Not unlike donor fatigue, volunteer burnout has a lot to do with how your charitable organisation interacts and connects with those so essential to its mission. You may be thinking, “Well, certainly, if a volunteer has lost their enthusiasm or their schedule has changed, they should take a break. We’ll work on recruiting new helpers.”
You’re right in that sometimes people’s ability to help evolves and the time commitment becomes difficult, and actively seeking new volunteers is always a good idea. However, when there are signs of existing volunteers losing interest, it’s worth addressing. Says Kayla Matthews in her piece on Volunteer Match:
6 Ways to Re-Engage Your Nonprofit’s Volunteer Team
Develop growth in volunteer roles
Personal development and learning something new make everyone feel their time is well spent. One way to do this is through e-learning. Instead of showing up to volunteer and performing the same tasks, a person can learn new skills that they’d need to assist in other roles within your organisation. For example, you could provide a course on social media management or how to use Canva to create graphics. Then, once a person has completed it, they can take a portion of that work on for your organisation. Plus, they could add a new skill to their CV!
You can also offer workshops, webinars, or online courses on topics related to your mission. Doing so will not only help volunteers improve their skills but also give them a better understanding of your organisation’s work.
Nonprofit Tech for Good regularly hosts webinars on topics very relevant to charity work and offers training programmes.
Offer leadership opportunities
Giving volunteers leadership roles within your organisation can help them feel more invested in their work, thus promoting a positive volunteering experience. Ask them to help plan events, lead projects, or serve on committees. This will not only give them a sense of ownership and responsibility but also help develop their leadership skills. Additionally, make an effort to leverage their existing skill set—doing so improves their sense of value and often leads to the improvement of your charity.
Another idea is to invite volunteers to manage projects your organisation needs to take on but doesn’t have the capacity to initiate. For example, building your social media presence, creating content, or holding a community event to inform, educate, and potentially help with volunteer recruitment.
Regularly recognise their efforts
Express gratitude on a regular basis for your volunteer team’s hard work. There are many ways to do this, such as rewarding the volunteer of the month or giving them recognition on social media. These small gestures go a long way in making volunteers feel appreciated and will help keep them coming back. In addition, if you want to attract new supporters, remember that word of mouth is one of the best marketing tools available—happy volunteers are more lik
Engage technology
Technology can significantly assist in managing and engaging volunteers while reducing their (and your) workload. An event and fundraising platform decreases the volunteer hours needed to put on events and fundraisers by streamlining processes such as guest check-in. Additionally, using an event platform, you can create multiple levels of access to authorise helpers to take on virtual tasks related to fundraising events. These platforms make it easy for potential volunteers to see what opportunities are available, which can help attract new supporters to your organisation.
Volunteer management platforms are another beneficial tool for small and large charities. Using one, you can organise shifts, promote volunteering opportunities, track hours served, and more.
Connect with your volunteers
- Keeping them updated on what’s going on within the organisation. Being in the loop—or, if you’re feeling particularly alliterative, tree of trust—makes just about anyone feel they matter.
- Regularly asking for feedback and implementing helpful ideas to improve organisational processes. By asking for thoughts and then taking action, you’re demonstrating to volunteers that their opinions matter and that you’re always working to improve their experience.
- Taking a moment to get to know them on a personal level.
Create a volunteer management program
The Corporate Finance Institute defines volunteer management as “The process of creating systems for recruitment, training, engagement, and coordination of volunteers.” In essence, a volunteer management strategy aids in keeping helpers engaged and organised, ultimately assisting in deterring burnout.
If your volunteer management process is slightly more organised than a room full of cats, that’s OK! Using Volunteer Hub’s article Volunteer Management Process: 4 Effective Strategies, you can make headway starting now. It lays out four steps your organisation can take immediately to implement a process.
Engaging Volunteers Is at The Heart of Charity Work
This discussion of helping and volunteerism brings to mind Mr Rogers’ poignant and reassuring advice for children: “When I was a boy, and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’”
For adults, his counsel evolves into be a helper. Without people generously giving their time and energy, the good simply wouldn’t get done—whether that’s someone checking in participants at a local charity run or supporting a large-scale crisis response. And we can all agree that the world could use more helpers. Inspiring more of that energy in service of the greater good may be one of the most important things we can do.
Ready to get started? Eventgroove’s fundraising platform makes it easy to launch and manage campaigns with customisable donation pages, peer-to-peer functionality, and built-in marketing tools. Plus, our integrated printing services make it easy to order printed materials like event tickets branded to your organisation.
0 Comments