Volunteers are special people.  They agree to do a lot of work that you and I would only do if someone paid us.  They save organizations, time, money, benefits, energy and a host of other things.  Often they are our biggest supporters.

Yet we don’t always treat them that way.  We can easily lose sight of what drives them, what motivates them.  This isn’t a condemnation of us.  We often have good intentions to work with volunteers, but we are busy too.  And sometimes volunteer things get pushed to the bottom…

When this happens volunteers start to see the organization differently.  What was once a place of community becomes something else.  We start to develop a discrepancy between our vision and reality.

Of course this is one of the worst things that can happen to a volunteer.  Volunteers are motivated because they want to be part of the team.  They want to feel part of the organization.  People don’t work hard and give up their free time so that they can be ignored by disinterested leaders!

A lot of research has been done on this discrepancy theory.  And in each case it shows that when expectations aren’t met people are less satisfied and less committed.  Which naturally leads to volunteers looking to move into another organization.

There are many organizations that rely heavily on volunteers.  If you’re one of them, make sure you aren’t disconnecting from your volunteers.  Build into them.  Create community.  Stay in contact with them.  Make sure you are meeting their expectations.

photo provided by flickr