Our Partners
Making a Volunteer Handbook
Made for Volunteers, By Volunteers
Have you ever moved into a management position to oversee a role you used to perform yourself? Or, perhaps, you joined an organization as full-time staff after volunteering there. Do you recall your earlier experience informing your leadership? Having on-the-ground experience is so useful for leaders.
This is the perspective McKenzie Jorgenson brings to this partner story. After volunteering with the Fox Valley Memory Project for three years, McKenzie officially joined their staff. Serving four counties in East-Central Wisconsin, Fox Valley provides essential support for individuals living with dementia and their caregivers. As a volunteer facilitator in their Memory Cafés, McKenzie spent years creating welcoming spaces for connection through activities and conversation. McKenzie saw the impact the community was making and loved what the organization stood for, so when a program manager role opened up, she jumped at the opportunity.
An On-the-Ground Perspective
McKenzie joined a reDirect cohort within her first year on staff, aiming to learn new skills to manage the many hats she wears in her role, which includes onboarding and training new volunteers, and managing the organization’s many volunteer programs, from respite classes and support groups to help navigating outside resources. With her significant experience in a volunteer capacity with Fox Valley, McKenzie already had a mental model of the organization’s programs, and a sense for what she liked about her training and what could have gone better.
Leaning into her program familiarity, she set her sights on creating a volunteer handbook. Fox Valley wasn’t currently using one, but they had an outdated version collecting dust. That unused version was text heavy and difficult to navigate: it took volunteers too long to find what they were looking for.
Despite having a dedicated team, Fox Valley’s volunteer onboarding was largely informal, leaving many newcomers unsure of their roles.
"Expectations were often communicated verbally or learned through experience," she noted. "I recognized the importance of establishing structured, accessible policies to provide clarity and consistency from the very beginning of a volunteer’s journey with us."
By developing a user-friendly, comprehensive handbook, McKenzie ensured that every volunteer would have a concrete guide to lean on, creating a more consistent and confident team.
Creating A User-Friendly Handbook
Guided by the SEE framework, she referenced her own mental model of what volunteers needed to know on the job, and initiated a collaborative process with coworkers and volunteers to get their perspectives on how to make the handbook the most useful tool it could be.
“I wanted the handbook to reflect not only organizational standards but also the lived experiences of those directly involved in our programs. Through open conversations, I asked volunteers what information they wished they had known when they first started and what guidance they believed would benefit others.”
From the lens of the framework, McKenzie recognized that the Meaningful Engagement domain wasn’t solely about recognizing the important work of volunteers, or demonstrating appreciation, but about offering genuine opportunities to participate and shape the work that they’re being asked to perform on a daily basis.
The organization already held quarterly meetings with volunteers, so she used that pre-planned time as a chance to poll the group. Building on this established rhythm helped lessen the load of the project, and any bandwidth concerns for those involved. In addition to simply providing the necessary information and “data points” to inform next steps, the collaborative process “helped strengthen relationships, encourage open communication, and create a shared sense of ownership in the process.”
Drawing from these discussions, as well as input from staff, McKenzie developed an outline for a Volunteer Handbook that would serve as both a welcoming guide and a practical reference tool.
“It was important to me to ensure that volunteers feel supported, appreciated, and confident in their roles. SEE also guided the development of systems and structures, such as policies, checklists, and procedures that make onboarding more consistent and user-friendly.”
Sharing Impact Stories & Final Reflections
One piece of the SEE training that really resonated with McKenzie was helping her volunteers feel meaningfully engaged by making sure to close any open “feedback loops.” For example, it’s important for organizations to communicate to volunteers and staff what their impact is. One easy way to do that is to pass along any compliments or notes of thanks from those who receive services. That way the whole team hears it and knows that what they do makes a genuine difference.
At the time of this post, the handbook was still in development, but early feedback has been encouraging. Volunteers expressed appreciation for being included in the process, and staff members are eager to have a better tool for onboarding.
McKenzie reflected on the process by sharing that without using SEE to create a more consistent onboarding environment, volunteers may have become frustrated or disengaged, which, over time, “could have affected program delivery, morale, and retention. By focusing on creating clear, structured materials, we are setting a stronger foundation for continued growth and sustainability across all programs.”