What skills do volunteer leaders need? A Delphi study

Abstract

Non-profit and volunteer-based organizations are tasked with meeting the needs of their communities with limited resources. Today, more than ever, these organizations are stretched to their limits increasing the workload for paid staff. Training volunteers to lead the volunteer efforts is one way to spread the workload throughout the organization. Although there are guidelines for leadership development in for-profit organizations, there is limited literature pertaining to specific competencies and skills volunteer leaders in non- profit and volunteer-based organizations should possess. This study, employing Delphi methodology, was conducted with volunteer directors in the community to identify leadership competencies for volunteer leaders. At the conclusion of three rounds of iteration, 42 competencies were identified.