Volunteers: How to Get Them, How to Keep Them (Paperback)

by Helen Little (Author) "Volunteers: How to Get Them, How to keep Them is dedicated to helping you, the volunteer leaders and staff of nonprofit organizations, solve your volunteer..." (more)
Key Phrases: specific manageable task, volunteer supervisor, project team leader, Meet the Need, Children's Hospital, Statistical Abstract of the United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
Provides guidelines for identifying new volunteers, moving them through increasingly committed roles and encouraging the best to be association leaders. -- The Leading Edge, Quarterly publication for leadership of the American Association for Medical Transcription, January 2000

Provides specific, practical information. Slim and eminently readable, it's packed with guidelines, suggestions, and forms readers can use immediately. -- NCSAE Connect, monthly electronic newsletter of Northern Society of California Executives, November 1999

Product Description
Finally, a practical, down-to-earth guide that offers real advice on solving your volunteer shortage.

Whether yours is a large international association or a local food pantry, volunteers are the lifeblood of your organization. You rely on volunteers to carry out projects, head up task forces, coordinate events and eventually become the future leaders of your organization.

Just as an airline must understand the needs and desires of its customers or lose them to another carrier, you must understand and meet the needs of your volunteers, or they will take their time and talents to someone else who will.

Volunteers: How to Get Them, How to Keep Them outlines 12 fundamental needs of volunteers and clearly spells out how to meet those needs. Rich with examples and useful tools, this book is a quick read that you will find yourself referencing again and again. Find out how to: Compete for volunteers Recruit the best person for the job Ensure projects are completed on time Equip new volunteers to hit the ground running Manage volunteers (versus managing employees) Fire a volunteer Keep your best volunteers coming back . . . and more!

The perfect gift for your favorite nonprofit and the perfect reference book for every volunteer, volunteer officer, board member, committee chair, local leader and paid staff in all types of nonprofits Trade associations Professional societies Business and civic organizations Charitable organizations Alumni associations Religious and community organizations Education and research foundations

A must for every leader in your organization!

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Panacea Press; 1 edition (September 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1928892019
• ISBN-13: 978-1928892014
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #22,429 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #2 in	Books > Business & Investing > Job Hunting & Careers > Volunteer Work
  #27 in	Books > Business & Investing > Industries & Professions > Nonprofit Organizations & Charities

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best of the Leading Books, But Not the Whole Picture, July 23, 2002

By	Robert D. Steele (Oakton, VA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

There are upwards of a 100 fairly good books on managing volunteers, and of those I selected four based on the information provided by Amazon and its readers, who now represent a critical mass of useful guidance. Of the four books, this is the best. If you buy only one, this is the one. (The other three were Vineyard & McCurley's "Best Practices for Volunteer Programs", Lee & Catagnus, "Supervising Volunteers", and what may be one of the originals (from 1994), Susan J. Ellis' "The Volunteer Recruitment and Membership Development Book." These latter three are reviewed in their own spaces.)

This book by Helen Little, as good as it is, would normally lose one star because it fails to provide an index or a guide to other readings (including web sites) in niche areas of volunteer management. However, it does provide excellent forms for each step of the volunteer management process and these are all downloadable from a given web address, so we'll call it even.

By way of larger context, this book, and books on volunteer management in general, are valuable not only for organizations that use volunteers as a resource, but for those who would manage citizen activism, as well as teen-agers with chips on their shoulders and a reluctance to bear down on chores.

While others have outlined volunteer "needs" and how to address them, Helen Little does it best. The 12 basic needs--applicable to neighborhood mobilization, regional political campaigns, and teen-ager "work for respect" programs--are very well and concisely listed: 1) specific manageable task; 2) task that matches motivation; 3) good reason for doing the task; 4) written instructions; 5) reasonable deadline; 6) freedom to complete the task; 7) everything necessary to complete the task; 8) adequate training; 9) safe, comfortable, friendly environment; 10) follow-up; 11) opportunity (for the volunteer) to provide feed-back; and 12) appreciation, recognition, and rewards.

As I read this thoughtful book, comparing what volunteers need at each step of the way--and the more advanced comments by the author on how to plan for succession at every level of the organization from neighborhood to national, I kept thinking to myself: "traditional political parties are dead." Both the Democratic and Republican parties are violating every single tenet of this excellent work on how to attract, motivate, and activate citizen-voters. It remains to be seen if our neighborhoods might yet self-organize. This would be a good book for anyone thinking about organizing any endeavor of free spirits, at any level of play.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Practical, easy-to-read,lots of great tools, tips and guides, November 1, 1999

By	Diana Tomasek ([e-mail]) (Schaumburg, IL) - See all my reviews

Volunteers: How to Get Them, How to Keep Them, by Helen Little, is a creative and practical book, full of innovative information, tips and tools on how to recruit, manage, train, evaluate motivate, and inspire volunteers. Ms. Little outlines the twelve basic needs of volunteers and shows step-by-step you how to meet those needs, ultimately helping you build and retain a successful "volunteer management team."

Anyone who has been involved volunteer management soon learns that volunteers work most successfully when the job is clearly defined and when volunteers clearly understand their roles and responsibilities. This book has lots of useful and infinitely usable examples, templates, and guidelines to help you you "hit the ground running," and successfully accomplish the goals and objectives of your program and/or organization. A "must read" (and an easy read) for anyone involved in the care and feeding of volunteers.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific straight-forward approach., October 21, 1999

By A Customer

This book is easy to read. It has great examples, templates and case studies. I found useful tools that readily adapt to our situation.