How do you adapt your volunteer culture to new projects?

1 Assess your current culture

Before you introduce a new project to your volunteers, you need to have a clear understanding of your current volunteer culture. What are the shared beliefs, norms, and behaviors that define your volunteer team? How do they communicate, collaborate, and celebrate? What are their strengths, challenges, and preferences? How do they relate to your organization's vision, values, and goals? You can use surveys, interviews, focus groups, or observation methods to collect feedback and insights from your volunteers and staff. This will help you identify the gaps, opportunities, and risks that the new project might pose for your volunteer culture.

2 Communicate the change

Once you have a clear picture of your current volunteer culture, you need to communicate the change effectively and transparently to your volunteers. Explain why the new project is important, what are the expected outcomes and impacts, and how it aligns with your organization's mission and values. Acknowledge the potential challenges and uncertainties that the new project might bring, and how you plan to address them. Invite your volunteers to share their questions, concerns, and suggestions, and listen to their feedback with empathy and respect. Show them how much you value their contribution and commitment, and how the new project will offer them new opportunities for learning, growth, and recognition.

3 Involve your volunteers

One of the best ways to adapt your volunteer culture to new projects is to involve your volunteers in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of the change. By giving your volunteers a voice and a choice in the new project, you can increase their sense of ownership, responsibility, and empowerment. You can also leverage their skills, talents, and perspectives to create more effective and innovative solutions. You can involve your volunteers in various ways, such as asking them to join a steering committee, a working group, or a pilot team, soliciting their input on key decisions or processes, or inviting them to co-design or co-deliver the new project activities or services.

4 Provide training and support

Another key aspect of adapting your volunteer culture to new projects is to provide adequate training and support to your volunteers. Depending on the nature and scope of the new project, your volunteers might need to learn new skills, adopt new roles, or follow new guidelines or procedures. You can help them prepare for the change by offering them relevant and accessible training and resources, such as workshops, webinars, manuals, or mentors. You can also support them throughout the change by providing them with regular feedback, guidance, and encouragement, as well as creating a safe and supportive environment where they can ask questions, share challenges, and learn from mistakes.

5 Monitor and evaluate

Finally, you need to monitor and evaluate the impact of the new project on your volunteer culture, as well as on your organization's performance and goals. You can use quantitative and qualitative methods to measure and analyze the changes in your volunteers' attitudes, behaviors, and outcomes, such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, or observation. You can also use indicators and metrics to track and assess the progress and results of the new project, such as outputs, outcomes, impacts, or return on investment. By monitoring and evaluating the change, you can identify what is working well and what needs improvement, and make adjustments accordingly. You can also use the data and evidence to celebrate your achievements, recognize your volunteers, and share your learnings and best practices.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?