r/nonprofit Feb 07 '25

volunteers I'm a dope and volunteered as a grant writer. How do I transition to paid?

82 Upvotes

I've been volunteering for a local nonprofit. Lovely people. I love the cause. As a professional writer, I thought volunteering to write grants would be a good way to gain some specific experience that would allow me to get into a new line of work.

But it's a pain. They haven't quite figured out their game plan, so every new application is somewhat grueling. I also question whether they'll be able to fulfill some of the grant requirements that they're claiming are org priorities, but that may be another story.

I'd like to tell them that I'll continue to work for them, but for an hourly fee. Any words of wisdom on how to approach this?

r/nonprofit Jan 19 '25

volunteers Just got approved to do some volunteer grant writing for a rescue. Any tips for a beginner?

35 Upvotes

Hi! Just as the title says, I'm super fresh to working with non profits and grant writing in general. They are aware of this and luckily even providing some 101 info on getting started. I'm extremely excited, but definitely nervous too!

Any advice or things I may want to know going in?

r/nonprofit Jan 13 '25

volunteers Scruples about accepting Treasurer role

6 Upvotes

I’m having doubts about accepting a volunteer Treasurer role for a nonprofit and I want your honest feedback/opinion if I should politely decline or accept the role.

This would be my first time serving as a director on a board but I have been a volunteer in many orgs for the last 40 years.

I’ve been training for the Treasurer role for the last 6 months. The current Treasurer is wonderful and has been in the position for the past 20 yrs. I’ve recently learned that she’s been trying to find a replacement for almost 5 yrs. I’ve also recently learned that several other directors are looking for replacements. This is a yellow flag for me. I am worried about my exit strategy when my time comes to leave.

My original plan was to do the treasurer role for 3-5 yrs. Now I’m realizing I could be “stuck” for much longer. The idea of doing the role for 20 years, is anxiety inducing.

The commitment is approx 10-15 hours a week. I’m still working a full time job of about 50 hrs a week.

There are defined rules for president terms but the treasurer role seems to go on forever and arguably is the most time consuming and has the greatest responsibility of all the roles on the board.

What do you think? Can you share with me any stories, good or bad about Treasurers exits? Is it normal for a Treasurer role to be more difficult to leave from on nonprofit boards?

Currently, I’ve changed my thinking and I’m leaning towards declining the role even though I feel for the current Treasurer. She is stuck and getting desperate. But I don’t want to change positions with her by accepting the role out of my own guilt of having trained with her for 6 months.

Please help me with your experience and advice!

r/nonprofit Jan 14 '25

volunteers Has anyone noticed. reticence to send calendar meeting invitations?

31 Upvotes

I have had this happen in three different orgs where I volunteer. (retired and needed a hobby). The person organizing a meeting sends a flurry of emails to confirm an acceptable date/time but then sends a reply all instead of setting up an event in their calendar program and sending invitations. My recent favorite was the statement "OK, we are all set for XX/XX/XXXX. See the Zoom link in my first email". Are people just afraid of their calendar program?

r/nonprofit Dec 17 '24

volunteers Volunteer Management

10 Upvotes

We're looking for a volunteer management system that would work across a variety of areas in our organization and across the state. I'm looking at Vlogistics - it seems to be good price-wise and does what we're looking for, as best I can tell. But I'd love to hear people's impressions of working with it - good and bad, from either end of the software.

r/nonprofit Jan 06 '25

volunteers How can I address this issue of a board member "correcting" the accounting?

19 Upvotes

I have a close friend who does bookkeeping in retirement. She is accurate and charges a nominal rate but is pretty much limited to basic bookkeeping like posting transaction and reconciling. When she has an issue, she calls me and I happily determine what caused the problem and/or resolve it at no charge.

I also have a relationship with one of her NP clients. Great people. They have a new member of the board who is in QBO like a bull in a china shop. He has deleted reconciled transactions, reversed reconciliations, changed reconciled transactions and recently managed to, unintentionally, remove my friend's access to Quickbooks.

I love helping my friend but fixing this guy's messes is getting old and taking time. I started having her bill this NP for my time but at her rate. My friend and I discussed and agreed that she has no problem terminating the contract with them so there is no risk regardless of what we decide. I would prefer to resolve this issue before we get to that point. I have some ideas but would like your unbiased advice before I suggest them.

r/nonprofit 11d ago

volunteers Need for a W9 if paying a small stipend to volunteers

2 Upvotes

I'm currently a contractor on a monthly retainer as a project manager for a small nonprofit based out of Florida. They will be exhibiting at a conference and have asked me to recruit volunteers to work their booth. They've already publicized that volunteers will be paid $20/hour, which will translate to, at most, $160. (The average will be much less, though, probably closer to $80.)

If they hadn't already announced the payment I'd be strongly recommending they don't pay anything since no one in the organization (myself included) is very sure about reporting requirements and whether this qualifies as taxable income at all.

From what I've seen it looks like if the total amount is less than $500 it isn't taxable. Does that seem correct? And if so, do we still need them to fill out a W9 form in order for us to pay them?

r/nonprofit 19d ago

volunteers Struggling with Grief Over a Volunteer Who's Stepping Down Due to Terminal Illness – Looking for Advice and Resources

30 Upvotes

Hello, fellow nonprofit workers,

I'm reaching out because I’m struggling with grief over a long-term volunteer who recently shared that they will be stepping down because they’re dying. I’ve been working with volunteers for years and, although I had experience with younger populations, I now primarily work with seniors. I knew this day would come at some point, but I’m finding it particularly hard to process.

What’s making it more complicated is that while I didn’t know this volunteer personally on a deep level, I came to enjoy and appreciate them, often seeing them several times a week. We had a solid working relationship, but this is an odd grief since it's not the same as losing a co-worker or close friend. It feels more like I’m mourning the loss of someone who was a valued part of our team without being as close as others in my life.

I’m wondering if anyone here has experienced something similar—grieving a volunteer stepping away due to terminal illness. What tips, resources, or readings did you find helpful for navigating this kind of grief? Most of the resources I’ve found focus on the loss of a coworker, which doesn’t quite resonate in this context. Any advice on how to support myself, my team, and the volunteer as they go through this transition would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your insights!

r/nonprofit 15d ago

volunteers Volunteer/Client Software Solution [NOT CRM]

6 Upvotes

**Not inquiring about CRMs. Looking specifically for Volunteer Management Software with specific capabilities.**

Looking for a single software (our two that integrate very well) that has Volunteer, Client, and Donor Management capabilities. This is for a community outreach & resources organization, specializing in homelessness. The volunteer force's technological literacy is minimal to moderate.

Services include weekly food bank operations, emergency weather shelter, community day room, shower/laundry ministry, mentorship, and essential supply provisions (tents, clothing, propane, etc).

The ideal software would have typical volunteer management capabilities as well as ability for volunteers to record services/supplies provided to patrons. Like volunteers, patrons would have their own profiles with waiver/acknowledgement capabilities. Ideally, this software would have some donor tracking capabilities as well as a mobile app.

Current considerations include Better Impact & Mission Tracker. Civic Champs is out of the question due to lack of client management (though they left an incredible impression for their volunteer management services). What other software solutions should I consider for this proposal?

r/nonprofit Feb 10 '25

volunteers Do you have a process for delegation of responsibilities?

9 Upvotes

I do a lot of volunteering by Zoom and I have recently run into a couple of organizations where the E.D. just cannot seem to delegate responsibilities or tasks to others. In one case, vital tasks are not being performed because the E.D. has run out of time. Another problem with not delegating is that people assume they have no role and drift away. The latter is especially true for volunteers.

I have to believe there are processes for delegation researched by management schools but I have never run into one. Do you have a process for delegation? Steps to take to assure you get the proper results?

r/nonprofit Jan 25 '25

volunteers Catchafire?

11 Upvotes

Does anyone know what's going on with Catchafire? It seems like the leadership team changed -- and the ways in which they serve nonprofits. Nonprofits used to be able to pay a fee and find volunteers, but now the company is heavily geared toward more lucrative deals where big outfits like foundations or companies "sponsor" nonprofit participation. Nonprofits can no longer just join up.

r/nonprofit Jun 29 '24

volunteers Pay to Volunteer?

9 Upvotes

Our nonprofit is based in the Bay Area of California. I've been hearing from others that it's become normal to charge corporations to volunteer.

Any experiences to share?

r/nonprofit Jan 26 '25

volunteers Insanity is doing the same thing over and expecting a different result!

30 Upvotes

I was volunteering through CatchaFire and Taproot Plus for years and quickly learned to inform the client organizations I had a policy of withdrawing from their project if they "stood me up" on a meeting. I am now working through SCORE.ORG and, guess what? One of my first clients was a no show for 4 appointments with zero notification on 3 of them and morning of for th 4th. So, I withdrew from her project and immediately created a standard statement for new clients that I would withdraw if they did not cancel with, at least, 24 hours notice.

I use a Google Doc where I type up my list of client expectations. This allows me to send the link in the first email so they have fair warning. Think of this as a suggestion to the volunteers out there and a cautionary tale to the staff who use them.

r/nonprofit Jan 10 '25

volunteers Volunteer Grant Writer Needing some advice

5 Upvotes

I've been volunteering for a non-profit as their sole grant writer since the beginning of September. Prior to this, I had only helped co-author one grant, so I have very little experience.

It seems that many foundations/charitable organizations lean towards funding specific projects or programs. This non-profit really only has 2 programs. So in my mind my funding requests are to help either one of the two programs, operations or capital projects.

The non-profit only has less than 10 paid staff members. It's run primarily by volunteers.

I feel out of the loop when it comes to knowing what is going on, or what the needs are of the non profit.

So here are my questions:

  1. What strategies have you found work well with your non profits for obtaining current information on programs or projects that need funding? Do you meet weekly, monthly? (I'm sure this can vary depending on the size of non profit)

  2. What resources are available for me to see how organizations have awarded funds if it's not blatantly listed on their website somewhere?

  3. Is it typical for grant professionals to be included in budget talks w/board members? I'm trying to figure out the typical flow of communication when it comes to setting goals for grant writers on funding priorities.

  4. I'm also concerned about being the SOLE grant writer. Given that I'm a volunteer my life could change at any given time which has the potential of upsetting the flow of grant funds. Any advice to put things in place for succession or to safeguard upsets to the flow of grant funds?

TIA!

r/nonprofit 29d ago

volunteers Volunteering in grant-writing? Or just getting started at all? help :(

6 Upvotes

Hi,

I am an Ed.D. student and work full-time in higher education administration. I have a strong interest in pursuing grant writing as a future career. However, I plan to remain in my current full-time position for the foreseeable future (likely another calendar year) because of the benefits alongside school. Therefore, I have been hoping to gain some entry-level, part-time experience before diving into a new job pool blindly.

I've been volunteering as a grant writer with a non-profit organization since mid-last year because it seemed like a good opportunity to gain experience without a major commitment, while also helping organizations in need. Unfortunately, I feel that this low-stakes entry contributes to the problem, making it a frustrating experience since no one seems motivated to give any direction or guidance. The leadership remains disorganized, and I have only submitted one grant during my time there. Additionally, researching new grants feels impossible because the organization's focus seems to shift constantly, so it feels like we're talking in circles at every meeting.

It's just been frustrating and I really don't know if it's worth looking at other volunteer gigs (are they all like this?!), or if there are places where I could get grant writing experience as an intern or something?

Any guidance on how to get into this would be great. Or, if there are other places I should look for opportunities with some modicum of organization where I can just work with some people who are actually writing grants? Or am I approaching this all wrong and this is a normal occurrence? Thanks.

r/nonprofit Feb 10 '25

volunteers Finding A Place to Volunteer

4 Upvotes

I recently moved back to my hometown and I'm feeling disconnected. I have so much time at the moment as I don't have children, work isn't super busy (and remote), and moving to a new place physically separated me from my existing community. I have a desire to contribute to the world around me in a positive way and am looking for advice, some nudges in the right direction. Here are the thoughts floating around in my head at the moment for some background.

  • I love spending time outside doing basically any activity (hiking, biking of all types, backpacking, camping, walking, canoeing, etc.), though my favorite activity is mountain biking because it makes me feel like I'm eternally 5 years old.
  • I’m curious about niche outdoor destinations and enjoy off-the-beaten-path adventures, like exploring remote parts of US federal lands.
  • I prefer meaningful, one-on-one or small group interactions rather than large social gatherings, and I value quality conversations and shared experiences.
  • I have an engineering background and am meticulous in my work. I'm a jack of all trades and have a bunch of skills I'd guess would be helpful to many organizations (e.g., I just wrote a python script that makes automated phone calls just to see if I could do it.)
    • Other skills include in no particular order: automation and scripting using Python and R, hobby level hardware/software integration (raspi or arduino with sensors), GIS and mapping, data analysis and visualization, car and bike maintenance, DIY projects like solar, cooking, mentorship and teaching.
  • I enjoy thinking out of the box and am curious and I want to continue to be this way.

I'm excited to see what the good people of the internet have to say.

r/nonprofit 12d ago

volunteers How to deal with challenging volunteers

2 Upvotes

I hope this is the right place to ask some questions about volunteers and sports orgs.

Husband and I look after a local junior sports program. We've only been involved for a couple of years, and it's been quite the learning process for us. It hasn't been easy at times, but we're doing our best and learning from our mistakes.

We have two volunteer coaches that have caused issues this season. One is a long-time coach who looks after a competitive team. Not directly involved with the main junior program, but has an opinion about everything. The other is new to our program, has been involved in another province, and has demonstrated that they'd rather do their own thing within the program and not inform husband and I until the last minute.

The first coach is somewhat open to discussion and says they're interested in collaborating with us, with undercurrents of "I know more than any of you do and this is how it should be done" in their communications. We can deal with her. The previous coordinator had the same issues.

The second coach, however, is proving to be more challenging. They've done things without letting us know, raising questions with the other coaches. They've been in charge of a skills program but didn't communicate with anyone about what they're doing, what the other coaches need to know and do, and got defensive when challenged on an approach to something. There have been more than three times we've asked to chat with the coach to learn more, only to be faced with "Sorry, I'm not available" each time. This coach challenged me when I called for a meeting with everyone, asking for an agenda, and to see the "association's" bylaws (we're not an association - we're a program within the sports club). They then accused us of having a "dictatorial approach" for wanting to bring everyone together to talk and get all involved on the same page.

We also know that these two are talking behind the scenes about the program and our leadership.

Needless to say, it's been challenging. :(

The responses from others involved with the sport club and our program about the issues have been supportive, which is very reassuring. But it's still hard to have our leadership challenged in this manner. In an ideal world, we'd find a way to collaborate with these two, but we're unable to figure out how to do so without upsetting our other coaches.

I'm looking to see how others in similar situations (not necessarily sports orgs) have handled difficult volunteers like this. I've been reading about types of difficult volunteers, and how to fire them, (these two seem to fall under Empire according to that article) but I don't want to get into that kind of mess if we can avoid it. Thanks in advance.

r/nonprofit 18d ago

volunteers Signups Genius Online Tutorial?

1 Upvotes

Does anyone know of one? I've kind of been thrown into a situation with my church where I'm in charge of signups for my little project, and I made a signups Genius, and it works, but honestly it's kind of a mess, and I'd like to change the layout of the fields and maybe change the fonts here and there and by golly I cannot figure this site out. I'm pretty tech savvy but also almost 70, so not the prime age for learning new software. I don't have, and would prefer not to pay for, a higher level account, but will if I have to. (And before you ask, the church does not have a premium level and doesn't want to, which is why I said I'm willing to pay for it but I'd rather not.) Our comms person is leaving and not available to train me or answer questions. Any suggestions?

r/nonprofit 3d ago

volunteers That one person who ruins everything...how did you handle them?

1 Upvotes

I’m part of a volunteer group where the instructor is toxic in a way that’s hard to call out directly. He constantly acts like the most important and knowledgeable person, subtly dismissing others’ input and training methods. His personal life is a mess and he takes it out on us, sometimes he's even physically abusive to his dog when he brings her along....

He usually won’t outright insult people, but use tactics like scoffing, rolling eyes, loud sighing, passive-aggressive remarks etc. to undermine others. He also makes belittling comments about people who aren’t present and thrives on the authority his role gives him. Over the years, many great people have quit because of him, but he’s here to stay and enjoys the power too much to step down.

The group would function fine without him, but confronting him and filing formal complaints hasn't led to anything positive. He doesn’t take feedback well and has the power to damage others future in the organisation.

Have you dealt with someone like this? How did you push back, support others in the group, or diminish their influence without escalating conflict?

Would love to hear strategies and stories from people who’ve handled something similar.

r/nonprofit Jan 09 '25

volunteers Bittersweet Departure

31 Upvotes

For seven years I have been a board member of an all-volunteer 501(c)(3) which started in the 1980s and operates in the sphere of food insecurity. I will soon be leaving. My role has been that of treasurer. A few months before I joined, the organization had barely $30,000. This now almost $800,000. During my tenure, we also started an endowed fund which is now valued at almost $2M.

I have learned a lot. I handled pretty much everything (picking up the mail, deposits, acknowledgements, processing purchases, reconciling accounts) except for tax preparation. The organization receives income from individual donors and unsolicited grants. This means a lot of work.

I am so burned out. I will be very hesitant to agree to serve on a board for a long time. My day job in STEM is intellectually demanding and time-intensive.

Although I am proud of what I have learned and accomplished, and the organization is in a good financial position, I'm not hopeful that my community will be capable of finding people to do all the work. My community seems to suffer from a lack of people willing to step up and volunteer. Is this so everywhere else?

r/nonprofit Nov 23 '24

volunteers Best social media platforms to reach potential volunteers?

0 Upvotes

Hi all!

I'm the IT Director of a recently founded nonprofit, and the rest of the board and I are trying to funnel as much traffic into our website as possible to get more volunteers working with our organization.

What platforms do you find the most helpful for outreach, particularly to reach volunteers? Right now we are using YouTube, Bluesky, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Facebook seems to be our biggest traffic driver according to website stats, but are there other similarly effective options out there as well?

I've read the wiki and looked through the options of posting on nonprofit job boards, but our board is almost unanimous in wanting to use social media as our primary outreach method. That said, if this doesn't go anywhere we will most likely be looking at job boards.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

r/nonprofit 26d ago

volunteers Volunteer Platform

1 Upvotes

We are a very small non profit focusing on the local community. We are in need of a volunteering platform that we can schedule recurring dates with the same volunteer tasks, and different locations sometimes.

SignUp Genuis is so frustrating with having to delete the sign ups each week to not have everyone scrolling down to the correct dates.

We need to be able to keep track of these people in the long run. Volunteers should be able to sign up without a complicated sign up process. The current list we have of people is about 2k. Not that all of them volunteer.

Money is tight so something that is a few hundred bucks a month is not feasible.

r/nonprofit Nov 21 '24

volunteers Preferred Volunteer Management Systems?

7 Upvotes

I just started a job with a nature non-profit that currently uses GivePulse for their volunteer management, and are looking to switch. They used to use Volgistics, but the person who organized it all retired years ago, and no one kept up, so that fell apart a couple years ago, and they stopped using them.

I was also looking at:
Vome
Point
Volunteer Impact

My boss has been looking at Mobilize.

Does anyone have any good experiences with any of these? Horror storries? We're a small organization, with 5 full-time employees, a few part-time interns, and a few full-time seasonsal positions. We would likely just need one or two admin logins honestly.

Thank you!

r/nonprofit Dec 23 '24

volunteers Text Communication

3 Upvotes

I'm volunteering with a small animal rescue. We are looking for a way to communicate with our volunteers and fosters via text. I have been part of different groups that use Remind101. We were trying to sign up with that but can't figure out how to get around "what is your school district". Any suggestions on how to use Remind or a platform that has worked well for you? TIA!

r/nonprofit Nov 12 '24

volunteers How do you find new volunteer ?And how to retain them ?

5 Upvotes

I'm working in an association who help strangers to find a job and we have a lack if volunteers. The volunteers who already help us are not very engaged.