The Practice of Nonprofit Leadership
The Practice of Nonprofit Leadership
Unlocking the Power of Volunteers: Transforming Nonprofits with Effective Volunteer Programs
What if the lifeblood of nonprofit organizations wasn't funding, but the volunteers who power them?
Join us as we unpack this provocative idea with Jada Hoerr, Chief Resource Officer of Midwest Food Bank, and Corey Barrette, Volunteer and Community Relations Manager at Midwest Food Bank - New England. Jada and Corey reveal how an army of nearly 40,000 volunteers helps distribute a staggering $500 million worth of food annually, transforming lives and shaping communities along the way.
In this episode, we explore the essential ingredients of a thriving volunteer program, from aligning volunteers with an organization's mission to the significance of effective communication and engagement. Discover why creating a sense of community and fostering a safe, organized environment are cornerstones of successful volunteer initiatives.
Jada and Corey share practical strategies for understanding volunteers' availability, interests, and physical capabilities, ensuring even routine tasks feel meaningful by connecting them to the organization's mission. We’ll also discuss how passionate volunteers often become ardent donors, demonstrating that building a robust volunteer culture can yield lasting benefits for any nonprofit. Tune in to uncover how to unlock the transformative power of volunteerism in your organization.
The Hosts of The Practice of NonProfit Leadership:
Tim Barnes serves as the Executive Vice President of International Association for Refugees (IAFR)
Nathan Ruby serves as the Executive Director of Friends of the Children of Haiti (FOTCOH)
They can be reached at info@practicenpleader.com
All opinions and views expressed by the hosts are their own and do not necessarily represent those of their respective organizations.
Welcome to the Practice of Nonprofit Leadership. I'm Tim Barnes and I'm Nathan Ruby. Okay, nathan, you got to tell me when was the last time you volunteered for something.
Nathan Ruby:Let's see, last time I volunteered uh was uh earlier this year Uh, our church does the uh Tim Tebow foundations uh night to shine and it is a uh, it's a evening for people, for adults with special needs, uh, to provide a prom like experience, and so that people dress up and you know, there's a prom queen and well, everybody gets to be prom queen and prom king, and so it's for adults with special needs and it's a great night and it's a big, big event, and so I had a parking duty for one of the parking lots.
Tim Barnes:Well, you know for so many nonprofit organizations, whether it's a church or whether it's a local organization, it takes a lot of work to do events and to help the organizations keep going, and oftentimes volunteers are a huge part of making it happen, especially if there's resources that you don't have. So you're looking to fill some of those positions, some of those things, and so we're going to jump in and we're going to talk about volunteers, right, nathan?
Nathan Ruby:Yes, absolutely. We have two awesome people with us today, two experts in the world of volunteers, way smarter than Tim and I on this category, and Jada Hare and Corey Barrett. Welcome to the practice of nonprofit leadership.
Jada Hoerr:Thank you, great to be with you. Thanks for having us.
Nathan Ruby:Yeah. So just a little bit. I'm going to start with Jada. So Jada Hare is the chief resource officer at Midwest Food Bank, whose mission is to share the love of Christ by alleviating hunger and malnutrition and providing disaster relief. In her role, jada stewards and develops resources and fosters partnerships that enable the organization to serve over 1 million people each year partnerships that enable the organization to serve over 1 million people each year. After a successful 21 career in sales and marketing at Caterpillar, jada made a purposeful shift to the nonprofit sector, motivated by her faith and desire to contribute to meaningful causes. You know, jada, we're going to do a different show, just with you, on how you transitioned from the corporate world to the nonprofit world. We'll do a follow-up on that.
Nathan Ruby:And then Corey Barrett serves as the volunteer and community relations manager for Midwest Food Bank, new England. In his role, corey leads over 2,000 volunteers annually and opportunities to serve, while deepening their relationship with Midwest Food Bank and the agencies whom they serve. As a nonprofit professional, corey's career spans over 15 years in volunteer leadership, development operations, event planning and event management, while working for organizations like Feed my Starving Children and Samaritan's Purse. Corey has worked across the United States engaging thousands of volunteers for work in hunger relief and local church ministry, where he has been convinced of the power and impact made possible by a culture of volunteerism. So you guys, your resumes are pretty powerful when it comes to volunteers. Volunteers, jada, could you give some context to Midwest Food Bank and size and scope of the volunteer program and how that culture is working? As a volunteer there, I sure will.
Jada Hoerr:But first I want to say thank you to both of you, nathan and Tim, for just leaning in and leading this podcast. Both of you are nonprofit professionals, and so I'm just impressed and thankful for the time that you give to the content that you share, so hopefully this can be helpful for the other listeners as well. In the US, we also have operations in Haiti and in Kenya. So, started 21 years ago, midwest Food Bank has grown to. This year we will distribute $500 million worth of food and resources to the nonprofits that we partner with. So really an honor to be a part of an organization that is giving that food away to our nonprofits at no charge, and so it might seem like oh my goodness, like what a behemoth of a organization, and in fact we are usually right around one of the largest food banks in the nation. But I want to give some context. Why am I on this podcast today and volunteering? We do this and we're able to fulfill our mission only because of volunteers.
Jada Hoerr:Volunteers are. Sometimes we casually call them our secret sauce. That maybe is a little bit off brand to say that, but inside the walls of Midwest New Bank now on this podcast, we call our volunteers our secret sauce. And so at Midwest New Bank we have 62 employees 62, and this year we'll have nearly 40,000 volunteers, so 40,000 individuals that are serving our mission. And let me just share a little bit about how we structure those volunteers, and then Corey is going to have much more content on how we break that down in each of our locations.
Jada Hoerr:But our volunteers of those 40,000, about 700 are what we call our core volunteers, and those core volunteers are essentially the ones that are coming in, maybe not every day, but they're coming in frequently, multiple times in a week, and they're serving in what we would consider a staff role.
Jada Hoerr:So we have volunteers that are serving as our forklift drivers, forklift operators, our truck drivers, our bookkeepers, our receptionists, our grant writers, all of that, our agency coordinators. All of that is kind of what most nonprofits would think of, or all of us on the podcast today would think of as a staff role. But at Midwest Food Bank we believe in empowering our volunteers, and so we've been able to find individuals that find joy and purpose in serving. Then we also have what we call our project volunteers, and so these are the corporate groups, the Boy Scouts, the church groups, the moms clubs that are coming in and serving for a couple hours at a time and maybe they'll come in once or twice a year, but those are kind of. The majority of our volunteers are coming in for a very short period of time.
Nathan Ruby:Tim and I have an exciting new feature to share with you. No matter what type of device you're using to tune in, we've made it easier than ever to reach out to us. If you're listening on Apple Podcasts, you'll notice the phrase send us a text message located just under the play button. It's in purple font. Give it a click and you'll be able to text us directly from there. We'd love to hear your thoughts on the show, what you enjoy, any questions you have or topics you'd like us to cover in future episodes. Your feedback is invaluable to us. One important note when you reach out this way, you will only we will only see your message, not your contact information. So if you'd like us to respond, please include your email or phone number in the message. Connecting with you is truly the best part of doing this podcast. We're looking forward to hearing from you, so click that button and let us know what's on your mind.
Nathan Ruby:Well, that is, and you know we've talked on the podcast before about how, when it's time to volunteer, when it's time to add a staff position, you're you know, maybe it's just you as the executive director and a couple of volunteers and it's now time to hire your, your first staff position, whether it be on program side or accounting or fundraising, whatever it is. One of the options you have is to hire a volunteer. I'm using my air quotes with hire but have a volunteer come in for a 30-hour a week, 20-hour a week, even a 40-hour a week job. There are people out there that would volunteer to do that. You just got to go find them and you guys are a perfect example of how that would work.
Jada Hoerr:Maybe just a little bit of context too. Our founders started the food bank on their family farm in a shed, and so it was a family project. And for the greater part of a decade it was all volunteers, and so the volunteerism is just in the DNA. It was just a family project that they turned into a nonprofit DNA. It was just a family project that they turned into a nonprofit. Uh, so kind of at the core of who we are is that spirit of of volunteering and finding purpose in volunteering.
Nathan Ruby:Yeah, and having a culture of that from the get go does, uh, makes a huge difference, yeah, so okay, uh, corey, first question Um, so Jada talked a little bit about the scope of the organization and you know you're most years, you're that you're the largest food bank in the country. That's pretty big scope. But how do you define a successful volunteer program, knowing that you know you can have 40,000 volunteers or 10,000 volunteers or one volunteer? What does that successful volunteer program look like for just the one or two or three volunteers?
Corey Barrette:It's a good question. I would say a successful volunteer program is one in which your volunteers come away feeling they are truly contributing to something meaningful Truly contributing to something meaningful, in other words, you're not just having people come in to do menial tasks that are just throwing a bone to someone to keep them busy and occupied. They come away knowing that they've truly contributed to the mission because you've been able to make it clear what the mission is and how their role is connected to that mission and why it's impactful. I would also say a successful volunteer program is one in which your volunteers are aligned with the mission effectively. How well can they convey to you, back to you, how their role is meaningfully impacting the mission in the community in which they're operating? Are they synthesizing their activity with what the mission of your organization is? Are they engaged regularly?
Corey Barrette:Are these individuals, when you reach out to them, that they're responding to you if you need them for something or if you're trying to stay connected with them for meetings or whatever it is? Are they regularly engaged with respect to their communication? Are they better equipped a year after they started volunteering than when they began? Right, that's a big part of any and we can talk more about that as things move forward here, but a big part of having a successful volunteer program is how well you're able to equip the volunteers for what they're doing. You're not just throwing them to the wolves. You're not just expecting them to know everything when they start. There might be people who are transitioning out of careers that are looking to do something wildly different from what they were doing in their careers.
Nathan Ruby:And that's going to require some tools and equipping along the way. So are they better equipped than when they started? Yeah, I had a volunteer experience. Actually, I was on staff and we had a group of volunteers coming in on a Saturday morning and I was young, I was new into my career and I didn't know anything and I was the fundraiser. So it wasn't my event, I wasn't the volunteer person, thank goodness.
Nathan Ruby:But we had a group of like I don't know, I'm just picking out numbers it was a chunk of people Like 30 people coming in and they were going to do landscaping type stuff and so the group got there and I was there and the uh, I was ended up being the only staff person there.
Nathan Ruby:The person who was in charge of the from the staff side of the volunteer event got was there late. So you know, things weren't ready and they were going to do landscaping and we had like 30 people and we had like two shovels, a rake and uh you know, and one other thing, and it was just thing and it was dis, it was horrible. It was so disorganized, it didn't have enough equipment and those people walked away. And I remember thinking to myself when I was like 28 years old, I was like those people ain't never coming back. And so I think the the, you know, the the volunteer, when you're having volunteers, come in and correct me if I'm wrong, but a lot of the success of that is planned out way before those people ever show up on the day of.
Corey Barrette:You hit the nail on the head and my mind is going in a thousand different places with respect to all the different things you've just tapped or noted here, one of which is the reputation of an organization.
Corey Barrette:Jada and I talked a little bit about this leading up to the podcast today, but one of the things that a leader, an executive director, has to consider at the onset is what your mission is, how you endeavor to stay true to your mission, because success is relative to the mission of the organization, it's relative to the culture, it's relative to the vision that you've set forth for the organization. And then, along the way, how do you aim, what do you aspire for the reputation of your organization to be? Because a reputation, once you start involving people from the outside and folding them in your reputation, is now in the hands of multiple people. It's not just held with the executive director anymore, right. So when someone has a negative experience where people are unprepared, under-resourced, not on time, that's not just connected to the person that was supposed to be there providing those resources. It's connected to the name of the organization or entity associated with that individual right, yeah, and how many times?
Nathan Ruby:how many conversations do you think those people will have when they have a negative? They will have more conversations when they've had a negative experience than they will when they've had a positive experience.
Corey Barrette:Bingo and a reputation and I'm lingering on this point for a reason. A reputation of an organization is so closely tied to repeat volunteerism and the multiplication of volunteers who go on talk about the positive or negative experiences they've had and giving the giving element and donor stewardship associated with all that comes after that. So if people see that you are worthy of their time and their finances and their resources, they're more inclined to partner right. So all of that is so critical in the planning associated with resourcing your people. And ultimately it gets to the last point I was going to bring up here, as it relates to a successful volunteer program the sense of community and belonging that people have subsequent to their volunteerism with the organization. How are they feeling more connected to you and the other people within the organization with whom they're volunteering as a result of the experience they've had with your organization?
Corey Barrette:I think, jada, you could speak to this as much as anybody with what happens in Illinois. There is an incredible sense of belonging to the community associated with Midwest Food Bank and that makes it a very unique place. There's people from all walks of life, all sorts of different careers, who come in every day to these walls and they're volunteering under the banner of Midwest Food Bank, but they feel part of something that has nothing to do with their past necessarily their past careers, or what they do at school or what have you. So that's a ripple effect that I think can be measured by the growth of your volunteer program.
Corey Barrette:I think too, if I could just add into the reputation is also considering just the environment in which they're volunteering and there's lots of different ways that people can be volunteering but just doing our best to provide an environment that's comfortable, safe.
Nathan Ruby:Safe is first and foremost, but just clean and tidy. So if we're going to have someone to do some bookkeeping work, making sure, then they need to have a decent computer that doesn't lag and doesn't break down. You know, let's not, let's not give them a chair that we pulled out of the office in the shop. You know that's got dust all over it. Let's get a nice chair, and so and you know we have to back to the example with the gardening or the landscaping. You know, okay, do we have to go buy six more shovels because we have seven people coming? I mean, there's a little bit of resources in there and you don't have to spend a ton of money. But you've got to think through that. What would help this experience be the best possible experience and then prepare for that as good as you can?
Jada Hoerr:Our budget, we have a line item for volunteer recognition and resources, and so it's something that we have to plan for, and in doing so, we know that it's still an investment that has an incredible ROI.
Tim Barnes:So let me ask this question. I love what you guys are sharing. Who is thinking about volunteers at Midwest Food Bank? Who's making sure this is happening? Is there a volunteer coordinator? Is there the director at each location? Who wakes up every day thinking about volunteers for Midwest Food Bank?
Jada Hoerr:Empowering our volunteers is one of our values, and so the easy answer maybe the Sunday school answer is that everyone's waking up, thinking about volunteers and all of us. Even in my SMART goals, identifying and equipping volunteers is one of my goals my SMART goals, identifying and equipping volunteers is one of my goals, and so I'm responsible for finding volunteers to help me execute my responsibilities, but there is a dedicated role, and I'll let Corey share about his position.
Jada Hoerr:Yeah, there's no seven degrees of separation from thinking about volunteers in Midwest Food Bank. Right, it's not Kevin Bacon out there, but we do have an individual at each location, ideally, whose responsibility is to recruit and select, identify individuals who are putting volunteers in a position to be impactful at the food bank. But that also requires some ongoing communication with other staff at the facility to know what the needs are within the facility. So that might be within bookkeeping, that might be in the warehouse, you know folks who are driving forklifts, that might be CDL drivers who are retrieving loads of food. There are volunteers in really strategic positions. But then we also have, as Jada alluded to earlier, projects ongoing that are opportunities for volunteers to work on on a short-term basis and that responsibility to coordinate those works, probably cooperatively with the warehouse, but that primarily falls on the shoulders of the volunteer manager at that particular location.
Tim Barnes:I just love it. I hear it in your voices as you talk that volunteers is deep in the culture and that has to be a reason why you're so successful at it, because it truly is a value no-transcript.
Jada Hoerr:There is a massive amount of volunteer resources out there for organizations if they figure out how to tap into it. But that requires kind of zooming out first to identify. If you're brand new looking at how to establish a volunteer program, it requires zooming out first to see your mission first and then to work backwards to understand where volunteers can have an impact to help you achieve whatever mission it is. It's not taking a shotgun approach and hoping that volunteers have a good experience right, you have to understand a few things first, one of which is what are the resources that I'm going to need to provide this individual or multiple individuals if you're just starting out? What are the resources I'm going to need? What are some of the competencies I'm going to need these folks to understand and have?
Jada Hoerr:What are some of the what's the knowledge they need to have about us as an organization, and how am I transferring all of this? Right? If you're getting people in the door first without having some answers to some of those questions, you're going to feel like you're fumbling your way forward first. So it's okay to take some time. I would caution anybody from acting out of desperation in terms of recruiting people first, because you're going to find yourself feeling like you're constantly behind the eight ball and it is possible to end up recruiting the wrong people and having the wrong people in the wrong seats on your bus, and that is a much more difficult problem to face, I think, in the long term.
Nathan Ruby:So do you think the process of recruiting and retaining a volunteer and the process of recruiting and retaining a staff person is it obviously at your organization it's equally as important. Um, is it the same process? Um, because the the as I listen to you talk that the thought that goes into writing a job description for a staff person and the thought for going into a job description for a volunteer, they're almost the same right. So is that? Do you guys see that equally or do you see those as two separate things?
Jada Hoerr:I think at the highest level it's very similar and even sometimes we use the same tactics. You know we'll give a volunteer job posting and put it out online in the same way that we would post for a paid position and obviously word of mouth recruiting is critical, especially for our volunteers. So there is a lot of similarities and understanding and respecting the flexibility that a volunteer has and that they're seeking and being able to adapt to that, like you know, being clear about the hours that it would be ideal for them to come, but they're volunteers, for goodness sakes.
Nathan Ruby:So they can kind of come and go as they please Of course.
Corey Barrette:Very well stated, jada, very well stated.
Tim Barnes:So can I ask you know, as I think about this, so what a volunteer needs to come in and help pack boxes for a project, like they come in for a few hours on a day, or a group comes from a company and comes in and helps do something, what they need, compared to what someone who's going to show up several times a week and do the jobs is probably different. So do you have a process to like? Do you take them a process to prepare them to get them plugged in? Do you have something set up that?
Nathan Ruby:you know how do you Like an onboarding, onboarding, yeah that's a great word.
Tim Barnes:Do you have an?
Corey Barrette:onboarding process for your volunteers. The process is fairly individualized and, excuse me, and it requires a conversation, and triage isn't the right word. That's not the way we treat the volunteers, but that's effectively the process that's taking place. We want to evaluate. If individuals come to us and they're looking for an opportunity to serve, we ask them questions. You know, on what basis are you looking to serve? Is this like a weekly opportunity you're looking for and are you looking for, or are you looking for something just for this time, because you have some hours that you have to fulfill for your work or for school or some other reason? And that helps start to answer some of the questions because, as we know what exists within the organization in terms of opportunities, we can start putting people in positions based on what their interests are, but based on what their availability is, what their physical aptitude is, what their background may look like, and start placing people accordingly.
Nathan Ruby:But it all depends on what that initial encounter is maybe like mentioned earlier in the show that uh about the, how important it was for the experience and then to convey a basic vision and mission to volunteer so that when they, after the event is over and they're back out in the community, they had a great experience and they understand the organization better and they can share those stories. How do you do you take time during their their volunteer time to sit them down and talk to them about vision and mission and values? How do you do that?
Corey Barrette:So I see two possibilities existing here. One, if someone's coming to us, they're seeking us out or they've come to us for the first time as a short-term or project volunteer and they come through an opportunity to volunteer for two hours, I look at that a little bit differently than as if I'm looking for a specific person or a specific role to be filled and I'm trying to cast vision to somebody who I think might be a good candidate. There's a great quote from a pastor I don't think he's the original person that said this, but there's a straight quote what you win people with, you, win them too. What you win people with, you win them too. And what he means basically is, as you cast vision to somebody, what you're holding out before them is effectively what you're trying to win them to as far as your mission is concerned. So if you're just telling somebody, hey, I've got these bags that you have to put from here over here, from one box into another box, that's not a particularly appealing thing.
Corey Barrette:But if you can connect the role that you're trying to appeal to them to the greater mission and the impact that they're having, regardless of what their background is, you can win them over, even if there's administrative tasks that aren't particularly appealing, if there's hours that may not be particularly appealing.
Corey Barrette:If you connect their heart to the mission, ultimately you've won them over to something much greater than the task itself. That's a little bit different than if you've got someone who comes in who's experiencing this for two hours and if they've never been in the building before, we make it a point to give them a tour of the facility and each touchpoint around the facility. They get to know about what happens internally within the building, externally, what's happening outside of the four walls of Midwest Food Bank, within the communities in which we're serving and operating within the scope of our partnerships. We have about 157 agencies in the New England region, but there's far more happening out of Bloomington and Normal and Peoria relative to the age of the organization in those places. So it's helpful for them to understand the scope of the impact relative to the tasks at hand. So we take time to talk about all of that as part of that tour.
Nathan Ruby:Again. We were talking earlier about the experience that volunteers have and that experience and how important it is, but that experience starts doesn't start when they're at the assembly line picking up out of one box of put in the other box. That experience starts doesn't start when they're at the at the assembly line picking up out of one box of put in the other box. That experience starts when they pull down the street and pull into the parking lot, and and so the volunteer who is out pulling weeds out of the sidewalk cracks is just as important as the person who's having direct contact with the end user In your case, who's having direct contact with the end user In your case, the food banks coming in to pick up the food. It's that whole process, and so that guy or that woman, whatever, who's outside working in the yard is just as important as the person over here.
Jada Hoerr:And when you have a good volunteer experience, it's amazing how many volunteers will sign up to pull the weeds in your yard. Yeah, I think it can be overwhelming for someone listening to be like, oh my goodness, like this takes a lot of staff time, but even the development of some of the things that we're talking about and creating that positive environment can be done by volunteers. So the person who's meeting the volunteers as they're walking into the facility like that's a volunteer too, and so finding the person that has that joy and making people feel welcome, that hospitality I mean they're just going to love to sit at your front desk and invite your future volunteers to come in.
Corey Barrette:I think one of the hallmarks to your point, Jada one of the hallmarks of Midwest Food Bank is cleanliness and, obviously, dealing with food and being in that world, it's important to send the message that we care about cleanliness, and on any number of occasions we've had people come in and remark what a clean warehouse we have. We have drivers that deliver to all sorts of different places right around the country, but when they step into Midwest Food Bank, oftentimes they are astounded by just how clean it is, and so that sends the message that we care about stewardship, we care about what's being entrusted to us, and when people see that, whether it's a truck driver or this is a business representative from within the community, they see it as something not just related to cleanliness but stewardship, and they're more likely to entrust to us people, time, resources, you name it.
Tim Barnes:Corey, I know you've touched on a number of things as we've talked about this. You know we hear leaders from organizations talk about how challenging, how difficult it is to get volunteers, or it's hard to trust volunteers, to get volunteers or it's hard to trust volunteers. And I wonder if, at some point, maybe there are some things that you would say. From my experience it's probably X, y or Z there are these things. Maybe it's an attitude, maybe it's how you're approaching it no-transcript taught to ask.
Corey Barrette:Or this great concept, and it's called retracing the loop. Al Newell is the name of this guy that does this course. So, again, I won't take credit for this. But this idea of retracing the loop means we start with ourselves. We start from the beginning and we ask ourselves okay, this isn't going well, or this hasn't in the past gone well. Why is that? And let's start from the beginning. Are there gaps in the resources that this person has been equipped with? Are there gaps in the expectation of the attitudes that we are expecting people to operate with? Are there gaps in the competencies? Have I failed to transfer knowledge to this person? And you might, from just that simple exercise. You might, from just that simple exercise, identify gaps that exist from myself, right, or yourself. It's not always somebody else's fault. Now, there are incidents where maybe there was a selection error and this didn't turn out to be the right person for the right role. That doesn't make this person inherently bad as a volunteer. It doesn't make this person unfit to be a volunteer.
Corey Barrette:We want folks to have a good experience and so, as we work with our volunteers, it's really helpful to have ongoing touch points where we can inspect the work that's going on. Much the same we would with employees. But before we do any of that, there should be connection points with people, right? The term I use is I don't want anyone to feel like we've just chewed someone up and spit them out. We're not here to use people right. We're not here to just use someone for what they can give us.
Corey Barrette:That's a very transactional experience and one which will be short-lived, probably within the scope of volunteerism at the organization. So if you're treating someone very transactionally, that's going to be the effect that has on the culture of your organization too in the long term. So you've got this idea of connecting with people to know them personally, to care about them personally. You can inspect the work that's happening so that you have some insight on an ongoing basis. And then, finally, if there's course correction that needs to take place, you can make course correction right. But it's helpful to back up first and say, okay, are there gaps in all of these things, in these areas, before I go assigning good and bad labels to anything.
Corey Barrette:As Corey's talking, I'm just reminded that certainly the volunteers that come to us, they're seeking something also, and so it's a myriad of things that the people are seeking. For some of them they just want to be physically active, right, but I think at a baseline, everyone that's walking into our facility they're looking to be a part of a community and to be part of something bigger than themselves, and so, like what Corey was saying, to know them personally, they just want to be a part of a community, and so, taking the time to just celebrate the birthdays and hear about what's going on in their life outside of your operations- you know it's hard for me to go any episode without talking about fundraising, and even though we're talking about volunteers this is actually Corey's fault because it's what he said you know you guys are talking about connecting personally and not treating your volunteers as transactional.
Nathan Ruby:You know relationships and Jada is talking about. You know people just want to be part of something. That's all fundraising. That is the same language that we use in fundraising, and so it is. You know, if you, as an executive director, if you're looking to increase your fundraising, volunteers are a great place to start, because who believes more in you as an organization than somebody who's coming and giving up their time and energy and expertise to help you? It's a built-in machine for creating future donors.
Tim Barnes:You had to get it in, didn't you? Nathan?
Tim Barnes:I know I can't help myself.
Nathan Ruby:I can't help myself. Corey's fault, no, no.
Jada Hoerr:I will say like an opportunity that we're still understanding is how do we share our financial needs with our volunteers? Because we certainly don't want that pendulum to swing so far that you become your organization, becomes branded as the place you have to pay to volunteer. Every time you walk in, those doors are going to tell you about what they need and kind of shame you into giving $20.
Jada Hoerr:So you don't want to be that organization, but also not hiding from the fact that we need donated food. We need donations from volunteer time and financial donations, yep.
Corey Barrette:Nathan
Jada Hoerr:, I will go as far as saying and forgive me, I haven't thought this all the way through.
Nathan Ruby:So for the executive director out there that's listening, Well, you fit right into this podcast, because we don't think things through For the executive director out there that might be feeling stressed about starting, or there's a million questions floating around about starting a volunteer program.
Corey Barrette:I will go as far as saying I think they're in an advantageous position at the very beginning to, to your point, build in to the volunteer experience and expectations, this multiplying impact that we're talking about as part of the common language and culture of the organization, because they get to create that from the start as part of the expectation for the role of a volunteer, whether that's recruiting additional volunteers or coaching them on how to talk about the need, the financial needs of the organization. That becomes part of the culture you're instilling from the very beginning and, as Jada just said, we're still figuring that when we're figuring that out, and it's harder to do that with 40,000 volunteers than it is with one or two volunteers at the very beginning.
Nathan Ruby:Yeah, for sure. Yeah, the number one thing is matching their passion to give, their need to give, matching that with the needs of the organization. And when you can, when you could blend those two together, then that's where you get. That's where you get good, thoughtful gifts, and you know part of that. If they keep coming again and again and again, well then you're starting to match up with what their need to give is and what their goals are for their philanthropic giving. So you just got to figure out how to do that in the right way.
Tim Barnes:Well, I think we have a couple, maybe a couple of questions to kind of wrap up our time. And, Jada, I'm curious. We want to do another podcast with you, as Nathan said. I'm curious, we want to do another podcast with you, as Nathan said. But I'm curious as someone who spent more than 20 years in a for-profit world and we have people who give their lives to for-profit and then say I want to do something different, I want to step into the nonprofit space. But I'm curious did you have to have a mind shift, change as you move from in the for profit world to now you're working with a lot of volunteers, which isn't typical in the caterpillar world? Probably Was there a mind shift, shift that needed to happen as you kind of stepped into your role.
Jada Hoerr:For sure and recognizing that what matters most, like safety, is first and foremost in our volunteer experience, making sure that everyone's performing the role in a safe way. But from that point forward, if the volunteer team from the corporation that's coming in is there, spending a little bit longer time around the water cooler, catching up and packaging a few cases, fewer cases of cornflakes, it's about them having joy, and productivity is measured in a different way. Productivity is in the joy and the mission being fulfilled and not in the number of cases. Like we celebrate the number of cases and we applaud that and we get their picture with the number of cases, how many families that they'll feed, because that matters, giving them meaningful work, but also their joy and the journey of volunteering with us is the first and foremost.
Tim Barnes:It sounds like experience is a big part of what you're trying to do as well, so they have something to hang on. If it's a good experience, they'll be back. They'll tell others, right, yeah?
Jada Hoerr:The most productive way might be hiring an employee and counting cycle times.
Nathan Ruby:However, the most efficient way in terms of financial efficiency is engaging those volunteers. So, Jada, you're saying no Six Sigma when it comes to volunteers.
Jada Hoerr:Well, absolutely, we can engage our volunteers in Six Sigma. But just understanding what are the criteria, you'll laugh, but we have used our volunteers on Six Sigma projects and lean projects of how do we manage our operations, but making sure that there's joy built into those requirements as well.
Tim Barnes:What you're talking about today. Can any organization benefit from a strong volunteer program, or is it really for certain kinds of nonprofits? What's your thought in that?
Corey Barrette:I think we agreed that most organizations could benefit from a strong volunteer program, with few exceptions. But I think someone really has to brainstorm and go through the exercises of evaluating what they're trying to achieve and what are the roles that a volunteer would fulfill in a meaningful way to achieve those goals according to the mission, to make it a meaningful, impactful and useful element of that organization in the long run.
Jada Hoerr:And
Jada Hoerr:I think too, to give everyone on the line that's listening some encouragement. Like, every nonprofit has volunteers, they've got a board that's volunteering. They probably have a fundraiser, so there's some kind of fundraiser committee. And so giving everyone confidence, like you've already exercised this muscle, you've already cared for your board members, you've already cared for your gala committee, and so how do you expand that to other responsibilities in the organization?
Tim Barnes:That's really good Taking it being more intentional. It sounds like to take it further in your organization than just a few small places, and can I one more thought to this?
Corey Barrette:What we found time and time again is it's important not to say no for somebody else. A lot of times we get nervous about asking people to do things, but people have been waiting to be asked oftentimes. Don't say and this is very true in fundraising don't say no for somebody. Don't reason yourself out of a way to ask somebody to take on a project, to take on a task, to do something that you've been looking for someone to do. The worst that can happen is someone says no. Cast your vision, connect them to the mission, connect to the heart and the mind of the individual you're talking to and let them give you the answer. And they don't need an answer right away. Hopefully you haven't put them in a position to need an answer right there, on the spot, right, but be thoughtful in your approach and don't be afraid to ask.
Nathan Ruby:Thank you for listening today. If you are benefiting from what is being shared in this podcast, we'd like to ask you to share a review on whatever platform you're listening to us on, let us know how the podcast is benefiting you. If you would like to get in touch with us, our contact information could be found in the show notes. That's all for today. Until next time.