Nonprofit Volunteer Recruitment Done Right

Full Transcript:

Steven: All right, hello. Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of

Bloomerang TV, our awesome video podcast. Thanks for watching. Today I am

joined by my Twitter buddy Natasha Golinsky. She is the founder of Next

Level Nonprofits. Hey there Natasha. How is it going?

Natasha: Going great. How are you?

Steven: Good. Good to have you here. This is exciting.

Natasha: Thank you.

Steven: I'm glad to have you chatting with us. I know you've written

for our blog a little bit. You write on your own blog which is

really awesome.

Natasha: Thank you.

Steven: You're a mentor. You're a coach. You're always helping out

nonprofit organizations. What do you do specifically at Next

Level Nonprofits? What are you up to these days?

Natasha: Well what I usually like to do is I really work with folks that

are working with startups. I found that myself having been self-

employed for 12 years and having run different startup projects

of my own and working with nonprofit leaders, I found that

really the part that I love about nonprofit management and

nonprofit leadership is getting to work with those really brand

new leaders; ones who don't really have a board, don't have a

volunteer department, don't have a fund raising plan and really

helping them build that strong base that they can build a long

sustainable organization upon.

Because I just find from my own experience having again worked in

multiple businesses and you know it took me years in the

beginning to figure out okay I wasn't really on the right track.

I personally had a coach come aboard with me, help me get all

straightened out. And so I just like to work with nonprofits and

say hey like let's do it right, right from the beginning as much

as we can. And so I run a 12-step process of different areas to

kind of work through and coaching and training guides to really

help them build that base.

Steven: Awesome and so you work with you mentioned startup nonprofits

and all nonprofits need volunteers right?

Natasha: Yes.

Steven: But maybe startup nonprofits especially need volunteers because

they're trying to get up and running. They don't have a lot of

that support and infrastructure in place.

Natasha: Definitely.

Steven: You write a lot about nonprofit management and things like

this, volunteering.

Natasha: Yes.

Steven: What are some ways in your mind that any nonprofit can recruit

new volunteers and really build that pipeline if they need some

new ones or if they don't have any like a startup nonprofit?

Natasha: Right. Well that's a great question because I do get asked

that a lot like when you don't have a budget and you don't have

any resources or grant money coming in like how do you build a

team, right? How do you staff your organization if you can't

afford to pay anybody and I think just from my own experience,

I'm in the process personally of working and developing my own

nonprofit with one of my colleagues and so we're in the exact

same boat right now. So like how do you build your team and how

do you get and executive leadership fund without any financial

resources.

And I think the main thing is like to realize there are people out

there who have the same passion as you for the same sorts of

causes. You just have to find them, you know. So there are

people out there who do care about the exact same cause that you

have it just might take a lot of networking for you to kind of

bring these people together. And I'm really a big fan of the

whole skills volunteer philosophy.

Its one thing to be running a 5K event and everyone who can help can

help and that's great. But I think when you're getting started

or you're really looking to scale, you need a specific skill

set. You need people who come to the table with a very unique

set of talents that you can use in a strategic way to kind of

get the job done.

So I guess I was going to say like if you're just a startup or if

you're a nonprofit looking to kind of grow your programs into a

different area, really looking at, okay who do you have already?

Are they being used the best way they can be being used? Like

you know lot of times we have people that show up and want to

volunteer and we give them a job that needs to be done but not

one that's necessarily in line with what their skills are; which

isn't a bad thing because I know for me sometimes when I

volunteer, I don't want to be working on management stuff. I

want to be making coffee, you know, like it's kind of nice. But

sometimes if there are people in your organization already that

may have a skill that you need but you're not using. So I think

the first thing is to kind of figure out a way or we can talk

about that a bit later to like uncover the talents in the people

that already are there.

I think a second one, I know that I use a lot and having been a

recruiter for ten years before the nonprofit world was

referrals. So if I'm looking for a very specific skill set,

let's say I'm looking for someone who know a lot about email

marketing, I'm going to ask around. I'm going to like ask for a

referral before I kind of do a big pitch to my community. I'm

going to see who knows somebody, who's talented, who do they

know who may have a few extra hours a week.

And then there are also people too that I know that we meet in our

lives but the timing isn't right for them to work with us.

Maybe they have basically a lot of family commitments or a lot

of work commitments and they don't have the time to come and

volunteer yet. But they did like us. They did like our cause

and so we can always go back to revisit those relationships and

see, maybe the timing is right now. Maybe there's something

they could do from home.

And I think the thing too is like when you're recruiting for

volunteers is really knowing what you want these people to do

and I know that sounds kind of funny. We all just think okay, a

warm body shows up let's give them a job. That's excellent.

But I think it helps a lot when you know... You have sort of

your org chart, like ball park, okay, I need...

let's say you're running committees. Okay, I need five people

over here or I need three people over here and this person would

have this and that skill set and then you're a lot more focused

with your volunteer recruitment effort and it helps you work.

It's so cliched but it definitely kind of helps you work smarter not

harder because you have the right skills and you're not having

to train everyone all the time.

Steven: Yes. That makes sense. So it seems like nonprofits, they can

generate maybe a small pool of people who are really excited

about the organization.

Natasha: Yes.

Steven: And mission. Like you said, getting them to do the right things

and really using their spiritual gifts or whatever is hard. How

do you identify those skills and really put them in the right

place? Because it seems like if you get an enthusiastic person

and you bring them in and then you give them a task that is not

maybe exciting or really fits their skillsets. That

can be kind of a recipe for disaster, right? So how do you

identify those things?

Natasha: That's a great question and I actually learned this from my

business coach who is actually one of the key volunteers at the

Saddleback Church in Orange County. And even if you're not,

don't know anything about churches, you've probably heard of

Rick Warren who's the founder of Saddleback Church and hundreds

of other churches and they've written a program where they

really do the same approach.

They really work with skills-based volunteering where they have a

system where they look at, okay, what are you good at? How much

time do you have? And they have a thing, they have a workbook

actually where they, each person would go through and check off

the boxes, I'm good at this, I'm not good at this, I love this,

I don't like this.

And so it's very strategic and I think obviously he has a sample that

any organization can kind of make their own worksheet to be

like, if you know what you're looking for, you know, kind of

what talents and skills that you need and then you can kind of

work back maybe even an application for them. Like, do you have

skills with, you know, web development, fund raising, budgeting,

accounting. Like you can kind of create an application for them

for your volunteers based on what you need so you can help

filter people out that much more quickly, right?

Steven: That makes a lot of sense. So you would do that second, right?

You would get a really passionate person, then identify the

skills rather than go out and find the skills, right?

Natasha: Yeah exactly. I would, you could kind of go either way actually

because you could do, okay, let's say for example, you need

someone to chair your finance committee as an example and that

one seems like always people are always looking for that. So

you're looking for a board treasurer lets say. Well, you could

go on LinkedIn and network with people in your community, maybe

someone who is an accountant and you can kind of reverse

engineer the recruitment of that volunteer and get to know that

person and see if they'd be interested or if he knows anyone.

Or, you have a volunteer who shows up and they're excited and

while you're interviewing them you see, oh my gosh, he's run his

own accounting practice for 15 years. And so you can kind of do

it either way.

My main, I guess when I'm working with volunteers and again, from my

recruitment background, is you really want to just help people

find their own stride. So, if someone showed up to volunteer in

my organization and they really, really had a passion for

teaching workshops or let's say for example, or whatever, or

they were a presenter or a speaker and that was kind of their

day job. They were a consultant. If they wanted to I would, like

Rick Warren says, he's like, you don't create the program until

you have someone to run it. Which I thought was interesting.

So it's like if I have this person who's a super workshop volunteer.

She's excellent at that, I could then, that would help me shape

my program off of her, based on what talent I have to work with

too. Because I think a lot of non-profit leaders, and I brought

myself into this, we come up with these ideas for programs and

we have no support team to do it and so we end up trying to do

it all ourselves. Instead of, okay, let me do what I can manage

and then as I start meeting the right people and as people start

showing up to volunteer and the word starts getting out, then I

can kind of assess what I have to work with and then that will

help us shape the expansion of our program offer.

Steven: Yeah, you can scale it. That makes a lot of sense.

Natasha: Yeah and it's like until you have the talent there it's just

not sustainable to try to do it all yourself, right? Because,

one thing I see a lot when I'm working with start-ups is a lot

of people, they really go, they want to go wide really fast. So

they want to work with like an animal shelter or something. A

lot of times they'll have four or five programs they want to run

right from day one but they don't have the manpower. So they end

up working so many hours and obviously then there's no time for

marketing or planning and you really get trapped at this... and

I've done it myself.

But it's like, okay, let's, you kind of want to start, let's pick one

program that one or two programs that I feasibly, me and my core

people could work on and then as we recruit more people who

bring to the table this specific skillset, okay, maybe they

could be a part of helping you develop the next wave of

programs.

Steven: Right.

Natasha: They'll come and not one before the other.

Steven: That makes sense. That's really good. So, the danger in this

whole thing is, you get a volunteer who maybe is not a good fit,

right? So it's the wrong person or the wrong task. What kind of

damage can that do? If any damage, if that's the right word.

Natasha: I think fit, and again, I know I'm totally biased being, coming

from a recruitment background, but I think fit is probably the

most critical thing. I know for example when my first project I

did when I was starting in the non-profit sector was a project I

was doing for a local community church and they had probably a

hundred volunteers showing up to help every week at every

service at church. And none of them had been assessed and

everyone was just kind of wherever. And if they needed someone

to hand something else, this person did it and then this person

made coffee. And it was kind of like, they would just shove

people into jobs and I don't understand why they did it and

everyone was happy to contribute.

But as we started working through this process of assessing and

profiling and understanding who they had, that they had 30% of

their community was showing up every week to volunteer which is

huge. So we were like, okay, how can we tweak so that people are

feeling a lot more engaged. Because my feeling with non-profits

is, your best marketing is always going to be word of mouth

marketing. And your volunteers are the people who are like

inside your organization with you.

And they, I really believe volunteers, how we handle working with

volunteers will make or break our organization. They do the

branding for us. If they have a terrible experience working with

us, they're going to spread the word. They have a great

experience, they're going to spread the word. And your

volunteers are your unpaid marketing team.

So I really look at, okay, the best thing that we can do is to really

shape, develop a volunteer culture where people feel engaged

because, back to your question, where it's like, if it is the

wrong fit, if you have someone who has an incredible, let's use

the financial background, they have a financial background

again, but they're outside cutting grass because they're

landscaping.

They want to help, which is fine, and they have a heart to help, but

really if they're in the wrong job, ultimately, and no one's

paying attention, that's the thing... if he's in the job and he

knows in that job because that's what needs to be done and they

know and they have an intention to use him

in a way that he wants to be used, that's one thing. But if no

one ever asks and no one's really showing that we're paying

attention to who you are and what you have to bring to the

table, it can create a lot of resentment.

Where I know for me, I was recently doing, participating in a project

and they said, "Well what do you know how to do?" And I said,

"Well I love working with management and administration and

planning." And they're like, "Oh, well, we don't really need

that. How about you work in the nursery?" I was like, "I've got

three kids at home. I don't want to volunteer to work in the

nursery." And it's just like immediately, I'm like, I'm

disengaged because... But let's say I was more accommodating

than I am and I was like, "Oh yeah, absolutely I'll work in the

nursery." Well that's never going to work out well.

Ultimately in the next, as time goes on I'm going to be resentful.

I'm going to be bringing a little bit of attitude to the job.

It's going to be affecting the people around me. That's

obviously going to create a bad dynamic. And again, its one

thing if I admitted, okay, yes, by day, I work in management and

by afternoon I love to work with kids and volunteer in the

nursery. That's one thing. If no one asks and no one's paying

attention to me and I hate the job, that's going to create a lot

of damage.

Steven: So let's say that resentment kind of takes hold and you can't

reassign them. Have you ever had to fire a volunteer? How do you

do that?

Natasha: Yes I do. I think you should fire volunteers. I think, I really

believe that again, if you don't have the right fit for someone,

I know I'm doing a lot of stories here, but I had someone

actually email a week ago and ask for my quote on that exact

same subject. What do you do if you have the wrong personfor a volunteer?

I said on the front end it comes down to the organization, like,

writing really specific job descriptions. And so it's like how

you can prevent bad fit, is you can, let's just say you, again

you had a committee you wanted to put together. You really

specifically outline what does that job involve and then you

strategically recruit to those positions. And then you develop

an orientation package where they would totally understand what

was expected and you have a meeting and then... if after all

these different steps and then you kind of buddy up and you

match them with a partner, and this is again, things that you

can even do right from the start, putting this infrastructure

together.

If even after that, step three, step four, it's still the bad fit,

you kind of sit down and you just say, hey you know, I really,

really appreciate your interest in our organization. I don't

feel that what you're looking for and what we're looking for is

really a fit right now. Can I make a recommendation for you to

check out this different organization? I know they need someone.

It's like it's not personal it's just, like a volunteer shows up,

thinking what's in it for me. If you can't give them what they

want, it's in everyone's best interest for you to help them find

the right fit. I remember this contract I was doing with the

church with these hundred volunteers was that, they were, I

said, "Well, why is so and so here, what are they looking to get

out of it?" And they're like, "Well they're just showing up

because they want to help and no one has really any agenda." I

said, "Well that's true but that's not really human nature."

Human nature is, okay, what's in it for me? Am I going to get some

experience for my resume? Am I getting community service hours?

Am I getting job skills? Am I networking? Everyone has an

agenda. It's not bad but if you don't know what it is you kind

of can't help them get theirs.

And so I really find that really powerful volunteer relationships

work when you both know what you want out of the relationship

and then you can work on it together. It's not like a one-sided

dependent, I'm not dependent, I'm not waiting for my volunteer

to show up and waiting for them. They're not looking to me to be

the perfect... So you kind of create this co-laboring kind of

partnership and you both know who you are, what you want, and

checking in, doing a review, sending them a

review.

But that was the incredibly long way to answer, yes, I would fire a

volunteer. So I don't think the word firing is the right word.

Steven: Yeah, it's not.

Natasha: I use that word too. But it's like fit. It's like, hey if I

can't offer you the right fit, then I don't want to waste your

time. Obviously it takes a little practice to have that

conversation but, definitely, if they're not getting anything

and we're not getting anything and its tense, like, let them go.

Right?

Steven: Well follow Natasha's advice and you will never have to be in

the situation, if you do everything she just said.

Natasha: I wish. I wish.

Steven: This is great. This is awesome advice on volunteering,

volunteer administration, recruiting, all that good stuff. We're

about out of time but I want to give you the last word to tell

folks where they can learn more about you, where they can check

you out online, read more of your awesome blogs.

Natasha: Sure. Thanks, well, if you head over to

nextlevelnonprofits.com, if you are a start-up I have a, on the

top right corner, you'll see there's a free checklist. It's an

11-point checklist to make sure that you've kind of your big

pieces of your non-profit foundation put together.

And then after that I have a five piece strategic planning course

that I run over ten days. So every couple days you're going to

get a piece of, a little tip, a video about how to build a

strategic plan for your organization and then I've got a weekly

newsletter that runs after that. If anyone is kind of

getting started and want to kind of find out the big pieces of

putting a plan together that's what I would recommend.

Steven: Definitely check that out. Natasha's awesome. We'll link to all

that stuff here in the blog posts with the video. This is great.

Thanks for hanging out with us.

Natasha: Hey, my pleasure. Anytime.

Steven: We will post the video. Check out Natasha online. Thanks to

everyone who's watching. We will catch you on next week's

episode. So talk to you then.

Natasha: Thanks.