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The not-for-profit world has an interesting dilemma on its hands. The idea of someone volunteering with the organization locally and operating within its territory is fading. Now you have volunteers from everywhere wanting help even the smallest organization raise money and awareness.
I can’t speak for all not-for-profits but I have not met many who are set up for digital volunteers. So, I have here ten tips every not-for-profit should follow when working with them:
10 Tips For Working With Digital Volunteers
1. Due diligence. Google is your friend, and since this is your organization, you can ask people (politely) not to work with you if you find something that does not mesh well. Need I say more than, “Facebook photos”?
2. Phone interviews. So your digital volunteer appears cleaner than a Disney show, now what? Set up a time to chat on the phone. Have them call you. Are they punctual? How do they present themselves? Ask them the difficult questions, the basic stuff you can find out online.
3. Be clear about their assignments. If this is the first for a digital volunteer, you need to cover everything (briefly) and explain your expectations and any rules they must follow. Give them something they can safely refer to.
4. Do you know the rules and regulations in their State or country? Make sure you are up on the latest yourself before sending your digital volunteer off.
5. Paperwork! Make sure your digital volunteer files the appropriate forms before doing any work. Make sure they adhere to your (fair) deadlines. If they miss it, they’re out! Attention to detail and being efficent are traits you want in digital volunteers.
6. Hold Regular Meetings. Using Skype, you can have regular meetings with your digital volunteer to keep up with their project. Unlike the phone interview, scheduling and running these regular meetings are on you. And you need to have your volunteer feel like any other volunteer in the organization to maintain and build trust. Remember: A good digital volunteer is a well informed, included volunteer.
7. Use Web Apps. Sign up for Google Apps and create a document and spreadsheet. The spreadsheet is to accurately (and publicly) report any money that comes in through the volunteers project, and the document is a way to ask and answer questions and brainstorm with others on how to improve their project.
8. Be Clear About How Your Name Is Used. Some digital volunteers don’t want the full shebang when they want to help you. You may get a few who just want to fundraise. If that’s the case, make sure the money is going directly to your organization via Paypal or Google Checkout, and that the website this fundraiser appears on fits your not-for-profits identity.
9. Make Sure The Press Has (Some) Contact With You. If a digital volunteer happens to get good press, celebrate. But, if the digital volunteer is contacting the media, you want to make sure your information is included in those emails. This way, the press are more likely to pick up the story (two sources are better than one), and you can elaborate further about your organization.
10. Check (Early) And Check (Often). Check early and check often is my motto. It promotes the early detection and prevention of cancer. But Check Early and Check Often came out of my own experience as a digital volunteer. Where do you think all of these suggestions came from? Once you’re up and running with your digital volunteers, it doesn’t hurt to check early and check often to make sure everyone’s following the rules and working hard on both ends.
Do I leave any suggestions or rules out? Let us know in the comments section below.
