Activity 3: Establish Donations and Volunteer Management

Purpose

The purpose of this activity is to develop a plan and system to manage donations and volunteers.

Why?

The need for people, supplies, and cash resources to support recovery is significant. If systems are not in place to properly manage spontaneous volunteers and donations, several problems can arise:

• Resources may not be appropriate. Poorly matched donations can stall recovery when staff must sort, store, and dispose of unneeded or unusable donations.
• Unmanaged volunteers and donations are unlikely to be efficiently allocated. Volunteers and donors often have preferences regarding the use of their time or donations, but what is most important is matching resources to unmet needs. Self-selection often leads to both gaps and duplication or redundancy.
• The administrative needs of volunteers and donations can present a significant challenge if insufficiently managed.

To be effective, volunteer coordination and donations management must not be ad-hoc. Formalized processes allow the matching of resources, human and otherwise, with identified needs. Proper structures and procedures allow recovery organizations to ensure that only those volunteer skills and abilities that are needed are accepted, and that donated materials are appropriate for unmet needs.

When?

Donations and volunteer management activities begin with the activation of the EOC. Procedures are determined by your community emergency operations plan. (Days 1-30).

How does my community do this?

1. Work with the news media and social media outlets to communicate volunteer and donation needs and processes to the public. Frame your specific needs, and develop a single, centralized, and well-publicized call center to receive and process donations or volunteer offers.  
2. Set up a 211 system:  2-1-1 Colorado streamlines services and provides one central location where people can get connected to the resources they need. 2-1-1 can be called or an online searchable database can be used. It can be used to support volunteer and donations intake and referral.
3. Establish volunteer and donations management intake and processing capabilities. Recruit a volunteer and donations coordinator. This may be managed by community partners such as the Colorado Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (COVOAD), the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army, the United Way, or other local community foundations that are common partners.  Create a volunteer and/or donations reception center or facilities that can be established to process large numbers of volunteers or to receive large amounts of donated goods in larger disasters.  
4. Track volunteer and donation resources according to FEMA local match reporting requirements should the event rise to the level of a Presidential major disaster declaration. Because volunteer hours worked and the cash value of donated resources can often be used to satisfy local match requirements of federal disaster programs, each must be closely tracked and accounted for per the requirements of these programs. Access a Volunteer Management Intake Form Template.