Developing Volunteer Leaders: A Coaching Approach for Nonprofits

Every nonprofit relies on them. Board members who govern. Committee chairs who convene. Volunteer coordinators who mobilize. These volunteer leaders carry enormous responsibility for your mission—often without anyone investing in their development the way you would for paid staff.

I’ve watched this pattern unfold countless times: an organization recruits talented volunteers into leadership positions, provides a brief orientation, and then expects them to perform. When things go sideways—a board member micromanages the executive director, a committee chair can’t run an effective meeting, a volunteer coordinator burns out—everyone acts surprised.

But here’s what I’ve learned after working with nonprofit leaders for years: volunteer leadership is actually harder than paid leadership. Not easier. Harder. These individuals must influence without authority, navigate complex organizational dynamics without formal power, and deliver results while juggling their own careers and personal lives. They deserve coaching and development just as much as—perhaps more than—your paid team.

The Unique Challenge of Leading Without Authority

Volunteer leaders operate in a space that most leadership development programs ignore entirely. They can’t rely on positional power, performance reviews, or compensation adjustments to motivate others. They must master the art of influence without authority—and that’s one of the most sophisticated leadership skills that exists.

Consider what your board chair faces: guiding a group of accomplished professionals through complex governance decisions, managing competing perspectives, and holding an executive director accountable—all without any formal authority over anyone in the room. Or think about your volunteer coordinator who needs to motivate dozens of episodic volunteers to show up, work hard, and return again.

This isn’t “leadership lite.” This is leadership in its purest form.

The volunteer leader who masters influence without authority has developed capabilities that most paid executives never achieve—because they’ve never had to.

When organizations fail to recognize this complexity, they set volunteer leaders up to struggle. They provide orientation instead of development. They offer appreciation instead of growth opportunities. They assume that successful professionals automatically know how to lead in nonprofit contexts.

Board Member Development: Governance Versus Management

Perhaps nowhere is the development gap more apparent than with board members. Most board members arrive with genuine commitment to your mission and impressive professional credentials. What they often lack is understanding of the fundamental distinction between governance and management.

I can’t count how many executive directors have described this scenario to me: a well-meaning board member starts asking operational questions in board meetings, requests detailed reports on day-to-day activities, or offers to “help” by getting involved in staff decisions. The board member thinks they’re being engaged. The ED feels micromanaged. Trust erodes on both sides.

This isn’t a character flaw—it’s a development gap. Most board members learned leadership in contexts where they had operational responsibility. Shifting to a governance mindset requires intentional development.

Effective board member development addresses several critical competencies. Board members need to understand where governance ends and management begins. They need skills for asking powerful questions rather than providing answers. They need to recognize when their expertise is helpful and when it’s overreach. And they need frameworks for holding the executive accountable without managing them.

Coaching can accelerate this development dramatically. When board members have space to reflect on their role, explore their assumptions, and receive honest feedback, they make the transition from well-meaning interference to true governance partnership.

Organizations like BoardSource offer excellent foundational training for nonprofit board governance. But training alone rarely creates lasting behavior change. Board members benefit from ongoing coaching conversations where they can apply new concepts to real situations they’re facing.

Committee Chair Coaching: The Overlooked Leadership Position

If board members are underdeveloped, committee chairs are often completely forgotten. Yet these volunteer leaders carry significant responsibility: they set agendas, facilitate discussions, manage group dynamics, drive decisions, and report back to the full board. Many have never received any training in meeting facilitation, let alone leadership development.

What happens when committee chairs lack these skills? Meetings meander without clear outcomes. Dominant voices override quieter members. Decisions get relitigated repeatedly. Committee members disengage because their time feels wasted. Important work stalls.

Coaching committee chairs transforms their effectiveness and the experience of everyone who serves with them. Key development areas include meeting design and facilitation skills—understanding how to structure agendas, manage time, draw out diverse perspectives, and drive toward decisions. Committee chairs also benefit from coaching on volunteer engagement strategies within their committees, helping members feel valued and productive.

A single well-coached committee chair improves the experience of every volunteer who serves on that committee. That’s the multiplier effect of developing your volunteer leaders.

One approach that works well: pair committee chairs with brief coaching conversations before and after key meetings. Before the meeting, they can clarify their objectives and anticipate challenges. After the meeting, they can reflect on what worked, what didn’t, and what they’ll try differently next time. This rhythm of planning, action, and reflection accelerates development faster than any workshop.

Volunteer Coordinator Development: Building the Builders

Volunteer coordinators occupy a unique position in many nonprofits. They’re responsible for recruiting, training, deploying, and retaining volunteers—often while serving as volunteers themselves. The skills required are substantial: they need to understand volunteer motivation, master communication across diverse groups, manage logistics, handle difficult situations, and maintain their own engagement despite inevitable frustrations.

Yet volunteer coordinators rarely receive systematic development. They learn through trial and error, often repeating mistakes that could have been avoided with proper support.

Coaching volunteer coordinators focuses on three core areas. First, recruitment strategies that go beyond posting opportunities and hoping people respond. Effective volunteer recruitment requires understanding what motivates different volunteer segments and crafting appeals that resonate. Second, retention approaches that recognize volunteers as whole people with evolving needs, not just labor to deploy. Third, recognition practices that feel meaningful rather than perfunctory.

Points of Light emphasizes the importance of knowing volunteer leaders’ strengths and growth opportunities so organizations can foster their development intentionally. This same principle applies to volunteer coordinators: when we invest in their development the way we would paid staff, we’re far more likely to retain them.

The Volunteer-to-Staff Pipeline: Developing Tomorrow’s Paid Leaders

Here’s an opportunity most nonprofits miss entirely: your volunteer leaders represent a ready pipeline for future paid positions. They already understand your mission, know your organizational culture, and have demonstrated commitment. Yet organizations often recruit externally for staff roles while overlooking the talent volunteering right in front of them.

Developing a volunteer-to-staff pathway requires intentional design. It means identifying high-potential volunteers early, providing them with progressively responsible opportunities, and coaching them toward readiness for paid roles. It means being explicit about the pathway so volunteers can self-select into it.

This isn’t about convincing every volunteer to become an employee. Many people volunteer precisely because they don’t want employment obligations. But for those who are interested, a clear development pathway benefits everyone: the volunteer gains skills and experience, the organization cultivates known talent, and the sector builds leadership capacity.

The coaching question to explore with promising volunteers: “What would need to be true for you to consider a paid role with a mission-driven organization?” Some will articulate barriers that can be addressed. Others will clarify that volunteering suits their life circumstances better. Either answer is valuable.

Coaching Across Power Differentials

Some volunteer leaders hold positions with real authority over paid staff. Board members govern executives. Committee chairs may direct staff support. Volunteer coordinators sometimes oversee staff-led programs. These power differentials create unique coaching challenges.

When volunteer leaders have authority over paid staff, both parties need development. The volunteer leader needs to understand how to exercise authority appropriately and sparingly. The paid staff member needs support in navigating a relationship where their employment depends partly on someone who doesn’t experience the organization’s daily realities.

The most dangerous volunteer leader isn’t the one who lacks skills—it’s the one who doesn’t recognize the power they hold or the impact of how they wield it.

The Untrained Volunteer trap occurs when organizations assume that professional success elsewhere translates to effective nonprofit volunteer leadership. It doesn’t. The contexts are different, the dynamics are different, and the skills required are different. Every volunteer leader deserves development specific to their role.

The Power Confusion trap emerges when volunteer leaders overstep their boundaries—usually with good intentions. The board member who starts directing staff. The committee chair who makes operational decisions. The volunteer coordinator who creates policies without authority to do so. These situations require coaching conversations that clarify boundaries without damaging relationships.

Volunteer leaders as peer support can actually strengthen organizations when they understand their appropriate role. But that understanding rarely develops automatically. It requires explicit conversation, ongoing coaching, and organizational cultures that make boundary-setting safe.

Recognition and Retention Through Development

Most organizations approach volunteer recognition transactionally: appreciation events, certificates, public acknowledgment. These gestures matter, but they’re insufficient for retaining your best volunteer leaders.

The most powerful retention strategy? Genuine investment in their development.

When you coach a volunteer leader, you communicate that their growth matters to you. When you provide training, feedback, and increasingly challenging responsibilities, you signal that they’re valued as developing professionals—not just as labor. When you treat volunteer leaders with the same developmental seriousness you’d bring to high-potential employees, retention follows naturally.

This reframes recognition entirely. Instead of asking “How do we thank our volunteers?”, ask “How are we helping our volunteers grow?” The first question leads to pizza parties and plaques. The second leads to coaching conversations, skill-building opportunities, and meaningful progression.

Some volunteer leaders will eventually move on regardless—that’s healthy. But when they leave, they should leave more capable than when they arrived. That’s what it means to serve your volunteer leaders, not just to use them.

Virtual Volunteer Leadership: Remote Engagement Strategies

The shift toward hybrid and remote work hasn’t bypassed volunteers. Many organizations now coordinate volunteers who never set foot in a physical location. This reality demands new development approaches for volunteer leaders.

Virtual volunteer leadership requires skills that weren’t necessary when everyone gathered in person. How do you build community through screens? How do you maintain engagement when people can simply… not show up? How do you recognize contributions you can’t physically observe?

Coaching virtual volunteer leaders addresses these challenges. They need strategies for creating connection despite distance—regular check-ins, video calls that allow for informal conversation, virtual social events that don’t feel forced. They need approaches for tracking engagement and intervening early when volunteers start drifting away. They need technology skills that many never anticipated needing.

The organizations adapting best are those treating virtual volunteer leadership as a distinct competency requiring its own development approach. Coaching supports that development by creating space for volunteer leaders to experiment, reflect, and refine their remote engagement strategies.

Investing in Volunteer Leader Development

If volunteer leaders are truly essential to your mission—and in most nonprofits, they absolutely are—then their development deserves real investment. Not leftover budget. Not “when we have time.” Real, intentional, sustained investment.

That investment takes multiple forms. It includes executive coaching for nonprofit leaders who themselves support volunteer leadership structures. It includes training programs tailored to volunteer contexts. It includes coaching relationships for board members, committee chairs, and volunteer coordinators. It includes peer learning opportunities where volunteer leaders can share challenges and solutions.

The return on this investment compounds over time. Developed volunteer leaders serve more effectively, stay longer, recruit other capable volunteers, and strengthen your organization’s capacity at every level. Some become paid staff, bringing institutional knowledge and proven commitment. Others become donors, board members at larger organizations, or advocates who champion your cause in new circles.

Your volunteer leadership pipeline isn’t just about filling positions—it’s about building the leadership bench for your entire sector. Every volunteer leader you develop becomes a resource not just for your organization, but for the broader nonprofit ecosystem.

From Appreciation to Development: A Shift in Thinking

The mental shift required is simple but profound: stop thinking about volunteer management and start thinking about volunteer development.

Management is transactional: recruit, train, deploy, thank, repeat. Development is transformational: understand potential, provide growth opportunities, offer coaching and feedback, celebrate progress, prepare for larger roles.

Management treats volunteers as resources to be utilized. Development treats volunteers as leaders to be grown. Management asks what volunteers can do for your organization right now. Development asks who volunteers can become through their service with you.

When you make this shift, everything changes. Recruitment messages emphasize learning and growth alongside service. Onboarding includes development planning, not just orientation. Ongoing support includes coaching conversations, not just supervision. Departure conversations explore what the volunteer gained and how they’ll apply it, not just exit logistics.