Volunteer Connectors as Relationship Brokers: Toward an Expanded Role for Volunteer Centers
This paper draws upon a two-year experience with Higher Impact, a project funded by the Corporation for National and Community Service and the Massachusetts Service Alliance. Through the ACT Volunteer Center of DIAL/SELF Youth and Community Services, Higher Impact targeted Baby Boomers that were currently employed as college faculty or staff and college alumni living in the area, and engaged them as volunteers for schools and other nonprofit agencies serving children and youth.
Over the course of the two years the project has engaged over 400 volunteers. The volunteer engagement method was based on three innovative approaches:
- Creating compelling opportunities that included flexibility in the “what, when and how” of volunteer roles and tasks.
- Researching and identifying individuals for a specific volunteer opportunity and approaching them with a personalized “ask.”
- Managing volunteer entry, including helping an organization (a) modify a volunteer position so that it fits better with a volunteer’s talents, experience, interests and availability and (b) envision and capitalize on ways the volunteer could contribute to program capacity-building.
Learn more about this project by dowloading the complete white paper here.
For questions about the Higher Impact program model, please contact Naomi Weiner at nweiner@mass-service.org.
Higher Impact was funded in 2010 as a VIRE (Volunteer Impact, Recruitment and Expansion) Program, funded by the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) and administered by the Points of Light Institute and HandsOn Network. In 2011, Higher Impact continued as part of MSA’s CNCS-funded Volunteer Generation Fund Grant.
"Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile. " -Albert Einstein