How One Member Improved Her Volunteer Manager Productivity Through Focused Changes & Smarter Strategy
This month, we’re spotlighting another member on her journey to growth and excellence through better volunteer manager productivity.
Susan Nussall, with the Arizona Foundation for Legal Services & Education, has been able to engage 1,200 to 1,400 episodic volunteers a year, even with staff reductions by collaborating more closely with other departments and making smarter use of technology.
Valerie: I am here with VolunteerPro member, Susan Nussall. Can you give me a quick overview of your organization and how you work with volunteers?
Susan: Our organization is a foundation, and we are the charitable arm of the state bar, whose members are attorneys. The foundation was created because attorneys are strongly encouraged by our Supreme court to do at least 50 hours (about 2 days) of pro bono work a year. The Arizona Foundation for Legal Services & Education comes together and we offer them those opportunities.
The short version is that we are balancing the scales of justice through engaged and empowered volunteers to serve the community and achieve the mission of access to justice for all Arizonans.
As the Lead Director of Community Engagement, my job is to make sure that there are qualified volunteers, and they are put in the right places to do the necessary work.
We do legal services, which means we help people who cannot afford them and connect them with attorneys, who then either provide reduced fees or pro bono work.
Another side of what we offer is education, where we do civic education programs for students and hold regional, state, and national level competitions. We provide judges from the legal and educational communities for the competitions.
We also do a Wills for Heroes program, which is usually offered a couple times a month, where legal professionals write wills for first responders and their families.
I manage to recruit, retain, and hopefully grow our volunteer base. We have about 1,200 to 1,400 episodic volunteers a year that participate in our programs.
Susan’s Volunteer Manager Productivity Challenge
Valerie: So, what was your biggest challenge prior to implementing any of the training or support that you have received from VolunteerPro?
Susan: In 2008 we reduced our staff from 28 to 14 employees. We did not want to stop any of our programs, so we all took on added job descriptions/responsibilities.
My VolunteerPro membership has been a lifesaver with helping me to stay organized and on task, so nothing slips through the cracks. I rely heavily on the Volunteer Time Saver Framework & Managing Competing Priorities.
As with most volunteer coordinators, managers, directors – whatever title you want to give them – you do not usually get the job by itself. It is not usually a freestanding job. It is usually many, many hats.
I have been with the foundation for 25 years. Usually, my volunteer assignment is attached to a program that needs volunteers.
I ran all the competitions. I coordinated the Wills for Heroes and I made sure attorneys were available here and there.
Occupied with those activities, it was a struggle to grow, to look for new ideas, and to figure out ways to recruit new volunteers. I was not able to get out there and do that.
So, I needed assistance on how to do that and still wear all the other hats!
Susan’s Objective
Valerie: So, outside of getting that kind of support and guidance and step-by-step plans for your work, did you have any other specific goals or objectives in mind when you joined VolunteerPro?
Susan: I am totally on my own as a department and I help all the departments in the foundation. I am finally free to do that, but that was the biggest challenge. And that is why I was looking for somebody who could give me, step-by-step “here do this” so you do not have to create the wheel again.
Another thing that I really struggled with was social media because I did not have time and no one else could be there. But we are trying to rearrange that a lot.
There are so many opportunities to use social media to highlight, thank, and spread the word so there is so much that I can learn.
I am not one who sits by and does not do it because it is not for me. I love building community and relationships because that’s part of who I am.
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Working with corporate volunteers has been a challenge for us because we’re so episodic and our volunteer opportunities are so varied.
A couple of years ago, we were looking at the presidential elections coming up and asking “What are we doing? How do we make sure that we make an impact?”
So, we reached out to Intel & brought in their employees who volunteered to help us with the platform and the website so KidsVotingAZ could handle online voting. Thank goodness we did because everything went virtual last year and online.
There is just so many ways to diversify volunteers, so I had to figure out a way that was doable with all that I have on my plate.
Susan’s Results
Valerie: So, what changed after joining VolunteerPro membership? Do you have any specific results that you would like to share?
Susan: I have been able to really focus on social media, which I am doing better at. I have recruited some help and some interns and even our IT department has jumped on and offered to do some things for us. So, that has been helpful.
Also, I’ve been able to figure out how to organize my work so that I have that free time to go out and talk to people. Being able to not just interview our volunteers, but really talk to them.
And, as much as we did not like entering the virtual world, it has been a little bit easier to make those connections and get everybody in the room and being able to ask what you need, what do you want, or what do you see or all of that. Really connect with more of them on a personal level.
That has been helpful and, and those are ideas that I have gotten from the webinars and just listening to others in the community.
It’s just been this year that they put together the volunteer department and development.
Now that the volunteer and donor parts are together, we can track – and we do track – the hours and the value that is being contributed.
I also celebrate impact at the end of the year, telling everybody, this is really what you did. This is really what happened. And I cannot put a price on it.
So, I think that’s really important, too. And that information helps them become donors. Even if they cannot judge or participate in offering services, they can still contribute to the impact by donating money.
I did not like my former title – Director of Volunteers. And I’ll tell you why, I do not direct volunteers.
I recruit them. I retain them. I celebrate them. I do all of that.
So finally, my title has changed to Lead Director of Community Engagement. I think that needs to be embraced, too, that there’s no “Volunteer Coordinator/Manager.” The language is important because our staff are the ones who “direct, coordinate and manage”
I don’t know what the title should be, but if people look at it more as engagement, it’s a friendship sort of thing. And a lot of our volunteers have become donors.
Valerie: I love that your volunteers are becoming donors! That speaks to how great of a program you’ve built. So, congratulations on that.
Susan: I know people think it’s because I’ve been here for so long and I know so many people – and that’s some of it – but, really, the rest of it is that I’ve learned to schedule in constant communication with them.
Now, it’s not just a, “Hey, can you judge?” or, “Hey, can you volunteer?” Kind of knee jerk reaction. I say, “Hey, I was just been thinking of you.”
I sat down for three or four days and sent everyone a virtual card when COVID first hit just letting them know they were important and what we were up to, so they understood the impact they could still make even during a pandemic.
I think it’s so important to make sure that they understand that even though everything became virtual, they were still needed. We wanted to make sure that our programs didn’t stop.
The messages reached so many people! Some I hadn’t heard from for a year or so.
And, and I get that life changes and stuff, people may move on. But they responded back and they thanked me. So, it was worth three full days of my time sending an e-card individually to each one. Yeah, absolutely.
Keeping that connection alive has been so important this last year with everything happening. You can’t just say nothing to your volunteers for a year. And then when you start bringing them back in, expect them to still feel committed.
What Susan Wants You to Boost Your Volunteer Manager Productivity
Valerie: What would you say to someone who’s on the fence about becoming a VolunteerPro member?
Susan: Jump off the fence! Go ahead and do what you need for you.
As old as I am and as much volunteer work I’ve done – and I did years before I joined the foundation – I need to grow. You need to have networking connections. You need to be able to see what’s going on.
In the last couple of years, just the baby boomers and how they view volunteerism versus my parents’ generation and all of that, it’s important for you to know that and you need to be able to embrace it and you need to be able to change with it.
There are new volunteers, you know, new generations, and they have different values and, and their expectations are totally different from that of the baby boomers.
So, new information is needed if you want to grow, and you want your position to be recognized as an important part of your organization.
Tobi and VolunteerPro offer that!
Just wait till you go to one webinar Tobi is just so down to earth “Here you go, here’s the plan.” She’s tested things, so you have an easier way to fit them into your work.
The first time after I went to a training, I really got to learn how to do a budget for a volunteer department, which was very exciting because before that – I don’t know, people just gave us money and it was just used for this and that.
But now I can help build it and VolunteerPro membership as part of the budget. It’ll be there at least as long as I’m here. I need to keep learning and make sure I’m involved in professional development. VolunteerPro offers me those opportunities!
