Real-Life Math
Most volunteer coordinators work for nonprofit organizations in which every contribution makes a difference. They hope that, at the end of the day, it will all add up to a sum greater than its parts.
"Evaluation is becoming a bigger and bigger piece of a volunteer coordinator's job," explains Katie Campbell. She is the executive director of the Association for Volunteer Administration.
"Nonprofits have to be focused on impact data measurements. And volunteer administrators need to understand that more -- how to evaluate the impact of volunteers." That requires solid math skills, she says.
Volunteer coordinators must also use math when trying to assess their needs, taking into account their organization's budget and the time required of the volunteers.
You're a volunteer coordinator in a reading program. The program links illiterate adults with tutors who help them learn how to read. You hope to provide them with at least 5 hours of tutoring per week. So far, 15 people have applied for tutoring.
Scanning your list of volunteers, you notice you have only 10 people on call with varying degrees of commitment. Three can commit to 5 hours, 4 to 3 hours, and another 3 to 4 hours. How many more hours must be volunteered in order to provide 5 hours of tutoring per week to all the program's applicants?
Solving this problem involves 3 steps. First, you must first determine the total hours of volunteer time that have been requested:
A = Applicants
H = Hours of tutoring per week
R = Total hours of volunteer time requested
R = A x H
Then, you must determine how many hours your current corps of volunteers have committed to:
X = Volunteers committed to 5 hours
Y = Volunteers committed to 4 hours
Z = Volunteers committed to 3 hours
T = Total hours currently volunteered
T = 5X + 4Y + 3Z
Lastly, you must determine the difference between the total hours of volunteer time requested and the total hours currently volunteered:
T = Total hours currently volunteered
R = Total hours of volunteer time requested
Volunteer hours needed = R - T
Do you have enough volunteers? If not, how many more hours of training are needed?