Mission Mobilization: Building a Movement that Supports Volunteers

If you’ve ever tried to recruit and keep volunteers, you know it’s equal parts art and infrastructure. But what if your organization didn’t just use volunteers — what if it ran on them?

That’s the reality at Words Alive, a San Diego nonprofit that reaches 6,000 children each year to build a love of reading in local youth. The organization has a staff of just 10 people — and between 800 and 1,000 volunteers who make the work possible. In this episode of the Nonprofit Counsel Podcast, Executive Director Rachael Orose joined host May Harris to unpack what true volunteer mobilization looks like, why it matters, and how other nonprofits can follow suit.

A Mission Rooted in Literacy — and Community

For Orose, literacy work is both a calling and a family legacy. She grew up watching her mother leading a nonprofit serving children with special needs and her grandfather volunteering well into retirement. Today, she carries that legacy forward through Words Alive’s mission: to foster a love of reading in children across San Diego County.

The need is real — and urgent. “Half of the kids in the county do not read on grade-level,” Orose shared. However, in the communities Words Alive prioritizes, it reaches two-thirds or even more.

But she’s also clear about one thing: this is a solvable problem. “There’s no magic bullet,” she said. “But once you teach a kid to read and once they understand the value of reading and understand how it impacts their lives and the importance of it, we have them for generations.”

That’s where the volunteers come in.

Mobilizing Volunteers with Meaning

When Orose joined Words Alive six years ago, the organization had about 200 volunteers. Today, that number has quadrupled. The secret? Creating meaningful, mission-connected roles that make every volunteer feel essential.

“There’s nothing worse than filing papers,” Orose laughed. The structure at Words Alive prioritizes service that’s directly tied to the mission — and they scope roles narrowly so people know exactly how they’re making a difference.

Every volunteer position at Words Alive has a written role description. Each one connects back to the organization’s core goal: helping kids develop habits and attitudes that make reading joyful. Volunteers don’t just read with children — they design curriculum, select books, assemble learning kits, deliver materials, run social media, and train new volunteers.

The result is a model where staff function as volunteer managers — guiding a vast network of people who feel ownership over the mission.

What unites them, Orose said, is a sense of belonging. “We're an organization of volunteers because we believe that if we can provide people with an on-ramp and give them an opportunity to be part of the solution, maybe we can actually change the story on literacy in San Diego.”

That philosophy extends to fundraising, too. Many of Words Alive’s volunteers are also donors, blurring the traditional lines between volunteerism and philanthropy. Orose sees that overlap as a strength. Volunteerism is philanthropy. It’s about giving time, talent, and heart.

From Volunteers to Board Members

That integration runs all the way to the top. Most of Words Alive’s board members started as volunteers — a strategy Orose credits with creating an unusually strong and aligned board.

Before anyone joins the board, “[t]hey got to know the organization, they understood the organization, and they raised their hand and said, I have an additional skill set that can help.”

The organization’s board culture is intentionally human, too. Meetings begin with creative icebreakers (“If you could be in any setting of a book, where would you be?”), fostering connection before diving into strategy. “We trust each other,” Orose said.

Reframing the Sector’s Challenges

Like many nonprofit leaders, Orose sees the sector facing shifting sands — funding streams moving, donor priorities changing, and new pressures on organizational sustainability. But May and Rachael also see opportunity in those shifts.

More and more community members are raising their hands, asking, “How can I help?” The public is recognizing that nonprofits are essential, especially due to the current political climate in the USA. According to Rachael, the main challenge nonprofits are facing right now is to harness that goodwill while keeping the lights on.

Her mindset, she added, is shaped by a simple but powerful practice: surrounding herself with a supportive, solutions-oriented board and staff. A strong board with several view points and backgrounds can support a nonprofit leader reframe a crisis into an opportunity.

Centering Joy in Service

When asked for one last piece of advice, Orose didn’t hesitate: keep joy at the center.

“The work we do is joyful.” Rachael said. “We, in the nonprofit sector, we may be wrestling with really complicated, hard things, but we're there to create joy. We could doom and gloom all day long, or we can center joy and we can center engagement and community.”

At its heart, every nonprofit exists to create change — and to spark joy in the communities it serves. When the work feels heavy or the challenges start to pile up, return to that truth. The effort you pour in each day isn’t just moving a mission forward; it’s building connection, hope, and joy for countless people who need it most.