"Hem your blessings with thankfulness so they don't unravel."—Anonymous

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Volunteers, Paid Contractors

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Safety

Do You Need to Speak Spanish

Volunteer Recruiting
   Online Listings 
   Online Fillable Forms
   Virtual Volunteering 
   Paid Equine Staff

Job Descriptions 
   Training Handbook 
   Expenses 
    Background Checks 

Voluntourism

Recognition

   National Recognition Programs

   Local or State Recognition Programs

   Supplies for Your Own Recognition Program

Books to Sell to Raise Both Funds and Public Awareness

Special Events

Encouragement and Motivation Management Skills

National Volunteer Week

Volunteer Scheduling, Skill Matching, Time Recordkeeping and Reporting

Service Statistics Recordkeeping and Reports  State and National Statistics and Reports

Community Needs and Your Impact 
Donation Development Direct Donation or Payment for Fundraising Item Online Employer Donation Matching 
Branded Items for Donors, Clients, Volunteers, Special Events 

Recycling and Other Passive Giving Fundraising Opportunities 

Passive Giving Online or Instore Donations by Retailers for Shopping or Searching

Charity Validation Sites

Payroll Deduction Giving Programs

Other Resources 

TOPICS ON OTHER PAGES:

HORSE NON-PROFIT SECTION MAIN PAGE

HORSE NON-PROFIT RESOURCES - CREDENTIALS & PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS

HORSE NON-PROFIT RESOURCES - ADVERTISING & MARKETING

HORSE NON-PROFIT FUNDRAISING RESOURCES

NEWS FLASH-OUR 2008 Best Humane Business Innovation Award went to the National Black Farmers Association for Project Wanted Horse

Del Camino helps non-profit horse facilities and services find timely information that benefits their program and success.  We want to see horse sanctuaries and retirement stables grow and prosper. We would like horse rescues to be well-operated and fully supported by their local communities.  The benefits of horseback riding to humans is a well-established fact, and the therapeutic benefits to individuals, and cultural benefits to the wider society, mean every effort should be expended to develop viable humane businesses that use well-trained, good tempered, well-seasoned horses. It can be done.

How This Non-Profit Volunteer Resource Section Works  (Top of Page)

1. Add us to Your Favorites:  We update this section of our website fairly often, so we recommend you return regularly.  Why not add this page to your browser's Favorites list?  Doing so does not cause us to send you junk mail.

2. Report a Broken Link:  As we find a broken link, we remove it if we cannot easily repair it.  Please notify the webmaster if you find one.

3. Share a Resource You Found:  If you are a horse business using a tool, resource, or website we haven't listed, we encourage you to tell us about it (please provide URL) on our feedback page, so we can share it with others.  Likewise, if you think a listing is useless, let us know!

4. Share a Resource You Offer:  If you are a service provider or vendor with something to offer horse businesses, please tell us about your product, service, or marketing opportunity so we can share it, via our feedback page.

5. Join a Discussion:  We encourage visitors to join discussions in the Forums to share their knowledge or experiences.

6. Recognize a Great Idea:  Nominations for Special Recognition to equine non-profit groups or horse product or service companies are welcomed.  Any entity (individual, business, or agency) that has done or is doing something remarkable for the benefit of the senior horse is eligible.  Presently, the method to nominate someone for Senior Horse Special Recognition is on our feedback page.

Community Needs and Your Impact                                             (Top of Page)

From the very beginning, collect and keep verifiable statistics on the equine community, and larger local community that you serve.  As your equine non-profit grows, and you become eligible to apply for grants and participation on government and civic committees and boards that impact your mission, you need to clearly and briefly articulate the impact of your organization on the equine, special needs, and larger community.  That larger community includes people who want a satisfying volunteer experience, and includes your regular, special project, and virtual volunteers.

Make no mistake.  This data is valuable for identifying the needs your volunteers are asked to meet.  It is also valuable when you need to recruit volunteers, to have developed profiles of the demographics of your current volunteers.  Are you recruiting younger or older volunteers?  Do they come from the same group that donates, or a different group?  Are they diverse or homogenous?  Did attending those volunteer recruitment fairs last fall do any good, or were they a waste of time?  If most of your best volunteers are baby-boomers, where should you focus your efforts to find more like them?

TIP:  A virtual volunteer can maintain statistics gleaned from your volunteer and donor records database, and compare them to community demographics for you.  This information can be updated quarterly and annually to identify seasonal and year-to-year trends. 

But first, buy this book and read it cover-to-cover.  You will refer to it many, many, times over the years!  Hands down, The Volunteer Management Handbook by Tracy D. Connors is the most recommended complete guide in print.  A virtual how to bible, it covers everything from recruiting to interviewing, orientation, job matching, policies and procedures to how to handle difficult volunteer situations.

Donation Development                                          (Top of Page)

Your volunteers are often a major source of individual donations, and open doors to corporate sponsorships.  If your message and mission touches a person to volunteer, it can touch that person to give, or encourage others to give.  As you develop campaigns for donations, keep your volunteers in mind.

People and organizations who have been touched by your message and mission in the past can be touched again.  Your goal is to make their relationship with your equine non-profit more rewarding and develop them as regular givers - in commercial businesses they are regular customers with brand loyalty.

The same is true when recruiting volunteers for seasonal needs.  Keep up-to-date records and ask volunteers who were stellar performers to return each season.

Non-profits devote oceans of effort and money to developing supporters.  It is much easier to contact people who have given in the past, or have volunteered, than to recruit new volunteers who do not know about your organization and the work it does.

The book shown here, Finder's Keepers, is an absolute necessity for anyone who wants their mission to succeed.

Payroll Deduction Giving Programs                      (Top of Page)

Payroll deduction giving through annual enrollment campaigns was pioneered by The United Way with businesses. This makes donating easy to budget and an efficient way to give for the year to favorite charities. 

Note:  Evaluate the giving policies of the companies, foundations and government agencies that sponsor your programs or give you grants before choosing to participate in The United Way.  Some exclude non-profits funded by The United Way.  You may or may not want to trade one source of funding for another.  You may be able to compromise by enrolling as an affiliated non-profit.  People can choose your organization by United Way identification number to give by payroll deduction, but you will not participate in a percentage of the general campaign.

Today, one in five people work for a government entity in the U.S. and the main program that mirrors the United Way is the Combined Federal Campaign in promoting, managing and distributing payroll deduction contributions.  If your organization has any volunteers or clients that are government employees, the CFC may be a good adjunct or alternative.

    Combined Federal Campaign  which works like the United Way for county, state, and federal (including military) employees to make payroll deduction donations to their choice of thousands of registered charities.  The CFC makes it easier to donate to a specific charity than does the United Way, but does have regional managers who set goals for the year and conduct enrollment promotions.

Passive Giving Online or Instore Donations by Retailers for Shopping or Searching  

iGive Shopping,enables online shoppers to take advantage of promotions and discounts at thousands of businesses, and have a percentage of their purchase donated to their favorite charity.  They also have a donation for searching program similar to GoodSearch, called iSearchiGive.  http://isearch.igive.com

GoodSearch.com enables your supporters to donate pennies to their favorite charity as they search the internet.  This is the modern equivalent of placing a change collection jar on a retail store's checkout counter.  Over time, as more people add your charity to their search tool, these pennies add up.  We have used GoodSearch to support one horse sanctuary.  Over 8 months those pennies, just from online searches, added up to $6.26.  The total for that sanctuary from all supporters using the search engine during the 8 months was $146.54.  It is a very small rescue tucked away in a corner of our state.  But supporters all over the country who do online "google" searches are helping.

Many stores donate a percentage of shoppers' purchases through their own programs, or through a service that manages the donations for them.  For example, the  Basha's grocery store chain in Arizona has its own program, "Shop and Give."  Shoppers use their "Thank You" card to get discounts and promotions at the checkout counter.  Because their card is also linked to a 501(c)(3) non-profit, a church or a school, 1% of their grocery bill is donated to the charity by Basha's, and the charity is eligible for annual gifts of as much as $5,000.  It takes just a minute online for a shopper, who could be one of your volunteers or a grateful client, to register their card online or at the store customer service counter.  One person, shopping to the tune of $50 per week, earns $26.00 for your equine non-profit in a year. 

http://www.escrip.com A conglomerate that includes major chains like Safeway, Macy's, Nordstrom's, and Lands End is eScript.  Bookstores, electronics stores, supermarkets, department stores, restaurants - many kinds of businesses participate.  Shoppers register their store discount cards (like Safeway) or their credit or debit cards, and link to the registered charity of their choice.  Then, whether they shop in the store or online, a percentage of their purchase total is donated to the charity.  Some stores donate as much as 6%, most donate 1% or 2%. 

Charity Validation Sites                                               (Top of Page)

Validation sites post your latest IRS Tax Return (Form 990) so that people and foundations can research your legitimacy before committing funds.  Here are three of them to choose from.  Your non-profit should be listed with at least one of them once you have filed your first return.  It is also possible for individuals to donate via credit card securely at these sites after doing their due diligence.  It is a good idea to make it easy for donors to act without having to jump from site to site.  These resources are used by a larger percentage of today's internet-savvy prospective volunteers to check out your horse rescue or equine assisted activities center before making a commitment to serve with you.

Animal Charities of America  is a nonprofit organization that pre-screens high quality animal related charities and presents them for giving consideration. Individuals can donate on the site.  They are a member of Independent Charities of America (see below) and the Combined Federal Campaign (see Payroll Deduction section above.)  Both ICA and CFC require your IRS 990 tax return.
 

Independent Charities of America,

  Charity Navigator,

GuideStar,

There are also organizations that keep track of complaints or publish standards for reputable charities.  Here are two:

  Better Business Bureau. and  Standards for Excellence Institute Certified Non-Profit

Employer Donation Matching                                            (Top of Page)

When someone donates to your equine non-profit, or applies to volunteer, do you check, or provide an easy means for the donor to check, if his/her employer has a matching gift program?  More than fourteen thousand American companies do have such a program.  You cannot afford to leave this money on the table.  Yet, you say, you are too busy caring for rescued horses, giving therapeutic riding lessons, or answering phone calls to look into it?  Guess what, so are MOST small non-profit organizations.  However, very smart ones subscribe to online databases that not only list these companies, but can provide an online donor with the exact information they need to apply for an employer matching gift for you at the same time they make their PayPal, iGive, or other secure online donation.  A good example is Hep Development's e-match donor link software.  Try out the demonstration online.

Branded Items for Donors, Clients, Volunteers, Special Events via e-Stores     (Top of Page)

Four of these methods are online shopping solutions that enable you to offer logo items without the initial outlay of cash for inventory to stock and resell.  What was formerly only available to larger companies is now accessible, via printing on demand and drop shipping to even the smallest home business and start-up non-profit.

Do not underestimate the value of a coaster, calendar, mug, ball cap, refrigerator magnet, t-shirt, or mouse pad.  Companies worldwide spend millions per year to provide permanent positive reminders to buyers, investors, employees, and, yes, vendors.  Non-profits have even more reasons to recognize staff and volunteers, clients, vendors, donors and sponsors.  It is also important to identify staff as professionals, and volunteers on your property for visitors, at community outreach events, or to new clients.  While you may give a sports bottle or T-shirt as a gift, many people will gladly purchase additional items to enhance their sense of belonging.  Make it easy for them to do that, and put some money in the till at the same time.

Lands' End Business Outfitters E-Store.    Submit your logo, select your items, and receive commissions on purchases made by donors, clients, staff, and special event supporters.

CafePress  provides an e-Store that links from your website with items you select.  CafePress offers items with artists' work for sale from which you can select, or you can set up your e-Store with logo items from among thousands of products that are printed on demand with your logo, wording, photo or event artwork. You simply provide the artwork and make your selections and receive commissions on the sales.  No need to collect funds.

Fund-net  provides an e-Store that links from your website with logo items you select.  Fund-net specializes in logo items from among 800,000 products for non-profits, schools, clubs, teams, corporate, special events, and medical facilities.  You simply provide the artwork and make your selections and receive commissions on the sales.  No need to collect funds.

Zazzle    provides an e-Store that links from your website with items you select.  Zazzle offers items with artists' work for sale from which you can select, or you can select items to customize with your logo, wording or photos from among thousands of products.  They are printed on demand in the size and color the buyer chooses.  You simply prove the artwork and select the products and receive commissions on the sales.  Here is an equine rescue example.

Recycling and Other Passive Giving Fundraising Opportunities                      (Top of Page)

Whether it is branded items in your online store, or passive giving links to companies that donate a portion of sales proceeds, don't just start signing up for anything and everything that comes your way.  Discuss the range of opportunities with your Board of Directors, and present them with a need for a linking and monetizing policy.  The Board, with its roles of governance and fundraising, approves a website policy to include, for example, how links to other websites will be handled.  This protects the non-profit from establishing links contrary to its mission, or that could be in violation of its non-profit status, or discriminatory and subject to lawsuit.  Even if the director chooses links wisely and consistently, it is the Board's job to back him up with a written publicly published policy. 

Here are some current opportunities to consider:

Project KOPEG provides a system for collecting used electronics and components like cell phones and ink cartridges from supporters, either businesses or individuals, and turning them into cash for your non-profit.

Award Keeper allows you to take orders at events such as horse shows, keep your percentage, and forward the balance and orders to them, whereupon they drop ship to the customer.  Or you can set up an affiliate link for online ordering and receive a commission on sales.  Award Keeper sells patterns for turning all those horse show, 4-H, or athletic event ribbons that are gathering dust into decorative pillows and other displayable items.

Gifts for All of Us  has items for fundraising drives for schools, churches, teams, bands, clubs, and other non-profits.  Plus you can link to their website from yours' to earn up to 40% commissions on gift and specialty items.

Sunset Decals, a division of EZ Signs Online, offers beautiful horse (and dog) vinyl window decals as fundraisers for schools and clubs in your choice of quantity.

cMarket Bidding for Good is an online auction service designed specifically to raise money for non-profit agencies.  Visit them at  to see if an online auction could work for your equine facility.  The Humane Society, Habitat for Humanity, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, and other large charities have used them.

Volunteers, Paid Contractors                                (Top of Page)

Unless you are a Medusa and able to work a 24 hour day 7 days per week, 365 days per year, you need help.  If you have ever been a supervisor, manager, or small business owner, you know that staff turnover is costly in time and money and that training and supervising staff is a major part of running a successful enterprise of any kind. 

From Day One you need to recruit, identify skills and interests, train, and keep energized a group of volunteers.  Whether a volunteer feeds horses and mucks stalls, drives the truck and horse trailer to pick up horses, or maintains your mission critical website, he or she is a valuable asset.

For your equine non-profit and its volunteers to benefit the most from each other, volunteers should be managed as part of an overall, systematic program, somewhat similar to the systematic approach that should be used to managing employees. There are differences between how employees and volunteers are managed, but the differences are much less than most people realize.

Whether a person is a part-time employee paid minimum wage, a manager paid a salary, or a volunteer paid nothing, some labor laws and tax laws apply.  Ensure you have written policies and procedures.  See the sections on Board of Directors and Officers for more information on Employee Handbooks, Expense Reimbursements, and reasons why you cannot safely "invent it as you go."

Almost one third of the U.S. population volunteers. Approximately 28.8 percent of Americans over the age of 16 volunteered through or for an organization in 2005. [Source: National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCSS)}

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One of the most important influences on the caliber of volunteer you can recruit is your non-profit's public image.  No recruiting advertisements, no volunteer recognition program, no training, no job perks will do more to help you attract the best qualified and most committed volunteers than a quality well-recognized public image in the community you serve.  

Safety                                                                                                    (Top of Page)

If you have women, teenagers, or disabled individuals volunteering on your premises, you also need to assure the adult ladies and the families of youth and special needs workers that the environment is safe.  For a very small group of volunteers, background checks may not be necessary, nor training in protective behaviors for vulnerable populations.  However, the physical safety and security of the premises, including the lighting of the parking area for folks leaving the ranch after dark, is something you have an obligation to address.  Likewise, controlling visitor access in a friendly and welcoming manner is simply prudent.  Also, appropriate restroom arrangements other than entering your home at any time are critical.

Do You Need to Speak Spanish?

Your clients, employees, and local business vendors could be Hispanic.  The most important way to reach out to any population is to speak their language!  

We've found a cost-effective Spanish language course that teaches American and Latin American colloquial Spanish, not fancy diplomatic corps Castillian Spanish. Click Here!

This Spanish-English dictionary goes both ways — Spanish to English and English to Spanish. It has all the phonetic symbols and pronunciation, along with extras: verb conjugation, prefixes and suffixes, etc. Two features you may find particularly valuable. One is the examples, included with the definitions, that illustrate Spanish usage, language structure, and idioms. The other is the indicators of regional variation. So often, a Spanish speaker does not understand a dictionary word because it may be used only in certain countries or regions. The Barron's dictionary translates "straw" as "pajita," "popote," or "pitillo," but it indicates the Mexican version is "popote."

The vast majority of government grants today are specially ear-marked to serve socially-disadvantaged groups, in both rural and urban America, which includes Hispanics.  Those that are not often require at least a percentage of the group you serve to be from those demographics.  The equine non-profits who have a plan to effectively work with these neighbors and possible participants is both forward-thinking and better situated to cope with an economic downturn. 

Recruiting                                                                  (Top of Page)                                                  

Do you have partnerships with local businesses?  Can you put a banner up at a local horse show?  Will a regional equine event or state fair donate a booth in the concessions/vendors area?  What if you have a card table with brochures and water for people and horses at a trail head when a local club arrives for a planned trail ride?

Online Listings

Volunteer Match is the largest volunteer online network where you can post volunteer opportunities.  It's volunteer job search engine is linked to many other sites, and posting a profile of your organization and openings is easy to do.  There are also link widgets you can add to your website, volunteer reviews, and other features.  Supporting businesses can add a Volunteer Match widget, SearchLite to their websites to get the word out to their employees and customers. Volunteer Match will also provide hosted, branded, cause websites for companies that wish to align with community volunteering opportunities.

Your volunteers are encouraged to post VolunteerMatch logos and widgets on their own websites and social media pages, helping you to "go viral."

4laborsoflove.org is another very large volunteer matching network.  They also help you get started with volunteer background checks.

HandsonNetwork is a nationwide volunteer resource that also offers volunteer matching.  In 2010 HandsonNetwork has partnered with Disney to run the "Give a Day, Get a Disney Day" volunteer recognition promotion.

YourCause enables individuals to select from 1.7 million non-profits to connect with and promote donations to.  The individual can then share the cause through emails, social networks, or a website.  Individuals set fundraising goals and provide widgets on their sites for visitors to donate.  YourCause collects and forwards the funds to the 501(c) 3 and keeps track of the effort with updated reports on the widget and their site.  Individuals can also recruit volunteers.  Membership for individuals and the non-profits is free, and the tools YourCause provides are first-rate in both design and ease of use.

Online Fillable Forms                                                                   (Top of Page)

We consult with equine non-profits to improve efficiency and make it easier for potential clients, volunteers, and donors to take action (donate, pay session bills, enroll for a service, or apply for a volunteer position).  Invariably, a glaring need exists to get paperwork under control.  An absolutely necessary evil of non-profit equine operations, paperwork such as volunteer applications, release forms, sign up sheets, timesheets — you name it, have to be created, made available to the people who use them, completed, received by someone, processed, and stored. 

Are your basic volunteer applications available on your website in obvious places?  Are they in a form that does not require specific software, like a certain word processor or spreadsheet package? 

If they are forms with sections (fields) for the applicant to complete, or boxes to check, did you type a line or symbol, or create a database field that they can fill in without changing the form?  If you created a form, can they download it, fill in the data on their computer, save the form, and send it back to you as a form rather than just a document, so you can import it right into your  client management software and generate a report or make the information available to an employee who does initial follow-up calls part-time from his home computer?  If you are not using fillable forms online, YOU ARE WORKING TOO HARD and you are reducing the chance that the visitor to your website will TAKE ACTION by as much as 50%.

For help turning your spreadsheets and documents into fillable forms in .PDF or other formats, and making them available on your website, contact us for more information.

For online software to do it yourself, visit FormSite, an online web form builder  and look at the sample forms, like the volunteer applications you can customize, and the features of the free plan as well as those that cost money to use.

Virtual Volunteering                                                                      (Top of Page)

Virtual volunteering refers to volunteer tasks completed, in whole or in part, via the Internet and a home or work computer. It's also known as online volunteering, cyber service, telementoring, teletutoring and various other names.  Equine non-profits located some distance from metropolitan centers, in semi-rural or rural areas, such as many sanctuaries and rescues, should seriously explore implementing virtual volunteering as part of their overall volunteer program.
Virtual volunteering is not a substitute for traditional “in person” volunteering. Instead, the best aspects of this innovative use of technology are that it adds to the quantity of service contributed and attracts people who have not necessarily volunteered before. Virtual volunteering offers greater access to community resources and provides more ways for people to support your equine non-profit agency. For some people, service online will be a preferred avenue of volunteering but, for most, it will be an additional way of contributing time and talent.
Most organizations which involve online volunteers do so in addition to welcoming on-site volunteers. Also, only a few online volunteers work solely via the Internet. Often a combination of on-site and online tasks for volunteers works best for everyone involved (volunteers, staff, clients).   Assignments can have different levels of virtuality. For instance, one volunteer may interact with clients online but meet on-site with a staff member regularly; another may talk with a client via e-mail in addition to regular face-to-face visits.

Four prerequisites of initiating a virtual volunteering program:

1. A well established in-person volunteer program, reviewed and approved by your Board of Directors should exist.

2. The existing volunteer program is managed by a person trained in non-profit volunteer management, and able to incorporate managing virtual volunteers into the mix.

3. E-mail and internet technology your equine non-profit uses is relatively modern, and the volunteer manager and all other staff are trained in its use and e-mail "best practices" and "netiquette."

4. Data security, backup archives, confidentiality, and proprietary information policies exist, and all of your staff are trained to follow them.

It is then easy to go through your policy and procedure manuals to amend them to cover volunteers who work virtually. Update your reimbursement policy for expenses a volunteer might incur working via the Internet. You may want to require volunteers working virtually to provide their own equipment (computer, modem, software, Internet Service Provider, etc.), and that all expenses must be approved by the volunteer's staff contact before they are actually incurred if the volunteer wants to be reimbursed. You should also define in your policies what would be grounds for dismissal of an online volunteer, such as:

Use your current written policies as a guide for defining the boundaries for your online volunteers.  Most small non-profits today have volunteers working on a variety of projects from their home or work computers, including website maintenance, and fundraising projects.  This is an excellent means of tapping into the expertise and passion of many volunteers, and delegating tasks staff is too busy to perform.  However, it is also fraught with pitfalls for the charity that does not implement a system and controls.

To learn more about virtual volunteering, download this  Virtual Volunteering Guide for Non-Profits, or for help getting started or improving your current activities, contact us. 

Paid Equine Staff

If you can't find enough volunteers to cover your horse training, rehabilitating, adoption, foster home vetting and training, etc. needs during the hours necessary, you may want to hire a part-time professional.   Besides getting the exact expertise you need, this person's job duties could include training volunteers in horse skills they lack.

Here's one equine industry employment service.

Visit the Del Camino resources page for commercial horse businesses for more links.

Job Descriptions                                                                (Top of Page)

For a bit of support getting started as a manager of a volunteer workforce, visit The Corporation for National and Community Service  for resources, tips and tools.

Training                                                                               (Top of Page)

Keeping track of who is trained to do what can be a job in itself.  Rather than learn yet another software package,  EasyWare's non-profit management software can track this for you as well as help recruit, retain, and schedule volunteers.   So can Matchmaker and many other non-profit fully-integrated management and accounting software solutions.

Handbook                                                                             (Top of Page)

Without our wonderful volunteers horse non-profits simply cannot function.  Whether you operate a hippotherapy program, a rescue, a sanctuary, a rehabilitation or retirement facility, or a charitable horse camp, volunteers contribute a most valuable asset — skilled labor.  The most expensive cost of operating any for-profit business is labor and benefits.  This is even true for most small horse businesses, like boarding stables and lesson stables that have horses "on the payroll" to house, feed, shoe, etc.

Mastering the recruitment, effective use, scheduling, and recognition of your volunteers is imperative.  Officers otherwise face the same "burn out" problems as small business entrepreneurs of for-profit stables and other businesses — trying to do everything from daily horse care to website maintenance to fund-raising to fielding calls.  If you want your horse non-profit to last, providing a service to people and job security or a secure home to the horses, you must be an organizer and a people-person who can master the art of managing the volunteer roster.

Whether you are in a start-up phase where the Founder and a few key volunteers are doing everything, or have been operating for a decade with a part-time bookkeeper, a part-time office administrator, and a part-time barn manager, you need a written Volunteer Handbook detailing your non-profit's policies and procedures, in addition to your Employee Manual. 

There must be at least 100 books available on the topic of volunteer recruitment and management.  These are the two we recommend, as the most meaty, well-written, and up-to-date resources.  Volunteer Today, The Electronic Gazette for Volunteerism is a valuable online volunteer management newsletter.

Expenses

One topic it must cover clearly is the reimbursement of business expenses.  You also owe it to yourself and the organization if you are not being compensated for your time to at least be reimbursed your expenses.  If you "donate" the operating expenses without properly accounting for them, in the long run you obscure the true cost of running the non-profit and how much money needs to be raised annually to meet those expenses. 

A disgruntled part-time staff member can become a problem, because under the labor laws, which apply to non-profits, even though they can deduct unreimbursed business expenses on their tax returns, they are not required to do so — on the contrary, you are required to pay them, and can be forced to go back four years and pay them with interest.  Not all part-time non-profit employees making minimum wage have independent incomes and "need the tax deduction."  Do not presume that because an enthusiastic employee or volunteer donated some office supplies last month, he can donate this month's feed bill or pay for Chamber of Commerce monthly luncheons or mailing the newsletter.

Expenses that are the responsibility of the business to pay, whether or not it is a non-profit, and you do not specify in advance in writing are the sole responsibility of the employee or volunteer include:

These expenses are the most common causes of monetary disputes with low pay full-time, and part-time staff, and unpaid (volunteer) staff. 

TIP:  Never presume that because a person chooses to work for your non-profit as staff or a volunteer, he or she can or will donate out-of-pocket expenses as well.  Even if the person donated an out-of-pocket expense in the past, perhaps even several times, it is wrong to expect him or her to do so again.  Personal situations, including financial ones change, and cannot be taken for granted.

When you do not offer to reimburse staff or volunteers promptly for out-of-pocket expenses, and make the procedures for turning in reimbursable expenses clear and easy, you run the risk of alienating supporters, and losing staff or volunteers.  When this happens people are sometimes embarrassed to request reimbursement, or irritated that the process was not handled frankly and professionally.  The solution is not to demand more financial support than these valuable people can give, but to make it easy for others to provide needed financial support.  

Background Checks                                                              (Top of Page)

Volunteers who work at your facility and could come into contact with vulnerable animals or people, such as children, women, or special needs adults, should pass a background check.  Prudent employers in the private and government sectors require background checks as well. 

Persons who will have access to financial, corporate, or confidential information, especially if their role is a "virtual" one, should be "vetted" by a background and/or credit check.  Even if you know the volunteer personally, attending to these matters can make a difference in your insurance costs, as well as improve your professional image as a start-up or established charity.   This helps you to attract more people of quality as volunteers, donors, and clients.  Once upon a time in small town America and tight-knit city neighborhoods, this was unnecessary and impossible.  Today, with a mobile population of 330 million souls, it is both necessary and easily administered.  See Security as Safety above.

For more information about the importance of volunteer screening today, we found this concise post at the NonProfit Law Blog  on Volunteer Management.

Recognition                                                                          (Top of Page)

Recognition of your volunteers and donors accomplishments, service hours, or dollar contributions is an important part of retaining your best human assets.  There are many creative overt and subtle ways to recognize and reward people.  Often, our passion for the cause we serve leads us to think that giving our time or money and witnessing a rehabilitated horse find a new appropriate home, or a person with a disability benefit from the joys of interaction with horses, is enough reward alone.  For the truly committed, for the supremely passionate few, who found a horse non-profit, it is.  For everyone else, whose lives are not totally wrapped up in the venture 24/7, or for whom the novelty has worn off, peer and community recognition is a real boost to their motivation and continued support.  Think of our service men and women.  They represent a fraction of the patriotic citizenry — the fraction that volunteer to do tough jobs and make personal sacrifices, putting their families, their civilian careers on hold, and their very lives on the line, to serve.  When they return home, shouldn't the rest of us say "thank you" whenever, however, we can?  They know they have done well, and they did not do it to get a Homecoming Parade or special favors, but isn't our "thank you for your service" the minimum we owe them?  And, when we give that simple recognition of their willing sacrifice, don't they appreciate it very much?  They do.  It matters.  Find some way to recognize everyone who donates time or money to your equine non-profit.  If you have to start with just sending thank you cards in the mail, DO IT.   If you need help devising a manageable recognition program that fits your resources of time and money, please contact us.

If you combine both formal and informal methods of recognition, you can create a “culture of appreciation” in which both volunteers and paid staff feel respected and valued for their contributions. This fosters a deeper sense of connection to your agency and its mission. The results are increased retention, improved quality of work and, ultimately, a more pleasant work environment for both volunteers and employees.

"Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it." --Dwight D. Eisenhower

It is worthwhile to pause a moment and reflect on these questions:

Too many non-profits make the mistake of requiring staff to appreciate and recognize volunteers, without appreciating or recognizing the staff.  People who feel taken for granted but required to appreciate others as a job duty generally don't do a very good job of carrying out those orders.  So when you develop and implement your volunteer plans, do not neglect your paid staff.

National Recognition Programs                                          (Top of Page)

President's Volunteer Service Awards   Did you know that any business, either profit or non-profit, can register to recognize employees or volunteers for their community service hours?  Did you know that the awards are very nice, and there is a lower hours requirement per award level for children?  How about that the administration is all done by the employees or volunteers or the automated database for you?  Yes, they set up their own accounts, so they can track their service for more than one group, and all you do is confirm their hours when you get a message that they have reached an award level.  But it gets better.  The awards are sent to the business or charity, so you can do a presentation.  What is the catch?  It costs you about $2.00 - $3.00 per award per person, or about $1.50+ per person when done in bulk for big projects.

So what are you waiting for?  It takes only minutes to sign up, and your organization can do first class volunteer recognition, which can help with retention.

HandsonNetwork has partnered with Disney to run the "Give a Day, Get a Disney Day" volunteer recognition promotion for 2010.

Local or State Recognition Programs                                    (Top of Page)

Local city, county or state volunteer recognition programs may be available at no cost to your agency.  In Arizona, for example, we have the Hon Kachina Volunteer Awards.

Supplies for Your Own Recognition Program

For lapel pins, patches, and lanyards visit Pinmart.  They offer stock (including horse and volunteer) pins as well as custom ones, and offer a 10% discount to 501(c)3 non-profits.

Best Trophies and Awards, Mesa AZ

MyFreeDegree.com  helps find scholarships and grants for free education that can be given as a recognition to volunteers and paid employees.  Did you know there are Equestrian scholarships available?

Books to Sell to Raise Both Funds and Public Awareness                       (Top of Page)

These also make excellent gifts to recognize donors, sponsors, and media who have covered your program, and exceptional volunteers.

Special Events                                                                               (Top of Page)

If you like to throw a party, or put together other social events, this form of fund raising may be an annual event that brings in a substantial portion of your operating expenses or capital improvement dollars, and enables you to publicly recognize your major volunteers as contributors. A special event, whether a silent auction, horse show, trail ride or a party, is an opportunity to network with people.  Set goals and use a committee of talented people.  Most of the good annual events for recognizing volunteers also boost recruiting (if they can bring a guest) and donations (if they can bring a guest.)  Volunteer recognition events are also opportunities to send out press releases and garner free publicity.

After your special event, follow up!  Use e-mail and survey software to get attendee satisfaction with their experience.  Zoomerang offers a free version of their service for simple surveys, and there are templates you can easily customize, so this is not time-consuming and no programming is required.  Want some help?  Contact us.

Free Publicity                                                                          (Top of Page)

Master the art of the one-page press release!  Put together a media database to email press releases and newsletters to.  Then actually do it in a timely fashion!  Remember that "news" by definition is fresh.  What to put in your database, and how to keep it up-to-date with the actual names of contacts, deadlines, special issue themes, special interest sections, is practically an art form of research and organization.  If possible, you should have a volunteer with publicity or public relations experience spend several hours on this aspect of marketing your non-profit every month.  You do not need to be putting on Celebrity Events all the time to warrant publicity.  Every organization should plan to distribute at least eight press releases per year. (See also Advertising and Marketing, Print Media)

Crisis Management                                                                   (Top of Page)

Sooner or later something negative or sad happens and you may be asked to comment about it or even be interviewed for television, radio, or print coverage.  It could be something directly involving your non-profit, such as a fire, flood, or current hay prices.  Or it could be something more general, even politically charged, like a proposed city ordinance or the national debate over horse slaughter.

Some points to remember, at all times:

1. The reporter, news producer, or editor is NOT your friend.  Even if this individual is a personal friend, or has supported your charity personally in the past, in this context, he or she has a single goal:  to get a juicy "sound bite" from you that draws viewers, listeners, or readers so that the station or newspaper can sell advertising.  If making you, your mission, or your efforts appear fruitless, hopeless, overwhelmed, disorganized, or over emotional will help "sell" the story, whatever the story's supposed "angle", that is the slant your contact will use.  If your contact doesn't, by the time the editor or producer gets finished with it, you may not recognize the story as having anything to do with what the reporter claimed to be covering.

2. Whatever you say WILL be taken out of context.  That is the definition of a "sound bite."  Make sure every sentence can stand alone if it could be used by itself.  Now don't you wish you had a media kit with a one-page backgrounder handy?  Don't you wish you kept a database of call logs, or service records, not just a monthly income statement from the accountant?  Then you could refer to facts about clients served, clients turned away due to lack of resources, costs to maintain a horse or deliver a hippotherapy session, the actual percentage increase in feed costs year-to-date, or, if the figures are not available, have a prepared answer that sounds responsive, organized, but not speculative, other than "I don't know." 

3. For obvious political issues, such as zoning, animal cruelty laws, feed cost increases, horse slaughter, horse identification, government subsidies, disaster relief, livestock waster pollution, the unique relationship of horses to man in history, etc. your rescue should have a brief one paragraph position statement followed by supporting bullet-style single sentence facts citing reliable sources, such as the USDA, your state or county extension service, the actual law or ordinance, or proposed bill.  If you don't follow political issues that impact your operation, you are shooting yourselves in the foot.  Discuss these matters with your Board of Directors periodically or when they arise, develop a position paper, contact your city, county, state, and federal representatives and give them your position as a concerned local business, and keep those positions updated in an accessible manner.

4. If there are celebrities, academics, renowned professionals, or politicians who support your position, you should be able to name them.  Especially if you are a relative "nobody" in town, or your organization is not a well-established pivotal member of the community, cite someone famous or authoritative with credentials on the topic, with whom you generally agree, rather than being sucked into stating your own opinion badly. 

Scheduling, Time Recordkeeping and Reporting, Skill Matching   (Top of Page)

Advertise for volunteers with a free basic listing on VolunteerMatch (see Recruiting section) then keep track of their training, availability, schedule them and track their hours for service awards.

GiftWorks Volunteer Management Software  enables you to track Volunteer Rosters, Participation, Training completed, and Assignments and match volunteer availability with job and schedule requirements.  Even if your non-profit rescue, retirement, or therapeutic riding center is starting very small, with just a few horses and volunteers, the sooner you learn to take advantage of a database and scheduling package, the more time you will have to take care of other tasks that cannot be automated.

The Volunteer Reporter from Volunteer Software is a comprehensive volunteer management database with add-on modules like Web Assistant for recording the time of virtual (home based) volunteers, and Touch-Screen Monitor for volunteers to record their hours on site.  Features include multi-user, email, awards tracking, active and inactive groups, interest/preference codes, availability, and other well-thought out and integrated functions with a well-designed user interface.  A thirty-day free trial and technical support are available.

Service Statistics Recordkeeping and Reports

As you apply for donations, grants, and sponsorships from foundations and corporations and government agencies, you will immediately notice that being able to show a track record of service, and a demand for more service, as well as volunteer involvement in factual, statistical, measurable form is necessary.  If you are overwhelmed with calls from people who want to take therapeutic riding lessons, but cannot give a precise count of how many you turned away, you have missed the boat.  If you believe there is a huge demand for family horses to be rescued during difficult economic times and a rise in the unemployment rate, but have no call records to back that up, you are going to lose credibility as well as have difficulty showing what the per dollar impact of a grant or donation or sponsorship might have.  The person or committee that reviews grant requests needs to get "the most bang for the buck".  If they give you more money to serve more riders with disabilities, or more abused horses, can you show there are more in your geographical area to be served that know about your service and want to take advantage of it?  Once the donor gives you the money, can you show you served more, as expected, and met the goal of the grant?  If the program is new, can you document pent up demand?

Presently, this is the area where horse rescues can learn a great deal from established pet shelters, and in so doing, help move the entire horse rescue problem from manipulated estimates that fire up emotions,  to facts that thoughtful people can tackle to actually help horses. 

National Council on Pet Population Study and Policy  This is an excellent resource for how to keep logs and statistics of calls from surrenderers, understanding how the bond is broken, the top ten reasons people relinquish their animals, the bias that almost always enters the conversation between the volunteer who is receiving the animal and the person who is relinquishing it.

State and National Statistics and Reports                                                 (Top of Page)

At some point your figures from call logs and volunteer hours and website visits and clients served get compared with similar charities in your state, region, or nationally.  If you do not do it to show that a donation dollar given to you is well-spent by comparison, the person or committee reviewing your grant or sponsorship request probably will. 

You should make it your business to track whatever statistics are available in your field, so that you can use them in your marketing and grant writing materials.  Be sure to compare apples to apples - your weekly figures do not compare to an annual report unless you add up 52 weeks!  Don't leave it to your reader to do the math.  If your equine charity does not have good state or national statistics collected by a good state or national professional association or government agency, such as the livestock board, or NARHA or EAGALA, write letters to urge the right people to take action so your tax dollars or association dues are being used to produce this valuable information.  Be a squeaky wheel.  If we need more livestock officers to respond to abuse complaints, there should be a matrix of statistics as to what type of abuse, which counties, during what seasons, at what kinds of properties, for what breed, age, sex, and level of training of horses, donkeys, or mules, and this information should be made public.

Neither the hysterical claims of the American Horse Council that at least 100,000 horses annually will need to be rescued, nor the claims of the Humane Society of the United States that hardly any would be, if equine slaughter were outlawed, could rely on facts concerning the actual sources of the horses so destroyed.  The AHC says they are mostly family pets that people cannot afford to keep and cannot afford to euthanize, and the HSUS claims they are mostly the discards of racetracks, rodeos, breeding programs and PMU factory farms.  Since no reliable records exist, and the USDA and US Customs simply count heads of stallions, mares and geldings, the matter can be argued indefinitely.  So long as it is up for debate where the "unwanted" horses come from, it is also debatable where to focus rescue efforts, where to focus education, or change commercial practices concerning horses, or stop breeding and racing subsidies, to most effectively staunch the tide of "unwanted" horses.  When the problem cannot be defined, neither can the solution be defined.   Of all industries, the horse industry seems to have the most murky and least reliable statistics, with projections made on top of faulty estimates from small samples of previous decades, then circulated as facts.  The other kinds of businesses from whom you are likely to seek donations simply don't function that way, and are not comfortable with it.   For them, lack of "actionable information" can mean ruin, by overproducing a product for too small a market, or overpricing, etc.  For them, sitting with excess inventory, or running out of product, or not training enough call center staff to meet demand, can cost entire departments their jobs.

Pet Rescue Management software that helps create these kinds of statistics for you, and generates reports, is offered by ShelterPro.  As they describe their product, "Shelter Pro Software is designed for Animal Control and Animal Shelter records management. It is used by Animal Shelters, Animal Control and Law Enforcement, Humane Societies, SPCAs, and private Kennels. Great software for a great price. Try the free demo and call with any questions.

For rescues and sanctuaries the need to track horses being supported by donors, out on trial periods, and a variety of special considerations, as well as statistics means you may need to adapt to Pet Rescue Management Software, such as is offered by Shelter Pro .  Avoid buying a closing shelter's PetWhere software, as the developer has discontinued it.  If you have this software and need support, try this fellow who used to work for the developer: http://www.jassing.com/PetWhere/.

Cost-Savings

 Visit our Quarterly Tips, Forums, Blog, or Products for Horse Businesses for ways to save money.

Encouragement and Motivation

 Sponsorahorse.org is a network of Equine Rescues with members only forums.

Management Skills                                             (Top of Page)

Horse rescues and sanctuaries need to be well-managed, just like for-profit businesses to survive and benefit the rescued animals.

National Volunteer Week                                             (Top of Page)
 

National Volunteer Week, Celebrating People in Action, is a time of celebration and inspiration as Points of Light Institute and HandsOn Network honor the thousands of individuals who take action year round to strengthen their communities.

Established in 1974, National Volunteer Week has grown exponentially in scope each year, recognizing the incalculable contributions that volunteers make every day across the country and challenging all Americans to step forward to help wherever there is need.

Each year the Points of Light Institute and HandsOn Network honor those who solve problems in their communities and secure national attention on the impact and power of volunteerism and service as an integral aspect of our civic landscape.

National Volunteer Week takes place on the following dates:

•April 18 – 24, 2010

•April 17 – 23, 2011

•April 15 – 21, 2012

•April 21 – 27, 2013

You can nominate outstanding volunteers for one of these two awards:

•The Daily Point of Light Award honors those who are helping to meet critical needs in their communities and creating change every day. One Daily Point of Light Award winner is chosen every single day. Visit The Daily Point of Light Award  to learn more about the award and to make a nomination.


•President's Volunteer Service Awards honors volunteers during their service journey through acknowledgement of hours served resulting in positive community impact. This is a prestigious volunteer award and the only one associated with the White House. Visit President's Volunteer Service Awards to learn more about qualifications and to submit a nomination.

Other Resources                                             (Top of Page)

The Del Camino Horse Owner Products and Services catalog offers some horse products of interest to owners of senior horses, and horses being retrained or rehabilitated.

The Del Camino Stable Manager's Product and Services catalog offers products and services of interest to those operating a horse facility.

  Mounting ramps and blocks for persons with disabilities, waler and gait belts, breakaway stirrups, bareback pads, therapeutic riding surcingles, reinbow loops, instructional aids for therapeutic riding programs.

The Del Camino forums provide a place to network with other horse non-profits, and the blog covers related timely topics.

Charity Advantage is an online source for deeply discounted computers and software for non-profits.

Horse Welfare Statistics -

EqRescQ101: Equine Rescue Yahoo Forum and Message Board.  Network with other Horse Rescues about rescue specific concerns.

National Equine Rescue Coalition

Equine Rescue News and Resources

Equine Rescue Webring

Save a Forgotten Equine Forum

Horse Rescue and Information Network Forum

Society of Animal Welfare Administrators

National Animal Control Association Excellent links to state, county and municipal animal control groups and law enforcement agencies, and timely information affecting them.

National Council on Pet Population Study and Policy This is an excellent resource for how to keep logs and statistics of calls from surrenderers, understanding how the bond is broken, the top ten reasons people relinquish their animals, the bias that almost always enters the conversation between the volunteer who is receiving the animal and the person who is relinquishing it.

Ehorseeducation - teleseminars assisting therapeutic horseback riding and equine-assisted activities non-profit centers in management and professionalism areas. 

Product or Service Providers                                         (Top of Page)

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