From the Top Down: The Executive Role in Volunteer Program Success

by Susan J. Ellis

The first and only book that addresses the top decision-maker's role in a volunteer program. It illuminates the issues necessary to facilitate volunteer program success, including developing a vision for volunteer involvement, addressing questions of policy, budgeting funds and other resources, staffing the volunteer program, assessing the impact of volunteer contributions, and dealing with legal, risk management, and insurance issues. Also includes the revised FASB regulations on accounting practices regarding donated time are explained.

Paperback

First published February 1, 1986

Reviews

[Ross Lampert · Rating 3 out of 5]

The subtitle to this book by Susan J. Ellis is “The Executive Role in Successful Volunteer Involvement,” and that’s true as far as it goes. For executives in businesses or organizations in which volunteers make up only a small fraction of the total workforce, this book is an excellent resource. Ellis devotes full chapters to budgeting for volunteers, the impact and financial value of volunteer contributions, understanding the volunteer/employee relationship (especially how it can go wrong and what to do to prevent or fix it), legal issues, and managing volunteers at all levels, from those performing basic tasks to those supporting the executive suite. For these topics and others, the book provides a wealth of information and keen insights, including how to address and change dismissive or fearful attitudes among employees about the volunteers who are working with them.

However, there’s a whole range of other organizations the book barely even mentions: those in which volunteers make up the vast majority of the workforce and the paid staff represents the minority. These organizations include veteran or military-affiliated groups, medical condition or other single-issue advocacy groups, and many others. They have chapters or similar teams spread across a wide area, such as the entire U.S., supported by a small organizational headquarters, often located in a state or national capital. An entire, separate book could be devoted to these groups.
For these organizations, some of Ellis’s recommendations, such as having a paid “director of volunteer involvement,” are less relevant or even inappropriate, while others have to be turned on their heads. Some, however, remain highly relevant, such as ensuring that the organization’s financial staff understands how the money spent on “field” operations is leveraged by the chapters, sometimes by orders of magnitude, to accomplish the organization’s goals and missions.

This third edition was published ten years ago, so Ellis could see only dimly the effects that social media and the wide adoption of the internet were going to have, but I have to give her credit for anticipating as much as she did. This alone argues for an updated edition, but none is available, as far as I can tell.

My final complaint is that the book is available only in print and PDF formats and the PDF version is so tightly protected that it isn’t possible to even highlight or copy and paste text into a separate document. At the least, the book should be re-released in e-reader-friendly formats, and all electronic versions should permit highlighting and copying and pasting.

This book has received an average four-star rating, and for executives in the kinds of organizations it’s appropriate for, that rating or higher is fully deserved. My personal rating is lower because it does not target the kinds of organizations I’m involved in. For these groups, a lot of translating and adjusting is required to make the book’s recommendations relevant, if they’re relevant at all.

[Candice Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book delivers a comprehensive guide to an effective volunteer management program, focusing on the critical role of the President/Executive Director in realizing success. A benefit to how the book was written is that anyone who works with volunteers would find the information highly educational and applicable to his/her work - so this boom is not only for top level executives. Susan Ellis is an industry expert and From the Top Down illustrates that.

[Joy F]

For school

[Jayne Cravens · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is the most important book you will ever read about the management / engagement of volunteers, hands down. This book changed everything I think and do regarding volunteering, and I still use it for reference when I'm writing anything about volunteerism, whether developing a policy or writing a funding proposal or just blogging some opinions on the subject. Susan J. Ellis frames volunteer engagement in a completely different way than most others, talking about volunteer engagement as an essential for transparency and community buy-in, not as something nice to do, and moving the value of volunteers far, far beyond money saved (by not having to pay staff). This is the book that will challenge you to be able to say why you involve volunteers WITHOUT saying anything about a monetary value. This is the book that will challenge senior executives and board members to value the staff person responsible for volunteer engagement at an organization on the same level as the fundraising manager or the marketing manager. This book may even inspire volunteers to start asking tougher questions of the nonprofits, charities, NGOs, government programs, schools and other programs where they serve. It's also a must read by corporate executives and business leaders that think they know anything about volunteering - if they haven't read this book, they don't! The first five chapters are my favorite: Why Volunteers?, Considerations in Planning, Budgeting and Allocating Resources, Staffing the (management of the) Volunteer Program and Understanding the Volunteer/Employee Relationship. She also has chapters on Executive Level Volunteers, Evaluation and Legal Issues. And she has an Executive Role Checklist that every Executive Director of any organization that involves volunteers should have to use to evaluate THEMSELVES regarding valuing the volunteering program. I really cannot gush about this book enough. It is USA-Centric, but there is a UK version as well.

[Island Connect Consulting · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must-read for senior leadership of nonprofits, including board members. Volunteer resources are generally grossly underestimated and often taken for granted (aside from superficial recognition efforts) - this book frames such shortcomings succintly and provides useful strategies to maximize impact.

[Beth Dillon · Rating 3 out of 5]

While not an executive myself, I felt like this book was a great first step into the foray of volunteer management. Gave me some great ideas on "next steps" for my current job and some things to ponder as we move towards strategic visioning and planning.