Small non-profit organisations which are just starting out however, rarely have the resources to channel towards staff salaries. So, projects are largely volunteer-driven.
Some small organisations might be lucky enough to have a few "full-time volunteers" ie people who do not work full time elsewhere and really have some spare time to contribute. But for the most part, our volunteers are likely to be ordinary working folk like ourselves, who have to juggle their volunteer work along with their full-time jobs and family obligations.
Given the time constraints that such volunteers inevitably face, what are some tips and strategies we can share with our fellow volunteers to help ourselves keep multiple projects moving forward and on track?
The most important step seems to be to create a system that allows for regular tracking of activities related to a project, as well as other project-related information.
Open a word document, spreadsheet, a mobile phone app, a paper notebook or a physical file for all the different projects. Identify project outcomes and break the project into mini-steps or milestones. Note down the stakeholders involved in the achievement of project outcomes, as well as any relevant target or actual deadlines.
Each time you work on a given project, keep a record of what you did on that date, which milestones were completed, and what the next steps are moving forward (as well as who is responsible to get them completed).
While recording all this may sound extremely tedious, it is actually a failsafe way to ensure that you don’t lose track of where things are on any given project and (most importantly) what still needs to be done. The human memory is only so efficient… without a proper tracking and recording system, more and more to-do’s will inevitably fall by the wayside :-)
Having a structured system to record project progress also allows for easy and quick updating of another volunteer who might become involved in the project halfway, or who might need to take over the project from you. This allows you to build in some element of scalability into your internal processes, in preparation for your organisation expands and you take on more projects.
If you have any questions or suggestions for future topics, do email me at spiral1701@gmail.com.
The most important step seems to be to create a system that allows for regular tracking of activities related to a project, as well as other project-related information.
Open a word document, spreadsheet, a mobile phone app, a paper notebook or a physical file for all the different projects. Identify project outcomes and break the project into mini-steps or milestones. Note down the stakeholders involved in the achievement of project outcomes, as well as any relevant target or actual deadlines.
Each time you work on a given project, keep a record of what you did on that date, which milestones were completed, and what the next steps are moving forward (as well as who is responsible to get them completed).
While recording all this may sound extremely tedious, it is actually a failsafe way to ensure that you don’t lose track of where things are on any given project and (most importantly) what still needs to be done. The human memory is only so efficient… without a proper tracking and recording system, more and more to-do’s will inevitably fall by the wayside :-)
Having a structured system to record project progress also allows for easy and quick updating of another volunteer who might become involved in the project halfway, or who might need to take over the project from you. This allows you to build in some element of scalability into your internal processes, in preparation for your organisation expands and you take on more projects.
If you have any questions or suggestions for future topics, do email me at spiral1701@gmail.com.
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