Overview of VPA at ISU Psychology
The Volunteer Program Assessment (VPA) is a cutting-edge, innovative, and completely free volunteer assessment system designed to promote nonprofit organizational effectiveness.
Dr. Schneider and graduate students in the Industrial-Organizational Psychology program at ISU offer the VPA service to nonprofit organizations both locally and across the country. VPA’s goal is to help nonprofit leaders understand the strengths and weaknesses of their volunteer program and provide insights into the strategic management of their volunteer resources. VPA provides a great training opportunity for graduate students to gain experience and skills working with organizations in a consulting role.
The VPA is an online survey provided to volunteer coordinators to administer to their volunteers. The information collected addresses a variety of individual and organizational outcomes. VPA consultants guide nonprofit leaders through the survey process, provide sample emails to send to their volunteers, and help interpret the results of the survey.
In addition to client-specific results, VPA also provides clients with normative data, based on surveys completed since 2009. The normative database provides insights into the common challenges experienced by many volunteer programs.
Student Involvement
Graduate students from the Industrial-Organizational Psychology program, along with undergraduate students, volunteer their time to support VPA. For the 2014-2015 academic year, VPA at ISU has 5 active graduate student consultants and 3 undergraduate student assistants. VPA provides students a unique opportunity to gain experience with the consulting process, while participating in service to the local and national community. Specifically, students work one-on-one with clients and manage the entire VPA process, which entails scheduling the survey, managing the online survey platform, generating survey result reports, and leading a consultation conversation interpreting the state of the volunteer program.
In addition to the ever-growing normative database, VPA has generated a large research database. Graduate students involved in VPA are actively pursuing research studies and thesis projects that will enrich our understanding of volunteers and volunteer management. Current research projects focus on: 1) how improved job resources might lessen job burnout and exhaustion; 2) how volunteers’ motives for volunteering (for example, a drive to help others, an attempt to increase networking and job skills) might impact their engagement in the work itself; and, 3) the role of communication between volunteers and paid employees on satisfaction and intentions to continue volunteering.
The VPA Survey
The online survey assesses a range of important individual and organizational outcomes, including:
- Organizational Commitment
- Satisfaction with Communication
- Satisfaction with the Work Itself
- Engagement in the Volunteer Work
- Satisfaction with Other Volunteers
- Satisfaction with Paid Staff
- Organizational Barriers
- Burnout and Stress
- Intentions to Quit
We also ask volunteer to report, via open-ended comments, what they like most about volunteering at their organization, what they like least about volunteering, and what suggestions they have for potential changes that need to be made.
VPA Clients
The VPA at ISU group has worked with a range of organizations that use volunteers, including animal shelters, social service agencies, police departments, and hospitals. Any organization that has a sizable number of volunteers (over 20 is a general rule) is eligible for our free VPA service!
Interested in VPA for your organization?
Contact Dr. Kim Schneider at ktschne@ilstu.edu or 309-438-8029 for more information. The VPA group at ISU would be happy to provide more information about the possibility of consulting with your organization and administering the VPA survey to your volunteers.