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Guest Post by Carla Ganiel

I can’t let National Volunteer Week end without thanking the volunteers who make this blog possible!

Thank you to our Featured Bloggers, who have been writing diligently since January, sharing their insights, humor, and expertise with all of us:
Jodi Freedman
Penny Kern
Christy Monroe
Bob Moore
Margaret Puckett
Anne Schink
Larry Ullian
Chris Wolff
Bessie Wright

Thanks, also, to the members of our Editorial Board, who have been instrumental in shaping the structure of the blog, nominating Featured Bloggers, reviewing posts, finding Guest Bloggers, and so much more:
Jodi Freedman
Jo Hersom
Christy Monroe
Anne Schink

It’s hard work managing volunteers, and it’s not always easy for managers to take time out of their busy days to be volunteers, too. Thank you so much for taking the time to be part of this.

Carla Ganiel is a nonprofit management consultant from Tremont, Maine.

The 20th Annual Governor’s Service Awards were presented today in Augusta. Click here to see a full list of award winners.

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.

by Christy Monroe

My hectic morning raced into early afternoon and I sat at my desk looking at the piles of work that lay before me. The post-lunch-energy-drain was settling in when a colleague of mine called to say, “Thanks for all of your hard work on this project. We couldn’t have done it without your help.” It wasn’t just the words, but the inflection behind them that made me feel appreciated. That little bit of recognition went a long way- my energy levels began to rise, my brain cleared a bit, and my motivation for tackling the rest of the afternoon reemerged.

There’s no denying that recognition is a key component in motivating people, but volunteers often live for it. In fact, apart from the warm, fuzzy feeling of helping their community it may be their only payment for services.

Here are 3 simple ways to recognize volunteers without spending a dime:

1. Say “thank you” and mean it. A simple, tried and true method that somehow is overlooked all too often. There’s a reason why these two little words are taught to adorable little tots by their loving parents. Not only is it good manners to say “thank you,” but conveying appreciation tends to work magic the next time that you need someone’s help.

2. Show respect and trust in their ability. This falls under the same category as “don’t micromanage” and tends to give people confidence in their capabilities. Confidence is a good feeling and a significant motivator in getting a job done efficiently and effectively. Give volunteers positive feedback on a job well done, remember their name, and give them meaningful tasks. More importantly, show them that you have faith in them by giving them projects with decision making power, utilizing their skills, and letting them spread their wings over time.

3. Connect the dots-show the value of their work. Make it a regular practice to remind your volunteers how their work fits into the overall mission of your organization. Paint the whole picture of how their efforts are propelling that mission forward. Answer the unspoken questions, “Is this worth my time? Am I really making a difference?”

There are thousands of ways to recognize volunteers every day. What are your favorite ways to show your appreciation to volunteers? Leave a comment and let us know.

Here are more resources on volunteer motivation and recognition.

Christy Monroe is the Training VISTA at the Maine Commission for Community Service.