How much to replace me?

Hi, Amanda

I'm not saying it's easy to recruit volunteers, and I appreciate the demands on those who are prepared to step forward.

There is a tendency for us to play down the role - how many of us have seen attempts to recruit Trustees, where they say, "Oh, there's nothing to it - only a couple of hours a month." when they should really be saying, "If you come to work with us, we need you to be really committed, to take this job seriously, and if you only have a few hours to give, we'd like to to give them wholeheartedly so that the Charity can get what it needs, and you can get the rewards you need to get from the role."

So - I'd start with job descriptions. What do you want the fundraiser, the book-keeper, the administrator to do for you? How much time would that take, in an ideal world? (There's no point recruiting someone for 1 day a month when you really need two days a week.)

I'd do separate JDs for each bit of the role, and leave open the option that some bits could be amalgamated if you found someone with the appropriate skills and time commitment; on the other hand, two people sharing could cover each other for sickness, holidays etc.

I'm with Martin in trying to keep fundraising separate - it rarely works well as an adjunct to another job.

When you have the JDs, I'd draw up a proper advert, which I'd then place in local papers, the Guardian Volunteer Supplement and the Staff Room of the local 24-hour Tesco - I have a minor bee in my bonnet about all these people who work in supermarkets and call centres, on funny shift patterns, but desperately keen to apply their brains to something worthwhile. It matters not to you when they do the work, or where, so someone who can give you a couple of hours when they come off shift at 6 in the morning would be fine, wouldn't it?

In today's world, we need to be flexible about when and where our volunteers work, whenever we can, as well as being as specific as possible about what we want them to do for us.

I hope this helps to spark some useful trains of thought.

Cheers

Gerry

Gerry Beldon FInstF
Director, 26-01 CIC
www.26-01.com

Hi Amanda.
I'm somewhat similar to you in that I'm a part-time disabled fundraiser. I work from an office rather than home though (but would prefer home working!).

The charity I work for is a bit cheap, so to replace me at 20 hours a week would cost them under £10k.
I'd suggest a seperate book-keeper. Any time taken away from fundraising is less money coming in. OK when it enhances your job (such as training, writing a strategy, seeing up closxe one of the projects for the day and so on). not so OK if someone else, either paid or volunteer, can do the work but it doesn't impact your fundraising.

One idea I'm trying to push with a new local charity being set up at the moment (wanting 300k in year one for 3 years running costs before starting work) is for people to write.
ie the fundraiser does the research, specifies what is required to be included in the document and for it to go to the chair for signature.

When time is tight it can increase the number of applications. Quality is more hit and miss though. So needs good quality control or its a poor idea.

Local council for voluntary service can be of great help too, as can local town council if they have someone to help with fundraising (a couple of local authorities round here have a full time external funding officer).
Not usually many people volunteering as a fundraiser, for whatever reason (maybe we are all snowed under already!). But sometimes volunteers who have or can learn relevant skills to help the charity.

Would it be worth advertising in local organisations, churches, volunteer groups etc for additional help?

Martin

Thanks for the reply.

The volunteer team idea would be lovely, but in practice there are very many local charities desperate for people to do what I am doing (both fund raising and book keeping/accounts) - in fact others have asked me to help them out as well. Our management committee is made up of parents who constantly apologise for the fact that they can't do more (it is very difficult for them even to attend meetings due to lack of childcare) - they have huge demands on their time and energy. Sometimes parents & volunteers recommend us to their work's charity fund, and a volunteer regularly raises a few hundred pounds each year but we really need multiple grant applications to have a hope of raising enough to run.
As for the added bits - we tried pretty hard to find replacements for previous people but no success.

Any tips for finding volunteers??!

Hi, Amanda

The question you pose is really quite complex, now that you have begun to add in book-keeping. However, I'll have a go, and others can come in with counter views.

If you want to raise £35k, a quick rule of thumb says budget between 10 - 20% of the target - £5k would buy some time from a bid-writer/consultant who could raise £40k per year.

With the book-keeping role added in, you could consider hiring someone for 1 day per week, say around £6k (£30k pro rata), and at that rate you should get someone competent with some solid experience.

I think I would want to look at it from a different angle, though.

At the moment, you're doing a great job as a volunteer, and you're taking on additional responsibilities, making it more difficult for another volunteer to replace you.

I think (just on the basis of what you've said here, so I could be wrong) that your organisation is not yet at the point where it needs paid staff for these roles, and you should be looking to develop a small team of volunteers who you can train, supervise and support. Maybe it's parents who would feel better if they could make a small contribution (and feel more empowered, in control etc etc), but maybe it's also other people in your local community who need to develop their own skills portfolios, or just need to have something different in their lives.

Splitting the role would take that worry away from your trustees, and I'd guess it would take some stress off you, making it less likely that you'd have to give up for health reasons.

So - short answer for your reserves - I'd say £5 - 7K should do it.

Long answer - diversify.

Hope this helps. Don't give up on the idea of other volunteers!

Cheers

Gerry

Gerry Beldon FInstF
Director, 26-01 CIC
www.26-01.com