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Summary

Every successful organization is made up of individuals working together towards a common goal, yet within the group there are different roles to be played.

Materials Needed

Every successful organization is made up of individuals working together towards a common goal, yet within the group there are different roles to be played. A baseball team made entirely of pitchers will not go far. This is also true for volunteer organizations; as important as it is to have energetic, hard-working volunteers, it is just as important to have a well-structured admin team. When done right, the admin team is making sure that the entire organization is heading in the right direction, yet they realize that it takes the hard work of the non-admin volunteers to reach those shared goals. This document serves as basic guide for smaller to medium sized volunteer organizations looking to either establish or round out their administration team. The four steps in this guide will help your organization create an administrative framework in which the hard work of many individuals can most effectively go towards helping those in need.

About the Contributor

Bryan Condon graduated from Purdue University with a B.S. degree in Civil Engineering. After graduation, Bryan took an engineering consulting job in the Pacific Northwest. After 4 years of consulting work Bryan moved to Pisco, Peru to join Omprakash partner Pisco Sin Fronteras (PSF). He served as a member of the PSF admin team for 6 months (Aug ‘10-Feb ‘11). During this stretch, PSF saw its greatest volunteer numbers in the organizations history (topping out at 105 volunteers at one time), all the while with an admin team of 5 to 7 individuals. Through this period of growth, the PSF admin team worked to create an environment in which benefits to the community of Pisco would be optimized per the ever changing number of volunteers. While at PSF, Bryan facilitated the writing of the organization’s first Vision, Mission Statement & Strategic Plan. He also oversaw the group's fundraising efforts.

Pisco Sin Fronteras Omprakash profile: http://omprakash.org/partner_profile/p/53

Bryan’s Omprakash profile: http://omprakash.org/volunteer_profile/p/1039

The Basic Steps to Administering a Volunteer Organization

1. Assess your Mission, Vision & Plan: Take a look at where you want to go & how you’ll get there
2. Determine Needed Positions & Organizational Structure: Who will do what? & how will they be held accountable?
3.  Hold Weekly Admin Meetings: A time for the team to get on the same page
4. Run the Ship with Open Eyes & Ears: ...and stay flexible with your approach

Assess your Mission, Vision & Plan

First of all, if your organization does not have a Mission Statement, Vision, and Strategic Plan do not panic. Now that you are not panicking, it is time to take action. Writing these three important pieces should be your organizations next steps. Your Strategic Plan will detail the organization’s goals and the steps you will take to reach those goals. If you do not yet have a Strategic Plan, make your first one simple and straight forward.

Your Mission and Vision will establish direction for your organization. Get as many different parties as possible (director, board, volunteers, admin team) involved in the development of these statements. The greatest challenge here will be reconciling the different opinions you will receive and coming up with one writing that represents the view of a group. I recommend holding multiple open forums, in which those interested in contributing can be heard.
During my time with Pisco Sin Fronteras we set out to write the organizations first vision & mission statement. As a way of collecting different ideas on what the statements should be, we held two open forums meetings. One of the volunteers who attended the meetings wrote about them and posted the story on the Omprakash website. Click here to read more: http://www.omprakash.org/partnerstories/Story/Vision-Mission.
Once you have written the mission and vision, be sure to post these statements electronically on the organization’s website and physically in an area where all of the volunteers can see them. It is important that everyone knows the group’s purpose. Revisit the mission, vision and strategic plan documents on a mid-term basis in order to assure they continue to represent your ever changing organization. Tweak or rewrite as needed.

Many volunteer organizations have a well developed Mission, Vision and Plan which they are happy with. Good work if you are one of these organizations! Now that you know you are on the right track you can move ahead with confidence.

• For detailed advice on how to write your Mission, Vision and Strategic Plan see the following online resources: www.foundationcenter.org
  www.idealist.org
   
• Click here to read a volunteer’s blog about how Pisco Sin Fronteras developed their Mission and Vision.
   
• Revisit your Mission, Vision & Strategic Plan once in a while to make sure it still true to your organization.

Determine Needed Positions & Organizational Structure

Using your Strategic Plan as a detailed map, it is time to make sure you have the admin team needed to accomplish your goals. Often this involves looking at your current team and deciding if it serving you (with respect to the goals in the Strategic Plan).

When developing these positions, ask yourself the following:

1. What administrative tasks need to be done regularly for us to reach our goals? In Pisco we always needed to cover project initiation, fundraising, paper writing, answering the phone, balancing the books.
2. Which of these tasks can be combined and made the responsibilities of one admin team member? (For example, if Ricky speaks & writes the native language fluently and has a rapport with locals, he can cover project initiation and paper writing for those projects).

Even if you are unable to fill the position at the time, it is important to identify the roles that need to be played. Create the job opening and then look to fill it (bonus tip: be sure to post the opening on your website and the Omprakash site). Each member of the admin team should be clear on what their responsibilities are. Spend time writing job descriptions which list each of their responsibilities.

In smaller volunteer organizations it is important to remain flexible with who will do what. When personnel resources are limited, let those with ability and interest do what is needed. For instance, Ricky performs project initiation and writes papers for a construction based volunteer organization, but he does not have a construction background. Jennifer does have construction knowledge and so she can help Ricky or take on the parts of his job that require construction expertise (e.g. preparing construction cost estimates or drawing plans). Ideally, the admin member in Ricky’s position would have a construction background, but when that is not an option be on the lookout for making due with what’s available.

Once you have identified the positions needed to accomplish your goals, create the organizational structure. Drawing an ‘org chart’ will help relate the chain of responsibility to a visual totem pole. See Figure 1 for an example organization chart (‘org chart’). This chart was developed by the Pisco Sin Fronteras admin team in January of 2011. The chart shows the structure of the entire organization, including the admin team. I recommend drawing one of your own which also shows each level of the organization. Get everyone on the admin team a finished copy of your org chart and use it as a tool for holding team members accountable for their assigned responsibilities. In the org chart drawn below, the Grant Writer is to report to the Director.

HoldWeeklyAdminMeetings

If yours’ is a typical volunteer organization, things are often busy and sometimes crazy around the office. Hectic schedules can make communication between admin team members difficult. Designate a time and day of the week in which all the team members can come together for a meeting. Pick a time/day that works for everyone and make it regular (and mandatory!). Depending on the work environment you may need to close the office doors and take the phone off the hook to eliminate distractions. During these meetings take time to talk about any organizational issues, have each team member discuss what they did in the past week, and what they plan to do in the next. Throughout the week each team member will more easily be able to work towards the goals of the organization if they are aware of what is going on within the group. For example, at the last weekly meeting Jessica explained that they desperately need cement to complete an ongoing project. If Ricky is aware that the organization is in need of cement, he knows to ask any local large companies he may work with throughout his week for such a donation. Sharing this kind of information can only help the group’s cause.

Be warned: these meetings can sometimes be long & even tedious. Putting together an agenda before each meeting and having a designated team member run the meeting will help with this.

Run the Ship with Open Eyes & Ears

Now that you have set your ship on the right path it is time to move forward towards your goals. As your admin team goes about running the organizations on a day-to-day basis, always remember the mission, vision and plan of the group. Every decision your team makes should jibe with the plan. That being said, things change. Be willing to consider the many different ways in which you can reach your end result. Author Tom Robbins said it best when he wrote, ‘Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach.’

In Pisco, we had many different types of people asking for our help on many different types of projects. In one week we had a homeless elderly man asking for a house, and a family of 6 asking to help us build an extra room for their children to live in. Of course our resources were limited, so we had to decide which projects to take on. In an attempt to prioritize the requests for help, we established a Project Assessment process which each prospective project would go through before it was to begin. In the two years the Assessment process has been in existence, it has evolved from a single page form to a 3 stage process involving an initial application, and 2 rounds of site visits. As the organization’s resources grew, and the goals of the organization were established, we were periodically taking a look at our assessment process. If we felt it could be tweaked or improved, we worked to adjust it to meet the evolving needs of the community and mission of the organization.

• ‘Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach.’ Tom Robbins
• ‘...it is important that [the Admin team] always remain ‘in touch’ with the other (non- admin) volunteers and with the community they are serving.’

Although the admin team has a unique role to play within an organization, it is important that they always remain ‘in touch’ with the other (non-admin) volunteers and with the community they are serving. Since the admin team is often working within an office, it is easy for them to become separated from the other parts of the organization. Do your best to make sure your admin team does not lose touch with the world outside of the office.
Additionally, the admin team should remain open to critiques and criticisms. Infact, admin should solicit non-admin members for feedback. This can be done through a confidential ‘suggestion box’ and in an open forum type meeting in which organizational issues can be brought up and discussed openly. Each level of the org chart has a unique view of the work your organization is doing. Just as when writing your strategic plan, the more opinions and views you receive the wider your reference from which to make decisions.

Thank you for using this Omprakash Guide for Helping Administrate Partner Projects. We hope that it has been helpful for your organization. Continue to check Omprakash’s Classroom Resources for a variety of additional and newly added materials.

Keep up the good work.

Warm Regards,
Bryan Condon

Main Content

Every successful organization is made up of individuals working together towards a common goal, yet within the group there are different roles to be played. A baseball team made entirely of pitchers will not go far. This is also true for volunteer organizations; as important as it is to have energetic, hard-working volunteers, it is just as important to have a well-structured admin team. When done right, the admin team is making sure that the entire organization is heading in the right direction, yet they realize that it takes the hard work of the non-admin volunteers to reach those shared goals. This document serves as basic guide for smaller to medium sized volunteer organizations looking to either establish or round out their administration team. The four steps in this guide will help your organization create an administrative framework in which the hard work of many individuals can most effectively go towards helping those in need.

About the Contributor

Bryan Condon graduated from Purdue University with a B.S. degree in Civil Engineering. After graduation, Bryan took an engineering consulting job in the Pacific Northwest. After 4 years of consulting work Bryan moved to Pisco, Peru to join Omprakash partner Pisco Sin Fronteras (PSF). He served as a member of the PSF admin team for 6 months (Aug ‘10-Feb ‘11). During this stretch, PSF saw its greatest volunteer numbers in the organizations history (topping out at 105 volunteers at one time), all the while with an admin team of 5 to 7 individuals. Through this period of growth, the PSF admin team worked to create an environment in which benefits to the community of Pisco would be optimized per the ever changing number of volunteers. While at PSF, Bryan facilitated the writing of the organization’s first Vision, Mission Statement & Strategic Plan. He also oversaw the groups fundraising efforts.

Pisco Sin Fronteras Omprakash profile »

The Basic Steps to Administering a Volunteer Organization

1. Assess your Mission, Vision & Plan: Take a look at where you want to go & how you’ll get there
2. Determine Needed Positions & Organizational Structure: Who will do what? & how will they be held accountable?
3.  Hold Weekly Admin Meetings: A time for the team to get on the same page
4. Run the Ship with Open Eyes & Ears: ...and stay flexible with your approach

Assess your Mission, Vision & Plan

First of all, if your organization does not have a Mission Statement, Vision, and Strategic Plan do not panic. Now that you are not panicking, it is time to take action. Writing these three important pieces should be your organizations next steps. Your Strategic Plan will detail the organization’s goals and the steps you will take to reach those goals. If you do not yet have a Strategic Plan, make your first one simple and straight forward.

Your Mission and Vision will establish direction for your organization. Get as many different parties as possible (director, board, volunteers, admin team) involved in the development of these statements. The greatest challenge here will be reconciling the different opinions you will receive and coming up with one writing that represents the view of a group. I recommend holding multiple open forums, in which those interested in contributing can be heard.
During my time with Pisco Sin Fronteras we set out to write the organizations first vision & mission statement. As a way of collecting different ideas on what the statements should be, we held two open forums meetings. One of the volunteers who attended the meetings wrote about them and posted the story on the Omprakash website.

Click here to read more »

Once you have written the mission and vision, be sure to post these statements electronically on the organization’s website and physically in an area where all of the volunteers can see them. It is important that everyone knows the group’s purpose. Revisit the mission, vision and strategic plan documents on a mid-term basis in order to assure they continue to represent your ever changing organization. Tweak or rewrite as needed.

Many volunteer organizations have a well developed Mission, Vision and Plan which they are happy with. Good work if you are one of these organizations! Now that you know you are on the right track you can move ahead with confidence.

• For detailed advice on how to write your Mission, Vision and Strategic Plan see the following online resources: www.foundationcenter.org
  www.idealist.org
   
• Click here to read a volunteer’s blog about how Pisco Sin Fronteras developed their Mission and Vision.
   
• Revisit your Mission, Vision & Strategic Plan once in a while to make sure it still true to your organization.

Determine Needed Positions & Organizational Structure

Using your Strategic Plan as a detailed map, it is time to make sure you have the admin team needed to accomplish your goals. Often this involves looking at your current team and deciding if it serving you (with respect to the goals in the Strategic Plan).

When developing these positions, ask yourself the following:

1. What administrative tasks need to be done regularly for us to reach our goals? In Pisco we always needed to cover project initiation, fundraising, paper writing, answering the phone, balancing the books.
2. Which of these tasks can be combined and made the responsibilities of one admin team member? (For example, if Ricky speaks & writes the native language fluently and has a rapport with locals, he can cover project initiation and paper writing for those projects).

Even if you are unable to fill the position at the time, it is important to identify the roles that need to be played. Create the job opening and then look to fill it (bonus tip: be sure to post the opening on your website and the Omprakash site). Each member of the admin team should be clear on what their responsibilities are. Spend time writing job descriptions which list each of their responsibilities.

In smaller volunteer organizations it is important to remain flexible with who will do what. When personnel resources are limited, let those with ability and interest do what is needed. For instance, Ricky performs project initiation and writes papers for a construction based volunteer organization, but he does not have a construction background. Jennifer does have construction knowledge and so she can help Ricky or take on the parts of his job that require construction expertise (e.g. preparing construction cost estimates or drawing plans). Ideally, the admin member in Ricky’s position would have a construction background, but when that is not an option be on the lookout for making due with what’s available.

Once you have identified the positions needed to accomplish your goals, create the organizational structure. Drawing an ‘org chart’ will help relate the chain of responsibility to a visual totem pole. See Figure 1 for an example organization chart (‘org chart’). This chart was developed by the Pisco Sin Fronteras admin team in January of 2011. The chart shows the structure of the entire organization, including the admin team. I recommend drawing one of your own which also shows each level of the organization. Get everyone on the admin team a finished copy of your org chart and use it as a tool for holding team members accountable for their assigned responsibilities. In the org chart drawn below, the Grant Writer is to report to the Director.

HoldWeeklyAdminMeetings

If yours’ is a typical volunteer organization, things are often busy and sometimes crazy around the office. Hectic schedules can make communication between admin team members difficult. Designate a time and day of the week in which all the team members can come together for a meeting. Pick a time/day that works for everyone and make it regular (and mandatory!). Depending on the work environment you may need to close the office doors and take the phone off the hook to eliminate distractions. During these meetings take time to talk about any organizational issues, have each team member discuss what they did in the past week, and what they plan to do in the next. Throughout the week each team member will more easily be able to work towards the goals of the organization if they are aware of what is going on within the group. For example, at the last weekly meeting Jessica explained that they desperately need cement to complete an ongoing project. If Ricky is aware that the organization is in need of cement, he knows to ask any local large companies he may work with throughout his week for such a donation. Sharing this kind of information can only help the group’s cause.

Be warned: these meetings can sometimes be long & even tedious. Putting together an agenda before each meeting and having a designated team member run the meeting will help with this.

Run the Ship with Open Eyes & Ears

Now that you have set your ship on the right path it is time to move forward towards your goals. As your admin team goes about running the organizations on a day-to-day basis, always remember the mission, vision and plan of the group. Every decision your team makes should jibe with the plan. That being said, things change. Be willing to consider the many different ways in which you can reach your end result. Author Tom Robbins said it best when he wrote, ‘Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach.’

In Pisco, we had many different types of people asking for our help on many different types of projects. In one week we had a homeless elderly man asking for a house, and a family of 6 asking to help us build an extra room for their children to live in. Of course our resources were limited, so we had to decide which projects to take on. In an attempt to prioritize the requests for help, we established a Project Assessment process which each prospective project would go through before it was to begin. In the two years the Assessment process has been in existence, it has evolved from a single page form to a 3 stage process involving an initial application, and 2 rounds of site visits. As the organization’s resources grew, and the goals of the organization were established, we were periodically taking a look at our assessment process. If we felt it could be tweaked or improved, we worked to adjust it to meet the evolving needs of the community and mission of the organization.

• ‘Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach.’ Tom Robbins
• ‘...it is important that [the Admin team] always remain ‘in touch’ with the other (non- admin) volunteers and with the community they are serving.’

Although the admin team has a unique role to play within an organization, it is important that they always remain ‘in touch’ with the other (non-admin) volunteers and with the community they are serving. Since the admin team is often working within an office, it is easy for them to become separated from the other parts of the organization. Do your best to make sure your admin team does not lose touch with the world outside of the office.
Additionally, the admin team should remain open to critiques and criticisms. Infact, admin should solicit non-admin members for feedback. This can be done through a confidential ‘suggestion box’ and in an open forum type meeting in which organizational issues can be brought up and discussed openly. Each level of the org chart has a unique view of the work your organization is doing. Just as when writing your strategic plan, the more opinions and views you receive the wider your reference from which to make decisions.

Thank you for using this Omprakash Guide for Helping Administrate Partner Projects. We hope that it has been helpful for your organization. Continue to check Omprakash’s Classroom Resources for a variety of additional and newly added materials.

Keep up the good work.

Warm Regards,
Bryan Condon