunteerPro content is incomparable. It’s focused, it’s applicable, it’s efficient, I know it’s aligned with best practices, and it’s practical. I can actually use it. It’s not like watching a free webinar with kind of fuzzy and low-level topics that make me frustrated with no hard details, data, or better resources at the end of it. I love your webinars."
Paula Allen, Filoli Center
The VolunteerPro Premium Membership Community is perfect for you if …
If you find yourself nodding with any of the following, then you are in a perfect position to enroll in the VolunteerPro Community and begin modernizing your volunteer strategy right away.
- You are the person primarily responsible for developing systems and operating procedures for recruiting and placing volunteers and for growing volunteer involvement at your agency.
- You KNOW you need to modernize you’re approach in order to generate consistent, reliable volunteer talent necessary to meet your agency’s needs now and into the future.
- You truly feel that your organization offers volunteers unique opportunities to make a significant impact and you refuse to sit by and watch other organizations beat you to the punch.
- You don’t mind (and even welcome) the extra support and detailed success strategies offered by the course … even the “tell it like it” is, non-nonsense coaching.
- You’re ready to roll up your sleeves and focus FULLY on implementing the frameworks you learn, knowing you will be wildly more effective once you have a modernized volunteer program on your hands.
- You like having fun and look forward to the idea of networking with a passionate community of like-minded peers you’re ready to tap for advice.
"The webinars got me hooked three years ago and are why I became a member. I stayed a member because of the webinars, the handouts, and the freebie tools last holiday time and this year too. So helpful to a new volunteer coordinator."
Nancy Haggard, Gail Borden Public Library
Get Started Growing Today!
Yes! I’m ready to make it happen, protected by a full No-Risk, All Reward 14-Day Money Back Guarantee
Choose the payment plan that works best for you.
Our individual memberships are set to automatically renew at the end of the membership year.
So, you don’t have to worry about missing a thing.
VolunteerPro Annual Membership
Access to the VolunteerPro Premium Membership Community
Free invites to all of our Live Masterclasses and Coaching Calls
The Volunteer Management Competencies Self-Assessment Worksheet
The Volunteer Program Maturity Model (coming in January!)
Discount on your CVA Application or Renewal
2 Payment Options:
We will let you know in advance when you are up for renewal. If you want to cancel your next renewal, send us an email at [email protected]. It’s that simple.
Want all the details? Check out our Terms of Service HERE.
Want Memberships for Your Group?
Memberships are set up for individual access, not organization-wide. But we do offer generous bulk discounts on memberships for associations, organizations, and teams who want to purchase more than one individual membership.
Check out our Group Discounts on Annual Memberships sheet for more info.
Download Discount Pricing Sheet
Need Your Boss’s Approval?
To help make your case, send your boss an email using our Membership Email Request Template, and attach our Membership Prospectus.
We’re confident the investment in your leadership development will bring rewards to your entire organization at a fraction cost of conference fees, travel, or private consulting.
Download Membership Email Request Template Download Membership ProspectusYou don't have to go it alone …
It can be really hard to scale and grow volunteer engagement when you’re a one-woman or one-man shop and you’re doing it on your own.
I know because I’ve been there … grasping for ideas, second guessing myself, wasting time with solutions that didn’t pan out.
Since then, I’ve been a HUGE proponent of getting help.
In fact, just this year I doubled down on some intensive training to expand our online marketing strategies. I realized we would never get where we wanted to be without some expert advice.
Truth be told, it was a bit of a gamble to drop nearly $4,000 on courses!
But I knew that if we wanted to play a bigger game in 2020 – and help more nonprofits thrive – we needed to stay in the know and keep growing and evolving.
The good news is that you don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on support. I created the VolunteerPro Premium Membership Community to be super accessible for volunteer managers at all levels. The only prerequisite is that you’re prepared to take action and go all in.
I want every single committed and ambitious nonprofit leader reading this to join the VolunteerPro community and receive the ongoing support required to reach the next level. Are you in?!
Here’s to surprising yourself, your volunteers, and your co-workers with what’s possible when you commit, show up, choose to learn the ropes, and take action.
You are entirely capable of making your big dreams happen. Seriously, you’ve got what it takes. And, don’t you (and your volunteers) deserve it?
It’s my honor to show you the way.
Wishing You All My Best!
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