VOLUNTEER ENGAGEMENT

WHAT WE DO

• Volunteer Engagement
• Strategic Planning
• Board & Organizational Development
• Board & Organizational Assessment

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jill's research into and exploration of the unique capabilities of “Baby Boomer” volunteers is incredibly insightful and powerfully useful.

— Randal Simonetti, President
Upstate New York Chapter
National Multiple Sclerosis Society

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I want to thank you for the wonderful work you did for our community.  The comments we received regarding your presentations have been off the chart, beyond outstanding.  I heard from more than one person that it was the best training they ever attended.

 

Diane Stobnicke, Division Director
Volunteers of America, Northern Colorado

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In my rural community, if we aren’t innovative our needs aren’t gong to be met. Jill and her team helped us see wheat we need, plan how to get there, and get people to be part of it. Our people and funds are growing, we can handle all the requests, and I am thrilled.

Melody Maskus, Program Director, RFVP of Lincoln and Kit Carson Counties.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

JFFixler and Associates provided consultation services that changed how we operate. Jill Friedman Fixler engaged and challenged our staff at every level, to adapt a new approach to creating high impact engagement opportunities for our most valuable resource, volunteers. We have learned how to expand our organizations capacity by leveraging the talents of our many volunteer partners to accomplish the goals of the National MS Society and the people we serve.
In one year we have had tremendous success utilizing the capacity building philosophy. Volunteers strengthen our movement by sharing their knowledge and talents and in turn engage other high level volunteers. For example, PlanningWise, developed partnerships with professionals in law, finance and counseling who volunteer to work with individuals who have multiple sclerosis and are in danger of losing their job and health care benefits. This initiative has been so successful that donors and foundations have become interested in funding program expansion.
The momentum created from the culture shift is truly exciting. We are now an organization looking ahead at hundreds of new possibilities that will be enriched and successful because of our skill based volunteer program.

Mark Neagli, Lone Star Chapter President
Debbie Pope, Vice President of Operations, Marketing, & Development
National Multiple Sclerosis Society

 

Imagine what would be possible if your nonprofit had all the resources it needs. High impact volunteer engagement connects nonprofits to the abundant resources they need to fulfill mission by inviting community members to share their expertise and collaborate with staff and board members to build sustainable organizational capacity. Our proven approach is facilitative: nonprofit leaders discover the most effective ways to access and retain this abundant volunteer resource, and how to get the results they want.

Adapting organizational-development and change-management theory to create a culture of volunteer engagement, we guide clients along a specific volunteer engagement arc:

• Together with the client, we conduct a critical analysis of the organization’s ability to fulfill its mission
• We update traditional skills, such as interviewing, and address challenging situations, including volunteers who are not working out.
• We share new approaches to volunteer engagement designed for nonprofit success, such as identifying critical intervention points and convening powerful communities of action.
• Throughout the effort, our clients align their volunteer engagement efforts with vision, mission, and strategic planning.

Tipping Into Abundance: Volunteer Engagement Arc

Engagement Tools	Creating the Tipping Point	Sustaining the Culture
Identifying Critical Intervention Points	Identifying Critical Intervention Points	Living Volunteer Engagement Competencies
Motivational Assessment	Convening Communities of Action	Storytelling for Core Constituents
What to Do When It's Not Working	Performance Measurement

 

Experience the possibilities and develop a customized workplan for your nonprofit through a JFFixler workshop. Examples of our professional development workshops include:

• Creating a Culture of Volunteer Engagement
• Boomer Volunteer Engagement: Gateway to Capacity Building
• Strategic Planning Tools and Techniques for Volunteer Programs

Through our interactive workshops, staff and volunteers learn to:

• Focus volunteer effort on the most pressing organizational priorities and critical community needs
• Showcase the results of volunteers’ efforts
• Share leadership – empowering volunteers to own programs and services  and suggest new ideas and innovations
• Co-design compelling, purposeful volunteer experiences
• Increase the personal capacity of staff and volunteers
• Respond to emerging trends including social networking, cultural competency, performance measurement, and life balance

Our consulting, training, facilitation, and coaching services actively involve volunteers in the initial assessment and throughout the collaboration. Our programs range from a day-long overview of volunteer engagement as a strategy for organizational capacity building to an 18-month reengineering of an organization’s culture from staff-driven volunteer management to collaborative volunteer engagement. Every workshop includes practical tools our clients can use immediately, such as:

• Organizational Needs Assessment
• Volunteer Engagement Assessment
• Case Statement Model
• Work Plan and Progress Report Templates

Leverage the unique interests and passions of Baby Boomers and generations that follow.  Baby Boomers and the generations that follow seek meaningful volunteer opportunities. If nonprofits are to thrive well into the future, they must move beyond what staff members can do alone. They must have reliable human and financial resources to fulfill their missions, reach new communities, and address emergent community needs now and into the future. When volunteers are engaged as partners in the work of the organization and share in the ownership of their remarkable success, their story spreads and becomes the tipping point – an irresistible invitation – for others to join in the effort.

We invite you to join us in re-imagining the future for your nonprofit. JFFixler & Associates includes three generations of professionals – and lifelong volunteers – who have created an intentionally collaborative firm to strengthen nonprofit organizations.  Our work applies to any nonprofit ready to use volunteers in sophisticated ways – and especially to leaders who aren’t sure those high impact volunteers exist. Join us and learn to cultivate imaginative staff and volunteer leaders, and to access all the resources you need now and in the future.

 

The following case study gives you an idea of how we approach volunteer engagement.

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Case Study:

Fort Collins Volunteer Center; Directors of Volunteers in Agencies; Volunteers of America; and United Way of Northern Colorado

The Challenge

As financial resources diminish and the need for services grows, nonprofit organizations find themselves in the difficult situation of trying to do more with less.  Volunteers have been a highly valued resource in confronting this dilemma.  Boomer volunteers will bring greater skills and challenges than most volunteer programs are equipped to handle.  Effectively utilizing the skills and talents of Boomer volunteers requires organizations to make the shift from volunteer management to volunteer engagement.

The Solution

JFFixler & Associates created a series of three Volunteer Engagement workshops that were offered to members of the Northern Colorado Volunteers of America and Larimer County United Way Volunteer Center, and Directors of Volunteers In Agencies (DOVIA).  The workshops provided an interactive learning experience for nonprofit leaders that:

• Distilled research on Boomers and related the findings to engaging Boomers in the nonprofit sector.
• Provided tools for nonprofits to assess their readiness for Boomer engagement.
• Provided information and tools for creating a plan for Boomer volunteer engagement.
• Helped nonprofit organizations gain a competitive edge in developing strategies to reach Boomers.
• Helped nonprofit organizations shift from volunteer management to creating and maintaining a culture of volunteer engagement.

The Results

Nonprofit leaders from 40 organizations in Northern Colorado participated in the three workshops during which they:

Completed a Volunteer Readiness Assessment to determine their  organization’s readiness to fully utilize Boomer volunteers.

• Developed skills in the 7 Core Competencies for Creating a Culture of Volunteer Engagement:
• Needs Assessment
• Organizational Support
• Effective Recruitment
• Orientation
• Interviewing & Placement
• Supervision & Support
• Volunteer Retention
• Created Volunteer Position Descriptions to put to immediate use in recruiting Boomer volunteers.
• Created a Volunteer Development Plan

These nonprofit leaders returned to their organizations armed with new knowledge, skills, and tools that were put to immediate use in creating a culture of volunteer engagement and building organizational capacity.