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You need a framework to produce a volunteer strategy A volunteer strategy needs to have three key elements. You need to identify your labor needs: what is it that your organization needs help with? This is then followed by looking at the types of volunteer offer that does or could come from the community, and is completed by thinking about barriers, especially legal ones, to local residents and employees being able to help on certain tasks. Figure 4.2 outlines this three-pronged strategy. A comprehensive volunteer strategy comes from careful consideration of all three questions. Figure 4.2: A framework for preparing a volunteer strategy (source: author based on a framework used by the City of Plano, Texas) #1 — Overall labor needs One volunteer manager working for a city government recreation and parks department revealed that one of her biggest challenges is getting staff to accept volunteers and to understand their role. It is only after staff see the potential value of someone helping them that they accept the role of a volunteer. Any volunteer strategy starts by asking staff: • to outline any areas of work where they feel overloaded; • where projects have been on the back-burner for a long-time; and • where they have ideas for tasks that volunteers might help with. 141 | The New Barn-Raising
When resources for paid staff, whether from taxes or elsewhere, are cut back, this creates demands for volunteers to supplant paid staff where possible. Table 4.2 outlines a couple of scenarios where cuts have required the adoption of volunteers. The essential difference between the two is that of timing. This supplanting volunteering has been attempted to varying degrees in the case study areas, most notably with volunteer adoption of city park maintenance in Detroit. Table 4.2: Securing volunteers in times of scarce resources Scenario Strategy Rationale Risks Cuts have been needed in the past Replace posts with volunteer staff • get back to former staff levels • avoid low staff morale that comes with redundancy • increase absolute and real (i.e. percentage) element of voluntarism Low-Medium — The remaining workforce, especially in a distressed community or city, may welcome help in alleviating the workload. Cuts are needed Make staff redundant and immediately replace them with volunteers • keep up staff levels and introduce greater absolute and real element of voluntarism Medium-High — If an asset has a unionized workforce, they will object very strongly unless they can be persuaded that job losses were not optional. As Table 4.2 shows, both strategies carry significant risk. One volunteer coordinator from outside the case study areas revealed that her city government had a layoff in 1993, and yet there was still resistance from remaining staff to replace that person with volunteers. As she put it, “it just wasn’t seen as right. And if I sought to increase the share of volunteer staff without a funding problem, none of the departments would trust me let alone talk to me.” As will be seen, there are also legal barriers to pursuing this latter (more ideological) course. #2 — Community help and its limits Volunteers can help assets through their work for the local government departments responsible for the assets or through their involvement with non-profits that manage or support city-owned assets. They can do this through assisting in five types of tasks: • protecting and promoting assets — by making and delivering the case for keeping or creating an asset; • marketing the asset offer — by letting people know what is on offer by preparing a newsletter and community outreach (going out door-to-door and telling people); • fundraising — by applying for grants, running fundraising events and crowd-resourcing campaigns, and approaching philanthropists and businesses; • management of assets — by serving on boards or a building management team through to recruiting and coordinating other volunteers. A recent Minnesota for Volunteer Administration report found 46 percent of organizations, not necessarily asset-specific ones, reported involving volunteers in leadership positions or project management; and • the delivery of services — by performing a variety of tasks specific to different types of assets such as guides in art museums; receptionists in libraries; interpretive guides at nature centers in parks; coaches in sports leagues; gathering data for surveys of open space, 104 wildlife, or environmental quality in parks; or running a social media awareness course in a senior center (for example, helping people Skype their relatives). 104 In Baltimore, a local non-profit, Baltimore Green Space, has mapped city land being used by communities using geo-coded photos taken on smartphones by volunteers. In Detroit, LocalData, a non-profit start-up, has developed a smartphone-centered toolkit to help community groups, professional planners, and government agencies modernize community-led data collection of place-based information. The organization has now successfully worked with planners, non-profits, and academics across the country. The key difference to the Baltimore Greenspace process is that data is automatically processed online through the software with no need for paid or pro bono help with analysis. Raising Help | 142
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THE NEW BARN-RAISING A toolkit for
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CONTENTS Summaries ................
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STRATEGY #1 — Raising Awareness I
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STRATEGY #3 — Raising Help In the
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• non-profit bodies (from civic-s
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The “New Barn-Raising” refers t
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Theme 2 — Market your assets Mark
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The advantage of these different ta
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Theme 6 — Public fundraising can
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Theme 10 — Business can best supp
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Theme 12 — Volunteering with asse
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INTRODUCTION This toolkit is direct
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In late 2011 and early 2012, people
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RAISING AWARENESS ABOUT YOUR ASSETS
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continued Table 2.1: A check-list o
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Who could support your assets? This
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Partnership With a partnership mode
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Table 2.2: Benefits for users - a c
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Table 2.4: Examples of the types of
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#1 — The “Killer Stat” Peavey
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Figure 2.7: Baltimore compared to o
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Figure 2.9: One of several punchy t
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Box 2.2: Recognize the skills that
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Delivering your message — messeng
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Figure 2.11: East Phillips delegate
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Figure 2.13: Barn-raising spirit -
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Draw attention to your “asset off
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Of particular use for local residen
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Figure 2.17: Example of the DIA’s
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#3 — You can take people on tours
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This is an ongoing map that can be
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Figure 2.24: Baltimore’s Fluid Mo
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As part of Hockey Weekend Across Am
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Figure 2.29: Poster for the 6th Ann
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Figure 2.30: Frogtown Gardens raise
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Table 3.1: Taxes used to raise fund
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Box 3.1: Check-list of questions to
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Your asset managers need to use mon
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Table 3.4: Efficiency measures used
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Reductions in staff, asset numbers
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Table 3.5: Examples of charges comm
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Figure 3.4: Free entry for some gro
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Incentivize and support charging Wh
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You can rent space in assets to gen
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Your local government can secure re
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Box 3.4: Public-Private Partnership
Page 93 and 94: • Hand over a building that is an
Page 95 and 96: Community non-profits could be allo
Page 97 and 98: You can raise money and awareness b
Page 99 and 100: Figure 3.12: A memorial bench sold
Page 101 and 102: Figure 3.14: The annual and very po
Page 103 and 104: Elderly constant givers are a good
Page 105 and 106: Wealthier neighborhoods still have
Page 107 and 108: Young professional asset-supporter
Page 109 and 110: Figure 3.18: a potential fundee add
Page 111 and 112: Box 3.6: Getting high-net-worth ind
Page 113 and 114: Figure 3.20: A Detroit4Detroit webp
Page 115 and 116: Figure 3.21: Mowtown - example of a
Page 117 and 118: The barn-raising spirit is also see
Page 119 and 120: Charitable Foundations can add to y
Page 121 and 122: Table 3.15: Asset-related roles tha
Page 123 and 124: Encourage foundations to make their
Page 125 and 126: Help non-profit asset support organ
Page 127 and 128: Certainly, businesses have been an
Page 129 and 130: Table 3.20: Examples of mutually be
Page 131 and 132: Several factors can help you in dev
Page 133 and 134: Having co-operatives in your busine
Page 135 and 136: Box 3.12: Secrets of their success
Page 137 and 138: Table 3.24: Encouraging customer gi
Page 139 and 140: Table 3.25: Comparing the fee and a
Page 141 and 142: RAISING HELP FOR YOUR ASSET The men
Page 143: Figure 4.1: User input — resident
Page 147 and 148: There are physical/logistical reaso
Page 149 and 150: There is a range of mechanisms for
Page 151 and 152: The measures have been largely succ
Page 153 and 154: Figure 4.5: Inside the Baltimore Co
Page 155 and 156: Table 4.5: Understanding the busine
Page 157 and 158: Volunteer managers and non-profits
Page 159 and 160: There are some key practical tips t
Page 161 and 162: There are a range of measures you c
Page 163 and 164: As with donors of money and other r
Page 165 and 166: Table 4.9 outlines a range of natio
Page 167 and 168: Where does the New Barn Raising con
Page 169 and 170: APPENDIX The following section was
Page 171 and 172: If you decide that you do want to s
Page 173 and 174: City of Saint Paul (2010), Transfor
Page 175 and 176: Morrish, R. and Brown, C. (2000), P
Page 177 and 178: CGAP (2012), “Comparing U.S. and
Page 179 and 180: Sargeant, A. and Shang, J. (2010),
Page 181 and 182: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS German Marshall Fu
Page 183 and 184: Rademacher, Jolyn * Rey, Vernon * R
Page 185 and 186: Roberson, Jr., Dalton * Russ, Cathl
Page 187 and 188: Reierson, Gary * Rhodes, Carleen *
Page 189 and 190: Iyer, Seema Jacob France Institute
Page 191 and 192: Referees for, and support with, the
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