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.  A lifecycle model may help a small non-profit better manage its volunteer cadre.

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.

Missing Elements

Despite the plethora of models, in reviewing them, each lacked one or more characteristics. Nearly all fail to consider Governance. Others do not plan for a volunteer’s exit. Some are very task focused but don’t answer the question, why bother to volunteer.

Go to LAST VeGA to Clear My Mind

What to do whey you can’t find what you are looking for, why not go to LAST VeGA, the subject of the next blog and hopefully a more comprehensive lifecycle model.

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.

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.