When I chat with leaders of volunteers who are newer to our profession, they often ask me about the CVA (Certified in Volunteer Administration) credential. I encourage them to check out a free info session. But, what I love to steer the conversation towards is how studying for the CVA exam often challenges practitioners in our field to think about ethics and equity in new ways.
Faiza Venzant, Executive Director at the Council for Certification in Volunteer Administration (CCVA), is a longtime thought leader in these areas. We met over a decade ago and she’s invited me to learn about equity and ethics through different means, including a poverty simulation. She and two researchers from the US recently led a team of 25 Certified Volunteer Administrators (CVAs) in creating and publishing an Equity in Action Toolkit. We connected to discuss the toolkit, the context around it, and some things that make me cringe.
JPP: Hi Faiza! It’s always great to chat with you. I understand that you led Equity in Action Toolkit’s design and publication with Mark Hager and Teresa Oswald from Arizona State University (ASU). How did this collaboration come about?
FV: I started working with Mark in 2020. At that time, we worked to engage CVAs in a survey around technology use in volunteerism. In the midst of COVID, CVAs showed up and participated in a survey and focus groups in large numbers.
A while later, Mark asked me what research we could engage this group with next. I was really quick to tell him that leaders of volunteers were coming together often to talk about equity and volunteerism. I voiced that if we were going to do some more research with CVAs, it needed to have an outcome that was helpful for our profession.
So with funding from an AmeriCorps grant, we designed the Assessing Diversity and Equity in Volunteer Inclusion (ADEVI) project. Now in its third year, it has been a multi-faceted investigation of the diversity of volunteer administrators and the equity journey of organizations they work in. The project's guiding principle is that organizations that are attuned to inclusiveness will be able to engage a more diverse cross-section of their communities.
JPP: Whoa! I’ve seen your LinkedIn posts about the ADEVI project but didn’t realize that it’s already in year three! Time flies!
FV: Yes, year one was 2022. It’s also when we started working with Teresa, a graduate student at ASU. At that time, CVAs showed us through surveys and focus groups that leaders of volunteers were at very different points of understanding why equity is important to their work.
Our research showed that many CVAs wanted to learn more about the intersection of equity and volunteering. But more importantly, they wanted practical tools because they felt that they didn’t know how to be more inclusive and welcoming of their communities. They also wanted guidance on building a sense of belonging for volunteers and volunteer candidates.
JPP: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. My experience with building equity practices into my work took a lot of trial and error! So what happened next?
FV: In 2023, we thought carefully about what we heard the year before and moved forward with creating the Equity in Action Toolkit, a set of resources promoting equity in access to volunteerism and in leading volunteers.
JPP: And this is where you recruited that team of 25 CVAs?
FV: Yes, we took a few months to do that. Once they joined the team, they worked in small and large groups for six months. They researched, refined, recommended, and drafted tools.
In some cases they took existing tools and updated them for a volunteer engagement context. In others, they took everything they learned and created a resource that would make sense for this toolkit.
Teresa, Mark and I then worked for three months reviewing tools, making recommendations back to the groups, consulting others in our field, and finally completing the versions of the tools that you see today on the VolunteerMatch Learning Center website. Mark likes to call what’s available now “Toolkit Version 1”. We plan to add to and update the tools as language and practices evolve.
The tools are intended to enhance current practices or identify where a leader of volunteers may have some gaps on their way towards more inclusive practices. Most importantly, the whole toolkit is free and anyone can use and customize them as needed.
JPP: I’ve come across other equity, diversity, and inclusion resources through former employers and see others published on LinkedIn almost every day. How is this toolkit different from other resources that may have the same intent?
FV: What makes it different for me is that the toolkit was created by a group of volunteer leaders who decided that things need to change. For example, I personally have had times in my life where I felt frozen or stuck or hesitant to act. I was fearful of talking about issues like anti-Black racism, Islamophobia or transphobia in volunteerism. I wish I had built my own courage earlier.
I can’t be guided by fear anymore. I don’t have all the answers but I am willing to try and fail and try again. I am so grateful that each of these CVAs and everyone on the research team came together with this same intention to try to create something for our profession.
This group had hard conversations and brought their varied personal and professional lived experiences to the table. They also researched and thought carefully about questions like:
How can a parent at a local school working with volunteers and the director of volunteers in a large hospital both benefit from looking at their current practices?
How can a longtime volunteer engagement professional who has worked across many subsectors and someone new to the profession decide how to take action for more equity and inclusivity when partnering with volunteers?
JPP: I think that examining equity from a volunteer engagement-specific lens, rather than a broader non-profit lens or a stakeholder stewardship lens is where this toolkit adds value. It’s awesome that the group considered different types of volunteer engagement work too.
I also must say that I love how the group got uncomfortable as part of the toolkit design process.
FV: The question we kept coming back to during this work was, “Is Everyone Welcome?” People are being left out in a profession that is based on relationships and connection. Volunteers need to be valued for all their identities in the spaces where they volunteer.
This toolkit is focused on the unique work that leaders of volunteers do. If you lead volunteers, the tools are designed to show you how you can take your current practices and apply a lens of equity to them in a way that works for your context.
JPP: Let’s talk about equity more deeply for a second. It often gets lumped together with diversity and inclusion. Why should leaders of volunteers prioritize equity over diversity and inclusion?
FV: To me, equity in volunteerism is a belief that every person has a right to participate towards positive outcomes for their community in a way that feels safe and welcoming and inclusive of all of their identities. If you can lead with and imbed equity into everything you design for and with volunteers and community, diversity and inclusion will be outcomes of that.
At the same time, there is no one right way to engage in this work that will work for every organization or community. It is also a landscape that is always evolving. So it’s important to take time to reflect on what makes the most sense for your organization and context every step of the way.
For example, some organizations like to say, “Welcome to our volunteer family.”
JPP: Yikes! To me that is dangerous because unfortunately, not everyone has a good relationship with their families!
FV: Right! The word “family” can be really harmful in organizations that address domestic violence or child custody. At the same time, the word family might also be very powerful in a military or newcomer context where a sense of belonging might be a motivator.
Another example that there is no one right way for me has been around land acknowledgements. For some organizations, land acknowledgements demonstrate their commitment to reconciliation.
At the same time land acknowledgements can be received as patronizing to Indigenous communities who don’t value them. When I lived in Toronto, Canada, land acknowledgements were present at the beginning of so many events I was a part of. They always felt performative to me but a necessary small step towards deeper ways to engage with reconciliation.
Now I live in Temecula, California where we are neighbours with the Pechanga and Pala bands. I have never heard a land acknowledgement here including at events hosted by local government or the bands.
JPP: That’s interesting. A friend once shared the most terrible land acknowledgement they ever heard with me. The person making it said, “We acknowledge the land. And the water.” And then they went on with the event! It completely removed any attempt at reconciliation or actual acknowledgement of the people connected to the land.
Speaking of what not to do, what are some common equity pitfalls you’ve noticed in volunteer engagement?
FV: The biggest mistake we make is not involving the communities we serve in so many aspects of our work. This isn’t unique to our profession or the nonprofit sector. However, it doesn’t excuse us and perpetuates saviourism. I am seeing small shifts happen here and hope that they will lead to bigger shifts.
Unacknowledged unearned privilege is another pitfall that I see. Personally, self-reflection has been the most important tool in my equity work. If you have the privilege of partnering with volunteers, it’s important for you to acknowledge where you have power and privilege and where you don’t and why.
This reflection is a starting place for reviewing your current practices. From there, you can start to understand where your biases might be coming into play in how you have designed or perpetuated the way volunteers engage with your organization and community.
I know fear holds us back and it held me back for a long time. Many of us are afraid of making the wrong choices, using the wrong words, and failing in this work.
What makes me hopeful and what I am slowly experiencing in our profession is that doing nothing at all is not something many of us can settle for any longer.
JPP: Let’s bring it back to the toolkit for a minute. Which tools from the toolkit would you recommend to someone who is new to working as a leader of volunteers?
FV: I envy people who are new to the profession! I wish the profession looked the way it does now, when I began 25 years ago. We’ve grown a lot and there are so many resources for knowledge, connection and support today.
My advice: start by getting to know the context, culture and commitment to equity that exists presently within your organization and amongst its staff and volunteers. In the Equity to Action Toolkit, a good place to start might be the Equity Practice Framework. It is intended to help you take stock of where you are at and imagine what equitable volunteer experiences could involve.
For something more practical, I recommend A Guide for Creating Inclusive Position Descriptions. Whether you have existing position descriptions you can enhance or are creating new ones, this tool asks you to put yourself in the place of the volunteer.
JPP: In addition to leaders of volunteers, who else might benefit from this toolkit?
FV: This is something we thought of while creating tools together. The toolkit is intended to be useful to anyone who partners with volunteers: whether they have that title or not, and whether they see themselves as a leader of volunteers or not.
If someone is looking to hire a leader of volunteers, I recommend that they check out Guiding Questions for Equity and Inclusion in Volunteer Engagement. When reviewing the tool, they can imagine hiring someone with the strategic skills, volunteer engagement competencies and experience to partner with them on answering the questions in this tool.
JPP: Oh- great tips! I get frustrated when I see some job postings for volunteer managers. That’s why I wrote a blog for EPIC Leadership on Top 4 Myths About Hiring a Volunteer Manager.
It’s important for us to talk about how this work doesn’t just involve being “nice”. “Nice” can be harmful.
FV: That’s so true. “Nice” can come from a place of fear. “Nice” can perpetuate saviorism.
I would encourage anyone thinking about equity to take a look at the toolkit because it does ask them to examine hard questions. There may be an idea around accessibility or community collaboration that resonates with their work.
JPP: Yes! We all need to keep learning! To close off for today, please tell me about your hopes and dreams for the future of equity in volunteer engagement?
FV: That’s both an easy and difficult question… This work is really personal to me and to so many people I care about. It has taken me a long time to let go of a lot of my fears around sharing my experience in this profession, in North America, as a woman of colour.
There is still discomfort there for me. I don’t always feel safe in professional spaces in the charitable sector. I also know that I am not alone and that is actually what has given me strength and momentum.
People are being left out. My hope is that the leaders of volunteers start or continue to recognize this.
My hope is that they take steps to truly make others feel welcome.
My dream is that leaders of volunteers start somewhere and know that they’ll probably fail along the way. It’s okay to fail and learn from mistakes!
My dream is that when leaders of volunteers are successful in equity work, to share it with others and encourage their journeys. We need those examples to celebrate, learn from, and build upon.
JPP: Thank you Faiza for this chat and for your vulnerability. I see your hopes and dreams and I’m honoured for the opportunity to share them with the world.
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