HALO Award Insights
Ten years of investing in volunteer programs has taught us about the power of and returns on investment in volunteerism.
While we invite you to explore all of the learnings on the HALO Insights page, we’ve indicated the following sections as particularly applicable for:
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Nonprofits =
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SECTIONS:
Volunteerism: A Force for Good
Volunteers provide incredible value to the social sector. Data shows that volunteers provide added value and leveraged dollars to nonprofit organizations, yielding cost savings and increased returns.
77M
Adults Volunteered Through an Organization
6.9B
Total Hours of Volunteer Service
$167B
Economic Value
80%
Of Volunteers Made Charitable Gifts
Based on data from the United States in 2017. [Source]
HALO: By the Numbers
Over the past ten years, the HALO Award has impacted…
8
Service Planning Areas (SPAs) in L.A. County
63
Individuals Recognized for Exemplary Volunteer Service
63
Nonprofits from a Wide Range of Program Areas
60K+
Volunteers Working to Deliver on the Nonprofits’ Missions
While HALO organizations have a wide range of budgets, staff sizes, and volunteer corps, on average, the organizations had:
220
Volunteers
12
Full-time Staff
$1.6M
Operating Budget
HALO organizations engage volunteers to address a wide range of social sector needs. To date, here are the number of HALO nonprofits that work in each of 9 main program areas:
27
Homeless Services
14
Workforce Development
10
Early Childhood Education
25
Health & Mental Health
12
Arts & Culture
9
Legal Services
14
College Access & Success
12
K–12 Education
6
Environment
What We’ve Learned
Capacity Built in Volunteer Programs
Over the years, program participants report significant growth in their volunteer management capacity, demonstrating capacity growth averages +16% from baseline during the program and +2% in the year immediately following.
To see continued growth—even after formal program support has ended—is further confirmation of the value and effectiveness of investing in volunteerism.
What does increased capacity look like in practice?
In their HALO Stories, participants share how they are able to do more by investing in their volunteer programs.
What We’ve Learned
Effective Volunteer Practices
We took a closer look at HALO organizations who reported substantially improved volunteer program capacity. Our review revealed four key volunteer management practices:
Hone an understanding of the volunteer experience
Understanding the volunteer experience helps to reveal both opportunities to leverage volunteers and key growth points that need to be addressed.
Match volunteers’ skills and/or interests with the organization’s needs
An ability to match volunteers well can support volunteer satisfaction and retention while also prioritizing work that supports the organization in meeting its mission.
Develop and use a written volunteer management plan
Much like a strategic plan for your organization, a volunteer management plan distills goals, strategies, and activities, and the process of developing a plan expands the conversation to other departments.
Collect and use data in volunteer programs with deliberate, strategic intent
Data can inform decision-making around seemingly intractable issues related to the volunteer program or highlight areas ripe for further growth or development.
“At the beginning of our [HALO] year, we didn’t understand how important volunteers were to getting the work of [our organization] done.”
– Cohort 8 Participant
What We’ve Learned
Impact on Organizations
Preliminary data shows that building capacity of volunteer programs has the added effect of impacting the overall capacity of nonprofit organizations.
Past program participants report that their leaders are able to better integrate volunteerism throughout their organization.
For example:
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Budgeting volunteer program costs within other organizational programs
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Engaging program staff to inform/improve the volunteer experience
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Including volunteers as a component of the organization's strategic plan
The Value of Evaluation & Learning
As a learning organization, the Foundation uses evaluation to learn and evolve our investment in building volunteer program capacity to increase the impact for nonprofit organizations.
We make it a practice to:
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Listen to community voices
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Invest in systematic data collection
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Refine the program design based on what we’ve learned
The multi-year assessment and other participant feedback helped the Foundation:
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Identify opportunities to grow and strengthen the program
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Demonstrate that we are reaching our intended goals
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Provide evidence of sustained impact
Community Voices Shape Our Model
Grantees Drive Innovations
Inspired by participant feedback and assessment findings, we develop activities, collaborative tools, and templates to take their learning even further and support their capacity building work and relationship building.
