Have you ever felt like you were torn about how to handle a situation with a volunteer? Maybe your organization wanted you to make a change or implement a new policy affecting volunteers, but it didn't seem fair? Or you were trying to navigate a conflict between paid staff and volunteers or clients and volunteers, and there wasn't a solution that would make everyone happy? That feeling - of being unsure how to navigate conflicts or that volunteers might be getting the short end of the stick - is the feeling of being in an ethical dilemma.
An ethical dilemma is when there isn't a clear, obvious right answer. And, we run into these situations all the time when we work with volunteers - especially when we're deploying volunteers into the field to work directly with the community or clients. As a leader of volunteers, we want to be able to advocate for them and the work they do within our organizations, but we're often constrained by our organization's policies, culture, and beliefs about volunteers. It can be hard to know what the right thing to do is, or to ensure that we're considering the needs of all of our stakeholders when we run into a conflict.
Luckily we have some resources! The Council for Certification in Volunteer Administration (CCVA) has published resources and tools to ensure that we're practicing ethical volunteer engagement. And Faiza Venzant, executive director at CCVA, will join me next week for an in-depth webinar and workshop to talk about ethics in leading volunteers. I hope you'll join us on October 25th at 11am Pacific/2pm Eastern for our expanded 90-minute session.
This topic is so important! Whether you've been leading volunteers for a month or a decade, understanding when you're in an ethical dilemma and having the tools to resolve it in the best possible way is something we all need to know how to do. And when we know we can't give everyone what they want -or make all of our stakeholders happy- we need to ensure that we've made a decision we can defend!
Jennifer Bennett, CVA
Director, Education & Training | VolunteerMatch
Upcoming Learning Center Webinars
Professional Development webinars that meet you where you are.
Tuesday, 11/01 Understanding Soft Risk in Volunteer Engagement
Wednesday, 11/02 Social Media and Volunteer Engagement
Thursday, 11/03 Successful Volunteer Interview Strategies
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