Working Volunteer / Ending

What a small organisation can actually do

Most of this without a volunteer manager.

Much writing on this assumes a dedicated coordinator, and most volunteer-involving organisations have nobody in that role. The practices that matter can be reduced to a short list that one person can carry alongside other work.

Write down what each role actually involves. Have a conversation at the start about what the person wants. Make sure somebody notices when a person has not been in. Say thank you specifically and close to the event. Ask people who drifted away what changed. Reimburse expenses without friction.

That is perhaps a few hours a month and it addresses the majority of what causes volunteers to leave. The elaborate apparatus of programmes, frameworks and recognition schemes is not what determines whether people stay.

The one thing that cannot be economised is somebody being responsible. Where volunteer coordination is everybody's job it is nobody's, and the drift goes unnoticed until the roster cannot be filled.

The other thing a small organisation can do at almost no cost is write down what the coordinator knows. Where one person holds the roster, the relationships and the history, their departure is an organisational event, and a single shared document turns it into an inconvenience.