How to Have a Great Volunteer Day

A Guide from Boston Park Advocates (BPA)

From the BPA workshop with Christine Poff and Nataka Crayton-Walker

VOLUNTEER DAY CHECKLIST

Months in Advance

• Articulate goals for the event and do some preliminary planning
• Plan calendar in advance
• Negotiate with some of the bigger organized groups to coordinate calendars
• Send in permitting request for Boston Park Department/DCR

3-6 Weeks in Advance

• Check in with park manager from the agency (DCR or BPRD)
• Make a plan for the event. Articulate roles for staff, volunteer leaders, volunteers
• Notice to local papers, calendars (boston.com, go city kids)
• One email to your list
• Ask Local restaurants for food donations
• Grocery stores will give you a gift certificate
• Make an outreach plan

2 Weeks in Advance

• Fliers (the weekend before)
• Line up tools

A Week in Advance

• Email blast
• Talk to the park manager from the agency (DCR or BPRD)

A Day in Advance

• Walk the site the day before
• Figure out how to divide into groups or teams and make sure every group has a leader.
• Account for all of the tools and tasks for each group
• Email and call people to remind them

 

TIPS

Getting People involved in the first place

• Building relationships is key.  Get to know the people in your group—anyone who might be a potential volunteer.  You can do this by door-knocking, talking to them at events, or asking them for a 1 on 1 meeting where you learn about their interests and get to know each other.
• Be visible so that volunteers know to find you
• Know the community that your involved with
• Regular fun events to build community

Preparation

• For a 2-hour volunteer day, at least 10 hours of preparation, not including outreach
• Translate fliers if there are a lot of immigrants in the community (you can use Google Translate if you don’t have a native speaker)

Roles

• Consider how many staff you need for a given number of volunteers.  If volunteers are becoming leaders, you may not need as much staff
• Different roles for different interests (e.g. childcare, welcomer, team leader, someone who sends people where they need to go)
• Find out what volunteers are looking for—one-time activities, long-term projects to develop leaders

Turnout and Generating Enthusiasm

• Connect the event to the mission of the organization
• Don’t set expectations too high for turnout.  Stay positive.
• Celebrate.  Tell the group how many staff hours they saved as a group
• Bring food, grilling

Legal Concerns and Permitting

• Get people’s permission to take and post people’s pictures.
• Make sure your group has general insurance.  If you’re working with a private landowner, get it in writing if they don’t need liability insurance.   One option is director’s and officer’s insurance.  Teens usually can’t operate heavy machinery.
• New DCR rules may require waivers from all volunteers in advance.
• BPRD (City Parks Dept.) requires permits months in advance.  You might not need one, but it’s good to ask.

 

GROUPS TO TARGET

• Housing developments
• Older folks
• Students: middle school and high school
• Local businesses (give them a certificate if they turn people out or offer sponsorship).  Sometimes they have employee listservers.
• Churches, temples, mosques (esp. Sunday school groups)
• YMCA
• Neighborhood groups
• Universities: service office, student organizations
• Try the phonebook
• Look at ward lists to identify neighbors
• Door-knock to identify interested neighbors

 

OUTREACH TOOLS

Note: In-person communication is always better, and outreach to people you have relationships with is always more effective.

• Door-knocking
• Phone chains are helpful
• Fliers in local stores, in the park
• Talk to people on the streets
• Newspapers
• Radio
• Church bulletins
• Have a person who takes responsibility for making people feel comfortable at an event, building relationships
• Sign-up sheets at every event
• Ask people to bring others

GRANTS FOR TOOLS, ETC

NEGEF, Home Depot, Garden shops, Rodal Institute has small grants, Johnny Seeds

QUESTIONS

 

Q: How do you coordinate with other groups?  Sometimes groups are holding competing events.

A: Plan events with other groups months in advance

 

Q: How do you make a space that has a stigma around it appealing to volunteers?

A: Open it for fun events as well.  Let people know that it’s a good place for weddings, birthday parties

 

Q: How to engage large groups of kids if there isn’t enough to do?

A: One option is to give everyone a small shopping bag to fill and then congratulate them and let them go and play

 

Q: What about childcare?

A: Ask a larger volunteer group (e.g. Boston Cares) to run some childcare activities.

 

Q: How do you estimate turnout?

A: Get a feel from past years as long as you put in the same amount of effort.  You know who is coming because you’ve talked to people or because a group has committed.  Random individuals are pretty unusual.  It’s nice to have some extra projects in the bag.

 

Q: For free-flowing events, should people RSVP so it’s easier to prepare

A: Maybe break it into 2 hour increments, so people can commit to the part of the day that they’re coming.  Another option is a weekly volunteer activity, e.g. “Weeding Wednesdays”