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Ariel Glassman, CEO and founder of Common Great, joined us on _____ to present on the vital role that volunteer management plays in advancing nonprofit careers. In a discussion with our CEO, Geng Wang, she identifies how to leverage volunteer management roles for growing in your nonprofit role. Keep reading below for the key insights from the presentation followed by the full transcript!
Interested in watching the recording? Watch Here!
Key Insights:
1. Career Paths from Volunteer Management
Volunteer management opens doors to a range of nonprofit roles, from program management to development and donor relations. The experience gained in managing volunteers—such as organizing events, coordinating teams, and developing engagement strategies—offers a skill set that’s highly valued in nonprofit leadership.
2. Leverage Existing Skills from Volunteer Management
The skills developed in volunteer management, such as communication, leadership, and organizational ability, are valuable assets across the nonprofit sector. Ariel highlighted how these transferable skills not only enhance current roles but also set professionals up for success in areas like fundraising, program direction, and executive positions.
3. Building Relationships That Can Help You Transition to a New Path
One key point emphasized was the power of networking within the nonprofit community. Volunteer managers can foster connections with other professionals, potential mentors, and leaders who may provide support or guidance for future career moves. Building these relationships can be instrumental in opening doors to new opportunities. The webinar highlighted the importance of viewing volunteers as potential advocates and donors. Developing meaningful connections can lead to increased support for an organization, both financially and socially. Participants were encouraged to foster relationships with volunteers that reflect a long-term vision for mutual growth and support.
4. Portraying Experience and Skills in Resumes and Career Materials
Effectively showcasing volunteer management experience on a resume or LinkedIn profile can set you apart. Geng advised participants to focus on quantifiable achievements, like volunteer retention rates or event success metrics, and highlight leadership experiences to reflect a well-rounded skill set. Both Geng and Ariel encouraged attendees to pursue networking and continuous learning. Staying connected with other professionals and seeking opportunities to learn new skills—whether in management, fundraising, or digital engagement—can significantly advance a nonprofit career.
Conclusion
Strategic volunteer management can be a powerful tool for career growth in the nonprofit world. Whether you're just starting or looking to advance, leveraging your skills in managing and engaging volunteers can open doors to meaningful opportunities.
Transcript
Disclaimer:
This transcript was generated using an automated transcription service and has not been edited for accuracy. As a result, it may contain errors, omissions, or inaccuracies. Please refer to the audio/video recording for the most accurate representation of the content.
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Geng (pronounced Gung): Awesome.
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Geng (pronounced Gung): But with that let me make sure that I can
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Geng (pronounced Gung): share. I think I'm already sharing my screen.
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Geng (pronounced Gung): But let me
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Geng (pronounced Gung): we share. Okay? Great? So then, the topic for today, I'm super excited about leveraging volunteer management to advance your nonprofit career.
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Geng (pronounced Gung): And so my name is Gung Wang, and I'm the CEO and co-founder of civic Champs here. And so this is a little background on myself. I went to Michigan State for my undergrad went to business school, worked in consulting, and then did a lot of other sort of for-profit tech companies, including rent jungle and started civic champs about 5 years ago with some of my friends, and I've really enjoyed it. Loved it.
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Geng (pronounced Gung): you know, working with you all in terms of helping folks with their volunteer management. So that's kind of my passion. And today, you know, we have this really cool opportunity, because I feel like a lot of times. Our webinars are about kind of tactically how to help you with your your job right? Recruiting volunteers, engaging, retaining volunteers, converting volunteers to donors, etc, marketing to them. But today is one of our sessions
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Geng (pronounced Gung): that's really for you all, hopefully, and thinking about your career and how you can leverage your volunteer management experience. In your sort of nonprofit journey. So with that, I'll sort of introduce our guest for today.
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Geng (pronounced Gung): It's Ariel from Glassman from common. Great, and she is going to talk about how you can leverage your volunteer experience so but let me turn it over to her, and to say a little bit more.
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Ariel Glassman: Awesome. We will get my screen share going right here.
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Ariel Glassman: Place current share. Awesome. Thanks, zoom.
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Ariel Glassman: and let's go. Okay.
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Ariel Glassman: So Hi, everybody. As Gung mentioned. I'm Arielle Glassman. I am the founder and CEO of common great, common. Great is a boutique consulting company for nonprofits. We do development communications and technology related to those things. We're in Seattle, Washington. I am a lifelong fundraiser. It's all I've ever done from my 1st internship in my I think, after my senior year of college to where I am now.
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Ariel Glassman: I spent about 10 years in the field as a fundraiser for a variety of different organizations before becoming a consultant, and I've been a consultant for the past 12 years, 1st working for a regional agency, then on my own, and then I started common grade a couple of years ago to bring a broader and more holistic vision about what fundraising could be, including lenses of equity and marketing and digital transformation to small and midsize organizations across the country, and, in fact, on 4 continents. Now, which is really cool.
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Ariel Glassman: I am a member, and have taught workshops for the Association of Fundraising Professionals, which is our Industries professional Association. Among many other organizations I love teaching Super happy to be in front of you today
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Ariel Glassman: I went to Stanford, although I haven't gone to grad school, and I wanted to throw a bone here to my favorite nonprofit organization teen ticks, where I'm a board member which is in Seattle, but slowly conquering the world with a very specific methodology for youth, arts, engagement in different cities around the country, and so wanted to give a shout out to teen ticks as I spoke to some other nonprofiteers today.
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Ariel Glassman: So
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Ariel Glassman: -
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Ariel Glassman: couple of logistics, so you'll get recordings and slides after this. So feel free to just check right in. You want to take notes. That's great. But you don't have to. I'm gonna try to burn through my content in about 30 min or so. I just leave plenty of time. Spacious time for QA. Because I know that's where we really get to the heart of how this information connects for you all, and really applies to you.
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Ariel Glassman: Feel free to pop your questions in the chat throughout. And then, as we move into the Q&A. Gung and the team and I will look at them and and just try to address as many of them as we can, and I don't know as much about this, but stay till the end, because I know that the team has some freebies for you.
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Ariel Glassman: Okay.
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Ariel Glassman: before we dive in.
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Ariel Glassman: I just, you know, Little Poll, to to see how everybody's doing today and where we're at. So on a scale of one to dog. How are you today? Go ahead and throw your number one through 6 into the chat. I, personally am feeling like a 2, because I love teaching, and I'm very happy to be here.
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Ariel Glassman: So I'm curious where everybody else is on this fine Thursday.
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Ariel Glassman: Choose Yup.
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Ariel Glassman: cool. I love seeing those twos and fours couple of sixes not surprised. We're heading into end of year. Busy season.
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Ariel Glassman: awesome
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Ariel Glassman: lovely.
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Ariel Glassman: I'm a dog person. So I subject everyone to this slide when I teach.
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Ariel Glassman: Okay? So a little bit of insight into what we're going to be talking about today. So first, st we're going to talk about? What are some of the relevant career paths from volunteer management that you could leap towards?
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Ariel Glassman: We will then talk about how you leverage the existing skills what you already do as a volunteer manager, you know, to transition to other to other specialties. How do you build relationships in your current role that can help you with that transition. And then how do you talk about and frame and portray the experience you do have to help you leap into that next framework? So that's our basic outline for today. And we will just dive right in
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Ariel Glassman: so nonprofit career paths. I just want to kind of explore this. And obviously there's a broad variety out there. But here, here are what I would consider like what we the sort of standard 6. So the first, st you know, management and leadership. Those are your Ceos, etc. finance, and then operations. And it. You know everything. That kind of keeps us humming under the surface.
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Ariel Glassman: But more importantly, I want to call out program management development and fundraising and marketing communications because these 4, we're about to dive into sort of what is the skill set in volunteer management that might connect with these other career paths.
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Ariel Glassman: There's a lot of shared skills and transferable skills in the work you do already, very specifically, with program work development work and marketing communications work. So we're going to focus on those 3 as sort of the natural transition points, and it's not to say that a career in volunteer management couldn't help you leapfrog into those other areas. They just naturally, inherently share
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Ariel Glassman: fundamentally sort of less. There's less overlap in what you're already doing the processes you're managing the principles you're working from as a volunteer manager, and I will also say that the path to management and leadership is almost always through one of these other 3 programs, development or marcoms most most commonly programs.
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Ariel Glassman: So really, that one, that one's a product of kind of finding your next leap forward and specializing and then working your way up.
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Ariel Glassman: So that's that's what we really want to dive into today is programs, development and marketing communications. And how do you transfer volunteer management experience into those sectors?
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Ariel Glassman: Alright. So let's jump into that leveraging those existing skills. And I want to call your attention to this graphic, which is, if this is your 1st civic Champs Webinar, it might be the 1st time you're seeing it. But if it's not, it's probably not the 1st time you've seen it. This is actually the civic Champs sort of diagram of the volunteer management cycle that their software plugs into every step of the way.
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Ariel Glassman: and it is a very accurate representation of the work of a volunteer manager, and what I want to name is that when we unpack
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Ariel Glassman: every step of this cycle, there's something in each one of these steps, and each one of these pieces of the cycle that you are already doing that is eminently translatable into one of those other fields that you might be interested in moving over into. So we're just gonna kind of take a look at that. And I want to articulate to some of the ways in which I see the volunteer management skill set already being able to show up in some of these areas that you want to transition to.
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Ariel Glassman: So the 1st one is recruitment, and the foundation of recruitment is attracting people willing to do something that is literally like the heart of development and communications and depending on what sector you're in. It can also be, you know, something that is very valuable in terms of programs like we work with a lot of organizations who part of their program work is actually recruiting participants for leadership development programs or things like that. So that recruiting piece, I think, has very strong resonance.
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Ariel Glassman: With with the the sort of 3 other career tracks here, and I will say that. You know, right now we're working with some clients where you know what they look at as as program recruitment is actually, very much, fundamentally, communications and involves leveraging a number of communication skills and using communications tools. And so there's there's a ton of resonance with this core piece of it here.
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Ariel Glassman: And I think the skills that you use to sort of portray what your volunteer management experience. You know, experience inside the organization is like there's so many things that go into the recruitment cycle. If you thrive in this part, I think there's reason to believe that you can really take that skill set over into these other areas.
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Ariel Glassman: Whoopsies went backwards instead of forwards.
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Ariel Glassman: So the second one is onboarding, and the heart of this is equipping people with knowledge and skills. So in general, this is what managers and leaders do. Fundamentally, your volunteer recruitment. Experience is imbuing you with a set of skills and competencies that
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Ariel Glassman: could be applied almost anywhere in, I would say, like desk worker life, nonprofit life for profit life. So I don't even think that the transferability of this is limited to the nonprofit sector. I think it's very much setting you up to succeed if you want to transition over into the program world.
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Ariel Glassman: In many cases, again, program implementation involves involving people, whether they're volunteers or other staff members or program participants with certain knowledge and skills and kind of conveying how they need to move through a situation that's invaluable experience across the board. And I would say, you know, management and leadership. This could show up. If you're a leader in fundraising or marketing as well, less so it's sort of say more. The entry level. Versions of those jobs.
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Ariel Glassman: The 3rd is scheduling and you know, I sort of interpret this as coordination and logistics management in general. And again, you see this showing up in all 3 of these different work streams. In, I'm personally can speak to. My very 1st job in development was
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Ariel Glassman: coordination logistics for 4 big donor events every year for an organization that had an event heavy fundraising function. That also involves some volunteer management. But I you know, I'm a career fundraiser now, and that is exactly what I got my start doing. And so there's big pieces of this project management coordination logistics inside communications. And again, depending on the programs. I think this can be a very strong component of programmatic work as well.
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Ariel Glassman: So these pieces that seem administrative. They're really part of a shared core at the heart. I think of all nonprofit work. That sets you up to be able to take those skills and move forward with them.
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Ariel Glassman: So the 4th step in that cycle is engaging, and the heart of that is involving and motivating people. And this one again it could. You could not see more resonance with the development and Communications pieces. Now, development and communications are very much in putting things out into the universe and asking people and to to involve themselves back in specific ways.
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Ariel Glassman: They might be asking for different things. But fundamentally, that idea of understanding what you think is motivational to someone, and for what reason, and how you put something in front of them that is effective in getting them to do the thing you want them to do
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Ariel Glassman: that is so transferable. And I think if you find yourself really enjoying the engagement aspect of this, you might actually really enjoy development work. I think development and fundraising work gets a hard rap sometimes for being sort of like, ask, ask your job is to ask for money when in reality, 90% of the work of fundraising is engaging, motivating, and relating with people whether it's through digital means or non digital means. So I think the heart of what fundraising is.
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Ariel Glassman: Really connects with someone who enjoys this piece of the volunteer manage work for sure.
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Ariel Glassman: The next one is retention getting people to continue their involvement. And again, this is one that I think when you look at it from that perspective fundraising certainly has a huge component to retaining someone's attention. You don't just want them to get one gift.
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Ariel Glassman: You want them to become a consistent supporter. Just the way you don't want someone to volunteer once, unless they're not super great at it. You want them to have a consistent volunteer presence in your organization, the same things that you use to get someone from. I'm engaged involved for the 1st time to. I've been here and doing this for 5 years.
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Ariel Glassman: Very similar set of skills. And so I think that one shows up there as well. And I think programs, too, and in terms of communication, certainly with advocacy organizations, a lot of communications for advocacy and policy. Focused organizations is all about people getting people to continue their interest in that thing so that they can be part of the movement to shepherd forward whatever it is that that organization does that's aligned with their values.
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Ariel Glassman: And the final part is report collecting and analyzing data. This is something that I think again very applicable to all 3 of these other fields.
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Ariel Glassman: and I will say that it's something that if you enjoy there are a lot of positions inside things like development and communications and depending on the organization programs. This is an area where nonprofits constantly underperform. So if this is something you enjoy, and you can show up and say, I may not have a ton of communications experience, but I'm willing to learn, and I love the technical back end aspects of this and getting in the weeds with the numbers.
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Ariel Glassman: Somebody smart is going to want to hire you because they're, you know, especially if they're at the point in their career in this field where they don't want to be managing those kinds of logistics or data, and they want to be doing the higher level strategy work. This is one of those hidden gem skills that people realize far too late. They haven't valued enough. And then they turn around and go. Wow! I need someone who loves that work.
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Ariel Glassman: So this piece about information management collecting and analyzing and evaluating and kind of even helping align those evaluative systems to help the experience become better in the next cycle. If that's something you enjoy.
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Ariel Glassman: I would really, I think, that really sets you up to succeed in crossing over into some of these areas.
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Ariel Glassman: So that is my take, you know very specifically on how the things you're already doing as a volunteer manager or somebody working with volunteers.
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Ariel Glassman: Can very easily translate over into some of these other areas of nonprofit life.
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Ariel Glassman: So it's not just about those hard skills, though I will say that after 20 plus years in this field
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Ariel Glassman: building relationships is is critical to succeeding in your career and also inside
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Ariel Glassman: these roles. So not only is it critical for helping you leapfrog from one thing to the next, but inside the thing you land on relationship building is is going to help you succeed. So what does that look like? And who should you be thinking about building relationships with in your current role that might be helpful for the future. So the 1st one is is a no brainer. It's your volunteers themselves, and here's why.
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Ariel Glassman: so a lot of times. I'm sure many of you know this. Your volunteers are people who have time on their hands to be able to devote
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Ariel Glassman: to whatever task it is they're doing with you, which means that they are often high income people who don't have a lot of financial pressure on them necessarily, or they wouldn't be working for free essentially, and what this leads to is very strong patterns, that we see that volunteerism is deeply correlated with giving behaviors, and many volunteers are also donors, and also on nonprofit boards. And so if you're thinking about jumping around to your next organization.
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Ariel Glassman: really getting to know your volunteers, having them be able to say, I had great experience with this person. Who knows what boards they're on, what organizations they give to where you may encounter them next in the volunteer ecosystem in whatever community you're in. So I think it makes a lot of sense to get to know these folks. And you know, as someone who does a lot of hiring in, especially in development and communications roles.
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Ariel Glassman: I'm always impressed when someone has a volunteer referral or sort of a community leader referral and steps up to the plate and says, this person's willing to speak to how you know how effective I was in that role. It really speaks to your relationship building ability. If you can bring someone along like that and have them have them rooting for you and your next and your next steps.
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Ariel Glassman: I think it's key to remember that they will remember how volunteering and the people involved in it made them feel these are people looking for a gratifying, meaningful, fulfilling experience that is helping them like manifest the human they want to be in the world. We think about behaviors like giving and volunteering. That's really what's at the heart of it.
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Ariel Glassman: So people are going to remember the experiences they had inside this kind of container that's about their personal fulfillment. So I think this is. This is another sort of opportunity for you all to make your mark on somebody in a way that could help propel you to that next piece
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Ariel Glassman: and as part of that, make sure you're asking them for feedback and genuinely engaging. I will often say that if you're working with high income, high net worth. People who tend to be donors are on a lot of boards.
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Ariel Glassman: They know what it's like to be sharked and and to sort of be used as leverage and positionality. And so this whole proposition doesn't work. If you're not genuine about your interest in them, etc. So this is not. Just. Go find a wealthy volunteer and make them your friends so they can be a reference later. It's
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Ariel Glassman: truly engaging in the heart of it, and being able to take those relationships with you because they're genuinely meaningful to you and to them. And I'm guessing that that's probably the case for many of you already, you know, volunteer work can be challenging and nonprofit life is challenging. So you wouldn't be doing this if you weren't already genuinely interested in these kinds of connections and relationships.
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Ariel Glassman: I will also say another great spot to leverage and kind of get to know volunteers is, if you are planning appreciation. Events like show up, be in person, be in community with these people. Don't just relate from behind a desk. If your mission has some element of it where you get to have physical you get to share physical space
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Ariel Glassman: with your volunteers. It's much harder for like national organizations, things like that. But if this is part of your volunteer cycle. I think this is really a place to make sure that you are creating opportunities to build relationships with your volunteers.
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Ariel Glassman: And I would say again, invite them, invite them out. Coffee, happy hour, lunch without pressure, without agenda. Again. These people are often very savvy, and they know when they're being used as a stepping stone versus a genuine relationship.
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Ariel Glassman: So a second one, which might be more surprising is corporate contacts. A lot of organizations work with companies to place their employees as volunteers, whether one off or on a regular basis. Inside nonprofits. We know that corporate volunteerism is
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Ariel Glassman: emerging as the overwhelming and overarching factor in corporate giving strategies. There's actually an incredible report that benevity put out earlier this year that really highlights, how many companies have shifted. So we know that corporate volunteerism is on the rise that's going to put you in greater with greater exposure to folks who are working at companies, and one of the reasons this is important is, again, if we're thinking about people who can go to bat for you when you're going for your next thing.
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Ariel Glassman: Corporate volunteerism is connected to corporate funding, which means these people are influential. It will look amazing on a resume if you say I already have great relationships with the people in charge of corporate giving at XY. And Z. Companies.
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Ariel Glassman: and they are also often looking to create mutually fulfilling partnerships with you. So not only will this strengthen the current work you're doing, it's great positionality to be able to say, Yeah, I can jump in with your organization that has a really strong presence of these volunteers, because I already know how this company works. I already have relationships there, etcetera.
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Ariel Glassman: Your job can make their job easy. And so if you're thinking about, how do I leverage the corporate contacts who are in my current world? If you think about this reciprocal cycle, both of your jobs can make the other person's job easy and try to engage from that framework. This is another great spot to also ask for feedback corporate contacts have seen a lot of people in your role at different organizations that they interact with.
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Ariel Glassman: So they actually might have great insights into how not only you can continue to improve the work you're doing in your current one but share with you insights that might help strengthen the case that you would make to leap either to your next, you know, move up a rung in volunteer management at a different organization, or your current one, or to leap over into one of these different career paths inside nonprofits.
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Ariel Glassman: Okay? And the 3rd group is the other staff working around you, whose work that volunteer management touches. And again, we're sort of focusing on programmatic work development work and communications work as the most relevant easy jumps from volunteering because there's a lot of overlap there, as we've already explored. But these are also folks who can help you in your journey in other ways.
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Ariel Glassman: I think when you build good relationships internally.
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Ariel Glassman: nobody's mad when you leave, they want to help you on the way out. So this is about creating the conditions for the people you work with who have a lot to teach you about what goes on in their world, that you can use to get a job in that world.
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Ariel Glassman: creating good relationships with them, so that you're able to take advantage of that when it's time to make the next move.
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Ariel Glassman: So
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Ariel Glassman: build rapport with them outside of work tasks, I mean, every organizational culture is different. Every person is different. But it helps to be able to connect with someone outside of just the silo or the or the overlapping pieces of the organization that you are in
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Ariel Glassman: and I'm sure that you know, depending on your organization, there may be opportunities to do that that other people are creating for you, and you just have to show up and engage.
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Ariel Glassman: And it might mean that you have to be proactive as well, and sort of seek opportunities to relate with your coworkers or other people in other departments outside of your work life. So there's no generalized approach there, but you should be doing it.
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Ariel Glassman: Oh.
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Ariel Glassman: and I think fundamentally, you want to get to know the intersection of their work and yours. When I think about
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Ariel Glassman: transitioning into something like communications or fundraising
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Ariel Glassman: being able to understand and see what it takes to be excellent, and to excel in those roles and having some visibility into what that work really looks like, is just going to help you continue to position yourself and also understand if that's really the thing you want to be doing.
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Ariel Glassman: and when you get to know the intersection of your work that strengthens the current work as well as helping you build your understanding of what is it that you actually might like to jump to? You might have a sense that you've enjoyed volunteer management, but it doesn't feel like your forever career path. But you also might not be quite clear on what it is. That next piece
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Ariel Glassman: that will really fulfill you and make you spark and is, you know, the tasks are deeply aligned with your strengths. This is a great way to figure that out is to understand what the jobs of your coworkers are like, especially those who touch volunteer management in some way. You know, you could already be housed in one of these departments. It's a very rare organization that is so intense with its volunteer efforts that it has like a volunteer department. So I'm guessing some of you are kind of housed inside these teams already, probably programs or development
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Ariel Glassman: be proactive about getting to know what your teammates are doing around you, etc. Oh, did I just draw on the screen somehow.
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Ariel Glassman: Interesting.
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Ariel Glassman: so that that's advice I would give. For you know.
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Ariel Glassman: anyone just looking to do more effective work in their current job. It has the upside of helping prepare you for the next thing as well.
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Ariel Glassman: And this is another case where really asking for feedback and being genuine about wanting to contribute value back to them, doing your job. Better help me help you. These are just things that I think can help you grease the skids a little bit with folks working around you, and if you are siloed, this is a challenge, because we know that nonprofit management isn't always super well resourced, and it may be that your organization is really siloed, and you don't have a lot of interaction or collaboration with folks who aren't like in the volunteer world.
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Ariel Glassman: Advocate for it. Advocate for yourself, advocate, to be put in a position where you can collaborate more, and therefore have these opportunities to learn and understand these other worlds better in a way that would help you figure out what you want to do next.
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Ariel Glassman: Okay.
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Ariel Glassman: so we've covered those career paths. We've talked about leveraging those existing skills. We're talking about building the relationships that can help you transition. And there's 1 more. And it's how do you talk about this? How do you frame this
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Ariel Glassman: in your skills and your resume and your career materials? Because we know
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Ariel Glassman: for better or for worse these days. Hiring is. It's a volume game. Many of you, I'm sure, right now are having experiences where you're sending your resume off into some AI driven keyword search Job bank and crossing your fingers that you figured out the right keywords. We have limited opportunities to make the case for ourselves. So when somebody's going to spend 8 to 10 seconds looking at your resume. How do you make sure it stands out enough immediately, so that someone says, Aha!
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Ariel Glassman: They're applying for a Comms job. But
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Ariel Glassman: they don't have a Comms role. But I can see dotted all over this, that they've they clearly understand this work, and they've shown that they understand how their skills are transferable. So how do you? How do you do that? What does that look like?
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Ariel Glassman: How do you position. That volunteer management experience in your job search.
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Ariel Glassman: So the 1st one is, I would say, use the cover letter to transparently acknowledge the shift right? If you're applying for a development job and you have no experience in development. People reading the resume are going to see that and go. Why is this person applying for this job.
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Ariel Glassman: So you have to sort of take ownership of your own story, and that transition acknowledge it and really dig into why you want to make this transition, and why you think it's the right shift for you. And I really hone in on that. Why? Because when the going gets tough, the thing that motivates someone. If it's if it's really dug in and centered in their values, they'll they'll stick it out. But when the going gets tough, if you don't have a strong foundation for why you want to be doing this work.
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Ariel Glassman: That's when the bottom can fall out. People leave their jobs and things like that. So I think, being very clear, you know that this is a shift. You know there are gaps.
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Ariel Glassman: Here's why you want to do this, and why you think you're the right person. Take ownership of that and be very proactive about telling that story in the opportunity that's given to you, which is typically the cover letter. And I would also say that once you get past the stage, if you get to interviews, this is something to be very transparent and self aware about as well. Don't let someone ask you the gotcha question. Well, you don't have any experience for this. Can you explain that?
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Ariel Glassman: Be proactive, make it part of the way you present yourself at the start of interviews, and address it head on.
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Ariel Glassman: So I would also say that when you're thinking about creating your resume and sort of what are those? What are those things you need to say that at a glance will catch someone's interest if you're trying to transition to one of these other fields.
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Ariel Glassman: focus on the collaborative pathways in your work that generated the understandings and competencies you have
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Ariel Glassman: that mean that you are actually a good fit for this next thing, even though you may not have as much experience as other applicants. So I put a couple examples here, one for each area. We've been exploring about how you might
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Ariel Glassman: position and write about the work you've done and the collaborations it entails that would make sense to the person reading it who is experienced in that field. So with development, for example, we know that there is a strong correlation of volunteers volunteerism with giving. And so you want to make sure that a development person looking at your resume knows that you understand that's part of it, and that you've figured out a way to be part of the process for a volunteer who is also a donor, right? That you've kind of collaborated with development
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Ariel Glassman: to help move their work forward. And you know the game, and you know that's part of it.
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Ariel Glassman: That would be to me a great example of how you might
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Ariel Glassman: not say spin, but create an angle on the work that you've done.
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Ariel Glassman: Similarly, with Comms. Right, let's say that the overlap here is that your volunteer recruitment and management involves a lot of communications with a large group of volunteers, right collaborating with communications to develop a volunteer communication schedule aligned with the overall Comms and marketing priorities.
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Ariel Glassman: They're gonna want to see that. You understand that there's a bigger communications picture here than the world you came from. You understand where it fits in. You kind of understand the way that communications and marketing needs to work with its internal clients inside the organization to communicate to the outside world what it is they need to know.
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Ariel Glassman: And the 3rd one is example, you know,
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Ariel Glassman: collaborated with program managers to interpret and analyze volunteer survey data that helps refine future program operations.
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Ariel Glassman: So that you've created an outcome. That's a result of all of these activities and collaborations that is pointing in the direction that we know are the goals of whatever job focus you're trying to shift into.
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Ariel Glassman: So again, these are very specific examples. But this is the way I'd encourage you to frame it. If you're trying to do a new thing, the more that someone reading your resume can see that you've been exposed to that thing that you understand that thing, and you had experience collaborating to move that thing forward, even though it hasn't been your job to date.
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Ariel Glassman: That's really going to help you make this transition
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Ariel Glassman: and tailored to the career path and its outcomes. Right? So you saw some of those again. Here's another sort of one to one for all the different paths we're looking at. This is another reason why I suggest really getting to know the people inside your current organization who do these things, because the more you understand what matters and what the metrics and outcomes that you're looking for in Comms or development or programs that's going to help you sell yourself
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Ariel Glassman: right? So saying, things like my work as a volunteer manager help fundraising retain
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Ariel Glassman: volunteers who are also donors more than other donors and helped, you know, ensure that our volunteers were actually giving bigger gifts than most of our other donors. Those things tend to historically be true about volunteers. So, knowing that demonstrates understanding and seeing where you fit into the process, can kind of demonstrate that as well. And I would say something very similar for these other 2 examples.
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Ariel Glassman: you know, if you're talking about the program piece you created and implemented a survey that led to this thing that we know is a big part of program management, which is constant refinement and streamlining of the programs for efficiency and effectiveness.
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Ariel Glassman: And we know that, you know, if you are communications and you're trying to inspire and motivate people that you know how to understand what's appealing to the audience in question and create something that's gonna magnetize them to you. That's the heart of Comps. So again, knowing what those paths are getting a little more insight into the day to day work, and the goals and what their objectives in those areas really are. Can help you take what you do.
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Ariel Glassman: and portrayed in a way that really will give you an advantage over someone who's walking in with a similar lack of direct experience, but doesn't know how to translate what they've done, and show show that they can, they can make the leap
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Ariel Glassman: So
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Ariel Glassman: the last one is to use the right professional references. So, for example, one of the reasons that I I do think the relationship building aspect of what we've talked about is so important is that
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Ariel Glassman: you are going to be looking for professional references, and you may not be possible to use the ones from your current job who are like colleagues around you if you're having a quiet inquiry. So it may be that this is a great way that once you have a genuine relationship established with an influential volunteer, you should ask them for a reference. But again, that's why I spent so much time focused on making sure it's genuine and real, and not just sort of like. Well, I know I'm going to move on in a year, so I better start racking up the references
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Ariel Glassman: that's transparent, and it's not going to get you anywhere. But if you're able to to use a current colleague, who can say? I know this person has never done fundraising work before, but their role was adjacent, and we were able to collaborate. And I could see the potential, for they understand how to think in this world and what really makes change and how it's effective. And I think you should give them a shot coming from someone who already does that work is a lot stronger. And so like, maybe your current boss, even if they knew you were looking and were happy and supportive of you
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Ariel Glassman: doesn't mean they have the right angle to help you sell yourself to a different career path with someone at a different organization who doesn't know you yet or doesn't know them.
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Ariel Glassman: So I think this one is key, and I will also remind you at this point to make sure that you notify your reference, that you ask permission to use someone as a reference, and then you also let them know that it's coming. I've been surprised by a few surprise reference requests that I didn't know were coming and sometimes it's challenging to be able to do them in the time the person needs. So I would just always advocate for being super clear with people you want to have as your references, that they know you want them to do that, and that a specific instance of that is coming, and I think that will help
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Ariel Glassman: make sure that they have the time set aside to do it, and that they are not surprised or taken aback.
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Ariel Glassman: and that they are therefore positioned to give their very best reference for you, for whatever you're seeking next.
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Ariel Glassman: So that is my content. We're going to land again just on this volunteer management cycle screen, and I will stop sharing. And I know that the civic Champs team has a little bit more they want to share, and we'll go into Q. And A.
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Geng (pronounced Gung): Yeah. So if you have questions, please put those in chat, and then we'll try to circle back to that here in a couple of minutes, so give folks a little bit of time to think about. What questions you have.
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Geng (pronounced Gung): and we'll get back to that here in a little bit. In the meantime, just real quickly, in case folks are less familiar with us, right? So, civic chance, we're a volunteer management platform. Try to support folks across the full lifecycle here of the volunteer management journey, and a couple of things that we help folks do are include, you know, check in. So this is our mobile app.
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Geng (pronounced Gung): We have about 8 different ways that we do check ins and our tracking the mobile app is kind of one of the more unique ones. Right? We use geofencing to make it really seamless. We also have a kiosk things like that. And then we also collect feedback from folks right? And so if you think about the full life cycles, you know, we have applications, you know, calendaring. And so they're just highlighting a few of the things that that we can help folks with. And
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Geng (pronounced Gung): some of this, you know, maybe screens that set us apart from others. So if you're interested, you know, please feel free to reach out love, to connect, and and, you know, learn more about your volunteer programs. And so this is one of our reporting screens, and you can see the data that we, you know, help you collect right?
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Geng (pronounced Gung): Well, with that, you know. I'll leave this screen here up for a little bit in terms of staying in touch. But yeah, I sort of want to turn it over to QA. And so I can get started. I I you know 2 things that came to mind. When I was listening to this presentation was, you know, one is.
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Geng (pronounced Gung): you know, what if I want to stay in volunteer management and I'm not looking to move to development? You know what is there
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Geng (pronounced Gung): are? Is this the same advice that you would give right if I just want to become, you know, if I'm in a department where there's like 5 of us. And I want to be sort of the head of volunteer management, or maybe I want to move to a different organization. But you know, that has a bigger volunteer management team, you know. Like, you know, they're managing a thousand volunteers, right? And and that's a challenge I want to go and embark on. So, you know. Would you say
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Geng (pronounced Gung): the same advice applies? Or how how do you think about that?
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Ariel Glassman: So.
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Ariel Glassman: that's a great question, because it's interesting. You did not see volunteer management as one of my 6 sort of career paths that I laid out in part, because not, it's not necessarily inherent to every nonprofit mission that you need volunteers. And so
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Ariel Glassman: like, you know. But I think there are a number of people who have absolutely made a true career out of volunteer management. And again, it's because they're working in organizations whose programmatic model is so intensive with volunteer work that that organization needs.
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Ariel Glassman: you know, truly, volunteer management that is not just like half of one development coordinator's job or whatnot. So you're absolutely right. There is a career track here. And what I would say is, if you want to stay in volunteering, there's a couple of things I would do. I would keep your eye and start to understand what are the kinds of organizations, what mission spaces, etc, are the kinds of nonprofits that will regularly, reliably, and sustainably need to have professional volunteer management as its own thing
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Ariel Glassman: right. And there are some very specific types of organizations and types of fields that need volunteers more than others like you got a future at habitat and humanity. If you want to do your volunteer management right. And that's just one, I think. Example, that everybody could probably pull out of thin air. But there are many. So Number one get to know the industry, get to know the types of organizations that really need this
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Ariel Glassman: and figure out how to continue to orient yourself more towards them, or build relationships with people who already work there that kind of thing. I would also say, get yourself a mentor. If you're at a smaller midsize organization and you're managing a
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Ariel Glassman: 30, 40 person volunteer team, or a hundred. But you have your site set on a big organization where you're managing people who are all managing their own volunteer programs that have a thousand participants
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Ariel Glassman: go talk to someone who does that already and say, I want to learn how to take my skills and what I do and apply it at the scale that you do. What do I need to know? Who do I need to know? So I think mentorship is helpful in
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Ariel Glassman: any nonprofit career. I certainly have benefited from the mentorship of many
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Ariel Glassman: awesome other people who I had the chance to work for and with and under and who were generous with their time. So that is something I can definitely say.
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Ariel Glassman: and I would also say, get
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Ariel Glassman: get very facile and skilled with technology tools. We are here because volunteer management can be made better by manage by technology tools. And that's why civic champs exists. Obviously civic chance is not the only one. But if you're going to be making a career out of this, there's, you know, the more you can show up and say, I know how to use this system, this system and this system. I understand how they integrate with these other tools.
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Ariel Glassman: I know how to use them in a productive way. I know why we want to access certain kinds of technology to do this work better. You're going to blow the mind of someone who is desperate for somebody to do that because it's not their strength. So I would say, keep up on the technology tools connected to volunteering and make sure that you really know your stuff in that area.
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Ariel Glassman: I could probably come up with more. But those are the the things that came to mind immediately.
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Geng (pronounced Gung): No, that's awesome. That makes a ton of sense. Yeah, I mean, I was. I was just thinking when you said habitat right? That's 1 of our core sectors that we serve. So if you're interested, you know, if you don't know already, you can. You can go on our website or any other. What volunteer management software website. And just see what industries or clients we serve. And those are probably the ones that have lots of volunteers. Right? So
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Geng (pronounced Gung): I. So one other question that I had was, you know, obviously, civic champs. You know, we're a a technology company, right? And you mentioned corporate relationships as well during your presentation. And so, you know, I know at times, like even when we're recruiting, we have a lot of candidates that come from the nonprofit space and say, Hey, you know I'm I'm actually interested in.
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Geng (pronounced Gung): you know, doing something, you know, related, but but but a little different right? And and you can even common grade could even be a different example of like, oh, I want to do consulting instead. Right? But
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Geng (pronounced Gung): how do you think about? You know? You know, building relationships with corporate? Obviously that also makes sense. But is there anything else you would
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Geng (pronounced Gung): advise if someone's thinking like Oh, I wouldn't it be awesome to work at civic chance or common? Great right.
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Ariel Glassman: Oh, interesting! I mean a a similar piece of advice that would be, find someone who is already in that sector who's willing to share insights with you, even if it's a 1 off thing. I think, understanding what success looks like and how you get into that thing, no matter where that person came from. It's probably helpful, but more so if you if you see an example of that, someone on Linkedin, who, you know, used to be a volunteer manager, and now you see them, and they're, you know, on the marketing team at volunteer tool, you know.
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Ariel Glassman: ping them on Linkedin, you know, and not in that creepy way that we're all getting used to now, where somebody is obviously friending you to then be like, now will you buy my product. Don't do that, but find a way to to figure out access to those folks and be clear about your intentions, and see if somebody will be generous with their time for an hour. Share insights with you.
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Ariel Glassman: trying to think. You know I haven't worked on the tech company side myself, so I don't know how much more insight I have there. What I will say about consulting is is consulting is a leap you make, or should theoretically be a leap that you make when you've established your bona fides in the topic.
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Ariel Glassman: so I wouldn't. I wouldn't advise someone to say, Wow, I've been a volunteer manager. I'm now going to be a communications consultant. That kind of leap is typically not a thing that is very realistic. So think about there's doing the work, and then there's consulting on the work, and generally the best consultants come up out of the work that they have, that they know how to do and know really well, and that's that's where they sort of have business. Being a consultant.
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Geng (pronounced Gung): Yeah, yeah, you're you're credentialed in a way.
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Ariel Glassman: Yeah, I take the role of consultant very seriously, you know, especially if you're working with nonprofits. Every dollar they spend on you or on a tech tool could be spent in 9 million other ways. And so I just I take that that responsibility very seriously.
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Geng (pronounced Gung): The best. It sounds like the best way to be you know, from a consulting standpoint is simply get better at your job right
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Geng (pronounced Gung): great at it, and then you'll be naturally a consult, right? So that makes a lot of sense.
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Ariel Glassman: The behavior that I exhibited my whole career before I became a consultant. That should have been the tip off, that I was bent to be a consultant, was
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Ariel Glassman: constantly asking questions about things that everyone else is like, oh, God! Do we have to look into that again? Like, if you're if you're the question asker, the one who's always like. But what about this?
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Ariel Glassman: You would probably be really thrive in a consulting role where our job is to ask questions and get to the bottom of things in a way that, like staff sometime are like. Please don't make me do that. So if your natural inclination is that that could be a tip off that, enhancing your skills and your abilities in the role you have now could lead to a career in consulting, and what you've become so good at, so.
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Geng (pronounced Gung): That's awesome. That's awesome. Yeah. And I know. And I I speak not just for myself. But I know that a lot of my founder friends in the nonprofit tech space, right? Most of us recruit from the sector because we find that that's that's usually where the best candidates come from. So if you are looking you know the the interest is reciprocal. Right if you will. So
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Geng (pronounced Gung): alright. And and then we got a a question from Kristen here. So she's from columbus manages 500 volunteers at performing arts, and I have a hard time putting into words sometimes all the work I do, because it is so many things. Do you have any advice to help? Better organize and showcase the work experience. We have as volunteer managers.
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Ariel Glassman: Hmm.
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Ariel Glassman: hmm! I will say that I can definitely identify with that as someone who came up in fundraising where there's a lot of misconceptions about what fundraising is, and sort of the real variety of things you have to be good at, and able to pull it off.
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Ariel Glassman: So totally hear you on that
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Ariel Glassman: advice to help, better organize and showcase the work. Experience
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Ariel Glassman: B.
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Ariel Glassman: Part of me wonders what? Who's the audience for this like is this sort of in a resume? Or is it like, you know what like? What specific situation are you looking to be better able to convey that in? I think that would help me answer it.
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Ariel Glassman: Yeah.
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Geng (pronounced Gung): Well, let's let's imagine it's a resume, and Kristen might might type something different as well. But you know, if it was a resume, what would you say?
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Ariel Glassman: You know it's interesting we don't put, or the conventional wisdom is not to put like objectives and things like that at the top of your resume, or anything more. But I've often seen resumes that are well set up where it's sort of like they have the header. That's the job and how long they were there. And then there's like 2 sentences that are a narrative that happened before all your bullet points that are very sort of technical and tactical.
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Ariel Glassman: where you can say, you know, something like, manage over 500 volunteers at a performing arts organization in collaboration with.
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Ariel Glassman: you know, cross functional collaboration with teams all over the organization on a broad variety of engagement and administrative functions that involve volunteers. Right? And so then, you can kind of allude to that, and it's hard on a resume, because you don't have, you know, all the time in the world to tell your story there. But I might suggest something like that. I'm always a fan of storytelling in resumes and career materials, and not just like the dry bullets.
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Ariel Glassman: Because I think we live in an attention economy, and if you are not finding a way to create the summary for someone else.
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Ariel Glassman: and you are relying on bullet points to generate a summary in someone else's mind. That is directional, and is kind of shoving their attention where you want it.
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Ariel Glassman: You need to take the bull by the horns and say, I'm telling you the story. Here it is. I'm not leaving you to interpret it for yourself.
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Geng (pronounced Gung): Right. And that's you were talking about the cover letter, too. Right? Ariel, that's kind of the yeah, for me. I feel like when I'm looking at these resumes, it's often around if someone can articulate their impact, but also, if it can highlight their understanding of the world like you were saying so. If I'm hiring for a development person, and the bullet point talks about
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Geng (pronounced Gung): dollars and how volunteers led to dollars. Right? It's like, Oh, this person really gets it so that that can be helpful, too. I feel like.
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Ariel Glassman: Yeah.
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Ariel Glassman: I mean, I guess.
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Geng (pronounced Gung): This person.
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Ariel Glassman: My advice writ large is, you have many opportunities in the process to take control of the storytelling, and wherever you have an opportunity to do that, do it, and make sure that that's what you're saying.
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Geng (pronounced Gung): Yeah. And Barry here has a question. do you have any suggestions on how to move up in your current position? Example? Moving up from a manager to a director position.
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Ariel Glassman: Hmm!
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Ariel Glassman: I mean, I think some of the advice I've given previously is good there. I think the mentorship piece is good, I think, also pursuing
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Ariel Glassman: if you look at, say, what does that job require? That your current job doesn't? And you can say, Aha! I don't have management training, and I've never been a manager. But if I want to be a director, I'm gonna have 3 direct reports, and then you go and you pursue like management training for yourself, or something that can. You can demonstrate during a hiring process or even an internal one, that you have.
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Ariel Glassman: You are interested enough that you've taken the time to invest in growing your skill set for that thing.
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Ariel Glassman: And I think again, mentorship with sort of the softer, more qualitative approach to kind of learning that is, getting getting insights from people who've achieved that and saying, looking back when you were in my job, what do you wish you'd known. What do you wish you'd done?
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Ariel Glassman: I also think that if you're thinking about internally at your own organization,
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Ariel Glassman: part of that, I think is being very clear about your intentions. You know someone in your organization is much more likely to help you on that path. If you can say, you know, I really see myself as a director, someday, and I'm committed to figuring out what I need to do to get there if they don't know that. That's your goal. They're not gonna help you just knowing it doesn't guarantee it. But I think you'd be surprised about how much people
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Ariel Glassman: can organize themselves when someone says, Hey, I have this dream for myself, especially in this field. We're helpers, and I think you'll find that being really open about that intention can help magnetize people to you who want to help you on your journey.
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Ariel Glassman: That's another reason why great relationships with your coworkers and all these other areas, even if you're trying to move up inside your own career, you know. You know,
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Ariel Glassman: volunteer management thing versus development or comms, or whatever. I think that's still
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Ariel Glassman: equally applicable.
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Geng (pronounced Gung): How? How far up would you recommend asking for that mentorship? Right? So like, there's the I'm gonna find the person exactly one level up that has the job I want, or or even in a different org.
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Geng (pronounced Gung): And then there's the well, let me talk to you in, Ed, right whether that's in my org different org that has a, you know, 2 level up perspective of Oh, yeah. Here, you know, I I went through the path. But you know, is that
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Geng (pronounced Gung): overreaching? Or how do you think about that?
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Ariel Glassman: I mean, I think
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Ariel Glassman: this is where I would sort of be very transparent about your goals for yourself, with everyone around you. If you think the CEO has something you know, to say that could help you? But you, your boss, might be like, hey? Why are you going to talk to the CEO,
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Ariel Glassman: tell your boss and say, You know this is an immediate concern for me, but in the future I'm really interested in moving in this direction. I think they have valuable insights. Would you mind? Would it be okay
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Ariel Glassman: if I went and scheduled a conversation with them? That isn't really about what we're doing right now right? Because if someone like that finds out later that you did that and they don't look well on it. I mean that we hope we don't encounter those managers in this world. But
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Ariel Glassman: we'll we'll be realistic. They're out there.
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Ariel Glassman: I think, being really
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Ariel Glassman: assuming you work in an environment where it is safe to be talking about career aspirations other than the one you currently hold. And I just want to reflect that I also know that not all
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Ariel Glassman: work environments feel safe to have the to be explicit about sort of like what I dream for myself in the future. So take this advice with a grain of salt measured against your own internal environment.
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Ariel Glassman: I would also say, I think skip levels are great because those people have perspective even beyond what you're trying to do. I would also say, look around at the collaborators for that role, and how can they help if you want to jump from volunteer or program manager to director, and that in soon that involves like assuming responsibility for pieces of the budget.
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Ariel Glassman: Go talk to the Cfo or finance manager and say, what does someone leading that team need to understand about organizational finances to make sure that we're playing our role in the system? And that that piece of the work is really ship shape. And then, when it comes time to advocate for yourself to go into a higher role, you can say I've done my homework, and I know that this, this and this need to happen. And as I moved up the rungs, even though I haven't done this before I would devote a lot of attention to making sure I really understood, and was plugged into the financial management piece of it.
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Ariel Glassman: And that's not necessarily your boss or your CEO, but it's someone in another team who has insight into the collaborative nature of the work.
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Ariel Glassman: And that would be another piece of advice I could give
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Ariel Glassman: cool.
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Geng (pronounced Gung): That's awesome.
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Geng (pronounced Gung): I don't see any other questions for now, but maybe if something else comes up we'll we'll circle back to it. On my end, you know.
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Geng (pronounced Gung): you know we have a couple upcoming webinars as well. So if you enjoyed this one, we have one on the 30.th Actually, I think the next few. We're not actually hosting. And so they're being hosted by our friends at Donor Doc, and then another one with our friends at Memory Fox. But if you're interested in navigating the volunteer and donor journey, or 5 ways to leverage videos and storytelling along the volunteer journey, here's links to register for those webinars.
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Geng (pronounced Gung): And then we have another one that we are hosting, that patty gentry from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society director of volunteer engagement. Someone that's a little bit more senior on the volunteer leader, volunteer stepladder, if you will, and it's going to be talking about spotting and curbing volunteer burnout right, especially as we get into the holiday season. Oftentimes we lean pretty heavily
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Geng (pronounced Gung): into our volunteers, and so just making sure that we don't burn out our volunteers. So
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Geng (pronounced Gung): great, and last, but not least, we do ask if you have a moment just to leave some feedback whether you, you know, love the session. If there's things that we can improve on we'd love to hear from you. We're always looking to get better. If there are topics that you're like. Oh, my gosh! This is the best we'll try to bring them back again next year. So
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Geng (pronounced Gung): alright, I think with that the last thing we have is if you are here. We have a little bit of a discount, and so if you book a demo with us we'll provide a 10% discount off of civic champs. So
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Geng (pronounced Gung): alright
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Geng (pronounced Gung): I don't see any other questions.
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