At the heart of every nonprofit organization, there’s a team of dedicated, hard-working volunteers...
Burnout is when cumulative stress and irritation reach a peak, causing physical and emotional exhaustion. It’s not solely the result of overwork, although this is a big factor. It’s a risk for any worker, no matter their role, and employers have a responsibility to try and prevent it among volunteers as surely as they do salaried staff.
In fall 2022, Future Forum’s quarterly Pulse report found global burnout had risen by 40% (up 8% from May that year). Volunteers work in a huge variety of different roles in all kinds of sectors, and failing to take a wage is not a magic shield protecting them from the effects of this phenomenon.
The reality is that volunteers in any sector can be affected. Though management solutions for multinational NGOs, for example, will need to cater to different needs than those of small, locally-based nonprofits, organizations of all sizes must support their people.
So, how can you ward off volunteer burnout and protect your unpaid staff?
1. Be willing to talk about volunteer burnout
A lot of burnout discourse centers on paid employees, especially in famously busy sectors and industries like legal. That said, you can bet there are several overwhelmed volunteers for every burned out lawyer in the world.
But rather than being members of prestigious firms, many volunteers work in more modest areas of society. This unfortunately makes it easy for their burnout experiences to get swept under the rug.
What you can do
You can start by raising awareness about volunteer burnout. A great way to do this is to set up a webpage that functions as a virtual knowledge resource.
To begin, pick a suitable moniker during domain name registration. Then, include some basic guides explaining the symptoms of burnout and how to spot them. Provide links to both self-help materials and therapy services so volunteers know where to turn if they ever feel like they need additional support.
Aside from this, it’s a matter of giving your volunteers a voice. Your best bet is to provide a virtual communication channel where they can raise any concerns. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways you can go about doing this. For example, tools like Slack allow you to create channels to suit any need. Alternatively, you could establish the volunteer equivalent of an employee check-in.
There are plenty of services online that can help fulfill this need, but if you’d prefer an in-house option, you can host this in the same place as your knowledge resource. After all, there’s no sense in managing multiple websites if you don’t have to—it’s inefficient.
Speaking of efficiency…
2. Set realistic goals
There are all kinds of reasons people volunteer: the sense of fulfillment, maybe opportunities to meet new people and do something worthwhile with their days. Some even volunteer as a way of improving their mental health. But everyone has their limits.
So, it’s important to set goals that are attainable and realistic. Whether you’re managing volunteers or employees, unrealistic workloads are a huge driver of burnout and turnover. Plus, you can’t necessarily make the same demands of a volunteer workforce as you can a paid one.
Problems begin when the demands of voluntary work become similar to those of a paid role. According to AmeriCorps analysis of US Census Bureau data, the rates of formal volunteer work declined by 7% from 2019 (30%) to 2021 (23%). On the other hand, rates of informal volunteering have remained consistent over the past few years.
What you can do
Voluntary workforces have a lot to contribute, but getting the most out of your people without causing volunteer burnout can be a fine line to walk. It’s imperative to set reasonable expectations since they lack extrinsic motivators.
The right volunteer management software can make all the difference. A lot of smaller nonprofits work on an ad-hoc basis, but having a properly established management system is still vital. No matter how minor someone’s role is, having them in your system helps ensure they’re being treated fairly.
You also need to enable volunteers to collaborate with each other. People can accomplish more together than they can individually. Their ability to do this (especially in virtual or remote roles) hinges on the tools at their disposal. Virtual work-boards like Trello or Asana can be really useful here.
3. Monitor the signs of volunteer burnout
Volunteer burnout doesn’t happen overnight. It’s the result of long-term stress and poor well-being. That’s why you’ve got to pay attention to how your people are doing. Signs of burnout include:
- A lack of energy and low mood
- Irritability
- Difficulty focusing
- Procrastination
What you can do
Again, it essentially boils down to checking in with your volunteers when you can. People often struggle to talk about their mental health, especially in a work environment. Taking regular pulse surveys to monitor well-being can help identify these issues before they become something worse.
Using OnlyDomains to create a space for your well-being surveys is a good place to start. Regular, focused surveys provide a moving picture of volunteer well-being.
A lot of voluntary work can be emotionally taxing, such as care work with vulnerable people, but provided you follow through on their insights, well-being surveys will help you identify how best to support your staff.
4. Make volunteer work more accessible
Unlike paid employees, you can’t rely on extrinsic motivators like cash incentives to keep people engaged. Unnecessary obstacles add to the stress, which fuels volunteer burnout and alienation. So, to minimize this, you need to make voluntary work as accessible as possible.
Consider the barriers to different demographics of volunteers. For example, older people trying to fill their time. In 2023, finding work (voluntary or otherwise) is an increasingly online affair. This can present difficulties for those who struggle with technology, like a lot of OAPs. For instance, many modern voluntary roles involve working online or over the phone.
Flexibility is another aspect to consider. It’s one thing to make rigid time demands of paid employees, but those doing volunteer work may well have other commitments. So, you need to enable people to engage in volunteering regardless of their schedule.
What you can do
It’s all about giving people the means to succeed. The way people engage with your volunteer roles needs to be as user-friendly as possible.
Try giving your online volunteer portal a facelift. Redesigning your website may sound like a pain, but if it helps make volunteer commitments less stressful, it’s worth it. That said, what about people who struggle online or can’t access your website for one reason or another?
Cloud telephony services can be a more accessible way for potential volunteers to engage with your brand. Your operators can guide volunteers, match their skills to appropriate roles, and work with them to determine their availability.
Remember, onboarding and retention efforts begin with recruitment. Using the right tools for volunteer recruitment and support is essential.
5. Encourage self-care
Unchecked volunteer burnout can destroy your workforce. Even the smallest role can be stressful. If you want to maintain volunteer morale, you’ve got to make sure people look after themselves.
According to a recent Harris Poll, 95% of Americans believe self-care activities are important, while 68% rate them “very important”.
What you can do
The first thing you should do is look into cases of overwork. Make certain volunteers at work are taking regular breaks. If their role involves sitting for long periods or working on a device, ensure they get away from their desk for a while.
Beyond this, there’s a huge variety of self-care activities you can recommend. Some people thrive off meditation as it helps them sort through their thoughts. Others appreciate journaling because it gets any worries out of their heads. There are also plenty of self-care apps to choose from, like Headspace and Calm.
6. Volunteers need time off too
One of the benefits of volunteer work is that you can step back from it when you need to. Make sure your people bear this in mind. A lot of volunteers do their work out of passion, which means they can find it hard to take some time away.
In the charity sector especially, this often comes from a desire to do good. But, as driven as these people can be, they don’t always know when to stop. Your most driven staff will often be the most susceptible to burnout.
What you can do
Depending on how much personal interaction you have with volunteers, you might be able to raise the issue conversationally; on an organizational level, try restructuring shift patterns to ensure everyone has regular time off.
If you’re still struggling to avoid volunteer burnout, you might have to face the fact you don’t have enough people. Sometimes, all you can do is push recruitment to spread the workload across more sets of shoulders.
Additionally, consider implementing a peer-to-peer fundraising program where volunteers can leverage their personal networks to raise funds for your cause. Encouraging volunteers to support each other in fundraising can not only alleviate the burden on individual volunteers but also expand the reach of your fundraising efforts and foster a supportive environment within the organization.
Our parting advice
Regardless of how you go about implementing voluntary work in your company, burnout is something you can’t afford to ignore. At best, it drives people out of your organization; at worst, it causes lasting damage to their mental health and pushes them out of volunteer work entirely. Burnout is an epidemic that every organization must strive to eliminate.
The pointers we’ve outlined above can help you get started, but they’ll only be truly effective as part of a broader effort to support mental health in the workplace—for volunteers and any other employees.
For many of us, solving the burnout crisis means bringing about fundamental changes to our workplace cultures.
