Volunteer Management is also known as volunteer engagement, volunteer coordination, volunteer administration refers to “the systematic and logical process of working with and through volunteers to achieve and organisation’s objectives”.
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History
Volunteer Management became a profession during the late 1960s and early 1970s when the long-term volunteer was the prevalent type of volunteer, at least in the non-profit organisations. At that time, people volunteered as an alternative to work. When the field’s founders began to try to get volunteer management recognised as a profession, they adopted a lot of standard workplace practices, such as written job descriptions and interviews, to determine the volunteer’s suitability for a role. People who volunteered as an alternative to work found that these practices gave their efforts a bit more status, and they responded positively.
Models of Volunteer Management have evolved to meet the changing needs of societies around the world as well as to meet modern needs. Today, Volunteer Management is professionalizing. Many localities have professional associations (AVAs) and international certifications are available (ex. http://cvacert.org/).
Volunteer Manager Roles
Volunteer managers typically motivate, lead and supervise volunteers at non-profit organisations as well as for governmental organisations and large scale events like the Olympics. The role of a volunteer manager usually ranges from the operational and administrative tasks such as attendance taking to the policy making tasks like defining volunteer job roles and recruiting and managing volunteers. Many volunteer managers also take on other roles such as being the fundraising manager for their organisations.
Systems
Several experts have various stages and models for a volunteer management system but they tend to have several common features. Volunteer management usually involves planning for the role that volunteers would fill, recruiting and screening the volunteers as well as supervising and motivating the volunteers under their charge. Many volunteer management practices resemble human resource management practices, with some nonprofits and NGOs including volunteer management under the human resources department.