{"id":1669,"date":"2016-06-15T08:59:42","date_gmt":"2016-06-15T03:29:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/volunteers.org\/?p=1669"},"modified":"2016-06-15T08:59:42","modified_gmt":"2016-06-15T03:29:42","slug":"why-tough-love-produces-the-best-volunteers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/volunteers.org\/why-tough-love-produces-the-best-volunteers\/","title":{"rendered":"Why \u201cTough Love\u201d Produces the Best Volunteers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Guest post by\u00a0Mike Devaney<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-22269 alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.volunteermatch.org\/engagingvolunteers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Why-Tough-Love-Produces-the-Best-Volunteers-266x400.jpg\" alt=\"Why Tough Love Produces the Best Volunteers\" width=\"266\" height=\"400\" \/>\u201cLook, this <em>has<\/em> to work for you\u2026 what do you wanna get outta this experience?\u201d she asked, squinting.<\/p>\n<p>Katerina (Kat), the hospital\u2019s volunteer coordinator, was quietly putting to bed everything I thought I knew about recruiting volunteers. For starters, she wasn\u2019t pleading with me to join her program. Actually, quite the opposite. It felt like she was trying to dissuade me from applying!<\/p>\n<p>She wasn\u2019t, of course. But I still remember that conversation nine years later because it was so different from all my other volunteer program inquires. Based on those experiences, I had assumed coordinators were supposed to \u2026<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Gladly accept anyone<\/li>\n<li>Downplay the demands of the onboarding process<\/li>\n<li>Avoid probing questions about motives<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>While Kat\u2019s program depended exclusively on volunteers, she wasn\u2019t looking for just anybody. Why? Because visiting sick and dying patients on a weekly basis wasn\u2019t for <em>most<\/em> people.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Motivation Drives Commitment<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The first interview with applicants, Kat later told me, revealed a lot. She could predict, with a high certainty, who would follow through with the application process and who would drop out.<\/p>\n<p>The program included 20 hours of classroom training, which Kat oversaw. Again, with high certainty, she could tell who would thrive as a volunteer in the hospital and who\u2019d wash out. Discussing the big issues of life \u2014 pain, suffering, and death \u2014 reveal a lot about a person\u2019s motivations.<\/p>\n<p>Which brings me to this point: Motivation. It\u2019s good to question an applicant bluntly, like Kat did to me, about his or her motivations. Applicants might not be fully cognizant of their driving motivation, but they should be able to articulate more than a pat answer. Why? Because it\u2019s what\u2019ll keep them committed and growing as volunteers.<\/p>\n<p>[<a href=\"http:\/\/t.sidekickopen01.com\/e1t\/c\/5\/f18dQhb0S7lC8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nMJW7t5XZs2m15tKW3H2NCl3xb4wlW2bzNM04dRCbK101?t=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.usfsa.org%2Fcontent%2FVolunteerInterviewQuestions.pdf&amp;si=5555712076021760&amp;pi=3ae16101-c8bf-43d0-af8c-d9311c0f5a4b\" target=\"_blank\">Grab a list of sample interview questions here.<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Now it should be said that a volunteer\u2019s motivation may not always be altruistic. That\u2019s fine as long as it doesn\u2019t conflict with your organization\u2019s mission. I stayed with Kat\u2019s program for 4 \u00bd years. We became good friends and discussed a lot of things \u201coff the record.\u201d Some of those discussions, I\u2019m sure, didn\u2019t sound particularly gracious coming from a hospital volunteer, but they were authentic.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Business, Not Personal<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In business, the companies who develop thoughtful, <a href=\"http:\/\/t.sidekickopen01.com\/e1t\/c\/5\/f18dQhb0S7lC8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nMJW7t5XZs2m15tKW3H2NCl3xb4wlW2bzNM04dRCbK101?t=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.forbes.com%2Fsites%2Frobertsher%2F2015%2F06%2F05%2Fwinning-the-talent-war-demands-creative-hiring-strategies%2F2%2F%237a7c9c1e5b27&amp;si=5555712076021760&amp;pi=90e4bbd9-b6ed-4d7b-950a-fdb48e42285d\" target=\"_blank\">creative<\/a>, even rigorous hiring processes win. The hiring process is a branding tool; word gets out quick among job applicants about the companies who do it right. From the company\u2019s perspective, the better they screen applicants in the early stage, the more time they can devote to promising candidates in the later stages.<\/p>\n<p>The same principle is true for nonprofit and charitable organizations. Put another way, cast a wide net for volunteers using vague and undefined language, and you\u2019ll spend more time later eliminating unqualified applicants.<\/p>\n<p>In my experience working with nonprofits, particularly smaller ones, I find resistance to using \u201ccallout\u201d language when advertising for volunteers. Callout language says to the applicant \u201cCome closer,\u201d or \u201cStay Away.\u201d It doesn\u2019t do <em>both<\/em>. The fear is that an otherwise awesome candidate might not apply if the language is too restrictive.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s when I tell them about the Peace Corps. Four years after \u201cThe Toughest Job You\u2019ll Ever Love\u201d slogan debuted, applicants outnumbered openings 10:1 and by 1991, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.adcouncil.org\/Our-Campaigns\/The-Classics\/Peace-Corps\" target=\"_blank\">30 percent of Peace Corps volunteers<\/a> were reached through this recruitment campaign.<\/p>\n<p>If anything, the slogan proved that qualified volunteers respond to \u201ctough love.\u201d The question is, are you willing to go there?<\/p>\n<p><em><b>About the author:<br \/>\n<\/b>Mike Devaney is a freelance copywriter and marketing consultant who helps nonprofits recruit and retain promising volunteers. In addition to the hospital mentioned above, he\u2019s also served as a volunteer at a nursing home and a church-sponsored meal program. Visit him at<a href=\"http:\/\/www.mikedevaney.com\/contact\/\" target=\"_blank\">mikedevaney.com<\/a><\/em><em> to schedule a consultatio<\/em>n.<\/p>\n<p>Cross posted from <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.volunteermatch.org\/engagingvolunteers\/2016\/05\/25\/why-tough-love-produces-the-best-volunteers\/?utm_source=iContact&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=VolunteerMatch%20Nonprofit%20Newsletter&amp;utm_content=NPNews_0616\">VolunteerMatch<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Guest post by\u00a0Mike Devaney \u201cLook, this has to work for you\u2026 what do you wanna get outta this experience?\u201d she asked, squinting. Katerina (Kat), the hospital\u2019s volunteer coordinator, was quietly putting to bed everything I thought I knew about recruiting volunteers. For starters, she wasn\u2019t pleading with me to join her program. Actually, quite the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[184],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/volunteers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1669"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/volunteers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/volunteers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/volunteers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/volunteers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/volunteers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1669\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/volunteers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/volunteers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/volunteers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}