Prepare to Host a Volunteer
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Identify key elements of a well-defined pro bono project.
- Describe the types of volunteer roles.
First, Prepare Your Project Scope
You feel ready. You have an idea for a short-term project that isn't time-sensitive or mission-critical. You've blocked off time on your calendar to meet with a volunteer regularly.
What’s next? The first to-do is taking time to document the scope of your project. Creation of a clear scope of work is a crucial step in setting a positive experience for you and your volunteer. We have a handy scope of work template with examples for you to follow, linked in the Resources section.
Click on a tip below for additional insight into creating a clear scope of work for your project.
Let’s pause for a moment to think about that clear and specific project description, because it plays an important role in attracting the right volunteer.
Read the example project descriptions, and then the assessment of the elements that work and the areas of improvement for each.
| Example Project Description | Elements that Work | Areas of Improvement |
|---|---|---|
|
We need help measuring and telling our impact story as we work to end child trafficking. We seek a volunteer to help with the following tasks in order of priority:
|
Uses specific language to clearly describe project tasks and deliverables in order of priority. This will help potential volunteers know if they have the right skills. |
Could be more specific about how this project will impact the organization’s mission. How will the volunteer’s work on this project help end child trafficking? |
|
Our nonprofit restores balance to the lives of veterans in need. We are shifting our focus to providing affordable housing for veterans. We already use Salesforce, and are looking to build out functionality to track and report this initiative’s impact to donors. This will help us grow revenue to house even more veterans. |
Ties project deliverables to organizational impact. This will inspire potential volunteers interested in veterans or housing issues to sign up. |
Could be more specific about the tasks and deliverables involved. For example, what does “track and report” involve? Building reports? Creating new fields and page layouts to capture the right information? |
|
We would just like some help getting things started. Setting up dashboards, moving contacts, creating campaigns, and managing marketing initiatives. Is it possible to communicate with donors and track expenses, too? |
Unfortunately, this project description needs a lot of help! |
Tasks and deliverables don’t appear listed in priority order and are sometimes too vague and broad. It’s difficult to tell what success looks like, and what the impact on the organization will be. |
Once you have taken the time to reflect with your team on your organization’s areas of need and clearly articulate a project scope and description, and once you feel prepared to bring someone on, you can shift your attention to identifying the qualities of who to bring on board.
Next, Identify Your Volunteer Needs
To set the stage for finding a good match, take some time to think through a couple of aspects:
- How will a volunteer function within your group and within the parameters of this project,
- What is the primary role you want the volunteer to play?
To clarify the primary role you want the volunteer to take on, ask yourself which of the following roles is the primary need at this time.
The Advisor
There are times when you need an experienced Salesforce volunteer to provide strategic advice around requirements gathering, complex data migrations, or appropriate data models. If you’re a solo admin, working with this type of volunteer can be incredibly helpful to elevate your knowledge and ensure your Salesforce strategy is headed down the right path. The advisor volunteer can be instrumental in helping you identify the work that needs to be done, prioritizing your needs, and potentially assisting you to build a business case for your organization to invest in a consulting engagement for a complex data migration or implementation.
The Hands-on Volunteer
A hands-on volunteer will do the tactical work, which may include configuration, data migration, or integration. We suggest using hands-on volunteers in very specific use cases, where you can vet the volunteer's skills, where the request isn’t a function that is critical to the organization, and where it’s a one-time technical requirement that isn’t time-sensitive.
The Trainer
This is a volunteer who is willing to teach your staff members as they perform the technical work. You gain hands-on training that you can then leverage to implement other business processes and expand your organization’s knowledge and use of the platform.
Our experience shows that whoever you bring in will likely play more than one role, which is okay! Just make sure your volunteer is comfortable with the role they need to play to support your project. It will be immensely helpful to you and the volunteer to communicate clearly up front about the level and type of involvement you hope for from the volunteer.
Hopefully, now you have a good idea of how you can prepare yourself, and prepare your organization, to add someone to the team for a short while. In the next unit we’ll look more closely into how you can match up with an ideal volunteer.