VolunteerFundRaisers

Dear Kim,

For years I have been told that board members and volunteers need to be trained and enlisted in reaching out, meeting with donors, thanking them and asking for support. I work somewhere that has prioritized that. But all of that comes with the cost of a lot of staff time. Some volunteers aren’t very good at it with training. What’s the downside of just having staff do that work?

Yours,

~Wondering about Volunteers

Dear Wondering,

Your question is excellent. If we were to make a list of pros and cons of having volunteers engage in fundraising, the con list would include a number of powerful arguments: as you note, some volunteers aren’t very good, and I would add many more simply won’t do it. You can’t really make volunteers do fundraising, but you can hire staff for these positions, and if they don’t work out, you can fire them. But the downside of just having staff do the work is also long:

Now we get to the important reasons:

~Kim

Learn more about how FundRaiser can help you with Volunteer Management with the Volunteer Module