Finding and hiring the right volunteer coordinator is an important step your organization can take to ensure the success of your volunteer program.
Finding the right person to take on the role of volunteer coordinator is an important task that your organization has towards the success of your program. Some responsibilities that a volunteer coordinator could fill include communicating with volunteers, promoting opportunities, managing program tools (like volunteer management software), running reports, hosting events, and communicating with supporters.
Your volunteer coordinator should be a people person and be able to manage multiple projects at the same time. How a volunteer coordinator performs their job can impact your organization’s ability to recruit volunteers, engage them, and ultimately retain them long-term.
Recruiting the right volunteer coordinator, for your unique organization, starts by finding the right prospects for the role and asking interview questions that expose crucial information about them and their ability to excel within the position. If your nonprofit is unsure what questions to ask, during the interview process, here are 7 questions that you may want to consider.
Have you used a recruitment database before?
It is key to understand if prospects, for the role of volunteer coordinator, have prior experience recruiting, engaging, and managing volunteers. How important this question is, for the short-term, depends on the process your organization currently uses to store volunteer data, run reports, and promote opportunities.
Your organization may want to make strategic changes in the future, so now is the time to consider the long-term value of a potential new hires experience.
How would you motivate volunteers to continue to give?
Motivating volunteers is important to the success of your organization’s retention efforts. Asking volunteer coordinator prospects for information on how they would motivate volunteers will give your team an idea of how important motivation is to them and provide insights into how they would achieve this challenge.
How would you handle underperforming volunteers?
Underperforming volunteers can have a negative impact on the morale of an entire volunteer workforce. Volunteer coordinators need to be able to identify underperforming volunteers and rectify the situation quickly and efficiently. It is important that volunteer coordinators are able to address issues and determine the appropriate solutions, without causing damage to the volunteer program as a whole.
Asking this question, as part of the interview process, can help your organization determine if a potential hire has the management skills necessary to resolve issues and address conflicts.
Do you prefer working alone or as part of a team?
Being a successful volunteer coordinator means being a leader amongst a large group of people. Volunteers look to volunteer coordinators for information about opportunities and training, impact data, assistance with registration, event details, and much more. Volunteer coordinators need to be good with people and quick problem solvers. Organizations should look for candidates that are outgoing and prefer to be part of a team.
Do you have experience training volunteers/employees?
Because training is such an important role for a volunteer coordinator it is key to find out how comfortable job prospects are with training and if they have any prior experience with it. Volunteer coordinators need to be able to communicate responsibilities, expectations, and processes to people, with different learning types, often.
What would you look for in prospective volunteers?
Knowing what to look for in a volunteer prospect is a task that a volunteer coordinator will need to take on regularly. Recruiting the best volunteers, for a specific job, should not be undervalued and doing so can help push a volunteer program towards its mission, while impacting retention rates at the same time. Prospective volunteer coordinators should have the ability to identify the best fit for a particular role.
Do you think there is a relationship between volunteers and financial donors?
Studies have shown that there is a direct correlation between volunteerism and fundraising. Getting the most value from volunteers is a key component of being a volunteer coordinator. Volunteer coordinators that have fundraising experience is a plus and can help your nonprofit bridge the gap between donor types.
7 Tips for Reviewing Your Volunteer Program
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