What Wags Your Volunteers' Tail?

Helen B. Arnold, CFRE often says, "Managing volunteers can be like shoveling fog into a bucket." When things go wrong on calls or in the community on your volunteer team, Helen's description can seem all too real.

Despite the challenges of volunteer management, it can dramatically improve volunteer culture to focus on the positive from time to time. In short, it's good to look closer at what makes your volunteers' tails wag, what makes them happy. Consider the following idea:

Ask your volunteers the following four questions (or any adaptation of them that works for you, keeping the focus on simplicity):
1.  What is the most meaningful experience you've had with this department, i.e. where you felt like you were making a difference?
2.  What accomplishment are you most proud of in your volunteer role?
3. What one thing would you most like to see improved in your volunteer experience?
4. What would you like to accomplish on the volunteer level in the next 12 months?

You could ask these questions in a variety of ways:
1. Face to face at a department meeting - You could pair members off and have them share their experiences with one another to get to know each other better.
2. Hand written at a department meeting -  This can be valuable to give you a chance to reflect on your members' honest input.  If this option is used, be sure to provide a copy for each member for their own records.
 3. Via free form questions on www.surveymonkey.com. This service is free if you have less than 100 responses and easy to export for future reference.


When you apply this exercise to your volunteers and to yourself, you're bound to find renewed inspiration for the amazing public safety mission you live every day. Thank you for all you do for your communities!

What's working well at your department in terms of volunteer engagement?

Strategic Planning: Your Bridge to Better Fundraising Efforts

The tall grass of public safety operations can sometimes feel cluttered with too many priorities. Taking a step back to develop a strategic plan can be the bridge your department deserves to a stronger tomorrow. A strategic plan can serve as a bridge to:

1. An even safer community
2. More efficient operations
3. More fulfilled firefighters, be they career or volunteer
4. Stronger community connections

Although some strategic or business plans look out as far as ten years, a plan that covers no more than three to five years is generally recommended. Funding sources and community realities often change dramatically during that time. Once a plan is in place, it can be updated annually to make it a continual bridge towards an even better future. 

Strategic planning makes fundraising efforts better through definition of need to donors. A request that says, "Your fire department operations would be improved through a backup power generator. Your fire department would be honored by your support" is much stronger than an appeal that relies only on community goodwill in making the fundraising ask. Prioritizing unfunded needs through strategic planning brings a more meaningful case to your community.


An outside facilitator is often used for the full strategic planning process to ensure impartiality and a compass for the process. The facilitator will often prepare a detailed reference document to ensure your bridge to a better department. As an alternative, the Amazon Affiliate link below offers strong workbook-based information on the process:

FlashPoint Fundraising offers strategic planning facilitation services.  Send us an email today with the subject line, "I was reading carefully" and you will receive a free example three year plan from a Midwest department. 

Strategic planning is about where your department goes from here. It's about how you build on your strengths, as Lewis Carroll reminds is in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland:

"Would you tell me which way I ought to go from here?" asked Alice.

"That depends a good deal on where you want to get," said the Cat.

"I really don't care where" replied Alice.

"Then it doesn't much matter which way you go," said the Cat.