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by Bob Moore

Do you know the difference between volunteers and employees. Yes – employees get paid and volunteers do not – but there’s a lot more to it than that.
The Fair Labor Standards Act defines volunteers as “individuals who provide services without any expectation of compensation, and without any coercion or intimidation.” Like most laws, “gray areas” exist within this definition as well. What if a volunteer receives a small payment or something of value in exchange for volunteering? Does this make the volunteer an employee even if he or she didn’t expect to be paid? What about a volunteer who receives college credit for their work? What about the AmeriCorps program, where Corps members receive a stipend?
“Indirect” compensation – free parking, meals in the cafeteria (hospitals anyone?) – are types of benefits that the government does not count as “compensation” if it is provided more for the convenience of the non-profit than as payment for the volunteer. However, other types of indirect compensation – like free babysitting or fitness club membership at the local Boys/Girls Club or YMCA – has a real dollar value and might be considered more like compensation than as convenience.
Clear? As mud? What other questions can you ask that might help determine the difference between volunteer work and compensated work? Is the worker motivated by personal motives? – Is the work being done typically associated with volunteer work? – Is the work full-time? – How much control does the non-profit have over the volunteer? – Is the work schedule primarily arranged by the volunteer for their convenience or is the schedule more likely to be arranged by the organization to better meet their needs? If you compensate or reimburse your volunteers, you might want to dig deeper.
One thing all non-profits should be aware of: The U.S. Department of Labor takes the position that employees may not volunteer to do things for their employer that is the same as or similar to their normal job.
This post is by no means all-inclusive. It may even pose you with more questions than you had before reading it! I’ve been in this “business” for a while – as both a volunteer and managing a non-profit – and I can assure you that I’m not always clear. If you have personal experiences that you can share or additional information that you’ve gained over the year, please “blog-on” and share. Thanks for reading.

Bob Moore is Executive Director of the Friends of the Cobbossee Watershed in Augusta, Maine.

by Penny Kern

I found this great site by Shar McBee, who posts short articles on volunteerism and gives permission to reprint them.

The one I downloaded was called “How to Delegate: The 3 L’s”. To summarize, because you can download the entire article yourself, if you’d like:

Look for Good People - You don’t want people to be growling through their tasks. You want people who will gleefully participate. Pay attention at meetings. Stand off to the side and see who is energetic in one direction or another and who just wants to get through with it.

Listen to Them - Learn what people need from you before you try to delegate to them. By listening first, you learn what they like to do and what they want to do. Then delegate things to them that they like and want to do.

Let them Shine - Give credit to others.

On Shar McBee’s website, she has this quote that I love - “Your job is not to get people to perform. Your job is to make it possible for them to succeed.”

Great stuff out there.

Penny Kern is a retired volunteer manager from Aroostook County.

by Jodi Freedman

We have all heard the stories about doctors making the worst patients. Apparently, this cliche crosses professions. Lately, I have found that I am not the volunteer that I would like to be! We have all had the experience of volunteers who don’t make it in when they have said they will. Or the volunteer who is late for their time. I know how frustrating this is for staff and for volunteer managers who are expecting the volunteer. Yet, with a full time job and a family, it is sometimes hard to make it to our volunteer commitments. It is not that I am not excited to volunteer. It is not that I don’t value the organization or the staff who are counting on me. It is just simply a lack of time! Perhaps I need to be better at saying no! I find myself agreeing to volunteer and then dragging myself to the set volunteer appointment. I always enjoy the experience and come away glad that I went, but it is a constant inner struggle to get myself there. For example, there is the time that I am supposed to spend in my daughter’s first grade class. It seems that when I do manage to sneak out of work for an hour, she is thrilled to have me there. More often than not, though, I can’t get away. Luckily, her teacher knows how busy I am and has agreed to go along with my “show up when you can” plan for volunteering. So, last blog, I spoke about firing volunteers. Have I become the type of volunteer that should be fired? I certainly hope not, but I am curious to hear your responses.

Jodi Freedman is a Major Gifts Specialist at the Maine Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association.

by Penny Kern

I subscribe to an e-Newsletter called CharityChannel and one of the articles caught my eye and I saved it - March 28, 2007. When we started this blog, I emailed the author, Scott Martin, and asked permission to use parts of one of his pieces for a topic of discussion and he agreed.

The piece was on THE PARTICIPATIVE REVOLUTION and it was about changes organizations are going to have to make to attract and keep volunteers today.

He quoted Judith E. Glaser’s books “Creating We” and “The DNA of Leadership”, (both books I just have to order - they sound great), on the language most organizations and companies use that is turning off today’s volunteers. I never noticed it before but, now that I’ve read his piece, I see these words everywhere and they DO make the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I just thought it was I, but I guess not.

Martin blames “scarcity” for the tight hold most staff people have on the organizations because we all live in a world of needing more - more people, more funding, more security. He said, “Perhaps this is one reason why nonprofits, which you would think would be models of democracy, are so often closed systems, resistant to change and risk averse.” Could be, right?

The paragraph is entitled “Language and Unintended Messages.” This hit home particularly because I, too, worked for the Girl Scouts and have seen this for myself. A CEO of a Girl Scout council took their 4-page recruitment brochure and counted 84 words like “must,” “mandatory,” or “required.” She said that in their zeal to promote the health and safety of girls, they had unknowingly used command-and-control language that implicitly communicated that they did not trust volunteers to make their own decisions in the best interests of the girls. When they further examined their organizational practices and training curricula, they realized they had assumed that the behavior of the volunteers and staff could be controlled through the use of rulemaking, mandatory, training, rigid boundary-setting and organizational authority distributed through a positional hierarchy. Over time, these practices had begun to generate unintended consequences in the organization’s culture.

What kinds of messages, intended and unintended, are you sending out to volunteers? Try a simple experiment. Review your volunteer manual. What words predominate? Are you using a vocabulary of control or one of empowerment?

Words of Control: No, Not, Can’t, Never, Must, Ought, Shouldn’t, Required, Mandatory, Prohibited, Grounds for Dismissal, Chain of Command.

Words of Empowerment: Yes, May, Can, Welcomed, Encouraged, Invited, Empowered, Authorized, Collaboration, We, Us

He continues his discussion with a paragraph or two on trust and distrust. “At the heart of the issue of organizational culture is a question of trust. Can other people be trusted most of the time or can you never be too careful? Are volunteers basically good people who want to contribute to the greater good? Or are they walking time bombs that need to be closely monitored and controlled?

It’s a great article - I’d be happy to share the entire piece with anyone, if you’d like. Scott Martin has managed small nonprofits, a United Way, a national service programs and a state office of volunteerism in his 15-years of professional work. He lives in New Jersey and is currently a consultant providing training and one-on-one assistance to volunteer programs on topics related to engaging Baby Boomers in volunteerism.

Penny Kern is a retired volunteer manager from Aroostook County.

Guest Post by Melissa Boyd

I have been volunteering for over twenty five years. Looking back on all the places I have volunteered, the ones I remember the most are the ones where I was under-utilized.

Once when asked to volunteer at a large one-day event in Boston, I showed up at 5am to the volunteer tent. There were over one hundred volunteers there and not one person organizing to tell us what needed to be done. Over 10,000 people were expected to attend the event and with all the organization of bands, displays, food and vendors the volunteer portion was unplanned. As the hour unfolded, half of the volunteers ended up finding things to do, while the other half left frustrated that their precious time had been wasted. I’m quite sure many of the volunteers never returned again.

My experience illustrates that many people assume that volunteers understand what is expected of them,. There are many levels of volunteerism as we know. There are one year service commitments such as VISTA, AmeriCorps and Senior Corps, and there are one-time events such a conference, and then there are those weekly and monthly volunteers who are always there to help with a mailing and phone calling.

One of the most important areas of volunteer management which can often get overlooked is having a clear direction which includes a volunteer job description and expectations of service. This includes how long the volunteer opportunity will last, what tasks volunteers should complete and what skills they will need to have.

The World Volunteer Web offers a framework to developing a job description and expectations.

Remember that volunteers can serve anywhere and if you would like them to continue to serve with your agency having clear goals and guidelines helps both of you to have an enjoyable experience.

Melissa Boyd is the Executive Director of Physicians for Social Responsibility, Maine Chapter. She also serves on the Maine Commission for Community Service.

by Jodi Freedman

Many times, I have had the conversation with staff and with fellow board members about whether or not a volunteer can be fired. I find it frustrating how many people believe the answer is no. I often hear people talk about the philosophical dilemma “They are giving of their time, who are we to say that it is no longer acceptable or necessary?” I believe that if volunteers aren’t treated equally to employees, and seen as your non-paid work force with similar guidelines, then you have put no value on your volunteers. Steve McCuley states “By denying that there is a ‘right’ and a ‘wrong’ way to do a volunteer job, one conveys the impression that the volunteer work done is irrelevant and insignificant. An agency which does not care enough about the work done by volunteers to enforce quality communicates to other volunteers that the agency believes their own work to be meaningless.” For more of Steve’s input on the subject, see his article “How to Fire a Volunteer and live to Tell About It.”

It is not a fun task, by any means, but letting volunteers go due to poor performance, poor attendance or a change in the organization’s needs lets everyone know how important the volunteers are. Of course, to do this, volunteer managers must have proper guidelines in place. It really always goes back to proper documentation. A new volunteer should be orientated, given a position description and a handbook, and properly supervised. All of this should be documented so that all involved knows it was completed. If you have laid out the rules ahead of time, then termination shouldn’t come as a surprise. I have often found that when I do let a volunteer go, that volunteer is as relieved as I am. Perhaps a person agreed to volunteer and then discovered that it wasn’t what he expected or that she wasn’t comfortable after all. Having an honest and open conversation often allows that volunteer to “save face” and leave on good terms with the organization.

Letting a volunteer go also signals to staff that volunteers are held to strict guidelines and are expected to make staff’s lives easier, not more difficult!

I am not saying that a volunteer should be let go without some effort to make the situation work. Steps may include relocating to a new department, getting a new task to do, coaching, or a new supervisor. So, what do you all think? Is it ok to fire a volunteer? And if yes, how many times should the volunteer manager try to make it work?

Jodi Freedman is a Major Gifts Specialist at the Maine Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association.