It’s true – nonprofit volunteers are often the very heart of an organization. While donors are certainly vital to the success of any mission, so, too, are those who give their time and talents.
Volunteers often bring new skills and points of view to the table. They lessen the load of staff members. Many are incredibly passionate about the nonprofits where they serve. Not to mention that an engaged volunteer may very well be cultivated into a donor.
So what are you doing to ensure your base of nonprofit volunteers is a strong one?
In this blog, we’ll cover what it takes to not just recruit but retain the best volunteers for your nonprofit.
Creating a Volunteer Management Strategy for Your Nonprofit
If your nonprofit utilizes volunteers (and if you’re reading this post, we’re guessing you do!), it’s critical to have a solid volunteer management strategy.
Your strategy should include tactics for recruiting, engaging, and retaining volunteers, each working together to help you establish a dedicated volunteer base.
Recruiting Your Ideal Nonprofit Volunteers
First, take a hard look at your volunteer recruitment process. Don’t have a process in place? It’s time to build one!
Walk through this checklist to polish up your recruiting tactics and ensure you’re bringing in volunteers who are most likely to stick with your nonprofit.
Offer varied nonprofit volunteer opportunities
Before doing anything else, make a list of all of your nonprofit’s current and/or potential volunteer opportunities. This will give you a better feel for any gaps that need to be filled.
To appeal to a broader range of volunteers, offer a variety of nonprofit volunteer opportunities. Your opportunities should cover varying skill sets as well as time commitments, such as a volunteer camp counselor needed for three weeks in the summer and an event registration role needed for a couple of hours here and there.
Create a registration form for your nonprofit volunteers
Next, develop a volunteer registration form. Asking volunteers to sign up using this standard form will help you stay organized by gathering all necessary info in one place.
A digital form hosted on your website is best for organizational and sharing purposes. Paper works, too, if you don’t mind manual data entry later.
Either way, be sure to request:
- Contact info
- Availability (including days of the week and time of day)
- Ideal time commitment
- Applicable skills or talents
- Preferred volunteer opportunities
- Any other required info (such as a background check or media release form)
Establish your target audience(s)
You want to bring on volunteers who are a good fit for your organization. And you want to make sure you’re a good fit for them as well.
If you read many of our other blogs, we’re sure you’re tired of hearing this by now. But it’s absolutely critical that you establish who your ideal volunteer is for each of your available roles!
This will help you develop target audiences for your volunteer outreach, ensuring you’re reaching those most likely to sign up and stick around.
Advertise your available volunteer roles
No one will know about your nonprofit volunteer opportunities if you don’t talk about them!
Get the word out through outreach targeted to those ideal volunteers. Share the benefits to volunteering with your nonprofit, such as serving others or gaining new skills (more on this later), and include the link to your sign-up form.
A few ideas for reaching more nonprofit volunteers:
- Social Media – Whenever a new volunteer opportunity comes up, share it on the social channels most likely to reach your target audience for that role. To further hone in on your ideal target and reach more people outside of your current list of followers, consider running a few paid social media ads in addition to your organic posts.
- Email – Include upcoming volunteer opportunities in your periodic e-newsletter. You can also target smaller audiences – or even individuals – with personalized emails featuring opportunities that may be a good fit.
- Community Fairs – Talk about volunteering and have your sign-up form ready to go at your next community fair or event. Or, ask attendees to sign up for an email list and follow up with a link to the form to save time.
- Job Boards – Whether virtual or in-person, job boards and job posting sites can be a great place to find new volunteers. Just be sure to be clear that your posting is for a volunteer position!
Top Volunteer Engagement Tactics
The key to building an engaged volunteer base is, well, engagement. If you make the effort to communicate with your volunteers on a regular basis, they’ll be more likely to continue to serve.
Here are our top tips to ensure your nonprofit volunteers remain engaged and active.
Establish a volunteer onboarding process
You likely have an employee onboarding process, right? You should do the same for your nonprofit volunteers!
Taking the time to properly onboard your volunteers is beneficial in more ways than one. It not only helps the volunteer feel welcome and prepared, it also ensures the volunteer has everything they need to thrive in their role with your organization (whatever that may be).
Your onboarding may look a bit different depending on the role, especially when comparing ongoing positions with one-off opportunities. At minimum, include an overview of your organization, a set of rules or expectations, and any training needed in order for the volunteer to be successful.
Create a volunteer newsletter
Keeping your volunteers informed ensures your nonprofit stays top of mind, even if it’s been a while since they last served. Add every volunteer to a segmented mailing and/or email list specifically for your nonprofit volunteers.
Plan to send periodic digital or print newsletters to this list that includes news from your nonprofit, details about any upcoming volunteer opportunities, and beneficiary stories that showcase the very real impact your volunteers have.
Develop a community for your volunteers
Your volunteers shouldn’t just engage with your organization! Build a volunteer community that encourages your volunteers to engage with each other, creating a sense of comradery that further connects them to your nonprofit.
Host periodic volunteer events with the sole focus of facilitating this connection. Consider coffee and donuts at your facility, a speaker series covering topics related to your mission, or a pizza party at the end of an event or program. This community can also be developed online through a Facebook Group or regular virtual meetings.
Either way, give volunteers the chance to ask questions, learn more about your organization, and simply socialize with one another.
How to Retain Nonprofit Volunteers
Much like donors, it’s often easier to keep a volunteer than it is to recruit a new one!
Think about it. You’ve already put in a lot of time to recruit and onboard your existing volunteers. Many have likely become both passionate about and well-versed in your mission and their roles. They may even be poised to be cultivated into donors.
So how do you retain nonprofit volunteers for the long haul? We’ve got some advice!
Grow your nonprofit volunteers’ skills
While your organization certainly benefits from volunteers, think of ways volunteers can benefit, too. Sure, there are all sorts of feel-good benefits to volunteering, but is there anything concrete they can take away from their time spent serving your mission?
Outside of the knowledge they made a difference, volunteers can also use their roles to learn new skills and gain experience in various fields. These skills can be hard skills, like building a house, teaching a class, or creating a website. Or, they can be soft skills, like teamwork, communication, or leadership.
Speaking of leadership, create leadership opportunities through your volunteer program by offering additional training or more responsibility over time. Be sure to share this opportunity for growth in your advertising and onboarding!
Talk about volunteer impact
But even if your nonprofit volunteers are gaining new skills, they may not stick around if they don’t feel like they are making a real difference.
The best way to prove that your volunteers are needed is by showcasing the impact they have on your mission. Share data that points to how many more clients were served, acres were saved, or animals were rescued because of volunteers.
Show appreciation for your volunteers and all that they do!
Last, but far from least, show your appreciation for your volunteers early and often.
This is one of the biggest ways your volunteers are similar to your donors. Everyone wants their contributions to be acknowledged, and nonprofit volunteers are no different!
Here are just a few ways you can show appreciation for your volunteers:
- Send thank-you notes – After every volunteer opportunity wraps up, be sure to send a quick, personalized email to thank those who served. At least once a year, take the time to also mail handwritten thank-you notes to all of your volunteers.
- Share volunteer spotlights – Gather stories featuring your volunteers and post them as spotlights on your blog. Share these blogs on your social media and in your emails to brag about the amazing people who serve your mission.
- Host volunteer appreciation events – Take your community events up a notch with appreciation events that truly celebrate your volunteers. Include award ceremonies for long-term or highly dedicated volunteers, bring in popular entertainment, and provide refreshments.
- Celebrate Nonprofit Volunteer Week – Every year, make a plan to honor your volunteers during National Volunteer Week (April 20 – 26 in 2025). Use the above appreciation tactics or come up with your own!
Tip from the Playbook: Publicly showing gratitude for your volunteers isn’t just for donor retention! Displaying that you truly appreciate those who give their time and talents also encourages prospective volunteers to sign up. And things like volunteer spotlights showcase the variety of volunteer opportunities you have to offer!
Get Ready for More Nonprofit Volunteers!
Now it’s up to you! Use these tips to create a volunteer management strategy that empowers your team to recruit, engage, and retain top volunteers.
If we had to pick three must-dos to build a strong base of nonprofit volunteers, they would be:
- Offer a number of volunteer opportunities that vary in time commitment and skill sets required.
- Establish a solid onboarding process that helps volunteers feel prepared and confident in their roles.
- Show your appreciation by saying thank you often and highlighting the good your volunteers do through spotlights and impact data.
You’ve got this!
Ready to turn your volunteers into donors? The team at MVP Advisors is here for you! We’ve got decades of experience in everything from strategic planning and market research to donor prospecting and content development. Email us or set up a call today to get started.