People Skills

• Volunteers generally work with others either as part of a team completing a project or directly caring for another person; patients in a nursing home or mentoring children through an organization such as Big Brothers, Big Sisters. Volunteers should be generally cheerful and upbeat, easy to work with and have an overall positive attitude even if things aren't satisfactory in their own lives.
  
  

Organizational Skills

• Some volunteers organize events or groups of people to work on various projects. Without their organizational skills, these projects might not happen. For example, if you're the Parent-Teacher Association President for your school, you will be responsible for organizing the individual committees in your school. You may not be directly involved in each fundraiser or activity, but you will do a great deal of delegating, organizing, structuring and liaison work. Being well-organized makes volunteering less stressful and enables you to give back to your community in the way you intended.
  
  

Time Management Skills

• Volunteers have to be willing to commit to a certain amount of hours each week or month depending on the situation. They have to be willing to take the initiative to problem solve, work on their own or with a group as well as learn and try new things. Volunteers may have to go through testing or training before they begin. The best volunteers do what they say they're going to do and show up when they say they're going to be there unless there are situations beyond their control.
  
  

Relationship Skills

• Good volunteers see the good in others, whether it's the people they're working with or the people they're serving. These volunteers generally go above and beyond what they're asked to do because they want to get to know the people they're serving. They go beyond surface relationships by remembering names, information and stories told to them. Volunteers that are healthy and well-balanced will bring that feeling to the environment, and the people they're helping will be directly and indirectly affected.