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United Way Blog

Volunteer Managers: The Power Behind Super Hero Volunteers

Photo courtesy of Marco Calderon Photography

International Volunteer Managers Day is a time to recognize the people who make our volunteer work possible: the organizers, planners, thinkers and fixers who manage volunteer projects from the large scale United Way Day of Action to more modest yet equally important volunteer contributions day in and day out. The theme of International Volunteer Managers Day 2015 (IVMDay), celebrated annually on November 5th, is “Volunteer Managers: The Power Behind Super Hero Volunteers.”

It’s true: thanks to the leadership of volunteer managers, volunteers do amazing things. Being a leader of volunteer engagement has always been tough work. Today’s managers are becoming even more specialized in their roles, as volunteers expect, and deserve, to find meaning in what they do. Stuffing envelopes still needs to be done, of course, but more and more volunteer managers are approaching volunteering as a means to achieve impact, which means defining the opportunity and finding the right volunteers to meet it.

As Jennifer Bennett with VolunteerMatch writes in Volunteer Engagement 2.0, volunteer managers “have the opportunity to truly shape and guide the engagement of individuals who are passionate about a cause and who see your organization as the best way to act on their values. That’s pretty important!” Jennifer has distilled her advice to volunteer managers into three key principles:

  1. Know the work/know your volunteers. “The more you know about what needs to be done and who should do it, the more successful you’ll be.” Build relationships with your volunteers. That means establishing two-way communications.
  2. Focus on success but plan for the worst. Think big! But have policies in place in case something goes wrong.
  3. Get everyone on the same page. Set clear goals and written policies to ensure everyone can work together.

Clearly, volunteer managers are tasked with enormous responsibility. I hope that on November 5th – or any day – you make sure volunteer managers get the recognition they deserve. Here are ideas for celebrating volunteer managers, or you might follow the lead of United Way of Greater Mercer County (NJ), a member of the IVMDay International Supporters Group, which is sending a personalized email to thank all of the organization’s volunteer managers.

As Uncle Ben told Spider-Man, "With great power comes great responsibility." What makes volunteer managers remarkable is their ability to use their power to inspire those around them to advance the common good.