Volunteer Engagement

Our Mission:

Create a new strategic plan for volunteer programming at Year Up by continuing the discussions with Program, CE, and Development teams to determine what strategic volunteer programming looks like, to maximize the benefit for both our young adults and volunteers.

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Volunteer Engagement Strategic Plan | 2022

Corporate Partner /
Funder Rubric

Volunteer
Opportunities

Organizational
Impact Goals

Site Volunteer Directory
Change Leadership Team

The volunteer engagement change initiative will be led by a group of cross-functional  representatives responsible for guiding the planning, design, and implementation of change at the strategy level. The team includes:  

QUESTIONS OR FEEDBACK
  • In an effort for us to better serve the organization, we welcome your questions and feedback.
  • Question(s) will be reviewed and added to the FAQ below if required. 
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Fall 2022 Volunteer Opportunity Flyer
  • VET is excited to release a combined list of volunteer opportunities for Fall 2022. Please share the flyer with partners and donors interested in volunteering. Staff should fill spots by asking volunteers to sign up using the links in the document. We understand sites have specific goals they are aiming to accomplish with their events. Our request is that sites consider the rubric and wherever possible, leverage prioritized groups as they recruit volunteers for these events
  • Standardized Registration Forms – During our first iteration of creating combined flyers we realized sites used different forms for registration (Google Forms, SurveyMonkey, Sign-Up Genius, etc.). Unlike the last set of flyers, all registration links for the Fall 2022 cycle will be created in Microsoft Forms. This serves as a temporary solution until our volunteer management system, HandsOn Connect, goes live later this year. Benefits of standardized registration forms include:
    • Year Up brand consistency.
    • Readily available access to donor data for upload into Salesforce and migration to HandsOn Connect in the fall.
    • Volunteers can register at their convenience.
  • Access Volunteer Registration Information.
    • Your VET representative will add a site’s designated point of contact(s) as a collaborator to each registration form. Your site will be able to access and manage volunteer registration through Microsoft Forms.
  • Many sites are still in the process of developing their programmatic calendar. We will continue to update this document each Friday as more information becomes available. Please visit above for the latest flyer updates.
  • Please Note: Only events using the standard Microsoft Forms template will be added to the flyer. As we move toward standardized registration forms that adhere to brand guidelines, we ask that all sites use the Microsoft Forms template for volunteer registration. Please reach out to your VET representative to create a standardized registration form for your volunteer events. The collaborator(s) of the volunteer event will be able to access and manage volunteer registration through Microsoft Forms.
  • Once HandsOn Connect, our volunteer management system, is active we will be able to implement a streamlined and strategic approach to recruiting volunteers. We are confident this will ease workload on sites and ensure we are maximizing the access our young adults have to our most influential partners. More on that process to come as it is developed. In this interim period, we will take a collaborative approach to ensuring sites have enough volunteers for programming needs. VET in partnership with CE and Devo will partner with sites to fill volunteer opportunities wherever possible. However, at this time, ownership of recruiting still resides at the site level.
  • VET in partnership with CE and Devo will partner with sites to fill volunteer opportunities wherever possible. Place your request (market, no. of volunteers needed, type of event, etc.) in the #proj-volunteer-exchange Slack channel for support. When recruiting volunteers, please refrain from posting opportunities on LinkedIn, social media outlets or recruiting friends and family. We have a large supply of volunteers from our corporate partners and institutional donors to fill the roles. Our goal is to ensure we are being strategic in who we are asking to participate in our programming to maximize benefit to our young adults.
  • When confirming a corporate partner’s participation in volunteer events, please inform them that due to implementation of a new volunteer management platform, volunteer spots are available on a first-come, first-serve basis until January 2023. All corporate partners interested in volunteering should have employees register for events using the links in the volunteer flyer.
  • In the future we will have the ability to reserve a certain number of spots for corporate partners. Unfortunately, this feature is not available with Microsoft Forms and is only a temporary solution until HandsOn Connect is available in the fall. Utilizing Microsoft Forms in the interim gives us the ability to migrate every sites’ volunteer data into HandsOn Connect for easy access and tracking. This short-term inconvenience will benefit us in the long run as we move toward consistent volunteer data management.
  • Unfortunately, this feature is not available in Microsoft Forms which is why for the time being, volunteer spots are available on a first-come, first-serve basis. However, once HandsOn Connect is in place, corporate partners will be able to search events using their company’s unique invitation code and self-register for events by a certain deadline. Not only does this eliminate the need for staff to rely on manual processes for registration but we’ll be able to see:
    1. Who signed up to volunteer and…
    2. How many people have signed up in real time. Additionally, if a corporate partner is unable to recruit the promised number of slots by the specified deadline, we’ll have the ability to open registration for other volunteers.
  • Sites should fill spots by asking volunteers to sign up using the links in the document. We ask that sites consider the rubric (above) and leverage prioritized groups as they recruit volunteers for these events whenever possible.
  • Yes, Devo and CE should partner with sites to provide opportunities to groups within the rubric (above) whenever possible.
  • We discovered during our site assessments that only one site consistently uses V4S. Most sites typically use Excel, Google Forms, and/or Outlook to manage registration data. Consequently, much of that data is not easily accessible. We will upload any existing volunteer data prior to the official launch of HandsOn Connect. HandsOn Connect will also migrate any volunteer data that exists in V4S. While we work with HOC to build out our platform, we are asking all sites to continue providing volunteer programming dates with VET as they are solidified. As these dates are provided, VET will create the standardized registration form. We will also upload this data into HandsOn Connect prior to the go live date.
  • During our site assessments we did hear consistent feedback that alumni engagement in volunteering is important to our students. We are currently working in partnership with ART as we implement HandsOn Connect to ensure we can also use the system to engage and track alumni volunteer participation.
  • At this time, the VET is not staffed to plan or execute a large number of custom volunteer events. Please reach out to your VET representative with details of the request. The Volunteer Engagement Team, in partnership with CE and Devo, will evaluate these requests on a case-by-case basis. Determinations will be made based on the requesting company’s tier within the rubric as well as team bandwidth at the time of request.
Corporate partner / funder rubric
  • This rubric was designed to support corporate partner and EOI access to our volunteer programming in a strategic way that aligns with our business needs. Our goal is to provide opportunities to connect key corporate donors and EOI directly to our work so they can experience the mission firsthand and so that we are engaging companies that are most deeply invested in our mission. We know these personal experiences are invaluable allowing volunteers to best understand our mission and in turn deepen their advocacy for our work. The rubric is designed to help strategically invite those partners into volunteer opportunities.
  • While the rubric was not intended to address the prioritization of individual donors, individual solicitors on the development team should continue to work with VET and their sites to engage individuals in volunteer opportunities.
  • By creating this tiered approach for corporate partner volunteer engagement, we are providing our students access to our Employers of Influence and philanthropic corporate investors that are leading the change in the way our society looks at workforce development. By providing our students this access we are providing them the opportunity to be a part of this change and build a network with key employers to support their career pathway.
  • As relationship owners, please use this rubric to determine which partners receive access to volunteer opportunities first. For example, corporate partners in Tier 1 would receive priority over partners in Tier 3.
  • Later this year we will implement HandsOn Connect, a new volunteer management platform to support recruitment and adherence to the rubric. When the new system launches, we will have an operational plan for sequencing the recruitment of volunteers by tier. Until then, we ask sites to consider the rubric and wherever possible, leverage prioritized groups as they recruit volunteers. If you have a corporate partner that is not included on this list at all (i.e. a new business prospect with significant strategic value to the organization and potential for partnership) please follow the steps noted below regarding submitting a change request.
  • When recruiting volunteers, please refrain from posting opportunities on LinkedIn, social media outlets, or recruiting friends and family. We have a large supply of volunteers from our corporate partners and institutional donors to fill the roles. Our goal is to ensure we are being strategic in who we are asking to participate in our programming to maximize benefit to our young adults.
  • The initial prioritization is a draft and was based strictly on annual internship and philanthropic revenue. VET has worked collaboratively across functions to identify the following qualitative considerations we are asking each relationship holder to help finalize this rubric.
    • Potential for revenue growth
    • Commitment to DEIB
    • Importance of volunteerism to the partnership
    • Support of student outcomes
    • Flexibility in scheduling
    • Larger strategic value
  • To submit change requests to this rubric, please complete the exception form with the following information:
    • Your name
    • The name of the corporate partner
    • Suggested tier the corporate partner should be considered for
    • The rationale behind the change. Considerations for changing tiers should align with qualitative considerations listed above.
  • The deadline to submit exceptions for the July 2022 –January 2023 cycle was Thursday, June 16 by 12 pm CST. Moving forward, tier assignments will be reviewed bi-annually (dates TBD) as well as when a new corporate partner or institutional donor makes a significant investment. We ask for your support in reviewing this rubric at those times to reassess your relationships’ position(s).
  • Volunteerism will be offered to both corporate partners as well as individual donors. We have heard the concerns around individuals no longer being able to access volunteer programming. We understand the unique value our loyal volunteers bring to our programs and communities. We also understand that volunteering with our students is an extremely important cultivation and stewardship opportunity for our individual investors who help to make our work possible. We believe that there are enough volunteer events and spots for all volunteer groups to participate. Our expectation is that by strategically selecting potential volunteers groups, sites will be able to fill spots quickly, and avoid last minute recruiting.
  • Overall, the volunteer engagement strategy is designed to increase the number of meaningful engagements young adults have with external volunteers so there will be plenty of opportunities to include a variety of supporters.
  • We are currently working on how this allocation process will work so please continue to provide constructive feedback as we build. Your feedback allows us to build the best program possible and ensures we don’t miss accounting for the expectations of our stakeholders
  • Yes, absolutely. Tier assignments are based on the company’s investment level in the organization as well as a number of other strategic considerations. If a company is not interested (or less interested) in their employees volunteering, we should move them down a tier to make space available for other deserving partners.Tier assignments will be reviewed bi-annually (dates TBD) as well as when new corporate partners or institutional donors makes a significant investment. We ask for your support in reviewing this rubric at those times to reassess your relationships’ position(s).