Volunteer Training Program @ CalPoly San Louis Obispo

By Nick Bilich, VIP Lead with the Gender Equity Center, a partner site of CalPoly San Luis Obispo

An aspect of capacity building that we’ve implemented this spring at the Gender Equity Center is our updated volunteer training program.  A crucial aspect of designing any capacity building project is answering the “why?” question for potential volunteers—Why volunteer with our organization?

Our Center is (like a LOT of nonprofits) focused on aspects of social justice.  Many potential volunteers can be unaware of:

1. the ability to become involved in a movement they’re passionate about, and 
2. that our site provides the opportunity to exercise their energy and talent towards an important goal.  

Thus, this training project is designed to educate our community about WHY our Center exists, and show people the impact volunteers can have by investing in the Gender Equity Center.

A specific tip I’d like to highlight as we’ve designed this training is how it’s marketed to highly invested volunteers AND marginally invested volunteers.  The first group is comprised of those passionate about gender identity education, feminism, and social change.  These volunteers are attracted to the potential ability to impact our community through the education they receive, and the subsequent application.  It takes less of an effort to attract these volunteers, because they seek out these opportunities and education.  

The second group however, is not as deeply concerned about the goals of the volunteering, but is looking for some added value gained in the experience.  For us, it’s important to emphasize that our volunteer training is a GREAT resume builder!  Socially competent employees are very attractive in today’s job market, and our volunteer training can provide someone education to increase their understanding of what types of people could potentially be in their workplace.  Also, volunteering gives the individual opportunity to cite the hours they’ve devoted to our Center on their resume.  Mentioning all these aspects of the volunteer training allows us to throw the net wider than we might have otherwise.

I would encourage those developing similar programs/trainings to consider how they can market to groups who might be in the “marginally invested” category.  You might get more volunteers than you think!

Nick (bottom left) and other VIP Fellows as part of a human mesa.