Volunteer management has gone to the dogs!…and cats…and other animals…Author Betsy McFarland of the Humane Society of the US offers a practical manual for building/improving a volunteer program in an animal care environment. McFarland includes sound volunteer management techniques such as building staff respect, creating rewarding volunteer assignments, practicing good risk management strategies, etc., all set in situations unique to animal care organizations.

With this book, learn to support and develop volunteers who are passionate to raise needed funds, provide administrative support, foster animals, counsel adopters, and socialize animals.

Wow! This fabulous book offers up-to-date information, strategies, and resources to effectively and creatively engage community volunteers in support of your mission. Betsy McFarland has superbly articulated a step-by-step process of establishing a vital volunteer program and has shared practical solutions to handle obstacles and challenges inherent in the work. I can't wait to give this book to my local humane society.

—Betty Stallings, Author and Trainer, specializing in volunteer management and fund development

Volunteers are the backbone of every successful shelter. Managing them effectively is the key. If you are just starting a volunteer program, this book can help you plan, write a training manual, and create job descriptions. If you already have a volunteer program, McFarland can help you improve it, with words of wisdom for even the seasoned professional. The bottom line is, if you need volunteers (and what shelter doesn't?), you need this book!

—Julie Morris, National Shelter Outreach American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

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Determining the Role of Volunteers
Volunteers want and deserve meaningful jobs, not just busy work that staff doesn't want to do. In fact, volunteers can do much of the same work as staff. First Side Partners found that organizations are much more effective in carrying out their missions with the help of volunteers when few tasks are considered "staff only." "Instead, volunteers are considered unpaid staff, recruited as valuable members of the team, and given meaningful and challenging work," write the study's authors (Lindberg and Dooley, 2002, 13). "The result is astounding: some organizations receive nearly half a million donated hours of work, the equivalent of 250 full-time paid employees!"

Here are just a few areas in which volunteers can provide meaningful assistance:
Adoption Counseling
Humane Education
Clerical (data entry, filing, typing)
Animal Care
Customer Service (receptionist)
Veterinary Assistance
Foster Care
Gift Shop Management
Socialization of Dogs/Dog Walking
Fund-Raising
Socialization of Cats
Special Events
Small-Mammal Companionship
Community Outreach
Dog Training
Animal-Assisted Therapy

Table of Contents

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