Troubleshooting Difficulties With Fundraising Volunteers

In a perfect fundraising world, volunteers would flock to your aid and always do what they've promised to do. Unfortunately, the world of fundraising is far from perfect, and problems with volunteers are inevitable. When difficulties do arise, the best way to deal with them is to be prepared with a plan in place.

Preventing Problems Before They Start

• Prevention starts with good organization and planning. Before the campaign starts in earnest, organize volunteers into groups and committees, and assign jobs or responsibilities to willing participants. Keep the jobs as simple as possible, and try not to overload any one volunteer—break up tasks into smaller jobs instead.



• When a more demanding task is necessary, do your best to assign the job to the skills of a specific volunteer. For example, ask the graphic designer to make posters or brochures. This way, no one is saddled with a task that they will find overwhelming and therefore be likely to give up on. Assign helpers to volunteers with demanding tasks as needed.



• Keep descriptions of each volunteer job-post so people know just what they are signing up for. Provide as much description as possible of the task, deadline for completion, and time-estimates; that way, people do not commit to tasks they do not have the time for. When possible, include the names of people who have performed the tasks before if they are willing to answer questions for the new volunteer. Keep these descriptions from year to year to minimize the organization for subsequent fundraising seasons.



• Since volunteers work for free, make sure that they continuously "get payed" in other ways: a positive work environment and plenty of appreciation and patience.

Dealing With Problems

• Offer the help of other volunteers, or find help with the task the person is unable to perform



• Remind the person that they have signed up voluntarily to fill the need



• Inform the person that you need their agreed upon contribution for a successful campaign—sometimes, people just forget; a gentle, tactful reminder is all the boost they need to get a thing done



• Mediate and discuss any conflicts that may have arisen with other volunteers, and discuss any obstacles the person may have encountered (such as not knowing how to do something)

This is an article created by the FundraisingIP.com Editorial Team. For more fundraising articles on volunteers, go to our article directory at FundraisingIP.com/articles.