Creating a culture of excellence in your volunteer program

Photo: Pixabay

Committing to a culture of excellence is important for any organization, especially one with volunteers.

From program delivery to community outreach, from communications to advocacy, volunteers are responsible for so much in the running of our organizations.

Can you imagine your organization without volunteers? Creating a culture of excellence in your volunteer program elevates your ability to retain volunteers, attract new ones, raise awareness of your mission and ultimately, increase your impact in the world.

During my many years working with social impact organizations, I’ve observed four key focuses that contribute to a culture of excellence:

1. Mission focus

2. Volunteer focus

3. Systems focus

4. Performance focus

First, the mission focus. There is a reason your organization exists. There is a need out there that it was created to fill. Filling that need is the mission. The organization must fully align the volunteer program with its mission for it to be truly useful. There’s no point in having volunteers do tasks that don’t contribute to the organization’s purpose.

Photo: Contributed

Culture of excellence components

Having a mission-focused culture can help you attract more volunteers, retain the existing ones and build a strong reputation in the community. Here are some questions to help you develop a mission focus:

• Do all the tasks you assign volunteers have a direct impact on your mission? If someone asks, can you specify exactly how those tasks help, and why they’re important?

• Are the volunteers themselves aware of the impact they are having on the mission? Can they articulate their impact?

• Is the mission at the centre of all policy decisions? Is it core to discussions around changes to program procedures?

One level down from the mission should be the volunteer focus. A strong volunteer focus means that your team members feel purposeful, heard, and appreciated. This creates a positive culture that contributes to productivity and retention.

• Do you provide training and feedback to the volunteers so that they can do their very best? Do you know what makes each of them unique? Do you know what situations they thrive in? And do you make sure they’re placed in those roles?

• Are you doing routine volunteer surveys? Do you provide opportunities for volunteers to give feedback on their volunteering experience and on the program as a whole?

• How, and how often, do you express your appreciation for their service? Do you use all four appreciation “languages”, each to the appropriate volunteer?

The third focus should be on your systems. Systems are all about how things get done. The interaction of component parts that help us reach our goals.

Organizations that make a real, sustained impact walk a fine line between flexibility and structure. Questioning the status quo develops flexibility. Paying attention to processes improves structure.

Build your systems around achieving your mission and supporting volunteers.

• Does your organization rely on set systems to accomplish its goals? Or are things more ad hoc?

• Do you have your systems documented? Do volunteers know where to access them? Or whom to ask? Are they followed consistently?

• Do volunteers know the proper places and spaces for proposing changes to your systems? Are they comfortable doing so?

Finally, focus on performance. Researcher and author Brene Brown describes performance standards as “making sure her team knows what done looks like.”

She sets clear expectations of what she envisions for the completed project, then allows the team to tackle it. Is this true for your organization?

• Are you clear about details and expectations? Do volunteers sometimes get confused? When things aren’t done to a set standard, do you communicate that?

• Do volunteers know exactly what would happen if the ball was dropped? What the impact on the mission would be if something wasn’t done, or wasn’t done properly? Would they be comfortable coming and telling you if they realized something went wrong?

• Is progress toward the goals communicated regularly? Do you remember to communicate with all the volunteers within the organization? (I’ve been guilty of this in the past—communicating often with the people in the same location as me but overlooking some of the volunteers who work remotely. While it wasn’t intentional, it had the effect of making them feel less seen and appreciated.)

A culture is the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterize an institution or organization. It’s how people – staff, volunteers, clients and other stakeholders – feel about your organization.

Committing to a culture of excellence can be challenging and it can take some time to fully implement, but the rewards are enormous.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.