Using Volunteers in Cultivate and Solicit – Part 5 of 5

I recently got back in touch with an old friend: Ambrose Bierce – Civil War veteran, writer, one who observed his times and gave pungent commentary. I thought readers of this blog might enjoy reading this definition:

PHILANTHROPIST, n. A rich (and usually bald) old gentleman who has trained himself to grin while his conscience is picking his pocket.
-- taken from Ambrose Bierce’s “Devil’s Dictionary” 1868


So... you started with a list of 150 people who were “C/S” or Cultivation and Solicitation prospects, you winnowed those down to the first 20. You then oriented and trained them, and each of them now has a list of 20 donor prospects that they are going to cultivate and solicit over time, and the written strategies (the “moves management” system) by which they are going to do that.

Your job’s not done. But of course you knew that. Now you’ve got to manage the work of these 20 volunteers and evaluate what they’re doing and how effective they are at it.

The first thing you need to do now is write down a set of performance standards by which you will measure the effectiveness of each volunteer. What are the characteristics of their performance that you want to evaluate? Here are some suggestions, but you can certainly add your own.
1. Did they ultimately get the gift at the desired level?
2. Did they follow the cultivation and solicitation strategy as devised?
3. Were deviations from that strategy done with imagination and skill?
4. Did the volunteer do a good job of relating personally to the prospects? Was the chemistry good, was it productive?
5. Did the volunteer come away with new (and potentially even better) prospects to cultivate and solicit as a result of their relationship with the donors?
6. Did the volunteer have a good time doing this work? Did they come away from the job still enthusiastic about their own skill, the organization and the mission or cause?
7. Was the volunteer low-maintenance or high-maintenance to work with?

Any more thoughts on this from readers? Leave a comment and let us know.

The evaluation process can be formal or informal. I prefer both informal and personal. Get with each volunteer over lunch or coffee and informally go through your list, but not FROM the list. They don’t want to know they’re being evaluated; it’s scary and internally disruptive to think that your fine efforts as a volunteer are being “judged” by your “supervisor.” Not a good position from which to derive daily motivational highs. But just talk with them about their experience, take some notes, and then go back to the office and write all this up in a brief in the volunteer’s file. Later you’ll use this information to evaluate the overall volunteer corps you’ve put together, the individual successes and problems, etc. and judge whether or not to keep this volunteer in the C/S corps.

Another aspect of your management system for these C/S volunteers is that you need to coach them along the way. So you’re going to be in touch with them on a fairly regular basis by email or on the phone, getting feedback from them, seeing how they are doing, understanding what they need on an almost daily basis and de-briefing them on their experiences. They’ll need someone to talk to and you’re that person.

You’ll also probably find that there is a need for occasional further training in various aspects of the cultivation and solicitation process. So be prepared to devise little training sessions for one or several volunteers at a time.

Other than that, you’re ready to sit back, relax, put your feet up and tally the gifts that come rolling in. AND.... get the next batch of 20 volunteers selected, oriented trained and ready to be deployed against another list of donor prospects.

“A mother’s work is never done!”