Team leads in a remote-first, pan-European volunteer movement were handed people to manage with no training and very little formal authority. I designed volunteer management training for exactly that situation, delivered one to one and grouped by job family rather than in one big room, with a manual, templates and feedback loops behind it. 10+ leads across 8 countries were trained, each running a team of anywhere between 3 and 40 volunteers, and each one left able to train their own team without me.
About the Project:
A practical training project for the people who suddenly become responsible for others: staff, managers, and above all the volunteer team leads who make up most of the leadership in Volt Europa, a decentralised, remote-first organisation. The goal was to make volunteer management less mysterious and more humane.
My Process:
I designed the training around the realities of volunteer-heavy organisations: limited authority, personal motivation, remote collaboration, unclear capacity, and frequent transitions. The training was paired with templates and reusable resources.
I do not put every lead in one room. Team leads carry different duties, different working styles and different kinds of people, so I group them by job family, and where time allows I train them one to one. The advice lands where that lead actually needs it, and the lead feels looked after by the organisation, which goes a long way in volunteer leadership.
Deliverables:
A volunteer management manual written for both staff and volunteers, plus a resource shelf built around what the organisation already has. Where internal materials exist, I improve them. Where they do not, I either build them from scratch or advise while the organisation's own experts write them. Typical gaps I fill: how to fundraise, how to run comms, how to brief a new team lead.
Feedback loops, so the process still works months after handover. Plus an engagement design tied to the organisation's own workflows and milestones. At Volt Europa that meant moments like Meet Volt Europa. In a smaller organisation it looks completely different.
The training itself, delivered one to one with the leads, plus the resources they need to pass it on: material to brief their own volunteers, run their own workshops and train their own teams.
Results:
I trained 10+ team leads across 8 countries, each of them running a team of anywhere between 3 and 40 volunteers. The same method held at both ends of that range.
The organisation keeps a repeatable volunteer management process it can maintain internally: clearer roles, better handovers, more consistent check-ins, and shared materials for onboarding, supporting, and coordinating volunteers.
Because every lead is trained to train their own team, the knowledge spreads on its own. Nobody has to bring me back for each new group of volunteers.
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