INSIGHTS NEWSLETTER | A QUARTERLY RESOURCE FROM THE ROME GROUP

From time to time, we will be highlighting the perspectives and experiences of various members of the nonprofit community. This month, we are pleased to share with you an interview with Miranda Jones, CEO of The Little Bit Foundation.

Miranda Jones on Revitalizing & Diversifying Your Volunteer Program

The Rome Group was fortunate to interview Miranda Jones, Chief Executive Officer of The Little Bit Foundation to discuss the organization’s extensive use of volunteers in various capacities, from warehouse work to in-school mentoring programs. Miranda highlights the impact of COVID-19 on volunteer engagement and shares strategies for re-engaging and recruiting volunteers, emphasizing the importance of partnerships with businesses and community organizations. Miranda also focuses on diversifying the volunteer base to reflect the communities they serve and explains the critical training provided to ensure volunteers are well-prepared. She concludes with advice on the importance of having dedicated personnel who value and effectively manage volunteer relationships.

TRG: Tell me about how The Little Bit Foundation utilizes volunteers.

MJ: We have volunteers for just about everything that we do at The Little Bit Foundation.

Starting in the warehouse we have groups looking for volunteer opportunities or student groups, sorting inventory and picking items for specific students. There are a lot of roles in our warehouse here at the office. For instance, we have a whole sewing crew who tailor clothes for the children if needed. Then we have volunteers who go into schools including for the two bookfairs we hold at each of the fifty schools we serve. That’s another way businesses and groups get involved. We also have mobile food markets through our partnership with the St. Louis Area Foodbank and have groups that help us to distribute food at the food market. One of the most beautiful relationships with the mobile food markets is with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police department which is so important as an example of community policing. It gives them the opportunity to get to know the

kids along with other volunteers and residents. It is an incredible example of the camaraderie that is possible with community based work. The more intense volunteer relationships are regular roles in the schools. Some serve as mentors in our SOAR mentoring program, and others serve as our school representatives in our 50 school-based boutiques. Boutiques have two volunteers who come once a week to fit clothes, make sure they are comfortable, and suit the taste of the kids. We like to have the same volunteers at the school week after week to develop relationships with the kids.

TRG: Many organizations suffered a hit from COVID and have struggled to re-engage existing volunteers or to engage new volunteers. Did you experience that kind of drop? How did you go about re-engaging and recruiting volunteers?

MJ: COVID was really difficult for the boutique volunteers because we had an older volunteer group and low vaccination rates in our schools. We did a lot of mainstream and social media around needing volunteers. We have also partnered with community organizations who have a core tenet of service. We also tap into businesses that give their employees paid service days. One of our First Lego League volunteers comes via his paid service days. The company sees his volunteer work as part of their overall work to develop a diverse group of future engineers and STEM professionals.

TRG: We know that representation matters for kids in terms of how what they see can influence their perceptions about what careers or kinds of lives they may have as adults. One of the things that you have told me was a big priority for you was diversifying your volunteer base so that kids are exposed to all kinds of grownups and particularly to those who share their culture and experiences. How have you gone about recruiting a more diverse volunteer base for you in-school programs.

MJ: We contacted organizations in the African American community have service missions to invite them to volunteer with us. These are organizations like the Links, Jack and Jill, the Prince Hall Masons and the Divine Nine (Historically Black Sororities and Fraternities.) To be honest, we also changed our marketing materials. Be aware that who you picture as volunteers on your website or brochures sends a message to your potential volunteers about who is welcome. We had people say to us that they didn’t think they were wanted as volunteers based on some of our marketing materials.

TRG: Talk to me about volunteer training. What training and preparation do you think are most critical for volunteers in our schools?

MJ: We are realistic in our training– we want volunteers to know there is a lot of joy in the work and also prepare them to work successfully with real people in all their complexity. We make sure our volunteers know about the profile of our kids and their realities and train them on trauma informed practice, cultural competence, and school safety rules. We talk about child development and what appropriate expectations are for our students. We are all mandated reporters so we also train on how to deal with situations where a child may be in danger. We simply could not do what we do without our volunteers and so we train them intentionally and intensively so that they are successful.

TRG: If you could give one piece of advice to organizations about volunteer recruitment and retention what would it be?

MJ: Hire people who value the people. Having the right person on your team responsible for volunteer recruitment and management is essential. They have to truly believe in the power of volunteerism.

TRG: Thanks Miranda!

MJ: I appreciate you.

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Congratulations and best wishes to these nonprofit professionals in their new assignments.

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Do you have news about a job opening, new hire, promotion, or other happenings? If so, send us your news and we’ll consider including it in our next issue of Insights.

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