Building the Case to Fund Volunteer Engagement

Today, I heard from a past client excitedly telling me that a donor is interested in supporting the organization in securing volunteer management software. She wrote to ask if I had any new recommendations or information on new products since we last spoke about this, roughly 18 months ago. Interesting timing given that I was about to sit down to draft this post on “building a case to fund volunteer engagement.”

After responding, I reflected a bit on what set her and her organization on the path that led to this wonderful opportunity – a donor interested in investing in volunteer engagement infrastructure! How many other organizations merely dream of such an offer? Whether supporting volunteer management software, training, volunteer lounge renovations, recognition events or gifts, or funding salaries for volunteer engagement professionals, having donors and foundations interested in investing in volunteer engagement remains the exception rather than the rule. But that need not remain the case.

According to the 2022 research report The State of Volunteer Engagement: Insights from Nonprofit Leaders and Funders by the Do Good Institute and the accompanying qualitative study, Investing in Strategic Volunteer Engagement by Dr. Sue Carter Kahl , funders and nonprofit leaders have different perspectives on volunteer engagement as a strategy. Nonprofit leaders believe that engaging volunteers is more important than ever, due to increased demand for services and steady or declining staff resources. They view volunteers as a vital resource, serving to “extend the organization’s budget,” “provide more detailed attention to people served,” and enhance “the quality of services or programs provided.” Meanwhile, funders shared questions about the worth of engaging volunteers, pondering, for example, whether volunteer engagement helps the volunteers more than the organizations they support, and others questioning volunteers’ reliability. Nevertheless, the primary reason why funders don’t frequently invest in volunteer engagement infrastructure may be surprising: Despite their questions about the value of engaging volunteers, funders are open to investing in volunteer-related activities and supports – but nonprofit leaders rarely (if ever) ask for it.

The implication of this is clear: Before building the case to invest in volunteer engagement and sharing it with funders, we may need to build the case internally with leadership, sharing the value that engaging volunteers brings to an organization and the fact that, while volunteers may give their time freely, they are not free to engage and support.

As I reflect on how far the organization that contacted me has come in the four years since I first worked with them and how others have successfully inspired investments in volunteer engagement strategies, here are a few suggestions for how you can construct a case and build support, both internally and externally.

• Demonstrate the worth. Gather data and stories that demonstrate the impacts and worth of engaging volunteers in all realms, including how engaging volunteers:
  • benefits participants through more personalized services or increased numbers served;
  • builds organizational capacity by reducing staff turnover or burnout, brings in new skills and networks, saves resources;
  • enriches the lives of the volunteers in the form of skills gained, relationships built, health benefits, and more; and
  • strengthens the community through collaboration and giving voice to community members.
  As part of our early work together, this organization gathered metrics before receiving training and coaching on leading practices in volunteer engagement, and after the coaching. They continue to tell the story about how engaging volunteers more strategically has helped their community members, staff, and the volunteers themselves.
• Communicate with leadership. Share the value and worth of volunteer engagement with leadership and with fund development staff.
  The coaching this organization received also involved executive leadership and we explored how to share up and out volunteer impacts through dashboards, reports, and meeting updates.
• Initiate funder conversations. Facilitate conversations with local funders to communicate the multi-faceted benefits of engaging volunteers.
  While our work together was, in fact, initiated by a funder, the organization has continued to nurture that relationship. You can work with your fund development teams to coordinate discussions with funders and work with program staff to ensure that requests for program support include costs of engaging and supporting volunteers to deliver the programs.
• Tap into the resources such as this conversation guide (Activating the Power of Strategic Volunteer Engagement), developed by the Initiative for Strategic Volunteer Engagement, to drive these conversations in your own organization and community.

The more you gather data and tell the story of how volunteers enhance the quality of programs your organization provides and the difference they make in the lives of those served, the stronger the case you can build to internal leaders and, eventually, funders as well. Only through our collective storytelling will we change the narrative – and close the funding gap. It’s up to us.

¹ Both studies were commissioned by the Initiative for Strategic Volunteer Engagement, now a program of Independent Sector.