My Nonprofit Reviews

My very first (and only, really, but more on this later) experience as a volunteer with Taproot was when I was brought on to replace another consultant who abruptly quit halfway into their project without getting anything done. I had to work double time to meet the deadlines, which weren't extended for me. After it was finished, ahead of schedule and to rave reviews by the client, I was invited to a new project, which I wanted to do to see what I could pull off if given a reasonable schedule this time around.

After the initial kickoff meeting for the new project, however, I was dismissed from the team because the account director (who was "in between jobs") thought my every-weekday-afternoon-and-evenings plus all-day-weekends availability "wasn't flexible enough." She wanted her team members available anytime on weekday mornings as well. So, being (apparently) the only member who couldn't because I worked a day job, I was removed during a private telephone conversation a few minutes after the kickoff meeting ended. For readers unfamiliar with the Taproot process, a kickoff meeting is the very first time project team members meet and introduce themselves before actual planning and work on the project begins. So I was kicked to the curb before I ever got the chance to prove that I could do the work and meet the deadlines.

So who cares, one might say, just find another project. Which brings me to the second problem.

New opportunities (usually 2-4) are posted each quarter, but each time I have seen a project that looked interesting and sent a message to the account director expressing my interest, I have been told that the position was already filled, usually by a consultant the director has worked with before. As a result, in the past year and a half of being a registered volunteer consultant with Taproot, I have worked on exactly one project, and only because somebody already on that project dropped out. With such a shortage of opportunities available and far too many consultants vying for them, I still see Taproot continuing to advertise for and recruit more volunteers, with my skillset, on my local Volunteermatch and Idealist sites.

It really ought to be against the code of conduct to remove a team member due to work commitments, as long as that team member is doing the job they signed up for and is keeping up with deadlines. To be removed from a team before work on a project has even been planned out, let alone started, is unfair and unprofessional, especially when it is so difficult to get onto a team in the first place. I have nothing against unemployed or retired volunteers who have all the time in the world, but people who hold full time jobs and still make the time to volunteer ought to be treated with a little more courtesy and respect than I was.

I signed up with the reasonable (I believe) expectation that volunteers' time and skills would be appreciated and respected. On the contrary, my experience at Taproot has been demeaning and humiliating.

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