nonprofits

empower volunteers and donors to be change agents

Volunteers and donors want to make a meaningful difference; they want to change lives not only with their contributions but also with their accumulated wisdom and professional skills. They want to be active participants in guiding their nonprofits to be clear in mission, innovative in planning, focused on goals, efficient with resources, and oriented to results.

The most successful nonprofit organizations are volunteer driven, staff managed. But in today’s world this does not mean that staff merely “manages” the policies established by volunteers.

A great staff will manage the needs and aspirations of volunteers who are driven not just to set policy and goals, but who are driven to roll up their sleeves, to experiment with new ideas and programs, to push the organization to think outside the box, to step in when resources are scarce, to offer professional expertise – in short to work as mission partners, not just mission supporters.

And great mission partners make for great mission donors.

inspiration for entrepreneurship and innovation

The most successful of volunteer initiatives are those owned by the volunteers – pioneered and launched by volunteers with passion, drive, and focus. Ownership brings decisive action, effective management and accountability for success.

But volunteer don’t know what they don’t know. To paraphrase Steve Jobs, “How do people know they want an iPad if they don’t know what an IPad is?” Dollhopf Associates can provide your stakeholders with new ideas for volunteer engagement through:

Strategic planning and visioning | strategies for establishing a culture of teamwork, mutual respect, and collaboration among diverse volunteer and donor stakeholders.

Inspirational presentations | A parade of ideas that have transformed volunteer engagement, from innovative shared interest groups to leadership education, from international service projects to international cultural exchanges… and many more.

Identifying “positive deviants” | the best ideas are already likely being practiced by volunteer who don’t realize they could be adapting their valuable skills and experience to meaningful volunteer initiatives.

Bringing ideas from design to action | the pastor said to her congregation, “I’ve got good news and bad news about the capital campaign. The good news – we have all the money we need to fix the roof. The bad news – it’s still in your pockets!” We get the ideas out of your alum’s pockets.