Volunteers are at the core of your organization. As nonprofits navigate the challenges and opportunities of 2024, one thing remains clear: a strong volunteer management strategy is paramount to success. That’s why we’ve hosted this third workshop in our four-part Kick-Start Your 2024 Series, “Your 2024 Winning Volunteer Management Strategy.”
In this dynamic 30-minute workshop Lorenzo Sibilia, Giveffect’s Client Success Account Manager and former AmeriCorps Vista Volunteer Manager, unveils his top insights and practical strategies for effectively engaging and retaining your volunteers.
Lorenzo covers:
- Personalizing Volunteer Applications
- Effective Volunteer Communication
- Streamlining Volunteer Shift Management
- Implementing Volunteer Feedback and Evaluation
- Converting Volunteers into Donors
- Q&A
No matter your level of experience in the nonprofit sector, this webinar is your go-to resource for crafting a powerful volunteer management process that will carry you through 2024 and beyond. To support you on this journey, we’ve gathered some essential highlights below.
Interested in learning about a diverse fundraising strategy in 2024? We’ve got you covered. Check out our previous webinar, Diversify Your 2024 Nonprofit Fundraising Strategy.
Workshop Highlights:
Why a Strong Volunteer Management Strategy is Important
Volunteers are at the heart of almost every single nonprofit’s mission, providing valuable time, skills, and expertise to nonprofits without the financial cost of paid staff. A well-managed volunteer program ensures that these resources are effectively utilized to support your organization’s goals.
Various studies and reports conducted by organizations such as the National Council of Nonprofits and AmeriCorps demonstrate the critical importance of volunteers in the nonprofit sector. Research reveals compelling statistics: for nonprofits with paid staff, approximately 200+ hours of administrative time are spent per year on acquiring, training, and retaining volunteers; 90% of nonprofits rely on volunteers to assist in carrying out their programs and services; and astonishingly, 17% of nonprofits operate without any paid staff at all. Whether your organization fits into one or more of these categories, there is no doubt that effective volunteer management is essential for maximizing impact, fostering community engagement, and ensuring organizational sustainability.
Volunteer Management Strategies and Best Practices:
1. Personalizing Volunteer Applications
The first step in developing a strong volunteer management strategy begins with a solid volunteer application.
A strong volunteer application:
- Utilizes customized web forms
- Asks the essential questions and leaves room for unique interests
- Captures organization-specific volunteer requirements
- Makes opportunity-matching easier
- If possible, go paperless!
Making sure to take note of a volunteer’s unique skills and interests will pay off in the long run when sending out personalized opportunities and communications, segmenting data for reporting, and showing your appreciation (which we will dive into further below). Look for volunteer management software that allows you to easily craft your application with customized web forms, build contact volunteer profiles, and the ability to add a volunteer’s application and preferences to a volunteer’s profile. For example, Giveffect’s volunteer module automatically saves a volunteer’s applications under their contact record profile, updates their respective data and interests, and allows users to create groups and query for a volunteer’s experience or shift.
2. Establishing Open and Consistent Communication
Nonprofits may have unique needs and relationships with their volunteers. For example, some of your volunteers may be completing community service hours, some may be seeking an experience that aligns with their career goals, and some may just be seeking that warm fuzzy feeling of being involved with their community. Nonetheless, a clear communication strategy fosters a sense of belonging and purpose, enhancing the volunteer experience by keeping them informed and involved.
Best Practices:
- Send consistent messages and information and respond to volunteer feedback
- Promote tailored volunteer opportunities via email
- Utilize text message marketing for sign-up confirmations, pre-shift reminders, and post-shift follow-ups
Following these strategies and using the right tools to do so may contribute to higher retention rates as volunteers feel valued and connected to your organization’s mission at every step of the way.
3. Streamlining Volunteer Shift Management
As a volunteer manager, it is important to maintain an active role before, during, and after a volunteer’s shift. When a volunteer knows what your nonprofit expects from them and feels guided every step of the way, they’re much more likely to meet (and surpass!) those expectations and keep coming back.
Before a volunteer shift:
- Create a comprehensive volunteer calendar
- Offer various shift options to accommodate different schedules
During a volunteer shift:
- Set up mobile check-in to track real-time progress
- Provide on-site support
After a volunteer shift:
- Track your data
- Send email thank-you notes
As you begin to incorporate these strategies into your volunteer management process, look for software that makes it simple for a volunteer to view all opportunities available and sign up on a calendar. Also, ensure your volunteer coordinator can easily manipulate the calendar on the backend. When your volunteer is ready for their shift, make the process simple with a mobile check-in and check-out process like Giveffect’s EventBuddy integration. Additionally, look for software that incorporates ‘email rules’ and automates the post-shift confirmation and thank-you messages.
4. Implementing Opportunities to Capture Feedback and Evaluation
Sending surveys after volunteer opportunities (whether they are standalone or part of your supporter profiles) shows volunteers that you value their time and feedback. And of course, this allows you to implement changes based on the feedback received.
Best Practices:
- Include ranked questions at the beginning of the survey
- Include open-ended questions to gather detailed information about the experience
As you begin to think about the best ways of incorporating surveys in your volunteer management process, look for software that allows you to create surveys by utilizing web forms. Additionally, keep an eye out for the ability to automatically add survey links to your emails and messaging. For example, Giveffect allows for you to embed questions into surveys that are linked to a unique volunteer experience and easily link this survey to your post-shift volunteer thank-you email.
5. Turning Volunteers into Donors
If a volunteer cares enough about your cause to give their time, energy, and skills to it, they’re likely to show that devotion in other ways too!
Best Practices:
- Start with an organized database
- Involve volunteers in your fundraising activities
- Make giving easy
When starting with an organized database, volunteer data that lives in conjunction with all of your fundraising and donor stewardship information makes this effort easier, but is certainly not a necessity. Make sure to take time to understand a volunteer’s giving capacity, and don’t necessarily view volunteers and donors as completely separate. Take time to invite your volunteers to donor events and vice versa. Maybe your volunteers are already donors, so it is important to make sure you are filling in gaps and making all constituents feel valued. Lastly, offering multiple channels to donate will certainly make the giving process easier and encourage your volunteers to participate.
Takeaways:
1. Build a strong volunteer application that captures and organizes data
2. Maintain consistent communication with your volunteers
3. Play an active role before, during, and after your volunteers’ shifts
4. Gather feedback (surveys, web forms) and implement changes
5. Create opportunities to turn volunteers into donors
6. Leverage the right nonprofit technology to support your team and your volunteers
Final Thoughts:
In a world where volunteers are the backbone of nonprofit organizations, a well-crafted volunteer management strategy is not just beneficial—it’s essential. The statistics speak volumes, revealing the profound impact volunteers have on the sector and the significant investment of time and effort organizations dedicate to managing their volunteer programs. From personalized volunteer applications to streamlined shift management and the crucial step of converting volunteers into donors, each aspect of effective volunteer management contributes to the overall success and sustainability of nonprofits. By embracing these strategies and leveraging the right nonprofit technology, organizations can cultivate a thriving volunteer community that drives meaningful change and supports their mission for years to come.
Looking for more key insights for a successful 2024? Join us in our next workshop for a group demo of Giveffect:
Workshop 4: Kick-Start Your 2024 Giveffect Demo
