20/80? Leading a Volunteer Focused Organization

I’ve often heard leaders in volunteer driven organizations lament that only 20% of the people do 80% of the work. I don’t know if this is really accurate, but I’ve heard it as long as I can remember. It can often be nothing more than a convenient reason for throwing up hands or not seriously prioritizing or resourcing the volunteer strategy – as if that is just they way it is. Well, It doesn’t have to be.

From civic clubs, to schools, to churches, to community centers and health care, the implication is that people just don’t want to step up and help anymore. Now let’s assume the above “statistic” is even accurate (and it can certainly feel that way sometimes), then isn’t it a pretty sad excuse for not taking the initiative to look at volunteerism differently?

Seriously though, admitting that 80% of participants, connected to your organization, are little more than casual names in a group speaks to 1 of two possible realities regarding your organizational leadership.

1. Either the organization’s ability and priority to communicate a clear compelling vision along with a practical on-ramp is grossly insufficient, and maybe even misdirected or…

2. The mission of the organization is simply not meaningful or purposeful enough to engage more than a small amount of enthusiastic stakeholders (often the founders or decedents of the effort). In other words, the organization itself may not genuinely believe in it’s mission any longer, fails to intentionally resource the mission, or maybe even lacked a meaningful purpose to begin with.

In my upcoming book Welcome Aboard (shifting your volunteer strategy from transactional to transformational) we’ll look at why people volunteer, and how to package your vision and mission in such a way that brings fresh life to the experience in 2024 and beyond.

If you function in or lead an organization that wants to get serious about volunteer engagement, I’d like to hear from you.
#welcomeaboard
#whatmattersmatters
#leadership
#culture
#volunteerdevelopment

http://www.linkedin.com/in/gary-yonek

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