Equipping Volunteer Managers for Donor & Community Development (Session 2B)

Time: 10:20 am - 11:50 am
This workshop best fits the experience level and category of: ALL

The work of a volunteer manager is more than just recruiting volunteers and maintaining volunteer files. Volunteer management is a gateway between the inner workings and deepest needs of the agency and the eager surrounding community. Volunteer managers have an enormous potential for impact in the areas of donor and community development. A mature volunteer program will naturally produce individuals who will want to invest in the agency with more than just their time, and the door into an agency, for a donor, is often the door to the volunteer manager’s office. Many agencies are forced to choose between hiring a volunteer manager or a development director. What they really need is a volunteer manager who has the tools and training she needs to not only recruit and manage volunteers, but to see beyond the volunteer hours into a world of building relationships, establishing connections, and sharing passion and vision.

Learning Objectives

• Diversifying the agency’s volunteer base with an open, creative spirit, to allow for broader support and creative marketing
• Building an “ambassador” program, or network of supporters that meets the needs of the agency and serves as a microphone for the agency’s mission
• Becoming equipped with a knowledge base to be the most effective representative of the agency

Presented by:
Rebekah Poling
Development Director, Lutheran Social Services of the South
www.LSSS.org

Rebekah Poling is a Development Director with Lutheran Social Services of the South, the largest provider of residential treatment and foster care in the state of Texas. She currently oversees the agency’s donor base in North Texas and manages the volunteer program for their DFW foster care ministries. She began with the agency as the Director of Volunteer Services at the Nelson Children’s Center in Denton where she managed nearly 4500 volunteers annually. Rebekah graduated summa cum laude from the University of North Texas with a degree in International Development and has been published in the Eagle Feather, an undergraduate research magazine. Rebekah lives in Argyle with her husband Chad, a handsome investigator with DPS, and two beautiful step-daughters, Haley, 16, and Kennady, 12. They most enjoy family “date nights” which usually means hanging out at a coffee shop and walking around downtown Denton.