Here’s Five Volunteer Retention Tips
How many times have you wrecked your brain over this question: “How can I get my volunteers to stay?!”
What can be worse than being left with half the initial number of volunteers when you request for your volunteers to re-register for a project in a new quarter? Or simply relying on a small hardy pool of the same volunteers to help keep your project going?
It is time to do something about your volunteer retention problem! We’ve picked out 5 strategic ways you can adopt to retain your volunteers.
1. Make your volunteer’s experience worthwhile
Rule number #1: Always remember that volunteers are people who willingly devote their time to engage in causes they support. You certainly want to make sure that the time they spend with your organisation is worthwhile.
What makes your volunteer come back? Very simply, a well-planned programme.
In our previous article, we share with you how the ‘SMART’ goals can help you to plan for your project comprehensively. Today, we will share with you 3 simply tips to bear in mind for a meaningful and engaging project.
a) Highlight the cause your project is supporting clearly
What is your project supporting? For instance, animal care, youth outreach, or supporting persons with disabilities. Will he be impacting 100 stray dogs? Or helping to deliver food to the elderly living alone? Specify the impact in detail so that your volunteer knows exactly how his time contributes to creating more good.
b) Identify the target age group of the volunteers
This will help you can plan programmes and activities that are suitable for the age group. This way, you can maximise most of the volunteers’ time by keeping them thoroughly engaged.
c) Cut long briefings and orientation
Engaging your volunteers on the actual day of the project is an important but not an easy task, especially when you have so much logistics and administrative matters to manage. How? By ensuring that they are spending good time with the activities your organisation has planned for the beneficiaries and volunteers, instead of long amounts of time at briefings and routined orientations. (And p.s. reducing administrative work is always a good idea.)
When your volunteer enjoys his/her volunteering experience, they will be so much more inclined to re-register for the project they are engaging in, and even sign up for other projects you organise!
2. Connect with your volunteers via social media
Always keep your volunteers on the loop. Let them know what is going on with your organisation and how your projects are running — even if they are not active participants anymore. Volunteers today are very well-versed with social media channels and updates — use platforms such as Facebook and Instagram to help you!
Appreciations and special highlights can certainly boost volunteer retention and participation — killing two birds with one stone! Simple actions like this go a long way in the hearts of your volunteers.
Pro Tip: Recognise your volunteers on your social media platforms — post photos of individual volunteers or a group of them (of course, excluding the beneficiaries unless you have their permission) and share some insights on their volunteering experiences. Oh and remember to include a ‘thank you’ in your post’s caption!
3. Develop a relationship with your volunteers
Here’s another simple one: Appreciate your volunteers for their efforts and remember them during festive occasions.
Let your volunteers know that you always have them on your mind. Retaining volunteers starts with forming relationships. Meaningful relationships can be established when you appreciate your volunteers for their time and effort.
Can you imagine the warm-fuzzy feeling your volunteers experience when they receive a heartfelt personalised greeting from you during festive occasions?
Pro Tip: bantu Workspace helps you to appreciate your volunteers with customisable and personalised thank-you messages and decorative festive e-mail you can send out to your volunteers during various occasions. Developing a relationship with your numerous volunteers has never been easier — all you need is bantu’s Workspace to do the job for you.
4. Enhance volunteer training opportunities
Give your volunteers greater autonomy and help them make volunteering a part of their life! By conducting volunteer training courses or workshops, your volunteers not just become more skilled, but they also understand the beneficiaries more.
Providing volunteer training opportunities is symbolic of recognising the value of your volunteers. For example, conducting short trainings for volunteers to learn how to properly operate a wheelchair. Such trainings will enable volunteers to appreciate the attributes of volunteerism through their self development, which translates into greater willingness for them to retain in the organisation and volunteer for projects.
5. Be understanding of your volunteer’s schedule
Remember Rule number #1? Yup, your volunteers are taking time off their schedule to support your organisation’s causes, so be flexible with time arrangements. Allow your volunteers to volunteer for specific duration/dates/timing so that you can help them make volunteering easier.
When your volunteers are given the liberty of choice, they will be more inclined to volunteer for the project you organise. bantu Workspace enables you to set various timeslots (time, date, duration) for projects you organise, so that your volunteers can choose the timing which suits them best. Whether weekly projects. By making the timeslots readily visible, your volunteers can easily schedule their personal commitments with their volunteering activities.
Don’t give your volunteers a reason to stop volunteering. Engage them, understand their needs and support their act! Retain your volunteers today with bantu Workspace today.
