Smarter Impact Starts Here
Tools & Templates
Boost your Volunteer Quotient by using proven tools and strategies. Enhance your impact by refining your practice in any or all of the 8 VQ areas of practice. Tools are free and downloadable.
Not sure where to start? Begin by assessing your current VQ – then use that score as a roadmap to download other tools and take steps to raise your VQ and increase your impact.
COVID-19 Specific Tools
Volunteer Engagement Plan for COVID-19 Recovery, Reopening, and Return
While every organization that engages volunteers has been affected to some degree by the COVID-19 pandemic, no one approach can guide all of them in recovery and return to operations. Each organization must abide by its local mandates and protocols, its capacity, and the unique nature of its mission and services. Nevertheless, all organizations will likely reopen, return, and recover in phases and the ways that
volunteers are engaged should align with organizations’ plans. Use this template to guide your planning.
Engagement Response Plan for COVID-19
A complete template to develop a plan for your organization’s volunteer engagement response to the COVID-19 pandemic or any other emergency. Leverage existing strengths, fill critical needs, and identify resources and communications needed to sustain safe levels of engagement.
Volunteer Roles
Needs Assessment
Reflect on your current successes and what would be possible if more resources were available. This needs assessment helps identify new strategic roles for volunteers to build organizational capacity and address the organization’s dreams and challenges
Strategic Volunteer Roles
Volunteer Position Description
Virtual Volunteer Role Assessment
Developing a position for a volunteer to complete remotely takes additional considerations. Not only should the role be strategic (mission-aligned), but the organization needs to be certain it has the resources and time to support the volunteer to success. Use this tool to assess whether a position can effectively be a ‘virtual’ volunteer opportunity.
Volunteer Cultivation Plan
Strategic Messaging
Transforming Days of Service Into Ongoing Engagement
Interview Questions
Volunteer Support Plan
Work Plan
Exit Interview Questions
Recognition and Measuring Impact
Thanking Volunteers and Acknowledging Impact
Recognizing Impact
Today, most volunteers seek to know that their efforts make a difference and are motivated by being acknowledged for that impact. Use this checklist to inspire meaningful ways to acknowledge the impact that volunteers have on your organization.
Training
Volunteer Training Plan
Defining Expectations
On-line Volunteer Training Plan
Delivering training on-line is not as simple as just recording in-person training sessions and posting them online. Effective training requires planning. Use this template to develop your own virtual training curriculum.
Policies and Infrastructure
Volunteer Handbook Outline
A comprehensive handbook sets expectations, provides guidance to keep volunteers and staff safe, and manages risks in all areas where volunteers are involved. Use this outline to develop your own volunteer handbook.
Culture and Leadership Support
What’s Your VQ?
Volunteer Quotient, or VQ, is an organization’s ability to leverage volunteer talent to achieve smarter impact. Every organization already has a VQ. Answer these questions to find out your organization’s VQ – and see where you can boost your practice to have even smarter impact.
Questions for Leaders
