Rick Lynch is the co-author of the book Volunteer Management, the best-selling book in its field in the US, China and the Ukraine. The British version, Essential Volunteer Management, is the best-selling book in the field in the United Kingdom.
Lynch is a Seattle-based management consultant who specializes in issues facing not-for-profit organizations. As a trainer, author and coach, he helps managers create productive workplaces for both paid and unpaid staff. He has produced volunteer management workshops in the US, Canada, Australia, Britain, Ireland, Russia and Singapore. Each year, Lynch speaks at approximately 100 workshops, conventions, and conferences throughout the world on topics related to volunteer management and leadership effectiveness. He is the author of the following books:
In addition to Volunteer Management, he is the co-author of the books Secrets of Leadership and Keeping Volunteers.
Before starting his own firm in 1977, Lynch worked for five years as a project director and senior trainer for three management-consulting firms in New York and Washington, DC. He holds a master's degree from the University of Iowa.
Lynch’s experience in the field of volunteer management includes work as a volunteer coordinator and as the training director for the Washington State Office of Voluntary Action, where he set up a unique system of delivering management training to volunteer directors through a network of volunteer training organizers. Lynch served on the boards of directors of a number of nonprofit organizations, including a volunteer center, a retired senior volunteer program, a United Way, national and local literacy programs, and National CASA, an organization that ensures that abused children are placed in safe and permanent homes. He has been a featured speaker on volunteer management at international, national, international and state conferences since 1979.
At various times during his career, Lynch has served as a reading teacher, a bass player in a blues band and Chief of a volunteer fire department.
