Lessons From the Ground Up: Building Volunteer Organizations

October 8, 2020

A couple years ago, I knew nothing about running a volunteer organization. It would be truthful to say that I largely chased my passion, but along the way I had to learn how to package and ship that passion as widely as possible.

Here, I walk through the core lessons which helped me get my movement off the ground, eventually scaling out to an undergraduate population of over 11,000 students.

1. Rules are just guidelines

Rules are fantastic for ensuring stability, and they’re right for the majority of situations, but it's also good to acknowledge there are edge cases. If a deadline passing is the only thing holding you back from doing more good in the world, find out who set the deadline and ask if they’d be willing to help out by making an exception.

In my experience, when deadlines have passed or certain areas are zoned off as not for tabling, you have a degree of leeway which doesn’t exist for other people. If your mission is nonpartisan, nonprofit, and going to bring good to the world, you’ll find that people are often more than willing to do whatever they can to give you the space to succeed. Just don’t be afraid to ask for that help, even if at first an option seems unavailable.

2. Enthusiasm > Expertise

Enthusiasm cannot replace knowledge, but — gee wiz — it sure is way more fun. If you’re working on improving a rough situation like the climate crisis, homelessness, or low voting rates, you’re facing an uphill battle. Social good projects don’t exactly have the same appeal as joining a soccer club or doing a paint and sip.

Since people won’t be knocking down your door to help out, you have to bring what matters to the people. Not only is excitement radiant, but it also plays to people’s feelings rather than their thoughts, which helps make a connection faster. If you can imbue the feeling of why, folks are much more likely to get involved.

3. Be Brief

People’s time is valuable, so ensure your meetings, emails, and pitches don’t drag on. This both retains their attention and conveys your respect for their time.

Pitches: People retain more information when they’re asked or are asking questions, so create space to have a discussion rather than just lecturing. Keep the initial pitch brief and then launch into something more open, if the group size allows it. Everyone is an expert of themselves, so you’re much more likely to discover exactly what part of your work you spend more time talking about if you listen closely to what piqued your listener’s interest.

Meetings: Keep the duration of your meetings under half an hour. Don’t be shy to end early but be firm not to end late. If you’re about to exceed the maximum time, bring the main discussion to a conclusion and offer others to stay after if they’d like.

Emails: Sending emails should be a stepping stone to talking — avoid packing your email with more content than the essentials.

Regardless of how you’re communicating, try flagging your main points. In text, this can be done with the use of headers and bolded text, and in conversation, feel free to count the reasons on one hand.

4. Collaborations Are Essential

Meet with anyone who’ll give you the time. Reach out to organizations like yours, government officials, local businesses, etc. They’ve been around the block and are well positioned to share advice or flex their existing infrastructure.

When other groups bring their existing volunteer base to your projects, it helps stabilize your work since their turnout is likely to be more consistent. This lessens your recruitment workload, allowing you to dig into the details of your initiative. Collaborating with other orgs creates a sort of pseudo membership to yours which is especially valuable early on.

Even if reaching out to another group doesn’t result in something concrete, there are peripheral benefits:

Getting to know the players;
Putting yourself on people’s radar;
Learning who else you might want to speak with.

5. Learn About Similar Organizations

You’re probably not the first person to care about your issue, at least when scoped nationally. That’s great! It means there’s someone else who has already trodden the path you’re just beginning to travel. This article can’t give you detailed insights into your specific project, so I recommend learning how the biggest and best organizations you can find are approaching your challenge. For me, from the university perspective, I got in touch with people at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Cornell, and Stanford to learn what has and hasn’t worked for them. These people are kindred spirits and will almost certainly been happy to let you pick their brain.

6. Have A Web Presence

A website is a source of truth for your group, helping members, those looking to join, and people who might want to generally research your work. It should quickly illustrate to the lay person the problem you care about and how you’re solving it. Whatever your main mode of public outreach (Instagram, Slack, Facebook, email, etc), make sure to include an easy way for people to follow you.

Pick a short URL and send that link to every friend, group, or leader you discuss your work with.