Grassroots Volunteers: 4 Types

Grassroots organizations depend heavily on the work of volunteers, usually because the budget is slim and trim.

If you're a leader assigned to organize volunteers--maybe it's a fund-raising project for your child's school or a group promoting environmental awareness or a group promoting a particular political issue---you need a reality check.

My own experience comes from a year's worth of heading volunteers for a statewide constitutional amendment issue. The four groups about to be described here came out of that experience.

As a new leader, you hope for a large group of workers, all willing to work hard for the good of the cause. It is not to be. Look over the four categories here and adjust your expectations.

The Creative Types

These people are few and far-between but they are precious. Cherish them and take good care of them. These people can look at a pile of autumn leaves and see possibilities. They have the natural skill of coming up with ideas on how to do things. Pick their brains and always say "Thank you".

The Hands-and-Feet Types

These people may not have the creative ideas you find in the first group, but they are high-value. They are reliable, dependable, right down to the last activity on the project list. Thank them often because they help your low-budget project succeed and do it with a cheerful attitude.

The Spectators

These people will watch you work. They will step over to you at the end of the meeting, pat you on the shoulder and say warmly, "I think you're doing a WONDERFUL job! Keep it up! I LOVE what you're doing!" That's the end of their contribution.They feel very good about themselves, that they had the good judgment to compliment you. But they won't attend meetings, run errands, make financial contributions, and do anything else other than say "Nice work". Expect nothing in productivity from these people--because that's what you'll get.

The Brain-Dead

These people in your community are clueless about your project, its goals, its needs, its activities. They live in a very tiny world that focuses only on their own personal interests and they have little or no interest in anything out there in the Big World beyond their patio. Expect nothing from them. Let them live. They take in oxygen and give out carbon dioxide. That's about it.

Moral of the Story

When you hold your first volunteer recruitment/training meeting, you may be thrilled to see 50 to 100 people in the audience. (In some cases, the realistic number is 10-20.) For the sake of argument, let's say there's a big number.You picture 100 people working hard to make the project succeed. You will learn soon, through personal experience, that those 100 will divide themselves into the four groups described here. Be grateful for those in the "Creative" and "Hands-and-Feet" groups and move on.

Here is one more nugget for your encouragement as a project leader: It's better to have 10 volunteers firmly dedicated and committed to your project goals than 50 who are dead wood with creative excuses for missing the meetings or dropping assignments. At the end of the project have a celebration party to say thank you to those solid citizens who came through for you. (Spectators need not RSVP.)