Volunteers and Non-Profit organization members are a rare commodity. They are hard to find, difficult to screen, expensive to replace/retain and then vanish without warning.  

UPDATES to this BLOG!!

Please note this blog has been superseded by the following two blogs. To preserve links, I am keeping this on but will not be updating.

• A Field Guide to Volunteer Lifecycles
• Lucky 7’s in LAST VeGA

Modeling As If My Lifecycle Depends Upon It

Both the literature and the intranet have a number of volunteer lifecycle models. Some look like a biological cross-section, many are circular and others are process-flows with feedback arrows. Their origins can be traced back to work done on lifecycle models for managing employees and marketing-products.

For some non-profits, the member-volunteer is the center-piece of the organization. Sometimes the member is a volunteer, donor, customer or someone who expressed a passing interest in the organization. A volunteer may or may not be a member depending upon the governance documents of the organization. For those interested in defining exactly what a non-profit, volunteer, or member is, these are provided in an early blog, Volunteering Definitions.

For simplicity and because of their similarities, this blog considers the lifecycle of a volunteer and member as one in the same. I will use ‘volunteer’ to mean both.

Viva LAST-VEGA!

One of the challenges I found when wading through the models was their practicality to an over worked-stressed volunteer coordinator, executive director or board member. As well, different models incorporated some but not all of a full lifecycle.

With this context, I have created a mash up from various models complete with a handy mnemonic. While this may not pass the rigors of a peer review – hopefully it is something that is accessible and memorable [1].

1. Learning: does the potential volunteer know the organization exists and are the values aligned? Is the non-profit aware of potential volunteers with critical skills and aptitude?
2. Acquire: once aware, the dance of recruitment begins. This involves alignment of values, managing objections and establishing a value proposition for both parties. Activities in this stage includes recruitment, screening, interviews, due diligence (e.g. passing criminal records check) and confirming a fit for both.
3. Socialization: (aka the honeymoon period) how friendly an organization is will determine whether the individual will stay or exit early [1.B, p. 100] [2]
4. Tenure: the volunteer settles down into the organization and the two are aligned. This is done through engagement, shared visions or ‘Paying your Volunteers Well‘.
5. Volunteer-Exit: the moment every volunteer coordinator dreads, ‘Bob’, your stalwart volunteer has quit.
   1. Planned-Exit: ideally, after a long tenure age, health or circumstances cause the volunteer to move on. In this ideal case, there is good-bye luncheon, speeches and a few tears shed over shared memories.
   2. Unplanned-Exit: Sometimes there is a sudden change in health or circumstances for the volunteer. It may also be unresolved misalignment between the organization and the volunteer with the association terminated on poor terms.
6. Governance: most lifecycle models end with the exit but I have added these last two steps. Governance starts with a strong commitment to volunteers, policies, procedures, training, volunteer management and infrastructure such as IT systems.
7. Alumni: an alumnus of former volunteers represent a pool of talent for the non-profit. They may be brought back in for surge capacity (e.g. a fundraising initiative), to bridge capacity issues (e.g. to cover an illness or vacation) and to mentor new volunteers.

The above steps create the mnemonic: LAST-VEGA. [4]

Three Important Things to Do in LAST-VEGA

Tenure: The most important letter is the middle one, ‘T’ for Tenure. Every other letter represents a non-value added, low-value or value-protection activity. The organization is not in the business of recruiting, socializing or terminating volunteers – it is in the business of delivering services.

Governance: While G-Governance does not add value, it does protect it. Volunteers are expensive and understanding why and how to retain them can cut your cost of volunteer management and improve the services you offer. For small organizations, Governance is probably done informally. As an organization grows, Governance must scale as well.

Alumni: Word of mouth is the most effective recruitment strategy for volunteers [1.D, p. 75]. Former volunteers can tell the organization’s story, donate and help to recruit new volunteers. That is the good news. The bad news is that a non-profit relies on the currencies of trust and reputation which a volunteer with a bad experience may be undermining. Keep your volunteers close and your alumnus closer?

What Happens in LAST-VEGA, Can Improve LAST-VEGA

Whether you adopt LAST-VEGA, use one of the other lifecycles presented above or develop your method of managing volunteers; the important thing is to think about volunteers in a systematic way. Focusing only on finding new volunteers means being in a perpetual recruitment. Not training new volunteers properly or continuously updating tenured-volunteers increases organizational risk and the potential for an unplanned exit. All of this requires governance and infrastructure to become efficient and effective at volunteer management.

For further reading on these concepts, see the notes and references below. As always, let me know your thoughts and Viva LAST-VEGA!

Notes and References

1. Without turning this blog into a pseudo-research paper, I have avoided the temptation to list each and every reference. The key sources (in no particular order, are as follows):
   1. Reamon, Sarah. “Managing Volunteers: Recruitment, Retention, and Relationship Building.” SPNHA Review 12, no. 1 (January 1, 2016).
   2. Starnes, Becky J., and Walter W. Wymer Jr. “Conceptual Foundations and Practical Guidelines for Retaining Volunteers Who Serve in Local Nonprofit Organizations: Part II.” Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing 9, no. 1/2 (June 2001): 97.
   3. Volunteer Canada. Canadian Code for Volunteer Involvement – Resources – Volunteer Canada. University of Waterloo, 2017.
   4. Bussell, Helen, and Deborah Forbes. “The Volunteer Life Cycle: A Marketing Model for Volunteering.” Voluntary Action 5, no. 3 (2003): 61–79.
   5. Issue Brief. “Volunteer Retention.” Corporation for National & Community Service, April 2007.
2. Non-referenced sources but those worthy of a read are the following. Most can be found online or through a library’s journal database.
   1. Ellis, Jennifer, Yukon Volunteer Bureau, and Volunteer Canada. Best Practices in Volunteer Management: An Action Planning Guide for Small and Rural Nonprofit Organizations. Whitehorse: Yukon Volunteer Bureau, 2007.
   2. Haski-Leventhal, Debbie, and David Bargal. “The Volunteer Stages and Transitions Model: Organizational Socialization of Volunteers.” Human Relations 61, no. 1 (January 1, 2008).
   3. Hobson, Charles J., Anna Rominger, Kathryn Malec, Colleen L. Hobson, and Kathy Evans. “Volunteer-Friendliness of Nonprofit Agencies:.” Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing 4, no. 4 (February 5, 1997): 27.
   4. Johnson, Tobi. “3 Proven Models That Will Boost Your Volunteer Program + Freebie.” VolunteerPro (blog), June 11, 2019. https://volpro.net/freebie-volunteer-program-development-models/.
   5. Smith, Karen, and Carolyn J. Cordery. “What Works? A Systematic Review of Research and Evaluation Literature on Encouragement and Support of Volunteering.” SSRN Scholarly Paper. Rochester, NY: Social Science Research Network, June 14, 2010. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1761655.
   6. Strauss, Andrea Lorek, and Amy Rager. “Master Volunteer Life Cycle: A Wide Angle Lens on the Volunteer Experience.” Journal of Extension 55, no. 4 (August 2017). https://www.joe.org/joe/2017august/tt7.php.
   7. Warren, Stella. “Building and Retaining Groups of Volunteers to Help the Elderly.” University of the West of England, Bristol, January 2017.
3. Finding an authoritative source for volunteer turnover is surprisingly difficult. The best I came up with is [1.E] above from 2007 based on 2005 data. In summary, there is a 1/3 chance your new volunteer recruit will return next year. If they are 24 years old or younger, your chances are 50/50.
4. Yes, I know I cheated with ‘Volunteer-Exit’ – but hey, it is a pretty cool mnemonic.