The Real Lives of Volunteer Coordinators
A Blog for us to Learn from Each Other
Written by Jordan Galerkin 
Recap for May 23rd - May 29th
Thank you to everyone who contributed to the Facebook community this past week!
Volunteer Awards
If you’re starting a new volunteer program or looking to refresh your current one, you might want to implement volunteer awards. But how many awards should you give out, and for which accomplishments? Our coordinator community has some recommendations below.
P.S. Track it Forward offers a Milestones feature that makes it easy to track volunteer hour awards and progress!
Comments from the group
“I always have a few serious [awards] if people are hitting a milestone like 5 years, etc. But also fun ones, like longest distance to travel, best snack arranger, fastest envelope decorator.”
“At my previous job we would give out annual awards which were paper certificates (100 hours, 500 hours, etc.), mainly just for the group recognition. We would also give out "lifetime" awards which were plaques or trophies and those were for number of years with the organization, or reaching a hours milestone. We also gave away some "fun awards" based on memorable moments from the year.”
“I have our staff submit names of the vols they feel deserve recognition that year. I compile the list and we narrow it down to 10-12ish people, including a volunteer of the year. They each get an award certificate and a gift certificate presented to them and we call them up to be recognized in front of the group during the potluck.”
Photo Releases for Volunteers
An important part of volunteer recruitment includes marketing materials for your website, social media and more. One great way to recruit is to show current volunteers in action! To make sure you can use all the great photos you’ve taken of volunteers, you’ll need a photo release form. Learn more about how to incorporate these forms from other volunteer coordinators.
Comments from the group
“The photo release is part of our waiver…Our language for the photo release is something like "Volunteer consents to the photographing of their person and property and the use of their photograph, name, likeness, voice, and words and grant the organization to use, reproduce, display, broadcast, alter, modify, and copyright all photographs.”
“Our application has generic photo/ audio visual/ media release (similar to the one above) they can choose to authorize yes or no. Our volunteers also sign an agreement/ consent form that lists out they understand they do not have permission to take pictures of our participants or other volunteers. (Along with other confidentiality statements).”
“Registration involves the statement saying we take photos and share them. One document for everything. I do ask if they care that I take photos. I've only ever had one exception and that was with kids and parents who didn't want photos of them online etc.”
Volunteer Route Planning
Do you work for an organization that requires volunteers to make deliveries or drop off donations? If so, you might need help planning volunteer routes. Our coordinator community has some suggestions about different programs you can use to plan these routes!
Comments from the group
- “We use routific for volunteers to drop off groceries to multiple households. It’s easy to use and will map your routes automatically and you can adjust/make changes as needed. They send you a link that we text to volunteers showing them the addresses in order of the quickest route. The volunteers of all ages find it easy to use and we’re able to include info about the drop off, such as a description of the home, phone number etc.”
- “I use Mapquest route planner.”
- “We have meals on wheels service and just got a software called M2P which maps it out.”