First of all, the job of a volunteer coordinator is going to vary depending on where the job is located and for which organization you are working. However, the job of a volunteer coordinator, as the title implies, is basically a coordination job. You will be working for an organization that uses volunteers. It could be an organization that is staffed completely by volunteers, or one that has volunteers as part of its organization. The volunteer coordinator is going to be the person who takes care of those volunteers. They will be, basically, in charge of the volunteers and what those people will be doing. They will lead the volunteers.
Job Responsibilities
Depending on what company or organization for which you work, you will have many different and varied job opportunities as a volunteer coordinator. First of all, you will be in charge of the people who are volunteering with your organization. This will mean that you are working to sign up volunteers, to screen them to be sure that they are the best for your organization, and then to schedule them so that you will have enough volunteers when you need them. You will also be in charge of making sure that your organization works well with the volunteers, which means that you will often be in charge of training volunteers and making sure that they know what they are doing. When the volunteers begin working at their tasks, the volunteer coordinator is in charge of supervising them and making sure that they are doing what they are supposed to be doing. A volunteer coordinator is someone who is going to be very important, because they will be basically in charge of the people who are working for free for a company or organization. They will oversee any conflicts that the volunteers have, talk to people who have questions, and deal with any volunteer problems that come up. If the organization operates on a large scale, the volunteer coordinator might be responsible for working with their particular volunteer group, and then coordinating work and volunteers within other groups around the area. Also, the volunteer coordinator might be responsible for meeting with other volunteer coordinators, or even for coordinating these volunteer coordinators as well.
Requirements
The job of a volunteer coordinator is difficult because you need to be able to work with people and understand the various ways that volunteers differ from employees. Volunteers are freely giving their time, so you won’t be able to manage them in the same way that you would paid employees. You will need to be more forgiving and more willing to make changes with scheduling and information. Therefore, you need to have excellent people skills and be willing to try new things. You must be creative, be a problem solver, and be ready and willing to get your own hands dirty. Often the volunteer coordinator is the person who ends up doing a lot of the work, especially in small organizations. You also must be ready and willing to recruit new volunteers and to train them. Also, a volunteer coordinator must have some type of experience with management, so that you will be able to effectively handle people within an organization.
