Planning for Volunteers

Do you want volunteers to feel a sense of belonging within an inclusive and diverse team?  

This part of the toolkit helps with the planning and internal work needed to create equitable and inclusive volunteer experiences. It includes tools for strategic planning, documentation, marketing, communication, creating inclusive volunteer position descriptions, and recruitment. Use these tools to enhance some of your current practices or identify where you may have some gaps on your way towards a more inclusive volunteer experience.

A Guide for Creating Inclusive Volunteer Position Descriptions

This tool helps you to create inclusive volunteer position descriptions to attract a diverse group of potential volunteers.

Broadening Access to Volunteer Opportunities: Things to Consider

This tool provides ideas and examples of things you can do to ensure that your organization’s volunteer opportunities are accessible to as many potential volunteers as possible.

Documenting Volunteer Involvement Part One: Planning for Data Collection

This tool provides ideas and examples of things you can do to ensure that your organization’s volunteer opportunities are accessible to as many potential volunteers as possible.

Equity Practice Framework

This chart guides you in assessing your current volunteer engagement practice through a lens of equity.

Guiding Questions for Equitable Community Collaboration

This tool is designed to help you explore and deepen partnerships with collaborators in your community who seek to volunteer with your organization. Use these questions to guide and inform conversations with potential and existing collaborators.

Guiding Questions for Equity and Inclusion in Volunteer Engagement

This tool guides you through a series of questions on your organization's efforts in applying principles of equity and inclusivity when engaging volunteers. The questions will also help you look ahead and take steps to identify the individuals who need to be involved in making progress and creating plans for the future.

Inclusive Volunteer Recruitment Guide

This guide helps you plan for inclusivity at each stage of the volunteer recruitment process.

Visualizing Equity

These visuals can be used during discussions of how equality and equity show up in your work with volunteers. Use these images during your strategic planning, training, and communications with volunteers and other stakeholders.

Preparing Volunteers

Do you want volunteers to succeed in their roles and feel that they are contributing to your community’s health and well-being?

In order to meet the diverse needs of volunteers, these tools are designed to help you create accessible orientations, inclusive training and meaningful reflection. Tools found here will help you communicate the impact that volunteers can have when you partner together. Use these tools to enhance some of your current practices or identify where you may have some gaps on your way towards a more inclusive volunteer experience.

Accessibility Considerations when Partnering with Volunteers

This tool helps you think about accessibility when partnering with volunteers.

Checklist for Training Volunteers Around Equity and Inclusion

This tool provides a list of equity related training categories to consider when preparing volunteers to partner with your organization. Providing additional training in these areas is a step toward creating a more inclusive experience for volunteers and the community they partner with and serve. 

Getting to Know Volunteers through Values-Based Questions

This tool helps you get to know volunteers by asking values-based questions which allow them to express themselves in their own way.

Volunteer Training Formats: Strengths and Limitations Guide

This guide provides you with an overview of common training formats, highlighting their strengths and limitations. Refer to it in order to craft training formats that are accessible, inclusive, and best suited for specific situations in your particular organization.

Building Volunteer Relationships

Do you want to strengthen relationships with volunteers in your organization or community?

Tools found here focus on how you value volunteers. Some tools guide you in applying an equitable approach to coaching and mentoring your current volunteers. Other tools are designed to help you rethink ideas around recognizing and retaining volunteers. Use these tools to enhance some of your current practices or identify where you may have some gaps on your way towards a more inclusive volunteer experience.

A Progressive’s Language Guide

A Progressive’s Style Guide is explicitly multi-voiced and is created with the following commitments. 1) We combat discriminatory language. 2) We seek advice or more information when we’re unsure. 3) When writing, speaking, or using images, we aim to use examples that reflect a broad range of identities and perspectives.

Defining Retention Worksheet

This worksheet supports you in creating a definition of retention that considers the diversity of your volunteer base.

Documenting Volunteer Involvement Part Two: Ethical Data Collection

This tool suggests questions to consider for collecting data ethically. You may need input or expertise from other staff or volunteers that you partner with in order to answer some of these questions.

Documenting Volunteer Involvement Part Three: Collecting and Using Data

This tool suggests questions to consider once data is collected and being used. You may need input or expertise from other staff or volunteers that you partner with in order to answer some of these questions.

Encouraging Reflection in Volunteer Opportunities

This tool is designed to encourage volunteers to reflect on their roles and experiences. It provides questions intended to support volunteers as they navigate their biases and help them develop greater self-awareness, empathy, and understanding of their impact.

Identity Signs: An Exercise to Encourage Conversation and Reflection about Equity 

This training video introduces you to the Identity Signs exercise, an interactive tool to start and enhance dialogue around equity, access, diversity and inclusion with groups. Discover the benefits of using this exercise in your organization to foster teamwork and critical thinking, while addressing potential challenges and sensitive topics. 

Volunteer Motivation Questionnaire

This tool will help you create a volunteer motivation questionnaire. Knowing the unique motivations of volunteers as individuals allows your organization to connect with them personally.