Singapore University of Social Sciences

Volunteers have played a significant role in building communities and remain a cornerstone in the work of the people sector and non-profit organisations. The benefits of volunteer involvement are far reaching. They help organisations expand the reach of their work and also extend their budget so that they achieve more. It is hence critical that organisations are able to effectively manage their volunteer resources as well as the resources and networks that they bring, and to do so will require a robust volunteer management framework. This course is set up to provide the fundamentals of such a framework. Managers of volunteers sketch and put into action, projects involving volunteers. As such, they carry a wide range of strategic and operational responsibilities. They are primarily responsible for the scoping and definition of the roles of volunteers, their deployment and scheduling, the recruitment and proper training and preparation for the volunteers’ functions, and making assessments of volunteers’ performances. Aside from that, secondary issues that such managers may also be involved in include fundraising, communication with organizations, budgeting, volunteer retention programmes, policy making, and Public Relations. Lastly they need to have an awareness of the ethical issues surrounding volunteerism, such as issues of leadership, interpersonal relations, motivations of volunteers and organizations employing them, professional conduct, resource allocation, and communication.