A Modern Nonprofit Podcast · The Charity CFO, LLC

Episode 138: Beyond Staff: Engaging Your Full Nonprofit Workforce - Board Members and Volunteers Included

·39 min·2 clips

Rhonda's four core needs are flexibility, appreciation, being informed, and empowerment.

1. A Modern Nonprofit Podcast episode on engagement across a nonprofit organization focuses on employees, board members, and volunteers. 2. Tasha Anderson hosts the conversation, and Rhonda Travers of Travers Training and Consulting brings leadership development and nonprofit capacity-building experience. 3. The episode asks what nonprofits miss when they think about engagement only through the employee lens. 4. Rhonda says volunteers are an overlooked resource that can magnify a mission, serve as brand ambassadors, and help with administrative functions. 5. She says volunteers and board members follow the same life cycle as employees: attraction, onboarding, retention, and exit. 6. Rhonda separates volunteer roles into point-in-time help, continuous commitments, and virtual work. 7. She gives trivia nights and golf outings as examples of point-in-time volunteering. 8. She points to board service as a continuous commitment that often requires quarterly or monthly participation. 9. She uses website work and marketing materials as examples of virtual roles that can be done outside normal hours. 10. She says nonprofits often ask, 'Do you have time to help us?' without enough clarity around the actual role or time commitment. 11. Rhonda identifies four core needs across employees, volunteers, and board members: flexibility, appreciation, information, and empowerment. 12. She connects those needs to Simon Sinek's focus on 'your why' and says motivations differ even when people support the same mission. 13. Rhonda says one nonprofit offered her accounting-related volunteer roles first because of her CPA and audit background. 14. She says that match worked because the organization had defined roles and could align her motivation with its needs. 15. She says many nonprofits now compete for attention across email, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, websites, and in-person networks. 16. She says the average volunteer or board member now spends one hour a week with a nonprofit, compared with three hours a week pre-COVID. 17. Tasha and Rhonda talk about how clear expectations, tracking, and communication affect whether board members stay engaged. 18. Rhonda says offboarding can be handled through calm conversations about attendance, fit, and whether a different capacity would work better. 19. The tone is practical and conversational, with examples from nonprofit work, board service, and volunteer management. 20. Listeners who manage boards, volunteers, or nonprofit teams will get the most value, while people wanting a high-level theory discussion may skip it.

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