High-Level Tasks That Volunteers Can Ace

If you’ve been reading Leading by Example for a while, you’ve no doubt sensed a theme: that leadership-level older adult volunteers can be highly valuable to a nonprofit.

But what does leadership level really mean? What kinds of jobs do these volunteers handle?

In a Nov. 19 Webinar, part of the National Council on Aging sold-out series Engaging Older Volunteers as Leaders in Your Organization, Ken Murray gave some examples. Together with Paddy Clark, both of Southern Maine Agency on Aging, he shares this information as part of the RSVP Capacity Corps Replication Guide talk.

RSVP Capacity Corps was developed to explore the possibility of recruiting older volunteers with high-level skills to serve in leadership roles to help nonprofit organizations meet their missions in the community.

“The skills these volunteers have developed over a lifetime, often in the corporate sector, are transferable and valuable within the nonprofit sector,” said Murray. Many have been managers themselves. They are used to working with goals and objectives and want to see that something concrete comes from their efforts, he said.

The kinds of skills that volunteers might share with nonprofits encompass a broad range and include these:

–Strategic Planning
–Financial Planning
–Marketing
–Public Relations
–Business Planning
–Information Technology
–Emergency Planning
–Development and Fundraising

RSVP Capacity Corps had 12 volunteers, and Murray outlined their skills and contributions.

Market Research: Volunteers A and B had backgrounds in long-term care administration and corporate marketing and sales, respectively. They performed market research to find out what the people who refer clients to the agency’s nutrition program wanted to see them do differently. They used the results to form a new design and marketing strategy for the program. Volunteer A also conducted surveys that helped the adult day center plan new services.

Strategic Planning: Volunteer C, with business planning experience, helped the Board of Directors and senior staff develop a new five-year strategic plan for the agency.

Business Continuity Planning: Volunteer D, who had a long career in public service and had recently retired from a position in emergency management, helped develop a business continuity plan for the agency. This plan, said Murray, had been on the back burner for a long time.

Fundraising: Volunteer E, with a strong interest in fundraising, helped the development director work on a planned giving program.

Accounting: Volunteer F, who was transitioning from one professional accounting position to another, used the interim period to design an accounting manual to explain the many funding sources that support Southern Maine Agency on Aging. This manual used terms that the Board of Directors and general public could easily understand.

Expanding Social Workers’ Capacity: Volunteers G and H, with backgrounds in social work and local community services, are helping expand the capacity of the social workers in the agency’s Information and Advocacy Program to link clients to resources that can assist them.

Outreach: Volunteer I has both ministerial and paralegal experience. She has trained to be an Agency Ambassador, speaking to groups and representing the agency at meetings in her community.

Writing: Volunteer J, with a background in marketing and community relations, is interviewing subjects and writing articles for the agency’s bi-monthly newspaper, Senior News. Volunteer K, who has a background in writing, is also writing for the Senior News. In addition, he is helping write pieces for the Agency’s Development Program.

Identifying Potential Partners: Volunteer L, a former director of a nonprofit organization, is working with the agency’s Healthy Aging Programs to identify possible new institutional partners for outreach to seniors.

Murray found that because of the volunteers, important work was done that may not have been done without them. And NCOA’s SMART tool, which calculates the value in dollars of a volunteer’s work, found a six to one return on investment over five quarters.

“They did make a difference,” he said.

Explore posts in the same categories: Model Projects

Tags: jobs, leadership, NCOA, nonprofits, roles, RSVP Capacity Corps, Southern Maine Agency on Aging, tasks, volunteer, Webinar

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