On Technology Volunteers

September 28, 2011
By Lisa Rau

Yesterday, a client that had been a regular IT support client of ours for the last eight years called with some not-so-surprising news. They wanted to re-hire us to provide their technology support after an eight month hiatus. During those eight months, one of the co-founders of the organization, also a board member, was donating technical support to them to save money. As a result, it was expected that our services would no longer be needed.  

 

That this type of arrangement didn’t work out wasn't a surprise to us; we have seen it many times. Even the most expert and dedicated volunteer will be challenged when made responsible for the entirety of an organization’s infrastructure. Some of the problems are the same as when organizations use any single practitioners for their support. When the organization doesn’t need support, the person will have other commitments. This makes it difficult to rely on them when there is an emergency. Also, no one person knows everything. While we don’t know everything either, the expertise resident across our team surpasses that of any one member.  We have rarely seen these types of arrangements saving any significant amount of money for our clients. Kind of like donated computers … but that would be a different subject.

That being said, sometimes it is hard to look a gift horse in the mouth. Treat your volunteer relationship just like you would your contractual one. Put in place a written agreement that outlines what you expect them to do, and under what terms, as well as how much time you are expecting they will spend in this role. Having clear, mutual expectations up front can help prevent problems downstream.