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Volunteers and Values
Aligning Missions, Goals, and Actions in Food Justice Nonprofit Organizations
Conducted user research and designed a volunteer management toolkit, a web-based resource hub for nonprofit volunteer managers to build trust and align on values with their volunteers.
Duration: 4 months
Team: Sabrina Chin, Melissa Dowell, Ana Rodriguez
Context: HCDE Capstone Project
My Role: UX Researcher
I conducted generative research in the form of user interviews and co-design sessions to build the volunteer management toolkit. I conducted usability interviews on various iterations of the toolkit. I created a service blueprint to represent the toolkit’s usage throughout a volunteer’s journey, and a video prototype to explain the purpose of the toolkit and how it is used.
CONTEXT
In the Human-Centered Design and Engineering master’s program at the University of Washington, all students must complete a capstone project before graduating. The purpose of the capstone project is to identify an issue and design a solution using human-centered design strategy and methodologies.
Students are grouped into teams, and have the option of working with a corporate sponsor or deciding on a student-led topic for the project. My team did not have a sponsor, so as a team we brainstormed to identify a topic that aligned with our interests and values. We decided to start our generative research around the topic of local food security resources in Seattle.
THE VOLUNTEER MANAGEMENT TOOLKIT:
WEBSITE, DOWNLADABLE ARTIFACTS, TOOLKIT SERVICE DIAGRAM
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Volunteers are an integral part of a nonprofit organization. Without them, many nonprofits would not be able to run their programs, provide services, or have the reach and capacity they currently do. Client-facing volunteers, or those who have direct interactions with people accessing an organization’s programs or services, are especially important as they act as a link between an organization and the communities they serve. Unfortunately, even well-intentioned volunteers may not be aware of the internal biases and values they bring to their work that may differ from the organization’s values.
This is particularly problematic for social value-oriented organizations like food justice nonprofits whose missions and services strive towards equity and community building. When a volunteer’s mismatched values show up in their actions and attitudes while they work, this can damage a client’s perception of and trust in the organization. Rather than educating volunteers after something goes wrong, we want to prevent negative interactions from happening in the first place.
Our project aimed to answer the question:
How might we help food justice organizations better prepare volunteers to demonstrate organizational values in their interactions with clients?
We interviewed subject matter experts to increase out understanding organizations’ perceptions of challenges in instilling their values and client-facing volunteers’ challenges and pain points during their journeys working at food nonprofits.
We conducted a co-design session with volunteers where we discovered different types of support and interventions throughout a volunteer’s time at an organization that would better prepare them for interactions with clients and, in turn, more successfully express the nonprofit’s values.
From all of these insights, we developed the Volunteer Management Toolkit, an online resource to support volunteer managers in proactively tackling common pain points with volunteer interactions, including communication issues, value misalignment, microaggressions, and other incidents that can cause unintentional harm.
By holistically considering the end to end journey of a volunteer’s time at a nonprofit, staff can feel empowered to put together a volunteer program that prepares volunteers and ensures that clients are treated with respect and dignity.
SERVICE DIAGRAM
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
PROCESS
RESEARCH
During the research phase, we incorporated the following
methods:
● Literature review
● Informational interviews
● Survey
● User interviews
LITERATURE REVIEW
GENERATIVE RESEARCH: INFORMATIONAL INTERVIEWS
SURVEY
USER INTERVIEWS
DELIVERABLES
FINAL REPORT
I co-wrote a final report that compiled the methods, findings, and design recommendations used and found throughout the study. My team and I submitted the report in our class and presented it to Armoire stakeholders.
The full report can be viewed here.
NEXT STEPS
Given more time on this project, I would seek out an opportunity to partner with a local organization to implement the toolkit. I would review the toolkit with the organizations’ volunteer manager, and ensure the toolkit is customized to the needs of the nonprofit. Ideally, I would be able to test the toolkit with a group of volunteers who are new to the organization, and interview them or administer surveys throughout their time at the nonprofit while the tooklit is being used.
REFLECTION
This was a fun project