Appreciate Volunteers for their Value
Volunteers are contributing their time, experience, and skills to your organization. These are valuable services that nobody should ever take for granted. Independent Sector along with the Do Good Institute announced last month that the estimated national value of a volunteer hour has reached $31.80! This figure is based on information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Read more about the methodology for reaching this figure here. Your organization needs to appreciate volunteers for the value they add and keep them engaged in your work.
Keep Volunteers Engaged
Volunteer engagement is crucial for the success and effectiveness of nonprofits. By keeping volunteers engaged, a nonprofit can accomplish more than they would with limited staff and resources alone. Their work creates larger impacts within a community because they are invested in the success of your organization’s programs and mission.
Provide volunteers with meaningful and impactful work. Most people volunteer in order to make a difference in their community. It’s important that they see a direct connection between their work and the results it has on the people around them. Give your volunteers tasks that align with their skills and their passions, and they will feel fulfilled in their activity.
Communicate regularly with current and potential volunteers. Sharing your mission and upcoming activities is a great way to help volunteers see where they can help. Those who are motivated to volunteer do so because they feel strongly about the mission of the organization. You can never talk about your mission and its impact too much. A regular newsletter highlighting your mission and upcoming activities that need volunteers is an effective way to show people how they can get involved and stay engaged with your programs.
Show Genuine Appreciation for Volunteers
Nobody wants to feel that their time and effort was not appreciated. When your organization expresses gratitude, it ensures a positive experience and will encourage your volunteers to keep coming back.
Take the time to send a personal thank you. This can be in the form of a note, personalized email, or a phone call. As you express gratitude, be specific about why you appreciate the volunteers, the impact of their contribution, and how it has made a difference in the success of your organization’s mission.
Make volunteer recognition a part of your organization’s culture. Featuring volunteers in a newsletter or social media is a great way to show how much you value their effort. Highlighting an individual volunteer or team of volunteers will also inspire others to get involved.
Another great way to show that you appreciate your volunteers is by offering them gifts as a token of appreciation. These gifts could be as simple as a t-shirt or mug that features your organization or a program that they assisted with. These seemingly small things will go a long way in making sure your volunteers feel valued.
Keep Track of Your Volunteers
In order to keep your volunteers engaged and feeling appreciated, it’s important to keep good records. Keeping track of each volunteer’s skills and time spent volunteering will help you to see the full value of their service. This will allow you to create personal messages of appreciation using actual data. It will also allow you to reach out to those with specific skills when a need arises.
Donor Wrangler’s Volunteer Portal allows you to manage this vital information all in one place. You will be able to create a profile for each volunteer which can include their skills and interests. You can also keep track of their individual volunteer time. Donor Wrangler also makes it easy to create events and send signup forms to your volunteer contacts. When you are ready, you can easily sort and export all of this information or generate letters of appreciation.
Start your free trial below to see these features in action or schedule a Guided Walkthrough with our development team to see how Donor Wrangler can address your organization’s specific needs.