Almost every community has a public radio station, and some are lucky enough to have several. On-air membership drives and pledge drives are a public station's life blood -
they continue to be one of the most effective ways for public radio to raise money. Membership drives could not happen without a dedicated group of volunteers doing a variety of jobs including staffing phones, stuffing envelopes, and shipping thank you gifts from the station.
Today we’re speaking with Ty Robertson, Special Events Coordinator at Vermont Public Radio who uses VolunteerSpot to schedule membership drive volunteers.
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Please tell us a little about yourself and about Vermont Public Radio (VPR).
I'm the Special Events Coordinator at VPR. We serve the entire state and a good deal of the surrounding area including southern Quebec and Montreal. We have two services - one dedicated to news and information and another with 24/7 classical music programming. We have 25,000 contributing members and 180,000 listeners.
What are your volunteer needs at VPR?
VPR holds three on-air membership drives each year. Each drive lasts anywhere from 5-10 days and the pledge days start at 6 am. With as many as 24 phone stations to be manned throughout the day we schedule lots of volunteers!
How did you get interested in volunteering/nonprofit work?
My background was in the fine arts but I started as a volunteer at VPR when I first moved to Vermont because it was a great way to meet new people and network. When a job opened up in the development department, I was already doing a lot of the duties of that position as a volunteer so it was sort of a natural for me to be hired. Things couldn't have worked out better for me - I've been at VPR 12 years now!
What's one piece of advice you have for volunteer leaders out there?
My one piece of advice to volunteer coordinators is never underestimate the value of the time your volunteers are giving you, and remember to thank them for it in as many ways as you can. Modern life is so busy now that each volunteer hour is truly a gift.
Why did you decide to use VolunteerSpot?
I had worked with a couple of on-line volunteer management programs over the last few years but they were very cumbersome and not at all satisfying. I did a Google search to find a new program and discovered VolunteerSpot. It's the most user friendly program I've found. The set up is a breeze for me, and my volunteers appreciate the reminder email messages they get about their upcoming commitments.
Anything else you'd like our readers to know about VPR?
You can hear Vermont Public Radio online at www.VPR.net. We have listeners all over the world now!
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We salute Ty Robertson and all the volunteer heroes out there everyday making our communities better places to live! If you're using VolunteerSpot, write and tell us about what you're doing and give us a chance to shine our Volunteer Spotlight on you!! Just email us at [email protected].
