One of the Most Difficult Jobs in the World: Volunteer Engagement

Leaders of volunteers, volunteer engagement managers, volunteer coordinators….they go by many names and many titles, but are all critical to the non-profit sector. A lucky few have had a direct path into this work…however most fell into the profession. They come from backgrounds in marketing, teaching, social work, accounting, graphic design, promotions, and IT just to name a few.

Leaders of volunteers often manage more people than their HR colleagues (sometimes upwards of thousands of volunteers) yet they are overlooked for promotions for several reasons, including because they “don’t have paid direct reports”.

They have to be mindful of how they refer to themselves when people ask “What do you do for work?” because if they introuce themselves as a Volunteer Manager, people often think they work for free.

Volunteer Managers are nothing less than magicians as they often have to make miracles happen on little to no budget or staff support. They spend a great portion of their job persuading leaders in the organization that the generous souls they manage are worth the organization’s investment. More often than they would like, they have to convince colleagues that volunteers ARE worth the time and effort; and by the way, no….they can’t just snap their fingers and volunteers will just magically appear from the back closet for an unplanned, last minute volunteer request…but I digress.

When they are not advocating for their volunteers with leadership, they are convincing people to give of their most precious commodity, their time, FOR FREE to an organization who, often, secretly undervalues or doesn’t prioritize them.

Leaders of volunteers manage hundreds of passionate personalities; some who are so passionate they are not afraid of telling their volunteer manager how to do their job, why they are doing it wrong, and are often reminded “just how lucky they are” that people choose to donate their time to them. If you don’t believe me, hear some of the outlandish stories on my podcast “From the Suggestion Box: Navigating Feedback the Good, the Bad and the Say WHAAT?”

Volunteer coordinators are educators and trainers in that they make sure volunteers have vital information they need in order to…