High Impact Teams Case Study: The Metro Volunteers VIP Program

We spend a lot of time touting the value of skilled volunteers – advocating the engagement of entrepreneurial volunteers who can take an idea from conception to implementation – and championing the capacity-building potential of high impact volunteer teams. And yet, this week I sat and marveled at a team with whom I’ve been working for the past ten months as we met to discuss how to transition a pilot project into an ongoing program offering at our local volunteer center, Metro Volunteers in Denver, CO.  The best part of the meeting? The point when this productive group was scheduling the next gathering and I was able to say, “Here’s my offer: I won’t come to that meeting.” In other words, congratulations – this program belongs to you and the most helpful thing I can do is get out of the way as you take it and run.

Since January, JFFixler & Associates has partnered with Metro Volunteers to develop a program in which skilled Boomer volunteers are trained as facilitators to help nonprofits build capacity through engaging other skilled Boomer volunteers. Through this "VIP Program" (Volunteers with Impact and Purpose), each facilitator is paired with a local nonprofit and, over a six-month period, provides training and support to a task force from that organization. The task force learns effective approaches to Boomer volunteer engagement and implements a small pilot project to apply and practice these new skills. Among the pilot projects currently underway is one nonprofit’s effort to engage a volunteer sales force to sell sponsorships of its new website, while another organization has established a team of volunteers to conduct group interviews and serve as team leaders for a large recruitment of interpretive volunteers for a new exhibit.

One key to the program’s success is modeling the use of skilled Boomer volunteers at all levels. The six nonprofits are engaging Boomers to help fill needs identified through a needs assessment. The Facilitators are themselves Boomer volunteers – an impressive cohort of six skilled women who bring varied experience from the corporate and nonprofit worlds, as volunteer directors, executives, instructors, and more. And, how is this whole program managed? By a team of volunteers, of course!

At the core of the team are three Boomer volunteers: a retired executive director of a local urban wildlife refuge, a retired corporate analyst who recently returned to Denver after years of work in Alaska, and a former volunteer director who still consults part-time. Together, these three serve as the Operations Team. The Executive Director of Metro Volunteers also attends the Operations Team meetings, to ensure that the program aligns with the bigger strategic priorities for Metro Volunteers and to support the volunteers, and I attend as well, serving as the content consultant for the program.

From the start, this “Ops Team,” as we call it, has been charged with providing overall management of the initial program development and guiding the transition into permanent program status within Metro Volunteers.  And here’s where it gets fun. Over the past nine months, the team has quite successfully handled the day to day functions of the program. While we at JFFixler & Associates developed the recruitment materials, Facilitator trainings, and the tools being used by the Facilitators with the nonprofits, the Ops Team reviewed and provided feedback on the materials and strategies for the program, handled the recruiting and selection of both Facilitators and nonprofits, developed communication tools, and provided insight on success and challenges of the delivery of the program.

At this point, we have learned a great deal about what works well and which aspects of the program need some tweaking and it’s time to look ahead. For JFFixler & Associates, we will take what we’ve learned and develop an online tool kit to accompany our book, Boomer Volunteer Engagement: Collaborate Today, Thrive Tomorrow for volunteer centers and nonprofits to replicate this type of endeavor in their own organizations. Meanwhile, Metro Volunteers is exploring how to transition this program from “pilot” to an ongoing program offering.

Last Tuesday, the Ops Team grappled with tough realities of sustainability, of nonprofits’ needs to work on their own schedule, of meeting the needs of both working and retired Boomers, and more. But never was there a question of whether Metro Volunteers has the capacity to manage the program. Why? Because the members of this Ops Team had all signed on to continue managing the program. With the addition of a VISTA volunteer to build capacity in poverty related nonprofit organizations and two new volunteers with experience in business development and human resources, the Ops Team will sustain and grow this program, thereby expanding Metro Volunteers’ program offerings while not requiring significant time from Metro Volunteers staff.

So, there it is. Our pilot program grew out of the idea that, if Boomers could grow an organization’s capacity, why not use Boomers to facilitate that process? And, if we developed a program to engage Boomers to facilitate such a process, who better to develop and manage such a process than experienced Boomers? Through the vision of Metro Volunteers and the support of our funding partners, Volunteer Match, Rose Community Foundation, and the Jay and Rose Phillips Family Foundation, that seedling of an idea is now ready to move from pilot to a sustainable program. Stay tuned for more news of how this program will continue at Metro Volunteers and for announcements about our online Tool Kit that will include the facilitators’ guide and tools developed for this project. The tool kit will be developed and available through our partner, VolunteerMatch. 

How have you used volunteer teams to develop and implement new initiatives?

How did you balance your team between volunteers, staff, advisors, and others?

How have you transitioned pilot projects to sustainable programs?

Please share your stories.