And they’ll be hitting you back up in two months when the volunteer either bails or is actually not able to do the work smh. https://twitter.com/jlev/status/1283795940407603200

People tell me all the time to leverage volunteers more. I have volunteers help from time to time, but not very often. Sometimes it’s been my fault when I wasn’t prepared + caved to someone who was very enthusiastic. Other times, the person wasn’t reliable or able to do the work

It’s great to want to help. But, I often get “I’m learning [xyz] and I’d love to help at your org doing it!”

I would ask people to pump your brakes before you reach out like that. Wanting to cut your teeth on something to help a cause sometimes isn’t helpful.

I basically prefer to pay people to do work at my org. That way I get actual commitment (usually) and can hold people accountable in ways it’s harder to for volunteers.

And frankly, I think an overreliance on volunteers contributes to the underfunding of many a not-for-profit org and that’s just not great.

I definitely have heard things like “Why do you need $xx,000 for that? You can just get volunteers.”

Nope.

I also don’t like the emphasis on volunteers for *everything* bc it sometimes comes from an attitude of people not valuing the work not-for-profits do.

You would spare no expense to have top talent in a for-profit, but you want a super-effective person at an NP to make $0/yr?

The work that many not-for-profits do is far more valuable to society than what a lot of for-profits contribute. But, a lot of people are still ok with not-for-profits being extremely underresourced.

People forget the average not-for-profit is not a Red Cross or United Way.

I don’t know the official stats, but a lot of not-for-profit staffers I meet are women.

The underresourcing of the sector and heavily reliance on unpaid, volunteer labor coupled with what looks like a mostly female workforce is not a coincidence.

But, ok. Prolly done for now.