LOVE Your Volunteers

LOVE Your Volunteers

August 1, 2018

Julianne Shenk

JBS Nonprofit Consulting

Volunteers, more than money, are the backbone, the life force of a nonprofit organization. Without volunteers, the heart of the organization is missing. Honor your volunteers. Put them on a pedestal and thank them every day for their service.

I have been a volunteer, more times than I can count. I have supervised volunteers. Full disclosure: it was more satisfying and more rewarding BEING a volunteer. As a supervisor, I went home at night knowing I rallied and guided our volunteers on where to go, when to show up, and what was needed.  As a volunteer, I went home at night knowing I helped someone. Big or small, I helped.

Appreciate your volunteers. Appreciate them.

“There are unrecognized heroes among our ordinary neighbors.”

-Harold W. Bernard

“Volunteering is an act of heroism-it’s an act of heroism on a grand scale. And it matters profoundly. It does more than help people beat the odds; it changes the odds.”

-George H. W. Bush

“What volunteers bring is the human touch, the individual, caring approach that no government program, however well-meaning and well-executed can deliver.”

-Edward James Olmos

And most profound…

“Here’s to our nation’s volunteers: All work and no pay.”

-Cat Lane