Website Held for Ransom

At least five nonprofits with whom I’ve worked are now wondering how to politely extract their data from a volunteer. These volunteers confidently took on important projects like website renovations and then drifted off, leaving the nonprofit wondering and weakened at the onslaught of application vendor calls.

It’s understandable how such a situation arises when the nonprofit’s staff is stretched to cover tasks for which they are not trained and have no time. When someone offers to “just do it” for them, they take a chance and silently rejoice that they can give that “Learn HTML in 24 Hours” text a stronger nudge under the bed.

But then the website doesn’t get updated, no one knows which tables to include in queries, and members receive two calls and get grumpy. Directors start reconsidering software they know is too complicated, but…at least it’s better than the old stuff… right?

Well, besides grant sources and donors having epiphanies that nonprofits really need operating funds, as a volunteer, I wouldn’t mind having a “contract” (at least a project plan) with clearly communicated deliverables, due dates and consequences. This option would have helped me many times, because over-worked staff members have often overloaded me with extraneous tasks when I simply offered to help with one detail.

So, thanks very much for your willingness to help, but please really do help.  Our nonprofits are struggling right now, and while there are enough people to do the work if we volunteer, it’s a challenge for them to manage volunteer projects. It’s up to us, the volunteers, to identify how we can BEST donate our time and not create more work for these generous citizens by stringing them along and holding project hostages. They can’t pay the ransom anyway.

Ghost Writer Perils

Have you seen the memorable end of Polanski’s The Ghost Writer in which papers fly down a tunnel of buildings, and we wonder what happened to the unnamed protagonist? Throughout the story, “Ghost” senses the peril of his latest assignment, not unlike (excluding murder) how I’m feeling about writing thank you’s for one of the organizations for which I volunteer.

While I love writing social media connections such as blog posts, which are obviously an organizational communication and for which I’m given a script or I’ve been personally involved in the endeavor, writing something to be signed by another person often makes me uncomfortable.

Perhaps I’m being naive wanting to connect with volunteers, donors and sponsors on a more personal level; however, I’d like to acknowledge the person’s or company’s value and experience by getting to know more than their name and address. So, today I suggested that if I’m to write these thank you letters, I’d prefer to be responsible for one particular group – those individuals and businesses I can get to know.

That’s one of the best things about being a volunteer; we can personalize our volunteer experience as well.

Virtually No Work Volunteering

If you want to help out your community but have absolutely no time left to squeeze out of your schedule, you can still make a helpful contribution. While you are squeezing produce, just think about whether that tomato is grown locally and then choose to buy the one that is.

To be even more effective, take just a few minutes to register with the NC Ten Percent Campaign, a new initiative from the Center for Environmental Farm Systems. They are promoting the importance of local food shopping, and their website is full of links to seasonal food stocks and more.

If you agree to report the amount you spend on local foods, you will receive a weekly email reminder. It’s a very easy way to support this important campaign, and I think it counts as volunteering!

Opt-in

I was told that attendance by 15 people for an event to which I invited 200 volunteers was a success compared to other years, but I’m still curious about whether those people actually even saw the invitation.

To test who might really be interested in hearing about volunteer opportunities and other news, I decided to create an opt-in form and promised participants they’d be the first to receive brief opportunity listings and links.

This new list could be very beneficial to volunteers who really want to help out with the animals. Animal care is our most popular request, and there is always a long waitlist for training and opportunities. All volunteers will still receive emails from their team leaders when there is an upcoming activity; however, I know the fast send-off format appeals to me (as a coordinator and recipient), and I hope others will enjoy keeping in touch this way.

Backpacks for Kids

New Triangle Volunteers meetup scheduled for August 7, 2010, at 2:30pm. CANCELED

From the 1-800-Volunteer listing: “Assist the Volunteer Center of Durham and DSS staff in providing over 300 children with new school supplies for the upcoming school year. Help with passing out book bags w/ supplies, giving out refreshments, and assisting with entertainment.”

Triangle Volunteers will be at the 2:30-5pm shift.

Volunteer No-Show Woe

This week, I had another volunteer not show up for admin duty, so my husband and I spent our Saturday printing hundreds of letters and stuffing envelopes for a fall fundraiser. I’ve changed the operating procedure to more precisely match new volunteers’ interests and limit these occurrences, but it will take a while to re-categorize older registration forms on which people offered to do work for which they may really have little enthusiasm.

I understand; I’m not particularly fond of these tedious tasks either. It is a lot more fun to, for example, work directly with animals or the population that interests one rather than perform the boring back-end tasks. I guess that’s why one university chair for whom I worked told me we should always offer sought-after food at staff meetings; ” the only way to get people to attend,” he said.

Well, at an upcoming event, we are going to have top-notch treats, and it’s not just to woo volunteers. Since this auction will feature foods made from locally grown ingredients, we are doing a demonstration tasting for our planning committee. Perhaps getting to taste test at local restaurants in preparation for this committee meeting will be our reward for stuffing so many envelopes!  Sounds fair.

Student Action with Farmworkers Party Volunteer Opportunity

Join the celebration by volunteering through 1-800-volunteer.com.

Friday, August 6, 2010
Volunteer shifts 3:30-6pm, 6-8pm, 8-11pm
Food, drinks, live music, dancing, kids games, bilingual
Center for Documentary Studies

Heat Wave Relief for Supporters of Piedmont Wildlife Center

James Hedges helps at Cold Stone Creamery fundraiser for Piedmont Wildlife Center

Feed Love

WP to Twitter hasn’t worked, so I’m trying from Feedburner. Does Google know how much I love them? Probably

Contributors Wanted

I selected the status update interface for this blog so others can easily share their volunteer experience. If you volunteer on a regular basis and would like to be a contributor, please email nettiedaum@volunteerexperience.org. You’ll need a free wordpress account, which you can also use for other blogs. Just a few sentences or a photo or a video will be enough of a contribution; it’ll only take as much time as you want to give.