Lessons Learned Thus Far About Nonprofit Management

So, it's occurred to me to apply to a non-profit graduate degree program. It would be pretty cool to start my own non-profit, manage the business & volunteers effectively, working towards ends I really believe in. I'm not sure what the focus would be, but certainly something involving education, mental health, children&adolescents, & research.

I'm already learning quite a bit about managing volunteers through working with two organizations who do things very differently.

*Lesson 1: require a specific committment from your volunteers. Volunteers shouldn't be able to get away with having the extent of their volunteer committment being adding your organization to their resumes. Determining a definite time committment is a good idea for both the leadership and the volunteer; as long as the volunteer is honoring the committment, the volunteer can be held accountable, and the leadership can't complain that the volunteer isn't helping enough .

*Lesson 2: Delegation of responsibilities and tasks is crucial to the smooth functioning of projects. Need something from your volunteers? Please be specific; don't plead for "everyone" to be working on your project. It is so easy to be a social loafer when "everyone" is responsible for "everything." As a volunteer I ask myself, "Do I count as 'everyone'?" Then, if I respond to this plea each time, and the pleas for "everyone" keep coming, I wonder whether there is anyone else included in "everyone" or if it's just me doing all the work. I want to know exactly what I am responsible for. As a volunteer, I want to feel good about what I am doing; I don't want to feel guilty for not doing all the other stuff that "everyone" is supposed to be doing.

That's pretty good for today. Stay tuned for thoughts on fundraising and soliciting donations and organizing a "gala." I've never been to a gala, so that part is very new to me!