"Organizations that utilize volunteers are beginning to realize that many staff issues such as pay working conditions and training also apply to volunteers who play critical roles or make major time commitments. In the past whether volunteers personally benefited from the experience was not considered; today if volunteers are expected to be dependable and dedicate more of their time programs need to think about the personal benefits their unpaid workforce receives. Similarly as more services are delivered by volunteers -- for example the number of mentors who volunteered with Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America increased by nearly fifty percent in 1996 and 1978 -- the more an organization's reputation is affected by the quality of work being done by volunteers."

"... three areas are vitally important to the success of a volunteer program: screening training and ongoing management and support. The screening process provides organizations the opportunity to select those adults who are most likely to be successful as volunteers by finding individuals who already have the appropriate attitudes or skills necessary to succeed. Orientation and training ensure that volunteers build the specific skills necessary to be effective and that they have realistic expectations of what they can accomplish. Ongoing management and support of volunteers is critical for ensuring that volunteer hours are not squandered weak skills are strengthened and volunteers are used most effectively."
Regular supervision or monitoring is crucial to ensure the effective use of volunteers. ... In general the research shows that mentoring programs that provide regular supervision were the most likely to meet most frequently for the longest periods -- and regular meetings over an extended period of time are essential if the relationship is going to be a success."

"The institutionally based programs we studied that did not devote specialized resources to supervising volunteers were for the most part unsuccessful ..."

"External communication is also often underemphasized by volunteer programs. To foster collaboration volunteer programs need both initial 'buy-in' support and ongoing support from the partner agencies where volunteers are placed. Large institutions ... can present particular challenges because they are traditionally hierarchical and somewhat insular."

"No matter how well-intentioned volunteers are unless there is an infrastructure in place to support and direct their efforts they will remain at best ineffective or worse become disenchanted and withdraw ... Unfortunately this infrastructure is not free. Staff time and program resources must be explicitly devoted to these tasks."

"The program staff of effective volunteering programs reside at the intersection of busy administrators and overworked employees ... dedicated volunteers and service recipients ... For as Marc Freedman said 'Without [infrastructure] all that remains is fervor. And fervor alone is not only evanescent and insufficient but potentially treacherous.'" (MARC FREEDMAN PUBLIC/PRIVATE VENTURES THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS: REFLECTIONS ON THE MENTORING MOVEMENT 60 (1992))."