I firmly believe in leveraging the power of volunteers and inexpensive, highly qualified and competent labor. At the same time, I understand how things change in the lives of the volunteers and they aren’t able to prioritize the lower ROI projects so the organizations are left high and dry.

There are, at least, three manifestations of the “asking for help” attitude:

1. The sense that because an organization is a non-profit, that gives them the excuse to not follow sound business evaluation skills and make an ongoing financial investment in technology strategy.

2. The attitude of exemption from prioritizing and investing in technological infrastructure because they are non-profit and investing in technology (even in a fundamental way) is not investing in the mission.

3. Making the largest factor in selecting a vendor being price. I believe there is a difference between cost-effective/efficient solutions and quick/cheap ones.

You bring up a good question to me: What is the appropriate way to leverage a volunteer base with a wealth of professional experience, credentials, and knowledge?

I think advisory councils and committees can be quite effective when they are used and a process has been established. After completely scoping out a project (before RFPing), some strategic decisions can be made to find out what portions of the project can completed through using the volunteer base. This can cut cost and make the funds for the project go farther.

I don’t know if this is the way to go. I’m still thinking about it all. However, I do know that alienating a volunteer base and not activating them may have significantly negative repercussions when the organization needs them in a pinch later on. How can volunteers feel they are being effectively utilized and also included in the mission of the organization?

Any thoughts?

Thanks, again, for the comment, Matt. I appreciate it.

I’ve also seen a number of places, including the CRF recently (I’ll spare the rant here but ask me about this if you want more info), go for commercial solutions and ‘professionals’ without ever consulting their volunteer base and even existing ‘tech’ committees for assistance. Also, the community radio station I volunteer at recently stalled it’s web site revamp because the funds had dried up, without ever saying anything to the ‘tech’ committee that had volunteers willing to proceed with or without funds. It wasn’t until I asked ‘Um.. what’s going on?’ that things started moving again.

It seems like some places get in this mindset that if you want something done you HAVE to pay for it and that volunteer work isn’t reliable or that volunteers ‘aren’t accountable’. I have a different take… spell out what you want, be it an RFP or the like, and find out what your volunteer base can provide towards that. If they can’t meet some or all of your requirements, then work with those volunteers in finding the best commercial/professional solution to meet your needs. Involve the volunteers who are interested and have skills in the topic you’re looking for a solution for at all steps, whether it’s getting them to take on the RFP themselves as a volunteer project, or as assistants in managing/overseeing the project. When done right, and with reliable volunteers, many hands make light work.

Sorry.. guess I went off on a tangent there.. this may be my personal baggage speaking since I have felt rather slapped in the face on this very issue recently, but figured I’d share. Thanks for listening.

-Matt