Volunteers are the bloodline of nonprofit organizations. They keep operations moving smoothly, inject energy into your community, and help spread the word about your cause far and wide.
That’s why it’s important to ensure that you’re getting a steady supply of new recruits by streamlining your recruitment process.
But once volunteers are through the door, how can you make sure they stick around? Volunteer retention is key to nonprofit success. By investing in retention efforts, organizations can ensure that past volunteers will remain loyal to their cause and keep on lending their time and effort to events and projects.
So what can you do to retain your nonprofit community volunteers? The GivePulse team has rounded up some of our favorite tips below.
Understand Volunteer Needs and Skills
It pays to know your volunteers. When you understand their needs and skills, you can assign them to the most suitable roles and ensure they enjoy what they do. It also shows them that you’ve made the effort to get to know them, which can strengthen your relationship and their loyalty to your cause.
Through GivePulse, you can configure your volunteer application so that volunteers can easily share their unique talents and what they hope to get out of the experience, setting you both up for success from day one.
Keep Lines of Communication Open
In any relationship, communication is key. Volunteering is no different. Make sure you’re regularly communicating expectations, sharing updates, and providing feedback to your volunteers.
A CRM to manage volunteers will allow you to automate many of these communications, saving time and making sure everyone has the information they need to be successful.
Show Volunteers That They're Making a Difference
Volunteers can get immense satisfaction from seeing the concrete results of their efforts, especially when they have donated their labor. Showing them how they’re changing lives, saving the world, or making people smile will reinforce their enthusiasm for volunteering.
Increasing your visibility will also widen your reach, so why not celebrate your volunteers on social media? By giving them a boost, you may also find that you attract new recruits to your cause.
Offer Training
Training will not only make volunteers more effective, but it can also increase retention rates. The promise of learning new things for free is always appealing, and they can use this training to pad their resumes for job applications. The longer they stay with your organization, the more opportunities for learning they receive.
GivePulse makes it simple to list volunteer training opportunities and share them with your nonprofit network so everyone can get involved.
Use a Nonprofit Volunteer Management Software
An efficient system will vastly improve the volunteer experience, so it’s practical and smart to invest in a volunteer management CRM. At GivePulse, we offer volunteer management software that you can easily integrate into your daily operations. As your all-purpose nonprofit CRM, it can help you recruit more community volunteers, streamline communication, schedule one-time and repeat volunteer shifts, and more.
Ready to invest in an easy, all-in-one solution for volunteer management and retention? Schedule a demo with the GivePulse team today to learn how we can help you keep your volunteers energized and engaged.
About GivePulse
GivePulse's mission is to enable everyone in the world to participate and engage in lifting their community to new heights. We do so by providing a platform to list, find, organize and measure the impact of service-learning, community engagement, philanthropy, corporate social responsibility and volunteerism.
Founded in 2012 in Austin, Texas, GivePulse works with 650,000+ groups, including colleges and universities, nonprofits, businesses, K-12/school districts and cities and municipalities. Together, we connect millions of people in an effort to create positive social change.
Start making a difference today by visiting www.givepulse.com.