Reconfiguring an existing Volunteer Programme

How do you restructure a traditional Volunteer programme into a short-term and flexible one? Try these strategies:

 Substitution – If the job has to be done every day, week or month, create the position of “substitute.” These are volunteers who are willing to be on-call and fill-in as their schedules permit.

Job Sharing - Assign two volunteers to the same opportunity. Their responsibilities could be the same or different depending on their skills. Two volunteers might job share or the new volunteer could recruit a job-sharing friend. The volunteers follow a prearranged schedule or work it out themselves week by week.

Rotation - Several volunteers might take turns filling a volunteer assignment, each working for a period of just three months. Such an arrangement might work well for seasonal workers or students.

Segmentation – Breaking a labor intensive position into manageable short-term opportunities. For example, a special event coordinator might be replaced by several short-term volunteers each working on one piece of the overall event.

Team Volunteering - Assign multiple volunteers to the same client, each having a specialized function. For example, instead of just one volunteer being assigned to a homebound senior, a team is created. Perhaps one volunteer gives emotional support, another handles finances and another does housecleaning. No one volunteer has to do it all making the load lighter for everyone.

Telecommuting - The volunteer provides the service from home or some other off-site location using the Internet, phones or fax. A good example of the application of this strategy is in the area of mentoring. School-based mentoring can be a fairly inflexible assignment. However, volunteers who can not come into the school on a regular basis can still participate through e-mentoring, the exchange of emails over the Internet. Whether the volunteer is at work, overseas on vacation or at home, all they need to do is to get on their laptop and send off an email to their mentee. E-mentoring is not a replacement for face-to-face mentoring, but it can be a way to involve a greater range of volunteers in the experience.

When paid staff leave your organisation and you are employing new people this could be an ideal opportunity to look at changing their job description. Could your new paid worker do some of the long-term work that used to be done by volunteers and you get volunteers to do short-term work that may have been done by the previous paid worker.

What changes have you made to your Volunteer Programme in the past couple of years? What brought those changes on? Would any of the above suggestions suit your organisation?

Cindy

Benefits of Volunteers working at multiple agencies

Like many Volunteers I work for more than 1 agency. One of the exciting things about this is the cross pollination of ideas that occurs. Networks, training and ideas gathered in 1 area support the work done in others.

Soon I will be attending a work shop on event planning (as part of my Volunteer work at Volunteering Canterbury). The skills learnt in this workshop will be very useful for my other work at Living Streets (they help organise an annual walk to work event).

• How many Volunteers at your agency work in another?
• What do you know about the work they do in these other agencies?
• How might the experience they gather be shared better than it is now?
• What are the boundaries of what is appropriate for a Volunteer to share between agencies?  

 I would love to hear your thoughts.

Cindy Carmichael (Volunteer IT Angel at Volunteering Canterbury)

Are Volunteers Giving Up Control?

Volunteering Canterbury advocates that organisations ensure volunteers are offered the opportunity to influence organisational policy and direction.  This is often most easily achieved through an incorporated structure.  Generally (though not always) policy decisions in Incorporated Societies are made by the members at a general meeting.  In Charitable Trusts decisions tend to be made by the trust board members.

 

Recent research* shows “a strong trend, particularly in Auckland, of a move away from the collective towards corporate governance.  This was highlighted by the trend away from incorporated societies and towards charitable trust status.  Auckland boards and CEOs tended to be professional and university educated, while Christchurch Not-for-profits had a more community development focus, including more volunteers.” 

 

“The (Auckland) trend away from incorporated societies and towards trust status is due to difficulties in gaining quorums at AGMs and ensuring that elected board members have the necessary skills and commitments necessary to fulfil the requirements of a modern governance board.”

 

Why don’t people come to AGM’s?  Is it because the meetings are boring?  Or are people afraid they may be coerced into taking a role they don’t really want? 

 

Why is it apparently so hard for organisations to get Board members?  There is a trend for those considering voluntary roles to seek shorter term assignments.  It seems to be harder to find people who will take on roles of responsibility.  Some see such roles as carrying risks, but those risks may be more perceived than real.  Are we offering opportunities that suit today’s busy lifestyles?  Is there another way to attract good Board members, and/or to ensure that volunteers have the opportunity to influence the direction of their organisations?              

                                                                          Ruth G.

 

*From “Governance of Not-for-profit Organisations in Auckland and Christchurch”, 2008, by David Haigh, Lecturer, Unitec, Auckland.

Need a poster or brochure designed?

Virtual Volunteers available

Idealist is a project of ‘Action Without Borders’, a not-for-profit organisation founded in 1995 and based in the U.S.  They’ve recently collaborated with the Art Directors Club to provide design and other creative help online.  If you’d like to benefit you need to register at Idealist, then select Pro-bono Design Project from the list of posting options.   Ruth G.

“When Everyone’s a Volunteer”

“WHEN EVERYONE’S A VOLUNTEER – The Effective Functioning of All-Volunteer Groups” by Ivan H. Scheier

This book, the latest addition to Volunteering Canterbury’s library, is great. It’s a simple, easy to read, practical exploration of the issues that face All-Volunteer groups, I wish I’d read it years ago, I wouldn’t have made so many mistakes.

It enumerates most of the important issues that face these groups in a clear, precise manner. Many of the points covered are equally relevant to other voluntary organisations, but the emphasis on groups with no paid staff is invaluable. The presence of paid staff can obscure some issues.

The sections that particularly impressed me were;
 The need for passion -  are you still relevant?
The need for clearly defined goals
The effective distribution of work

I particularly related to the “Running from President” section and the “Burnout – prevention checklist for leaders”

I suggest that this monograph should be required reading for all involved in voluntary work.   Borrow it from Volunteering Canterbury’s library or get your own from ENERGIZE Inc.          George C.

The Context of Volunteering

Volunteering happens in many contexts.  In July Mary Woods facilitated a workshop designed to explore the challenges and the possibilities that arise from these contexts.

Tensions and challenges were attributed to both internal and external factors. The internal issues can be summarised as:
• confusion arising from lack of clear and up to date role descriptions
• time management pressures dealing with needs of clients and volunteers
• resistance to change
• inappropriate or lack of communication
• people in the same role – one paid / one volunteer
• lack of recognition for the role of volunteer
• dealing with volunteers who are experiencing life changes

External pressures came from:
• legislation and compliance issues e.g. Police checks, Health and Safety Issues, and the paperwork needed for volunteers
• increasing technology
• charity model vs community development
• unrealistic community expectation
• resistance to ethnic growth / change
• loss of identity / identity threatened
• seismic shifts with changes of personnel
• shorter term projects wanted which leads to higher turnover 

 Possibilities arising from changes in our times:
• ageing population is the Third Age – these people are a great resource because of their life experience. Better health going into older age means more lifestyle choices
• social conscience
• bigger pool of volunteers
• more money but bigger commitments outside of volunteering
• more informal volunteering – grandparents as parents
• technology leads to potentially wider availability.
• greater ethnic diversity producing a multi cultural society which will encourage connectivity and social cohesion.

Why Volunteers?
All agreed on importance of having volunteers in their organisations. “They bring mana to the organization and grace of relationships between volunteer and client“ was one response. 

3. Strategies

The strategies produced to get the best possibilities out of internal situations started with including volunteering in strategic and operational plans. Practical steps that flowed from this were: 
• Work to common goal by decoding what that is and working backwards to what needs to be changed. This leads to acceptance as to why change is required.
• Start from scratch – what works? what doesn’t?
• Do an audit of volunteer roles by listing tasks for roles and assessing skills required for them.
•  Update or create new role descriptions with boundaries and guidelines outlined to be signed by both parties.
• Include formal appraisals

Other actions suggested were:
• Appoint volunteer coordinator or identify a person who will be responsible for volunteers.
• Recruit.
• Retain – ensure training, orientation and supervision of volunteers and professional supervision of co-ordinator. 
• Learn people’s motivation and ensure that it can be utilized.
• Reward – intrinsic and extrinsic

Strategies to deal with external issues were:
• Be aware that commitment must be a two way thing. Groups involving volunteers need to keep an open door policy and promote themselves accordingly.
• Recognise, accept, value and celebrate diversity. Ways of doing this are by seeking volunteers from other ethnic groups to support clients, providing services and resources that they need; publishing newsletters in more than one language; targeting different age groups e.g. schools, universities, libraries etc.
• Provide ‘user friendly’ technology training frequently for volunteers to keep up with this rapidly developing reality.
• Educate the community on value of volunteering

In summary:
Listen to the history of your group
Enable others to hear and understand by including them in your planning
Communicate in a variety of ways
Keep reviewing on a regular basis

Not-for-profit Values under threat

In his speech to the Volunteering Canterbury AGM, Tony Paine addressed the topic of Values, and the ways our sector’s values are at risk.  Tony identified the following values:

• The importance of understanding and honouring diversity.
• The deep requirement for everyone to be able to participate, be involved, to live a rich life, to have a fair share of resources, to contribute, to make their own way in the world. 
• Sustainability – implies simplicity, guardianship, and sharing of scarce resources.
• The power of dialogue/conversation – to build relationships and deal with the challenges of diversity
• The strength that resides in communities/families – New Zealand’s social capital.  Connections among individuals, our social networking, and the norm of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them.
• The power and absolute centrality of love – in action.

Values need to be at the heart of every organization.  Each organisation will have its own list, and values should be seen as being central to the organizations’ social well being.

We need spaces to be human, and these are shrinking.  Within our sector this has been exemplified by three factors – the rise of an orientation towards “customers”, our current approach to “quality”, and the impact of “market forces”. 

It’s important to pay attention to efficiency and be accountable, but the risk is that cash and contracts replace care and concern as the foundation of relationships.  We spend more time and energy on creating systems and less on creating and building relationships and dealing with people both within and without of our organisations.  Values should be driving us – not market forces.  We need to be persistent in our questioning of attempts to introduce things that might threaten our real mission.

Values clarity is required.  We need to ensure that everything we do, every process, every decision, every strategy can be clearly linked to values.  We need to advance the position that the values that guide the voluntary sector – the primacy of people, the fullness of humanity expressed in community and interaction – that it is these values that need to guide and restrain the processes used to manage the economy and for-profit enterprise.  At the end of the day Telecom and Treasury have more to learn from the Girl Guides and Presbyterian Support than the other way around.  We have much work to do to create a world where that reorientation can take place.

 A full copy of Tony Paine’s speech can be found on the Papers page of our website under the heading “Not-for-profit values under threat”.    Ruth G.

KiwiSaver

Daryl Mataiti, Community Relationship Advisor with the IRD, discussed aspects of this new scheme with people from twenty different voluntary organisations at a Volunteer Awareness Week seminar.

The aim of KiwiSaver is to encourage people to save.  Employees can choose which provider they wish to enrol with, and can change providers.

Current employees can opt in at any time.  If an employee has more than one employer deductions must be made from all employment.  If it’s taxable, it’s liable for KiwiSaver.

New employees are automatically enrolled, but can opt out after two weeks (and before eight weeks).  If they opt out all contributions will be returned to them.  Those who opt out at this stage are eligible to opt back in at a later date.

People on benefits and the self-employed can choose to join.

The Government guarantees only that the employee’s contribution will reach the provider, but does not guarantee the funds after that.

KiwiSaver deductions at 4% and 8% are shown in the current PAYE tables.  If you operate a manual payroll the deductions should be entered under ‘other deductions’, and must be calculated on the total gross pay.  If your payroll is computerized you need to check that the programme allows for KiwiSaver.
There is a proposal as part of the May Budget that from 1 April 2008 employers will be obliged to make contributions to their employees’ KiwiSaver accounts starting at !%.  The Government will reimburse some of this as a tax credit, but organisations will need to consider this cost when preparing budgets.

Further info is available from www.ird.govt.nz/kiwisaver/employers or phone 0800 377 772                                          RuthG

Budget News

In response to requests made by many in the voluntary sector, the Government has removed the rebate threshold on charitable donations made by individuals to donee organisations from 1 April 2008.  This means that people will be able to claim a 33.3% tax rebate on donations up to their annual net income.

Companies will also be entitled to a tax deduction for all donations up to the amount of their net income. 

Those who haven’t already registered with the Charities Commission might want to make registration a priority to be sure of being on the “Charities list” when these new laws come into effect.

Peter Dunne, Revenue Minister, announced “in recognition of the substantial contribution that volunteers make to the community, further work will be carried out to clarify and streamline the tax treatment of volunteers’ reimbursement payments and honoraria.”

Changes to Kiwi saver were also announced.   Some voluntary organisations have expressed concern about being obliged to match their employees’ contributions to KiwiSaver.  Minister Rick Barker has pointed out that tax-exempt organisations will receive the employer tax credit of $20 per week, offset against PAYE payments, and this will fully cover the cost of the employer contribution for the 2008 year, for all employees earning up to $104,000.                        Ruth G

Database for Volunteers

We use a great database called VolCentre which enables us to track organisations, volunteers, and the positions they are referred to and/or matched with.  A sample version of this database can be downloaded from Original Software Ltd.  If you decide you want to use it there’s a small one-off registration fee.  Why not check it out?                           Ruth G