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Webinar: American Cancer Society’s Kathy Oakes urges formal volunteer–staff partnerships to strengthen nonprofits
Summary
Kathy Oakes of the American Cancer Society told a Tennessee Department of Disability and Aging webinar that nonprofits should treat volunteer–staff partnerships as a culture, using role descriptions, career-pathing, partnership agreements and codes of conduct to scale volunteer impact.
Kathy Oakes, strategic director for volunteer engagement at the American Cancer Society, told attendees of a Tennessee Department of Disability and Aging webinar that organizations should treat volunteer–staff partnerships as a culture rather than an informal arrangement.
Oakes said staff bring subject-matter expertise while volunteers provide community connections and mobilization, and that formalizing expectations helps both sides work together more strategically. “We don't make decisions without volunteer input,” she said, adding that volunteers have “an equal seat at our table.”
Why it matters: large volunteer forces require deliberate structure. Oakes noted the American Cancer Society’s roughly 1-to-419…
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