The Person Who Makes Volunteering Work

Why Every Organisation Needs a Leader of Volunteers

5 November is International Volunteer Managers Day — an opportunity to recognise the people who make volunteering possible, meaningful and connected to the work of organisations and communities.

Volunteers may be the people who deliver the programme, welcome the visitor, coach the team, support the client, restore the environment or raise the funds. But behind many successful volunteer experiences is another person: the Leader of Volunteers.

And yet, in many organisations, this role remains surprisingly easy to overlook.

It can be seen as administration. A collection of tasks involving recruitment, police checks, rosters, emails, inductions and certificates. Important tasks, certainly — but a much smaller view of the role than its real contribution.

A good Leader of Volunteers is doing something much more significant. They are shaping the relationship between people who want to contribute and the organisation that needs their contribution.

The experience does not happen by accident

Volunteering is a choice. People give their time, skills and energy because something matters to them.

That means the experience they have matters.

From the first enquiry to the first day on site, from meeting other volunteers to understanding their role, from receiving feedback to knowing that their contribution has made a difference, every interaction shapes how a volunteer experiences an organisation.

A Leader of Volunteers helps make those interactions intentional.

They ask questions that can easily be missed elsewhere: Is this role genuinely meaningful? Is it clear what we are asking of people? Do volunteers know where they fit? Are we welcoming people with different abilities, backgrounds and motivations? Are we listening when volunteers tell us something isn't working?

This is not simply volunteer administration. It is experience design.

Connecting volunteering to mission

There is also a deeper organisational reason to value this role.

Volunteers should not sit at the edge of an organisation's work as an additional resource that can be called upon when there is a gap. When volunteering is well designed, volunteers are part of how the organisation achieves its mission.

The Leader of Volunteers can help make that connection visible.

They can challenge a role that exists because "we have always had volunteers doing it" and ask what purpose it serves. They can help programme managers think differently about what volunteers could contribute. They can identify skills and perspectives that volunteers bring that the organisation might otherwise overlook.

Most importantly, they can connect why someone volunteers with why the organisation exists.

That connection is powerful.

When volunteers understand that their contribution is part of something bigger — that serving meals contributes to dignity, coaching contributes to participation, conservation work contributes to the environment, or welcoming visitors contributes to belonging — volunteering becomes more than a list of tasks.

It becomes contribution with purpose.

Culture is everyone's responsibility — but someone needs to champion it

A positive volunteer culture cannot be created by one person alone.

It belongs to the whole organisation.

The CEO, board, managers, paid staff and volunteers all have a role in creating an environment where people feel welcomed, respected and valued.

But someone needs to keep asking whether that culture is actually being experienced by volunteers. That is another important role of the Leader of Volunteers.

They are often the person who sees across the volunteer journey and notices the gaps between organisational intention and volunteer experience.

An organisation might say it values volunteers, but are volunteers included in conversations? Are they introduced properly? Are their contributions acknowledged? Do paid staff understand how to work effectively alongside them? Are volunteers treated as contributors rather than simply as "extra pairs of hands"?

The Leader of Volunteers can be the bridge between organisational culture and volunteer experience.

And sometimes that means having the confidence to ask difficult questions.

So, what are we resourcing?

This brings us to an uncomfortable question.

If volunteers are important to delivering our mission, why do we sometimes resource the person responsible for supporting them as though their role is secondary?

A Leader of Volunteers needs time.

Time to recruit well rather than simply fill vacancies. Time to develop meaningful roles. Time to build relationships with programme managers. Time to listen to volunteers. Time to address issues before they become problems. Time to evaluate what is working. Time to think strategically about where volunteering could contribute in the future.

They also need professional development.

Volunteer management is changing. Expectations around inclusion, safeguarding, accessibility, technology, wellbeing, risk, generational change and the nature of volunteering are continually evolving.

A Leader of Volunteers cannot be expected to keep pace with all of this simply by adding another task to an already crowded workload.

If we believe volunteering contributes to our mission, then investing in the leadership of volunteering is an organisational investment — not an overhead to be minimised.

We need to support the people who support volunteers

This is where the wider volunteering sector has an important role.

Leaders of Volunteers should not have to work it all out alone.

At Volunteering Auckland, part of our role is to support the people who support volunteers — through information, resources, networking, consultation, professional development and opportunities to learn from others doing similar work.

Because leadership of volunteers can sometimes be an isolated role. Having somewhere to ask a question, test an idea, share a challenge or simply discover that someone else is facing the same issue can make a significant difference.

Professional support also helps keep volunteering practice moving forward.

We should be encouraging Leaders of Volunteers to ask not only "How do I manage our volunteers?" but

"How could volunteering help our organisation achieve its purpose better?"

That is a very different question.

A challenge for organisations this International Volunteer Managers Day
On 5 November, we can celebrate the Leaders of Volunteers in our organisations. But perhaps the better celebration is to ask what we are doing to enable them to succeed.

Do they have enough time?
Do they have a voice at the table?
Are they included in organisational planning?
Do they have access to professional development?
Are they supported by senior leadership?

And most importantly, does the organisation recognise that the quality of its volunteer experience is connected to the quality of the leadership it provides for volunteering?

Volunteers give their time because they care.

The people who lead and support them deserve an organisation that cares enough to resource their role properly.

This International Volunteer Managers Day, let's recognise the Leaders of Volunteers — not simply for managing volunteering, but for helping people connect, contribute and make the organisation's mission happen.