Start up and Funding Models for Social Impact Organizations
Introduction

Volunteers are needed for social impact organizations, which have limited funds and require the efforts, participation, and commitment of volunteer personnel in order to meet organizational goals. To recruit and manage volunteers, it is important to communicate a vision and mission of what the organization is doing, what it aims to achieve, why it matters, and what volunteers can do to help achieve the goals. Every volunteer’s role must be clearly defined, and every vision clearly articulated. This paper will describe how to manage, motivate and evaluate volunteers in a social impact organization.

Where Volunteers are Needed

Volunteers are a necessary component of any healthy society and community (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2005). They are needed because they help to communicate the sense of value in both the community and the organization among stakeholders. Volunteers show that a cause is worthwhile; they show that the vision has meaning; and they show that enough people are willing to believe in it that they will work and dedicate themselves to that vision even without pay. Volunteers are essential workers at every level of the social impact organization because they can bring vital skills, vital manpower, and vital insights and experience.

Recruiting volunteers depends upon the organization’s ability to use technology, such as social media, to get the word out and to connect with potential volunteer candidates. The organization has to be able to communicate the vision and the mission so that volunteers are attracted and inspired to want to help out. There should be clear benefits for volunteers as well, as these can act as incentives for bringing volunteers on board. Their role should be articulated and their passion and impact on the organization recognized routinely (Georgetown University Alumni Career Services, 2016).

Roles They Play

Volunteers are more than mere helpers who stop by in their spare time to lend a hand in some of the more mundane activities of the organization. On the contrary, volunteers can do everything from low level jobs to the actual running of the organization As the US Department of Health and Human Services (2005) points out, “larger organizations, such as the Salvation Army and the American Red Cross, have survived for more than 100 years due in large part to a strong volunteer commitment” (p. v). Volunteers help with fundraising for organizations; they can help with the distribution of information; they can be active on social media, interacting with the public and engaging in influencing tactics. They can devote time to people at a personal level to facilitate social impact. They can manage groups, direct operations, and engage in strategizing. Volunteers exist at all levels of an organization, from the Board to the room where phone calls are taken. The role they play all depends upon who they are, where they come from and what they bring to the operation (Smith, 1994). Volunteers are vital, for example, in keeping Wikipedia going (The Economist, 2011).

Preparing Them for Work

Preparing volunteers for work is not an easy job and most CEOs fail to adequately prepare and manage volunteers—which is why there is such high turnover among volunteer staff from one year to the next (Eisner, Grimm Jr, Maynard & Washburn, 2009). The key to preparing them for work begins with the manager. The manager must be able to assess what the volunteer brings to the table and give the volunteer meaningful work that keeps the person engaged and enables the person to use his skills. A manager who assumes that all volunteers are low-skilled workers is a major problem for an organization. Many volunteers are actually highly skilled and want to give their time because they are charitable, believe in the vision and mission of the organization and have time to give. The keys to preparing them for work involved the following critical steps:

1. Matching their skills with appropriate work

2. Recognizing the ways in which volunteers contribute and...…framework should include a list of each of the following: 1) key partners, 2) key activities, 3) key resources, 4) value proposition, 5) buy-in support, 6) deployment, 7) beneficiaries, 8) the mission budget or cost, and 9) the mission achievement factors.

For this social impact organization, the key partners are going to be local leaders and organizations within the community, who can support the aim of the organization through spreading of the vision/mission, providing donations or funding, and by offering volunteer support. This would be the political capital and the social capital needed. Key activities will involve reaching out to the target group with the message, information and services required; providing access to the target group, and fundraising to supply the financial capital. Key resources will include communication resources, funding operations resources, human resources, infrastructural resources, and mobile resources, who would supply the human and intellectual capital. The value proposition of the organization would be that which states the value that it is bringing to the community. Buy-in support would come from stakeholders who are involved in the decision making process. Deployment would come from volunteers who go into the field to put the mission and vision into practice. Beneficiaries would be the recipients of the organization’s social impact. The mission budget would consist of the amount of funds that can be safely allocated to operations. And the mission achievement factors would consist of the variables that must be addressed in order for the organization to reach its goals. Financial, human, intellectual, social, and political capital are all required.

Conclusion

Volunteers are essential elements of the social impact organization and should be treated as valued stakeholders. They must have their own managers and clearly defined roles; expectations should be made clear, and they should have access to the same training opportunities and professional development opportunities as paid employees. Motivating volunteers is especially important since unmotivated employees can lead to high turnover and increased costs for the organization.

References

The Economist. (2011). Wikipedia’s fundraising, free but…