Nonprofit Sustainability and Leadership, and Services that Pay Volunteers | Track It Forward

Nonprofit Sustainability and Leadership, and Services that Pay Volunteers

Written by Jordan Galerkin

Weekly Recap: Nonprofit Sustainability and Leadership & Services that Pay Volunteers Recap for November 13th - 21st

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the Facebook community this past week! 

Nonprofit Sustainability & Leadership

We love when coordinators come together in this group to share resources and recommendations. Building and leading a sustainable nonprofit organization is far from easy, but with the right resources and community, it’s far from impossible!

Facebook post: Can anyone recommend current articles or books about non-profit sustainability/leadership, etc.?

Comments from the group

  • “Engagejournal.org has some fantastic articles.”

  • “Julia Campbell has a new podcast called ‘Nonprofit Nation’. I’ve enjoyed it, great guests!”

  • “The Disruptive Volunteer Manager: A step by step guide to reframing, redefining, reshaping and re-imagining volunteer management is a classic from Meridian Swift.”

Check out all of the comments here!

Working with Services that Pay Volunteers

When we think of volunteering, we think of providing free labor and services to further a good cause. However, there are some organizations that will pay certain employees to complete volunteer hours, which adds a new meaning to the word. Volunteer managers may need to take several things account when deciding whether or not to partner with these organizations, and our community has provided some personal insight on what questions to ask these organizations.

Facebook post: I am the volunteer coordinator in an animal shelter. There is a service that wants to pay people who are on disability leave from their current jobs to volunteer here. A couple of things about this make me nervous. 1) If their disability is preventing them from working, there is a fair chance that the work our volunteers do could make their injuries worse. 2) We have never had volunteers who were paid before. Has anyone navigated a situation like this before? Are there tasks that I might be overlooking that we could train these volunteers to do? Are there legal ramifications for volunteers who are being paid even if they are paid by an outside group? We want to help and at the same time we don't want to see anyone get hurt.

Comments from the group

  • “We do use workers comp volunteers at our organization but it can be tricky - they usually need to volunteer for 8 hours a day, their duties may be limited based on their disability, etc.”

  • “If you have position descriptions, you should send [these] to them. Many times they don't realize what is involved. They think they come to sit and pet dogs and cats. Prioritize what you need, what skills and requirements are needed to do the job, and again they should be able to do these things.”

  • “Yes, we have used them. They are covered by their employers’ insurance in our state. Most of them do not work out for us, but on occasion we find someone that is a great benefit to our organization. You need to ask lots of questions about each specific referral.”

Add your own thoughts here!