Keep Volunteers Happy through Training and Engagement
It’s important to keep your nonprofit volunteers happy and engaged. Finding and securing volunteers interested and ready to commit time to your nonprofit can be overwhelming. That’s why, once a volunteer signs on, it’s vital to keep him interested, excited, and motivated about this new volunteer role. Keeping volunteers happy is key to your success.
Like starting a new job, a volunteer is most intent and focused on the first day of volunteering. This is the day, if not before, to make a good impression and show the volunteer what they’ll be doing and why it’s important to the goals and mission of the organization.
Keeping Volunteers Happy: A Guide to Retention
Communication
Creating open two-way communication is vital for a successful volunteer engagement with your nonprofit. Volunteers give their time because of an interest in the work of the nonprofit and because they want to feel helpful and needed, and that their involvement makes a difference. It’s important to build on these needs by showing appreciation of their time and sharing information about the organization – the what, why, and results of the nonprofit’s work and mission.
Planning a Volunteer Program
Prior to training volunteers, it’s important to identify and outline what the volunteer program is, the role of volunteers, and how you’ll manage their work and engagement with the organization. Once this is defined and documented, a volunteer handbook can be developed. This handbook will support volunteers through the process of joining the organization, delivering on the volunteer role, and possibly helping to lead and train other volunteers who join.
Training Volunteers
The training of volunteers needs to be customized. This means it should be targeted to individual volunteer types – full-time or part-time and each functional role volunteers may fill – which can include back office support, being out in the field or fundraising tasks, and more. There is also a foundation part of volunteer training that is standardized for all volunteers.
This includes two sections:
Basic information and knowledge of nonprofits, such as: What is a nonprofit? How does it function? What is the role of fundraising? And lastly, what are the ethical responsibilities of a nonprofit, and what is expected while representing one?
A general overview of your nonprofit. This is around the mission and values of the organization, its program needs, goals, and expected outcomes.
You can find more information and an outline on Developing Your Volunteer Program from Idealist.
Ruth Kustoff is principal and learning strategist of Knowledge Advantage. She supports nonprofits and corporate clients alike in developing and improving employee engagement, productivity, and performance success through custom learning solutions and better information sharing across the organization.
