Certified Volunteer Manager Program

The Certified Volunteer Manager (CVM) Program offered by APAC teaches the leadership and management skills required of volunteer professionals including:

• Recruiting, placing, supporting, supervising, engaging, and recognizing volunteers.
• Creating policies and procedures that reduce volunteer program risks and liabilities.
• Assessing the outcomes and achievements of a volunteer program.
• Aligning a volunteer program with an organization’s mission and goals.
• Designing and implementing a strategic program improvement.

The program specializes in offering in-person training from expert instructors that aligns with international standards for volunteer management.

This program is for anyone managing volunteers or volunteer programs (or who wants to learn how). Participants include individuals working for nonprofits, government agencies, cities, educational institutions, and other community based organizations. Volunteer professionals from around the world are invited to participate.

The CVM Program offered by APAC was the first certificate program in volunteer management to be offered in the country. It has a long history of national recognition for providing outstanding training to professionals working with volunteers.

“The ideas, skills, materials gained in this program are INVALUABLE.”

“This training has helped me find my direction.”

Applying what we learned during this program “was so beneficial. It was hard work but guided by a facilitator made it effective and less overwhelming.”

Reasons to Participate

Volunteers are a valuable resource. Research shows that effective volunteer engagement is linked to stronger, more effective, and more efficient organizations. Engaged volunteers:

• Significantly increase organizational capacity.
• Become issue and organizational advocates.
• Provide more financial support.
• Make a bigger impact.

It takes significant time and talent to develop a volunteer program that has these impacts. In order to engage volunteers strategically, volunteer managers require not only knowledge, but also planning expertise, appropriate infrastructure, and leadership skills.  APAC’s Certified Volunteer Manager program focuses on developing volunteer professionals who can do just that

2024 Program

The next CVM program begins in Fall 2024. The program is completed over 6-months. It requires approximately 80-hours of time between September 2024 and March 2025. Participants will attend an in-person training retreat. Relationships with other volunteer managers are built during this time. Assignment work accomplished online will focus on applying what is learned. The program includes:

• A four-day, three-night training retreat held at the DeGray Lake State Park Lodge. It begins at 1:00 pm on Tuesday, October 1, and ends by 3:00 pm on Friday, October 4, 2024.
• Assignments before the retreat include examining personal volunteer management skills, learning about the strengths and challenges of another volunteer program, reading about strategic volunteer engagement, and other related work.
• The capstone is developed and implemented after the retreat. Participants apply what they have learned about volunteer management to improve a volunteer program.

We hope you will mark your calendar and join our mailing list to receive registration information for the 2024 program as soon as it becomes available. Join our mailing list.

“Love the idea of being ‘cloistered’ and leaving other work & personal [concerns] at home.”

The retreat was “very engaging – spot on. Informative and relevant.”

For More Information

Contact APAC at apacprog@ualr.edu or 501-916-6050.

Follow Us

For regular updates about our programs, follow us on social media: