{"id":72,"date":"2011-06-01T13:22:34","date_gmt":"2011-06-01T17:22:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/?p=72"},"modified":"2011-06-03T16:11:44","modified_gmt":"2011-06-03T20:11:44","slug":"measuring-the-impact-of-your-volunteer-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/2011\/06\/01\/measuring-the-impact-of-your-volunteer-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Measuring the Impact of Your Volunteer Program"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently encountered an article by Tony Goodrow <\/a>on calculating the Return on Investment (ROI) of a volunteer program.\u00a0 He offered some very thoughtful ideas and I want to share some of them with you.\u00a0 Goodrow began his article using a quote attributed to authors of business management, most frequently to Robert Kaplan<\/a>, founder of the Business Scorecard (BSC).\u00a0 Take a moment to ponder this quote in relation to your volunteer management.\u00a0 \u201cIf you can\u2019t<\/em><\/strong> measure it, you can\u2019t manage it.\u201d<\/em><\/strong> Is there a message here for you<\/em> as a manager of the volunteers for your organization?\u00a0 Do you focus on calculating the wage replacement<\/em> value<\/em> (volunteer hours times some dollar figure per hour) to quantify the value of your volunteers?\u00a0 This is the process that has been used for many years.\u00a0 Is there a better way? \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Moving toward taking a look at the ROI of your volunteer program, do you look at the wage replacement value against the cost to recruit, train, place and recognize the volunteers? The focus of this calculation would target the goal of minimizing the dollars spent against maximizing the hours volunteered.\u00a0 Volunteers are an asset for the organization, just as cash is an asset.\u00a0 For most nonprofits and organizations, these assets may very well be in short supply.\u00a0 Traditionally we have looked at \u201ctrading one scarce resource for another\u201d (Goodrow, 2010 p.5).\u00a0 Goodrow suggests that we treat \u201cthe two as part of the same resource pool, that we spend<\/em> as efficiently as possible to achieve the organization\u2019s mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

When we consider adding accomplishments achieved by our volunteers to a calculation of ROI, we think of a common concern voiced by contemporary volunteers that they want to make a difference.\u00a0 Volunteers are buying an experience with our organizations using their most precious resource, their time.\u00a0 It is our obligation to focus on their accomplishment and how they made a difference through there volunteer effort.\u00a0 Think about measuring their success against the mission of your organization.\u00a0 It is a shift in thinking about measuring success of our volunteer program from inputs (the hours they contribute or time on a clock) to outputs (what are the accomplishments).<\/p>\n

How do I measure accomplishments of our volunteers?\u00a0 I first need to identify outputs that\u00a0 reflect accomplishments of the volunteer\u2019s effort.\u00a0 Look for actions, goals, or other activity that can be counted.\u00a0 For example, trees planted or meals served.\u00a0 Volunteers with your organization may be involved in several activities or events.\u00a0 Knowing the ROI for each activity, will give you information that you can monitor over time to manage the volunteer staff to the best advantage.<\/p>\n

You might even consider \"\"<\/a>another variable for consideration and place a value on the outputs as they are related to the mission.\u00a0 This will give you a new perspective on prioritizing the work of volunteers.\u00a0 As I suggested in the Identifying Roles for Volunteers<\/a> (asynchronous learning opportunity #1), you could use a wish list.\u00a0 You can identify a role for one volunteer, such as one single task you want that volunteer to accomplish for your organization.\u00a0 Focus on defining the task, not creating a position title.\u00a0 When your list is complete and ranked with the most important task as #1, this list will be a starting point in assigning relative values for each task or output.\u00a0 The number of volunteers you would recruit to accomplish each task also provides a clue as to its relative value.\u00a0 Let\u2019s say I was operating a local food bank, part of the Feed America Network.\u00a0 Looking at my ranked list of tasks, I would recruit 10 soup kitchen cooks (my number 1 task) before recruiting a home visitor (my number 2 task) for our organization, as the value of the task of soup kitchen cook would be greater than for the task of home visitor.\u00a0 The value assigned to an output is arbitrary.\u00a0 However, if your well-prioritized list identifies tasks or outputs that focus on reaching the mission of the organization and you maintain the values to apply for each output from year to year, you can compare ROI over time.<\/p>\n

As a manager of your volunteers, you want to utilize your human and cash resources wisely.\u00a0 Measuring their number and hours of contribution is the place to start.\u00a0 What tasks or outputs do the volunteers do that are at the core of your mission?\u00a0 It is important for you to know how they contribute to the mission and vision of the organization.\u00a0 More importantly, recognize the volunteers for their success in doing just that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently encountered an article by Tony Goodrow on calculating the Return on Investment (ROI) of a volunteer program.\u00a0 He offered some very thoughtful ideas and I want to share some of them with you.\u00a0 Goodrow began his article using a quote attributed to authors of business management, most frequently to Robert Kaplan, founder of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":613,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,22989],"tags":[2910,22991,22984],"class_list":["post-72","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-volunteer-management","tag-evaluation","tag-impact","tag-volunteer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/613"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions\/97"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}