Volunteer Toolkit: Practical Equipment for Effective Volunteer Management

Volunteers are a valuable and necessary human resource for faith-based nonprofits. While volunteers don’t carry employee status in the organization, they do need careful management and training in order to be truly effective in their volunteer tasks.  This toolkit features informative articles, printable forms and resource lists to help the nonprofit volunteer manager recruit, train, inform and equip volunteers for successful volunteer work.1.     Articles

Project Development Tools
These articles contain insightful information for developing and streamlining your volunteer program.

1. The 12 Basic Needs of Every Volunteer
   Volunteers and volunteer leaders are most likely to succeed and to stay on target if 12 basic needs are met. Use this checklist to determine whether your organization’s volunteers are fully equipped for their work.

2. Promising Practices for Volunteer Management
   Encourage and aid your volunteer team to succeed at their given tasks by adopting these 12 sound volunteer management practices.

Project Implementation Tools
This section includes informative articles related to volunteer management, and downloadable forms for distribution to your volunteers.

• Questions to Determine Problem Behavior
  Volunteer managers can use this list of nonconfrontational questions to help deescalate conflict between volunteers.
  

• Sample Volunteer Application/Questionnaire
  Nonprofit volunteer managers can use this simple questionnaire as a preliminary application for prospective volunteers.
  
  
• Sample Job Description Worksheet 
  This tool will help volunteer managers work through and finalize the details of an individualized volunteer job description, including tasks, responsibilities, qualifications, goals, training and volunteer benefits.
  

Project Evaluation Tools
Download these printable resources for use in your volunteer management practices.

1. Volunteer Feedback Form
How well are your volunteers equipped to carry out their assigned tasks? Distribute this form to your volunteers to gather their task-related feedback, which will help you to enhance and strengthen your ministry’s volunteer effectiveness.
Additional Resources
Need more help managing your volunteer program? These recommended resources will help you find the information you’re looking for.

Print resources

• Handling Problem Volunteers, by Steve McCurley and Sue Vineyard
  
• How to Mobilize Church Volunteers, by Marlene Wilson
  
• The Volunteer Recruitment (and Membership Development) Book, by Susan J. Ellis
  
• Volunteers, How to Get Them, How to Keep Them: An Essential Guide for Volunteer Leaders and Staff of Professional, Trade and Charitable Organizations, by Helen Little