volunteer coordinator tips

What’s on the Horizon for Volunteer Programs?

Isabel Reed

The year 2020 has expedited many changes to the structure and function of volunteer programs. Our team here at VolunteerLocal has researched and organized industry insights over the last 6 months, with a specific focus on how volunteer programs are evolving with the times.

First, let’s examine the forces, big and small, that are motivating these changes. Although this is not an exhaustive list, the following represent many catalysts of change:

  • COVID-19 (what you might call the “mega catalyst”)
  • BLM protests
  • Growing base of younger volunteers
  • Technology

COVID-19

It comes as no surprise that COVID-19 has caused the most change to volunteer programs in the recent past (and present). The outbreak of the pandemic has brought volunteer programs to a complete halt in many cases, and forced other volunteer programs to scramble for a solution.

What might be more of a surprise, however, is how it has inspired quite positive, innovative change to volunteer programs.

For example, volunteer roles have diversified (even more on that in a moment!). Volunteer roles have become increasingly off-site, rather than on-site, as we realize that volunteering does not need to be confined to any particular set of four walls.

For example, more volunteers are being recruited for driving, delivery, and transportation roles — delivering supplies or even transporting volunteers safely (the keyword is “safely”) from one place to another.

Another “new normal” — forgive the buzzword — appears to be the idea of volunteering from home. Volunteer materials are mailed directly to volunteers’ homes, so they may complete their duties from the comfort (or quarantine) of their living room!

Mailing materials directly to volunteers invites a wider audience of volunteers to be engaged in the work they care about, as it makes your volunteer program more accessible to volunteers in various living situations and medical conditions. For example, volunteers who are unable to find transportation to your site, unable to volunteer during the hours you are open, or unable to work productively from your site for medical reasons — all of these folks can volunteer right from home.

Quick tip: Each community is different. Find out why people in your community choose not to volunteer. Then, see if your organization can meet that need/obstacle. There are many ways to go about collecting this information, but the easiest might be to ask your current volunteers for feedback along the lines of: “We are doing market research to better support our volunteers and our volunteer program. Reflecting on some of the people in your own social circle, could you share what obstacles/concerns they might have about volunteering?” Of course, speaking directly to those people would be best, but this should get the ball rolling!

COVID-19 is also helping us address needs and opportunities alike in our volunteer programs. To reflect on a few more: How did your organization first react to the crisis? Do you now have emergency protocols, or even a new position for crisis management? Have you identified the vulnerabilities within your program? Did you notice anyone who rose to the occasion unexpectedly?

BLM Protests

Although the Civil Rights and Black Lives Matter (BLM) movements were born long before 2020, BLM has rightfully received much more attention this year. The BLM movement has given us much to reflect on and improve upon as community organizers and coordinators.

For practical starters, these protests have demonstrated how to gather large groups of people, while still minimizing risk of COVID-19 spread and exposure. Protesters wear masks, sometimes gloves, and carry their own signs/materials without exchanging them with another person. The protests are held outdoors, where there is good air circulation. Importantly, the protesters are informed of the risks and are motivated to keep each other safe. Research has shown that these protests — unlike other gatherings we’ve witnessed over the recent months — have not contributed the the spread of COVID-19. (Source: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2020)

Furthermore, the movement itself has called attention to the systems within our own organizations, teams, and businesses. It has called for work that is overdue for many of us. Remember — tough questions can inspire needed, positive change. For example:

  • Is our leadership and team representative of the community we’re serving? In what ways? How can we improve this?
  • Are our goods, services, and job opportunities accessible to all, including those who have disabilities or socioeconomic barriers to access? If the answer is yes, yet you still do not see adequate representation in your programming or team, then there may be more subtle psychological or environmental factors preventing access. Reflect on how a person might feel upon arrival — welcomed, understood, intimidated, threatened, overwhelmed, at ease?
  • How can we use our organization’s powers, assets, resources, and privileges to support the BLM movement?

Growing Base of Younger Volunteers

As you may have noticed over the years, Millennials and Gen Z have knack for identifying their core values and promptly getting involved to advocate for them. A lot of this translates directly to a increase in this these generations’ collective volunteer efforts and monetary donations. (Monetary donations are largely sourced from Millennials, as the Gen Z population is still working toward financial independence.)

Volunteer coordinators who have noticed this trend have been riding the wave, maximizing their appeal to younger generations, and as a result, watching their volunteer programs improve in a number of ways:

  • Organizational adoption of technology solutions (more on this in the next section!)
  • Opportunities with varying commitment levels
  • Embracing & harnessing unique skill sets

As inspiring as younger volunteers are, they can also be known to be commitment-wary. Don’t write it off as a bad thing just yet! Introducing, the rise of “micro-volunteering”.

Micro-volunteering consists of small, bite-sized tasks, with no commitment to repeat. The tasks are usually informal, involving short, specific
actions that are quick to start and finish. Not only does micro-volunteering appeal greatly to younger generations, but it is also easy to promote and fulfill.

To make the abstract a bit more concrete, examples of micro-volunteering include: taking a feedback survey, leaving a review/testimonial, running an errand, signal-boosting and engaging with social media content, or being a brand ambassador.

Micro-volunteering could also involve small projects that utilize a volunteer’s unique skill. The age of the internet has empowered many to seek their own education in fields like graphic design, marketing, SEO, and computer science — whether via academic courses, online classes, or even YouTube videos. Younger generations are solution-seekers, powered by technology and personal values. They’d surely be a welcome addition to any volunteer program.

Technology

A more focused analysis of technology is a natural transition now, as it is closely linked to the understanding of Millennial and Gen Z volunteers. Beyond that, however, technology has fortified many volunteer programs with the organization, scheduling, and communication strategies necessary to keep things moving smoothly. (I say that not in hopes of selling to you; rather to celebrate the rise of game-changing tech solutions.)

From start to end, there is a technology solution for just about every need your organization might have. That is not to say that you should utilize every technology solution that is available…that quickly becomes overwhelming, expensive, and a total mess of open tabs in a web browser. Instead, I encourage you to envision technology as a library of resources, right at your fingertips.

Donations? Boom, that’s digital now. Recurring donations? Also a thing! Donor management software? You got it!

Rinse and repeat the above Q&A with the same level of enthusiasm, but swap out the topic with: volunteer management, vendor management, marketing/outreach management, etc. You’ll start to get the picture of technology’s impact in the nonprofit space.

“So broad, so abstract…” you might think, and you’re right! Let’s get more specific.

To be fair, technology solutions in the nonprofit space is a vast topic in its own right. Nevertheless, to measure how your organization and volunteer program has evolved with technology, you might ask yourself these questions:

  • Have we ever hosted a virtual event? (2020 is the year to do it!)
  • Have we offered any virtual volunteer positions?
  • Do we facilitate remote volunteering?
  • Can volunteers perform any volunteer-related tasks online, such as scheduling shifts, checking in/out, or logging hours?
  • What methods of communication are we utilizing? Email? Text?
  • Is volunteer information scattered among a series of folders and spreadsheets, or organized securely in a cloud-based database?

Technology can certainly be overwhelming, so set just one or two goals with your team. Work toward them together, one celebrated baby step at a time. If our team at VolunteerLocal can help, just say the word!

Reflecting on your own volunteer program, have you noticed any of the changes mentioned in this article? Continue to be mindful of your team’s reactions to these changes — including the reactions of your volunteers! Change can be nerve-wracking, and as a leader within your organization, you might explore ways of communicating change positively so that no one is left feeling discouraged.

2020 has been a year of incredible pressures to say the least, but sometimes pressure welcomes long-term change for the greater good. In your own reflections, or perhaps after reading this article, we hope you find a few glimmers of shine in an otherwise cloudy year.

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Developing Donor Relationships: Top 5 Best Practices

Jay Love

Nonprofits tend to have a bad habit of viewing their donors like piggy banks or ATMs, reaching out to them only when the organization needs funding for their newest project or impending shortfall. 

While your donors are happy to help a good cause, in order to advance your mission through effective funding, you need to take your interactions with donors to the next level by building relationships. This is especially important during the age of COVID-19. 

Continuing to show your supporters during difficult times (especially during economic hardship where they may not be able to contribute) that you still care about their well-being shows that you’re willing to stick by supporters’ sides through thick and thin. It’s the opposite of treating them like a personal piggy bank. They’re more likely to stick by your organization’s side for the long-haul in return. 

Why is it important to develop relationships? 

Developing relationships with your donors is the first step to enhancing your long-term fundraising strategy. 

Having a relationship with supporters will help you cultivate lower-level supporters for higher giving levels, show your appreciation for support, and collect feedback about your services. 

But how do you start this process? We’ve compiled our top five tips to developing relationships with your nonprofit’s supporters. These tips include:

  1. Get donors involved with organizational activities. 
  2. Keep track of key donor metrics. 
  3. Ask your donors for their advice. 
  4. Don’t always ask for money. 
  5. Keep interactions personal. 

The first step to developing effective relationships is investing in a donor database designed for enhancing engagement. This will help you compile a donor-centric strategy from the outset of your interactions with supporters. From there, you can dive deeper into our strategies for relationship development.

1. Get donors involved in organizational activities. 

Getting donors involved with the various activities and opportunities your nonprofit offers is our first tip to develop healthy relationships. It’s hard to build a relationship with an organization that supporters only interact with online. You miss out on heartfelt human interaction. 

That’s why it’s important to encourage this human connection as much as possible. Donors should meet your key nonprofit players, such as your major gift officer, volunteers, board members, and executives. 

To create these opportunities, we recommend that your nonprofit try the following strategies: 

  • Provide volunteer opportunities. Supporters are more likely to feel connected to your cause when they get to see it up close. Leveraging volunteer opportunities creates strong connections as supporters meet other passionate staff and volunteers. Plus, you’re accomplishing goals for your mission. 
  • Invite supporters to events. Pre-coronavirus events provided in-person opportunities to meet your team while everyone gathered together for a fun experience. Now, virtual events are all the rage! Your nonprofit can create these personal experiences and engage your supporters while they tune in from the comfort of their homes. 
  • Create engaging conversations. Simply talking to your donors is a great way to get them involved with your organization and help them feel more connected. We recommend calling your supporters so that they have a personal interaction and back-and-forth conversation with your team members. Ask for feedback, invite them to participate in virtual events, or simply inquire about their well-being in these conversations. 

Make sure to keep track of your interactions with your supporters to help guide future communications. In order to do this, you’ll need access to a comprehensive donor database. You should be able to build out donor profiles with information about their event participation, donations, volunteer hours, feedback provided, and any and all communications. This will help guide communications and opportunities promoted in the future. 

2. Keep track of key donor metrics. 

As much as we wish we could provide the same level of attention to each and every one of our donors, many times we must prioritize. There’s just not enough time in the day to frequently engage in one-on-one conversations with every single supporter of your organization. 

That doesn’t mean your engagement strategy shouldn’t incorporate outreach to every one of your supporters. Your mid-tier and major donors may simply demand more of your attention and virtual face-time than lower-level donors.

To understand who your top-priority donors are, you need access to some key donor metrics. For instance, you may look at data in a donor’s profile to indicate metrics like: 

  • Donation growth. Look to see how a supporter’s engagement has changed with your organization over time. Has their donation amount increased as they’ve gotten more involved?
  • Engagement score. Some donor database software will provide an engagement score for each supporter, which takes into account their frequency of engagement, latest interaction, and more to show how involved they are with your nonprofit. 
  • Generosity score. A generosity score is calculated using prospect research. It provides an indication of the gift level a donor could reach based on wealth metrics like stock holdings, real estate, and business affiliations.
  • Average gift size. While the generosity score is great to measure prospective donations, you should also be sure to look at the current average giving level to better understand where they are in their giving now. 
  • Gift frequency. Even if a donor is only giving you $5 or $10, the fact that they are doing so multiple times a year, or even monthly as a part of a recurring donation program, is a stronger engagement metric than a single annual gift of an equal amount.

Keep in mind that your lower-level donors now might have more capacity to give in the future. Therefore, they shouldn’t feel forgotten. Set up engaging email campaigns and invite them to engaging, community-wide virtual events to keep them involved with your initiatives. 

Be sure to also conduct prospect research about your supporters. This will provide additional information that you can use to identify high-priority donors with great affinity to give. If you’re interested in learning more about research analytics that indicate a donor’s affinity to give, check out this guide. 

3. Ask your donors for their advice.

Donors give to nonprofits because they value the work that the nonprofit does. However, you can’t expect this value to be one-sided. Just as your donors value your nonprofit, you need to show that you also value your supporters. 

One key way to show that you value the input and opinions of your supporters is to ask for their advice and feedback. 

This helps supporters get involved on another level because they have a say in the internal operations of your organization.

Plus, you may have supporters with skills that will fill some gaps in your nonprofit’s strategy. Consider the following examples: 

  • If your donors have ample marketing experience, they may be able to provide advice about your nonprofit’s outreach campaigns. Just be sure to maintain your brand in these campaigns.
  • Maybe you have some tech-minded supporters who can help you revise and improve your website design for better visitor engagement. 
  • Donors may work as writers or designers, in which case you may recruit them to donate some time helping you edit promotional materials and communications for your nonprofit. 

Discover details like this in conversation with your supporters or by analyzing their business affiliations. When you learn about this supporter information, be sure to save the data in the donor profiles in your nonprofit’s CRM.

If you’re looking for fundraising software that goes past raising money and will help guide your nonprofit through this key information, check out this buyer’s guide by Bloomerang. 

4. Don’t always ask for money. 

When nonprofits consider their interactions with supporters, they frequently only think about the last time they asked for money. Asking for donations over and over again may exhaust your donors. 

When you’re reaching out to your supporters and really focusing on building relationships, you’ll have other goals for conversation besides just asking for more and more money.

Get creative with the types of communication you send to donors. For instance, you might choose to send messages about:

  • Success stories. Tell those who give to your nonprofit about the impact their involvement has made for others. Success stories appeal to the emotional connection supporters have with your nonprofit. 
  • Advocacy opportunities. Ask for a different type of involvement. By signing a petition or participating in a click-to-call campaign, your supporters are helping your nonprofit without dipping into their wallets. For a guide on advocacy, check out Double the Donation’s resource.
  • Relevant news. If there’s something in the news that directly pertains to your nonprofit’s mission, tell supporters about it! Make sure they feel good about supporting a nonprofit whose mission relates to a newsworthy cause.
  • Upcoming events. Remind your supporters about upcoming virtual events and activities. If you are hosting a virtual event, tell supporters about the unique experience it will bring and how they can access your live streamed video. 
  • Volunteer opportunities. Tell supporters about the opportunities you offer to contribute time rather than money. This is an especially important strategy to engage your Millennial supporters, who tend to view contributions of time equally valuable as monetary contributions. 

Asking for things other than money emphasizes to your supporters that your nonprofit prioritizes engagement first. It’s easy to view organizations that prioritize money as greedy or rapacious. However, those who focus on the engagement of supporters come across as more humane and caring about those who support them. 

5. Keep interactions personal.

When you get into the nitty-gritty of communication with your supporters, one of the best ways to show them that you care is to make sure all messages have a personal touch. 

This means that rather than sending the same message out to all of your supporters, you should make sure to include details in the communications that signal to the supporter that the message was intended specifically for them. Some strategies to incorporate these details include: 

  • Address donors by name in all communications. Make sure your software supports this idea. There’s nothing less personal than addressing a letter or email, “to whom it may concern.” 
  • Make personal notes about donors to pull into conversations. Keep notes in their profile in your donor database about family members, pets, and past interactions. This shows that you remember personal details about each individual supporter. 
  • Consider the trends in giving and marketing response so that when you reach out to supporters, you can offer them their preferred method of communication and preferred platforms for giving. 

Personal interactions are how you show your supporters that you care about their individuality. While sometimes supporters may overlook these little steps, they’re sure to notice if you miss the opportunities for personalized messages. 

Your supporters are much more than just piggy banks for your nonprofit. They provide the tools and support that you need to succeed. Building a relationship with them is a two-way street. Just as they work to get to know your nonprofit and your mission, you need to work to get to know them. 

With these five tips, your organization is on its way to better functioning relationships with donors. Good luck!

About the Author: Jay Love

Co-Founder and current Chief Relationship Officer at Bloomerang

He has served this sector for 33 years and is considered the most well-known senior statesman whose advice is sought constantly.

Prior to Bloomerang, he was the CEO and Co-Founder of eTapestry for 11 years, which at the time was the leading SaaS technology company serving the charity sector. Jay and his team grew the company to more than 10,000 nonprofit clients, charting a decade of record growth.

He is a graduate of Butler University with a B.S. in Business Administration. Over the years, he has given more than 2,500 speeches around the world for the charity sector and is often the voice of new technology for fundraisers.

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Your Needs Unmet – How to Meet Them with VolunteerLocal

Brianne Sanchez

Before I started blogging for VolunteerLocal, I started using VolunteerLocal. At first, I was working at a small nonprofit that occasionally hosted little volunteer opportunities. I used the free version of the platform, and it helped me manage my little signups simply. When I moved to a role at a University became responsible for events that necessitated hundreds of volunteers, I knew exactly which platform I wanted to use to protect my sanity and make signing up a breeze for the volunteers. (Any guesses?) That’s right: I created a new VolunteerLocal account and upgraded to a paid version of the platform that I continue to build into my annual budget at work.

The VolunteerLocal platform meets my (every-evolving) needs year after year, and it will meet yours if you:  

 

 

Need an easy way for volunteers to sign up for specific shifts and jobs. Volunteers love not having to create a log-in with a password they will constantly forget. With VolunteerLocal, they can sign up using whatever e-mail address is most convenient for them, and they receive a confirmation message automatically. Volunteers (and volunteer managers) can see exactly how many spots are open for any given shift and job. 

 

 

Need a dashboard to track your progress. Customize your VolunteerLocal login so you can get a quick snapshot of how many shifts remain open, how many are filled and how many unique and overall volunteers you have participating in your event. It even gives you a countdown of days until the event, if you want! This is a great motivator or nerve-calmer, depending on how recruitment is going. 

 

 

Need to collect volunteer T-shirt sizes. No need to guess at sizes for volunteers and accidentally over-order a batch of XXLs. The ability to customize signup information eliminates the need to track down volunteers and individually request their size, mobile phone number, or any specialized info that you need, like whether they’re with a certain company or over the age of 13. You can build it all in, and keep it constant or change it up and make it unique for any event.  

 

 

Need an easy way to communicate with volunteers. Paid VolunteerLocal accounts allow you to send mass messages through the platform to your whole volunteer team, or customize instructions and follow-up per job. 

Need an easy way for volunteers to cancel their shifts. If you don’t want to deal with e-mails and voicemail excuses, you can allow volunteers to cancel or swap shifts. Or, if you’re like me, you can turn that function off. Social sharing is also an option, if you want your volunteers to be able to tweet out or post to Facebook about their shifts and help you with your marketing efforts. 

Need a simple day-of sign in. You can easily export your volunteer lists and data as a spreadsheet. Again, you can so this en masse for the whole group, or export batches for specific job sign-ins. You can also use the platform to check in volunteers electronically on the Grow Plan.  

Need a way to store your annual volunteer data. I like to archive my events in VolunteerLocal after they’ve happened, and then at the end of the year, I take them out of archive and collectively export the data to get a big picture of who has volunteered and how often/long. I’ll also pull a past event out of archive if I want to make volunteer staffing plans based on the previous year’s successes and challenges. 

 

 

Need other people to be able to manage different events. With various paid VolunteerLocal accounts, you can have multiple administrators who can access only the events and information you give them permission to control. This is great if you’re working with student clubs and want to give access to student leaders, but only for the organizations they oversee. 

 

 

Need an assistant. What volunteer coordinator wouldn’t like an assistant to help with busywork and data? VolunteerLocal is like a virtual assistant that can pull reports for you faster than you can grab yourself a cup of coffee. Plus, it never takes a vacation day! 

 

 

Need to talk to a person if you’re stuck. VolunteerLocal has amazing customer service. They have been a phone call or e-mail away when I’ve had rare issues, and give me pointers on shortcuts and tricks that make using the platform even more fun.

 

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Requesting Feedback from Volunteers

Rebekah Coenen

What do you do after the race as been run, the kegs are empty, and the unsold art is safely packed away? 

Receiving feedback can sometimes be scary, but it is vital to improving our events and the volunteer programs that make them great.

It would be nice to have a break and not think or worry about your event for a few days, weeks, or even months. Maybe a few other things in your life have suffered as the event moved closer and your attention shifted to full-focus as you prepared for the big day. Before you can dust off your hands and say, “see ya next year,” we think you should consider one last item on that to-do list: get feedback.

Why is attendee (and especially volunteer) feedback so important? To help you uncover those blind spots. To make simple changes that can significantly impact the experience of all your volunteers on-site. To make the volunteer program more fun, accessible and impactful. To keep your best volunteers coming back, year-over-year.

Let’s dive in. There is more than one way to get feedback from your volunteers and you might find a combination of a few gets you the best information. No matter what you decide on make sure you read the responses and work to incorporate their feedback. 

 

Informal Questions/Chit Chat 

This includes conversing with volunteers as they check-out of their shifts, or at the post-event party. It can also include asking staffers or colleagues for their thoughts back at your desks, after the event is over. Sometimes, asking for feedback in this way (casual, informal settings) can produce the most honest, in-the-moment results – but you may not get the most thoughtful responses with this method.

Pros 

Cons
  • This doesn’t have to happen at the end of the event and could help inform some of your choices along the way. 
  • You can get feedback right away. It is easy for people to forget about what they would make comments about. 
  • Not everyone will be honest in an informal situation. 
  • You could get heat of the moment comments that aren’t accurate to the whole way someone feels

 

Digital (or Paper) Surveys

We recommend using a free service like SurveyMonkey or SurveyPlanet, but if you want to get fancy, you might consider a more advanced solution like Qualtrics. Online and paper surveys tend to have the highest submission rates when an incentive is offered to complete them – you could randomly choose one recipient to receive a free festival “basket” (leftover merch, anyone?!) or a set of passes to next year’s event.

Pros 

Cons 
  • People are more likely to be honest and they can think of how they want to word things. 
  • Can take place over week or two giving people time to think and give thoughtful feed back. 
  • There have to be a set of questions so it doesn’t leave much room for discussion or elaborating. 
  • You can’t force anyone to fill it out so you might not get as much information as you want. 

 

End-of-Year Meeting

This may entail bringing everyone together (staff, volunteers, and captains) in a conference room or – if you’d prefer a more open setting, a post-event party – to share ideas and feedback in a collaborative, discussion-oriented way. Virtual meetings count, too! Think: conference calls, Google Hangouts or Skype sessions.

Pros

Cons
  • Good time for everyone to get together after the event is over and maintain relationships
  • allow for more discussion on topics that are important to everyone. 
  • Not everyone is comfortable with conformation and may be less inclined to speak up about an issue. 
  • Happens at the end of the event so you can’t change anything during the event. 

 

Suggestion Box/Continual Feedback 

The old classic. It never hurts to have a brightly colored box stationed at check-in/out, with bits of paper and pencils nearby to deliver anonymous feedback in real-time. Sometimes, your biggest detractors (with the most valuable feedback) won’t take the time to complete an online survey, and certainly may not feel inclined to join the post-event gathering. An Honesty Box is a simple, low-cost and low-fi investment that is guaranteed to deliver.

Pros

Cons
  • Your volunteers will have the ability to be heard right away instead of waiting until they are called upon to deliver feedback, either virtually or in-person.  
  • You can start collecting feedback before the event occurs, and make changes leading up to the big day to ensure everyone has the best time possible. 
  • Feedback isn’t digitally stored or tracked in the cloud, so if you want any kind of reporting, you’ll have to manually enter this data into a system online.
  • If it is all anonymous it can lead to more of a venting tool than getting constructive feedback. 

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