Nonprofit Volunteers: Top Five Tips to Keep Them Coming
by
Ilona Bray, J.D.
Keeping nonprofit volunteers around for more than a few shifts can be a challenge. Learn the tricks to creating a loyal volunteer corps.
Nonprofits have many good reasons for using volunteers. For example, volunteers can allow your organization to get more done for less money (sometimes substituting for paid staff), create community involvement, and increase your organization's visibility. But many nonprofits have trouble retaining a stable core of loyal volunteers. All too often, nonprofits spend long hours recruiting and training volunteers, only to have them leave after a few shifts.
In order to reap the maximum benefit from using volunteers, you have to figure out ways to keep them coming for the long term. Here are some ideas to do just that.
1. Tap Into Volunteers’ Motives
Don’t volunteers just want to help your cause? Well, yes and no. They no doubt have good hearts and believe in your organization’s work. But most volunteers have additional reasons for volunteering -- perhaps looking to meet new people, develop skills, and feel needed. If you assign them to stand by a photocopier for long hours, it may not satisfy any of those motives.
Ask volunteers at the outset what they'd like to get from their experience, and look for ways to satisfy that. If, for example, a volunteer is hoping to use photography skills, ask her to build up a collection of photos ready for use in your newsletter, annual report, or website. If you have regular volunteers, try to schedule them so that they overlap and can talk with one another.
2. Tell Volunteers What You Expect
Start by giving each volunteer some formal training. Explain the work of your organization and the volunteer's place in it, including the importance of seemingly ministerial tasks. Discuss what you normally expect volunteers to do and what more interesting tasks they might "graduate" to after proven good work. You might also want to create a volunteer manual, explaining:
- what you expect of volunteers in terms of hours, notifying you when they’ll be late or absent, and the like
- your commitment to making the volunteer experience a positive opportunity for community involvement, and
- basic office policies such as personal use of the phones and photocopiers.
Be ready to provide feedback on how your volunteers are doing, particularly if they're trying to develop job skills. At the initial training, tell the volunteer that you'll periodically sit down for a review — and make clear that the volunteer will then have a chance to tell you how he or she is enjoying the volunteer experience and what would make it better.
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