Why sign up for shifts before you come in?
There are four major reasons respond to a volunteer shift opening before you come on down to help. Although they are all intertwined and interdependent, I will take some time to tackle the impact of each in the next few paragraphs with lots of real-world, very applicable examples for each topic.
- Communicate with staff and program managers
- Communicate with your fellow volunteers
- Assist with volunteer recruitment
- Impacts your follow-through
Communicate with staff and program managers
We utilize a fancy volunteer platform like Amplify because we have over 800 volunteers serving across more than 15 programs in over 65 unique opportunities across all of DC. Each of our programs has its own staff member(s) who oversee and manage the volunteers in each of their areas. When you sign-up for a shift, that program manager automatically receives a notification and they know they can count on you to be there to serve at that time.
Knowing when you are coming in allows us to plan the day out and determine what are the "extras" we can do that day with your help. Some examples of this might include:
- If the Adoptions Team knows they have a volunteer coming in to help with Meet and Greets from 2-4, they might be able to open up additional adopter appointments or allow a few more walk-ins because you will be there to help support.
- If the Animal Care Team knows they have a volunteer coming to help with kennel cleaning from 9-11, they might reassign a staff member to assist with cleaning in another area or to work on a special project like sorting donations, bringing up food from the warehouse, or distributing some in-kennel enrichment for the dogs.
- If Pet Pantry knows they have 5 volunteers to support their distribution event, they might arrange for more clients to attend or for a repeat volunteer to get trained on the tracking software online.
These are just a few of the many ways program managers can rearrange their days to accomplish more when they know volunteers are coming in to serve. If they don't know you are coming (or what you plan on helping with when you do come in), it is possible that they will not be prepared for you with the appropriate supplies or you may end up doing a little more standing around because there isn't as much work to do.
Communicate with your fellow volunteers
Have you ever said to yourself, "I want to volunteer at the time when HRA is most in need" and then gone looking at the schedule to see which shifts have more openings than others? If so, you are not alone, because SO MANY volunteers say that! Your time is incredibly valuable and you want to know you will have the greatest impact when you give it.
Then, if you sign-up for a Laundry/Dishes shift because you see no one else is signed up for that day and you get in and there isn't a single load of laundry to do, it might be pretty frustrating. (Especially if you are like me and find laundry to be extremely calming and cathartic.) We build our schedules based on where we have the greatest need and how many people we estimate it will take us to meet those needs. If every shift dog walker shift fills every day, then our pups should be able to get out of their dens at least three times each day for about 20 minutes every outing.
Telling your peers when you are coming in allows others to focus their energy on the opportunities and roles that need more assistance at the times they are available. Be a good teammate and let others know where you will be and when!
Assist with volunteer recruitment
You've seen the pleas we send out when volunteer roles remain unfilled. One of the main functions of the Volunteer Program Staff is to assist our program managers with recruiting volunteers for their opportunities. When we see a shift is coming up without any volunteers signed-up, we start emailing, posting on Facebook and connecting with individual volunteers to fill those roles.
We currently always have more openings than we have volunteers to fill, so we often have to prioritize based on what has the most urgent need, which usually is determined by how many openings there are.
If a group of 3 volunteers is planning to come in to walk dogs on Monday evenings, but none of them sign-up for shifts, we might spend a lot of energy recruiting volunteers to come in during that shift. Then we may have too many volunteers for what we need to do, which leads to people feeling their time is not valued appropriately. Our program staff may have also been able to direct their time to another opportunity needing volunteer support that may not have been as high on the priority list.
If we are consistently filling all of our weekend volunteer shifts, then the Volunteer Program Staff can work with the Communications Team to create recruitment bulletins for weekday volunteer support, specifically. When we narrow our focus to the areas that need it most, we often see the greatest returns.
Impact your follow-through
This last one is more of a little psychology trick for yourself. For those who want to volunteer more but have a hard time making it in, signing up for a volunteer shift a day or two (or more) ahead of time will make it more likely you will come in. For some, signing up for a regular schedule (like every first Monday) or at a regular time (like logging in every Monday morning to pick a shift for the week) will help you meet your volunteering goals for the year and make you more likely to follow through with that commitment.
Once you are signed-up, we are counting on you to be there and looking forward to having you! Help us communicate with each other and do even more for the animals in DC by signing-up for a volunteer shift today!
Thank you for all you do!
Your HRA Volunteer Team
