Sunny Fader - 365 Ideas for Recruiting, Retaining, Motivating and Rewarding Your Volunteers: A Complete Guide for Non-Profit Organizations

365 Ideas for Recruiting, Retaining, Motivating, and Rewarding Your Volunteers:

A Complete Guide for
Nonprofit Organizations

By Sunny Fader

365 Ideas for Recruiting, Retaining, Motivating, and Rewarding Your Volunteers: A Complete Guide for Nonprofit Organizations

Copyright 2010 Atlantic Publishing Group, Inc.
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No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be sent to Atlantic Publishing Group, Inc., 1210 SW 23rd Place, Ocala, Florida 34471.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Fader, Sunny, 1931

365 ideas for recruiting, retaining, motivating, and rewarding your volunteers : a complete guide for nonprofit organizations / Sunny Fader.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-13: 978-1-60138-149-1 (alk. paper)

ISBN-10: 1-60138-149-2 (alk. paper)

1. Volunteers--Recruiting. 2. Nonprofit organizations--Employees--Recruiting. I. Title. II. Title: Three hundred sixty-five ideas for recruiting, retaining, motivating, and rewarding your volunteers.

HD8039.N65F33 2010

361.370683--dc22

2009046916

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LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or Web site is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Web site may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Web sites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.

A few years back we lost our beloved pet dog Bear, who was not only our best and dearest friend but also the Vice President of Sunshine here at Atlantic Publishing. He did not receive a salary but worked tirelessly 24 hours a day to please his parents.

Bear was a rescue dog who turned around and showered myself, my wife, Sherri, his grandparents Jean, Bob, and Nancy, and every person and animal he met (well, maybe not rabbits) with friendship and love. He made a lot of people smile every day.

We wanted you to know a portion of the profits of this book will be donated in Bears memory to local animal shelters, parks, conservation organizations, and other individuals and nonprofit organizations in need of assistance.

Douglas and Sherri Brown

PS: We have since adopted two more rescue dogs: first Scout, and the following year, Ginger. They were both mixed golden retrievers who needed a home.

Want to help animals and the world? Here are a dozen easy suggestions you and your family can implement today:

• Adopt and rescue a pet from a local shelter.
• Support local and no-kill animal shelters.
• Plant a tree to honor someone you love.
• Be a developer put up some birdhouses.
• Buy live, potted Christmas trees and replant them.
• Make sure you spend time with your animals each day.
• Save natural resources by recycling and buying recycled products.
• Drink tap water, or filter your own water at home.
• Whenever possible, limit your use of or do not use pesticides.
• If you eat seafood, make sustainable choices.
• Support your local farmers market.
• Get outside. Visit a park, volunteer, walk your dog, or ride your bike.

Five years ago, Atlantic Publishing signed the Green Press Initiative. These guidelines promote environmentally friendly practices, such as using recycled stock and vegetable-based inks, avoiding waste, choosing energy-efficient resources, and promoting a no-pulping policy. We now use 100-percent recycled stock on all our books. The results: in one year, switching to post-consumer recycled stock saved 24 mature trees, 5,000 gallons of water, the equivalent of the total energy used for one home in a year, and the equivalent of the greenhouse gases from one car driven for a year.

Dedication

This is a book of shared wisdom. It could never have been written without the help of the many individuals who graciously allowed me to tell their stories and explore their philosophy on recruiting and managing volunteers. While their official titles and the size and nature of their organizations vary, they have all expressed to me an abiding appreciation of volunteers and a commitment to make the volunteer experience meaningful and rewarding for anyone willing to give of their time and talents.

My thanks go out to Danielle Kearney, Lutheran Services, Florida; Jane Lowe, Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, Arkansas; Curtis Hammond, Missoula Aging Services, Montana; Barbara Price, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Habitat for Humanity Program, Washington; Susan Jaye-Kaplan, Link to Libraries, Massachusetts; Mike Wahl, Wauconda Illinois Cert Program; Barbara Howard, Bird Steward Program, Tampa Bay, Florida; Sally Wilson, Yes! Magazine Washington; Ami Simms, The Alzheimers Art Quilt Initiative, Michigan; Marisa Albanese, Union Station Homeless Services, California; Halle Tecco, Yogabear.org, California; Lori Tsuruda, People Making A Difference, Massachusetts; Barbara Goldman, executive director emeritus, Santa Fe Rape Crisis and Trauma Treatment Center, New Mexico; and David Geary, founder and former director, Universal Studios Volunteer Disaster Response Teams, California. Their experiences have not only provided us with insight into the complex issues that confront volunteer managers, but have also presented us with solutions for some of these challenges.

I would also like to thank Lawrence Becerra, Las Compaas Compadres, New Mexico; Jane Davis, Hope-Howse International, New Mexico; Ruthe Coleman, Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra, New Mexico; and Woody Carlson, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Habitat for Humanity Program, Washington, who provided invaluable information for this book.

My special thanks to Lauren Perlmutter, March of Dimes; Aubry Morgan and Laura Reeves, the American Cancer Society; and Robert Rosenthal who generously shared their extensive knowledge of the rapidly changing nature of todays volunteerism and how their organizations are meeting this new challenge. And I would like to thank Pamela Hawley, Universal Giving, for walking me through the new online face of todays volunteerism and for sharing what she has learned working in this computerized aspect of recruiting and placing volunteers in an international arena.