The Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Phoenix had beautiful spreadsheets with a variety of ways to track volunteer activity. They monitored several statistics and analyzed trends over time. Despite all these data points, they could not figure out why some of the numbers did not meet their goals. One indicator especially concerned them: retention rates. They were successful at recruiting new volunteers. However, many of them served once but did not return. The team was not sure why.
A Wake-Up Call
Low retention rates were one of the issues that the team prioritized as part of their participation in the Strategic Volunteer Engagement (SVE) Project in Arizona. During a monthly coaching call with their consultant, part of the issue became clear. There was a lot of review of “fill rates” and volunteer numbers but little discussion of the people who were doing the work. The staff were focused more on data than the volunteer-staff partnership. That moment was a wake-up call for the team.
The Tyranny of Numbers
The team’s experience highlights a tension involved in collecting and using data: finding a balance between numbers and the people they represent. Increasingly, there is pressure for nonprofits and volunteer engagement to be more data driven. However, it is important to collect data that are meaningful and relevant. Ideally, data selection flows from an organization’s purpose and values. Data can help determine the extent or ways in which volunteers are contributing to the mission and operations and how their involvement aligns with values.
For the St. Vincent’s team and their faith-based mission, the values component was especially important. They realized that a long list of agency needs had subtly shifted their focus to checking off tasks rather than partnering with the community to meet shared goals. Once they realized what had happened, it gave them pause to reconsider their relationship with the data.
The Right Data for the Right Questions
Their challenge reflects a bigger issue for organizations that involve volunteers. The indicators that are easiest to capture – volunteer numbers and hours – do not tell the full story of volunteer engagement. In St. Vincent’s case, the overall volunteer numbers looked promising from year to year. They needed to pair the volunteer numbers with retention rates and staff insights to discover a meaningful pattern though. The deeper look revealed that seemingly “good” numbers were partly a function of a revolving door of volunteers.
To address the issue, they had to leave the spreadsheets behind and examine the human dynamics of the volunteer experience. Poor volunteer retention was at odds with their value of cultivating relationships, which prompted new questions. What happened – or didn’t happen – once volunteers signed up and served? What could the organization do differently to encourage them to return? Were there any patterns between the volunteers who returned and those who didn’t? Collecting additional data about volunteer processes and interactions provided important context. It also illuminated next steps for the team to enhance retention.
Data as a By-Product Not a Driver
As the team moves forward, they are shifting their relationship with volunteer engagement data. Their goal is not to recruit and retain volunteers just to “meet the numbers”. Rather, the numbers are a by-product of their efforts to engage the community in meeting the mission. Putting the focus on cultivating relationships and positive experiences aligns the volunteer department with the organization mission and values.
What’s more, the early signs point to this approach yielding stronger volunteer retention, too. Focusing on the right thing for the right reasons is delivering better numbers in a way that focusing on higher numbers alone could not. One of the development team members summed up their shift in mindset and practice well, saying they now see volunteers as “a partner, not just a solution to a need.”
That sentiment is gaining more traction, including at Independent Sector. Its launch of the Center for Nonprofit Workforce Excellence is a testament to investing resources and meaningful data in all the ways that work gets done in nonprofits: from staff and contractors to volunteers and national service members.
The nonprofit sector’s challenges won’t be solved by just collecting more volunteer data. We need meaningful data to capture the full participation and outcomes of engaging those volunteers as partners.
Sue Carter Kahl, PhD is President of Sue Carter Kahl Consulting. Her work helps bridge the gap between research and practice in volunteer engagement.
Photo credit: Black Ice on Pexels
