Improve Event Registration: 4 Tips for Volunteer Managers

Your volunteers keep your nonprofit running, but events often showcase just how vital volunteers can be. At virtual, in-person, and hybrid events, volunteers handle responsibilities that often go overlooked but can make all the difference in how your nonprofit’s supporters view your organization

Event registration is one of those key components of effective event management that often goes unnoticed when done well but can leave a bad impression when done poorly. Guests who get caught in long lines or experience extensive waiting times likely start your event with negative feelings that can affect their entire experience. 

Thankfully, with proper volunteer management, you can avoid this situation almost entirely. When armed with the right event registration software technology, your volunteers can improve your event registration process for your guests. The information collected from your registrations can also be used to inform how you manage your volunteers, creating a better experience that will encourage them to help out at your next event. To help your nonprofit make the most of both your registration software and your volunteers, this article will explore how to:

  1. Streamline Online Registration Processes 
  2. Staff Volunteers at Registration Tables
  3. Volunteer Check-in 
  4. Use Registrations to Organize Your Volunteer Approach 

How you implement these tips will depend on your event’s size, your volunteers’ specific needs and skill sets, and whether your event is virtual, hybrid, or in-person. Consider your upcoming events and adapt these practices to meet challenges and rise to opportunities relevant to your situation. Let’s get started. 

1. Streamline Online Registration Processes 

Online registration for virtual events is often a two-step process. Guests first sign up on your website, then are formally checked in at the beginning of the event to gain access to your event. Both steps of this process can be streamlined to improve guest experience, and your volunteers can help.  

Your registration software can carry over key information from your guests’ initial sign-ups on your website to your event software. Software that automatically syncs information from the initial sign-up stage to check-in at your event reduces data entry and allows volunteers to quickly access everything they need to get attendees registered quickly and efficiently. 

For example, if you’re hosting an event at a campsite, National Park, or other location that requires a waiver, your volunteers will need to find specific waivers to confirm each guest has correctly signed the appropriate documents. With hundreds of guests (or even just large parties arriving at the same time), online waivers that require an online search dramatically outpace the speed of sorting through piles of paper waivers by hand. 

Practices like the example above help guests get to your event faster, and they place less of a burden on your volunteers. Remember, while you’re trying to create a positive experience for your guests, you also need to create a positive experience for your volunteers

Events that have unnecessary busywork or result in guests venting their frustrations to volunteers reduce the chances that your volunteers will want to come back for your next event. 

2. Staff Volunteers at Registration Tables

No one likes long lines, especially at registration and check-in tables. If you’re hosting in a small event space, long lines not only frustrate guests trapped in them, but they also cause other guests to have to walk around them to reach other parts of your event. 

Fortunately, you can prevent this problem with a simple solution: staff more volunteers at your registration tables. For smaller teams, consider staffing more of your volunteers at your registration tables during the beginning of your event when you’re likely to have the longest lines, then transition them away to other responsibilities once lines become more manageable. 

However, it’s not enough to just sit your volunteers down at a table and tell them to start helping guests. You can create a more professional experience for your guests and help your volunteers feel prepared by: 

  • Holding a volunteer orientation. No matter what they’re doing at your event, all of your volunteers should attend an orientation before joining into your nonprofit’s activities. Orientations allow you to set expectations and outline basic responsibilities and practices that all volunteers should know when interacting with donors. If volunteers have questions, this is also an opportunity to answer those inquiries, identify potential holes in your volunteers’ knowledge, and find solutions before the event begins.
  • Training volunteers how to use your software. If you need your volunteers to use your registration software, teach them how to use it. To streamline the process, you can create virtual training materials and check in with them afterwards to answer questions. Remember to explain both normal processes and warn them in advance of any technical issues that might occur to prevent potential panic later on. 
  • Stationing a supervisor nearby. Visible volunteer managers let your volunteers know that your nonprofit cares about their contributions, while also providing a lifeline if anything does go wrong. This is especially important when interacting with donors because any problems that arise need to be addressed both quickly and professionally. For example, if a volunteer can’t locate a guest’s information in your system, calling in a supervisor to smooth over the situation is always better than leaving a volunteer to struggle. 

Remember to thank your volunteers for all of their hard work throughout your event. Retaining volunteers can lead to a sustainable base of reliable supporters you can call on in the future. Volunteers who have worked at multiple events will also be more familiar with your nonprofit and can help lend new volunteers a hand if your volunteer manager is preoccupied. 

3. Volunteer Check-in 

Like your guests, your volunteers need to be accounted for, too. Checking in your volunteers is more than just taking a headcount as it gives your volunteer managers an opportunity to review and keep track of everyone working with during the event. 

As Regpack’s guide to virtual event registration explains, virtual registration software isn’t just for your attendees, but for your team as well, especially during virtual events. Volunteer managers need to have a way to stay in close contact with volunteers. The challenges presented by remote, virtual events can be overcome by starting your event with a personal check-in of every volunteer to make sure they’re ready and can easily get in touch with their supervisor. 

Oftentimes, volunteers also need certain information tracked, such as their hours. Some volunteers need hours tracked in order to earn tax breaks or for other responsibilities that require a certain amount of volunteer time. However, your organization can also benefit from logging volunteer hours if your volunteers are eligible for volunteer grants. 

Volunteer grants are donations made by your volunteers’ employers in response to their charitable work, making these grants essentially free money your organization can earn after your events. 

While some corporations require volunteers to work a certain number of hours before becoming eligible for a volunteer grant, according to Double the Donation other companies offer grants per hour worked, meaning you can earn grants from all of your eligible volunteers after a single event. Record your volunteers’ hours, help them discover if they qualify, and provide any assistance they need for to fill out their grant applications. 

4. Use Registrations to Organize Your Volunteer Approach 

While some guests may first register when they arrive at your event, the majority will register ahead of time. Some events are even pre-registration only, requiring guests to sign-up by a certain date. 

Collecting this information ahead of time allows your event planners to distribute and organize resources based on your expected number of attendees. Volunteer managers should also use this data to help determine how they’ll organize and prepare volunteers by considering:

  • How many volunteers are needed. If you have more guests, you’ll need more volunteers to help run your event. This may seem rather obvious, but it becomes more complicated when hosting virtual and hybrid events. For example, at a hybrid event, registration data will inform you how many guests are attending virtually and in-person, requiring your volunteer manager to divide volunteers to adequately assist both groups. 
  • What training volunteers need to receive. While many details of your event should be decided before opening up registrations, headcounts can give your nonprofit a clearer understanding of your event’s scope. From there, volunteer managers can determine how many volunteers need to be trained on which tasks and plan accordingly. 
  • How volunteers want to contribute. Volunteers want to give, but they also want to help in a way that’s meaningful to them. Registration data can inform your nonprofit if you have the freedom to let volunteers pick and choose what activities they want to help with, or if you’ll need to take a more structured approach to ensure all aspects of the event are covered. 

If your nonprofit or association has a membership program, you can collect even more specific data about your guests to help organize your volunteer approach. Some membership software allows organizations to send surveys to their members, meaning you can directly ask guests if they prefer a hands-on or hands-off approach for various activities. This will help inform your training strategies for volunteers. Guides like this one can help provide a starting point for understanding how to make the most of your membership software to support both your events and volunteer managers. 


Your volunteers are one of your nonprofit’s most valuable support bases, and with proper management they can improve nearly every aspect of your events, starting with your registrations. Keep in touch with volunteers from check-in to check-out at your events, and always remember to say thank you afterwards!


About the Author: Asaf Darash

Asaf Darash, Founder and CEO of Regpack, has extensive experience as an entrepreneur and investor. Asaf has built 3 successful companies to date, all with an exit plan or that have stayed in profitability and are still functional. Asaf specializes in product development for the web, team building and in bringing a company from concept to an actualized unit that is profitable.

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Engaging Volunteers Remotely

In these times where most people are at home and social distancing, it might feel difficult to keep volunteers engaged. It is more important than ever to keep volunteers engaged and ready to jump in when we are able to be together again. Keeping your volunteers engaged is also great for their health and wellness during this heavy time. Volunteer coordinators might find themselves reflecting on their volunteer programs and even wondering if their events will take place. You might be wondering how your volunteers are doing, given the current circumstances, and how things will fall into place in the future. 

We’ve put together some ideas that may help with reaching volunteers and providing ways that they can contribute from home to keep engaged.

Develop a virtual team.

Find volunteers/staff who make it a focus to meet virtually on a regular basis to discuss and implement initiatives. (As we are all learning, you can easily get started with this at no cost through virtual meeting platforms, like Zoom.)

Do you have volunteers that could help with writing copy, letters or grants?

It goes without saying that keeping your name out there and securing funding right now and for the future is imperative. 

Create short-term project teams to help volunteers get a feel for your organization and make an impact.

For example, do you have volunteers that could help with creating digital art, website design or video editing?

Do you have volunteers that would be good at public relations?

Even if your event is not occurring in 2020, these volunteers can communicate a positive spin and get the message out that you will be back stronger and better in 2021. 

You could also utilize this public relations talent for social media posts and outreach. Focusing this content around storytelling is an especially good way to connect. You could have volunteers share your culture, goals and missions. They can also share their stories and experiences with volunteering. 

Host a virtual event.

For example, you might host an event where everyone makes thank you cards to send to the essential workers in your community. This one would be especially great to involve families who have kids. 

Tweak, set-up or revise your volunteer training program.

Do you have volunteers that would be good at taking the lead on implementing or improving your training program? Now is a great time to dig into an area like this, and it is easily done remotely. 

Use the experience of your volunteers to revise your volunteer program. You might want to expand or change up the work/shifts available, revise checklists, revise volunteer applications or take a look at areas from past events that could be stronger and improve on them. You could also use experienced volunteers to design or update position descriptions. 

Check in with each other!

Have a volunteer, or team, create a phone tree to check in with other volunteers and keep in touch. Or set up a regular virtual “happy hour” or hang time. 

People are eager to help. Start recruiting!

It might not seem like it, but now is also a good time to recruit volunteers. Many people have unexpected extra time right now and are looking to contribute to a cause they care about or feel like they are making a positive difference.

Engaging volunteers remotely can be challenging, but with some creative thinking, you may be able to get through this with your volunteers engaged and even recruit some new volunteers. The creativity we have seen from people engaging around the world during these challenging times is so inspirational. We hope that these ideas are helpful in keeping volunteers engaged and ensuring that you have a strong volunteer base during and after this pandemic.

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How to Turn a Giving Day into a Volunteer Recruitment Engine

During #GivingTuesdayNow, Neon One helped power giving events that helped 15,369 people pledge 515,778 volunteer hours in their communities. That is a lot of generosity! Yet how can your organization take the momentum that comes from a giving day and turn that into year round energy for your new volunteers.

Let’s unpack the three key steps you can take to engage new volunteers that you’ve recruited from a community giving event. 

Welcome Them

Your organization should treat your new volunteers the same way you should be treating new donors – with an enthusiastic embrace. Creating a series of communications and programs that help energize your new volunteers will go a long way in keeping them with your organization for a long time. Here’s a few ideas on how to kickstart this for your organization:

  • Host a virtual celebration of these new volunteers, updating them on the success you had with the giving event itself
  • Create an onboarding email series that is triggered by their start date with your organization
  • Give them a gift from your organization – it can be as simple as a sticker of your organization’s logo that they can put on their laptop

Personalized Training

Studies show that up to ⅓ of volunteers stop supporting their organization after one year, so ensuring that they feel supported as early as possible is key to maintaining the energy that comes from a giving day. There are a few simple yet effective strategies your organization can put into place to ensure long term success with your volunteers:

Report Back

Just like donors want to know the impact of their contributions, volunteers are going to want to understand how the work they’re doing is creating a positive impact in the mission that they are supporting. Here’s a few ways that your organization can create a feedback loop that keeps volunteers engaged and potentially turns them into donors as well

  • Create a dedicated newsletter for volunteers that spotlights the work that individuals and groups are doing as well as telling stories about the programs they are supporting
  • Carve out a section in your annual report that is specific to the work that volunteers are doing, intentionally spotlighting a volunteer that you recruited from your successful giving day
  • Create a retrospective one year later about the volunteers you recruited on your giving event and include them in any promotion you do for the giving event in the next year, including interviewing them on a live stream

By employing these strategies and tactics, your organization will be able to turn the energy created from the moment of a giving event into momentum that powers your volunteer team for the rest of the year and into the future.

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Six Fresh Ways to Jumpstart Volunteer Recruitment

Volunteer recruitment—it’s just one of those things that is never fully crossed off the list, right? When you’ve fulfilled your volunteer need for one event, the next project is right around the corner. It can be a bit relentless, but that’s when we work together! Sometimes freshening up your recruitment strategies is as easy as browsing a new list of ideas to boost your brainstorming.

1.  Make it Exclusive – Work the perks 

Enticing new volunteers or returning volunteers can be as simple as offering some perks! Not everyone has the budget to provide volunteer-only swag, but I bet there’s something you can give to your volunteers that is different than what’s available to the public. Are there certain hours you can give them exclusive access to your event or vouchers for a VIP area? Or are there some perks that you’ve used in the past that you can bring back?

2. Make it Competitive – Recruit-a-friend challenge

Play up your volunteers’ competitive sides while also letting them help you with you job! Set up a volunteer challenge that rewards volunteers who recruit others to volunteer with them. The more people you recruit, the better the prize! Plus friends who volunteer together tend to have more fun and are more likely to come back to help again. 

3. Make it Easy – Remove the barriers

Take a look at your volunteer sign up methods. Are you making it as easy as possible? Sometimes we overcomplicate things in the name of getting all the information we could ever need. But remember, volunteers may just quit filling out the form if we make it too difficult. VolunteerLocal has some great tools to help keep it simple!

And what about that website? Are you clearly presenting who you are? Keeping your online presence easy to read and simple to navigate helps people fully understand why their time is valuable to your organization and why your organization is valuable to them.

4. Make it Fun – Host some recruitment events

Build bridges to the local community by hosting some purely fun events! What fits best in your context?  A trivia night? Karaoke? 3-on-3 basketball? These simple events not only increase your brand awareness, but can also help you connect with potential volunteers you wouldn’t have found otherwise.

5. Make it Visible – Update those flyers

Brochures, posters, and press releases are essential tools for volunteer recruitment. How can you bump up their effectiveness? Think about updating the design or expanding your normal posting places. Keep a list of community organization that may welcome you as a guest speaker! Work all these avenues to get your volunteer need as visible as possible.

6. Make it Social – Social media can work for you

Find the best social media platforms for your goals! Creating a private Facebook group for your volunteers may help increase camaraderie. Instagram’s story feature may be the perfect avenue to increase behind-the-scenes excitement and get quick feedback. Think through your event and how to best connect to your people. There are so many tools out there. Make them work for you!

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Identifying a Volunteer’s Niche

Not every job is a perfect fit for every volunteer–which is simultaneously your biggest challenge and greatest advantage when building a volunteer team. 

Volunteering is volunteering is volunteering, right? No, of course not! Every job, duty, and responsibility is different, just like every person who volunteers is different. The trick is finding the right people for the job. When people are working in their sweet spot, they tend to work to their strengths, have a better experience, and stick around in the future. As a volunteer coordinator, that’s a win-win-win! 

 

Recruit

If you know you have jobs to fill that require a certain skill-set, start by actively recruiting people who would be the best fit. Will you need a medical tent at your festival? Reach out to the local medical school or nursing program to see if they can help connect you with volunteers. Want a group of cheerleaders to encourage runners over the finish line? Contact the local high school to help promote the opportunity to enthusiastic high schoolers or even the cheerleaders themselves in need of volunteer hours. Having a defined role and clear need will make it easier for you to know what type of person to pursue. 

 

Request

Sometimes a volunteer will have a talent, skill, or trait that is not immediately obvious. Maybe that mom who just wants to help the cause currently selling tickets used to be in a band and is great at local promotion. Or maybe the person providing you with pro-bono legal advice is a skilled photographer on the side. Regardless of the age or background of the volunteer, they probably have some sort of hidden talent, so ask them about it! Whether it’s a question you ask when you’re first introduced or it’s an open field on their volunteer registration form–ask volunteers what other skills or interests they might have. Sometimes you may be amazed to find it’s just what you’ve been looking for. You might not need everyone’s extra skills all at once though, so it’s nice to build a document that lists the variety of skills represented all in one place. That way, when the opportunity arises, you know who to call.

 

Reflect 

After the job has been fulfilled, be honest–was it the right fit? Unfortunately, sometimes you’ll have someone who feels their strength is in one area when it isn’t right for your team yet or maybe they were just in the wrong role all together. That doesn’t necessarily make them a bad volunteer–it might just mean pivoting to a different position in the future. Of course, you’re also going to have dirty or less glamorous jobs that need to be filled. Sometimes that means getting creative and sometimes that means divvying up the fun and not-so-fun jobs on a rotating basis. Assess what works best through surveys or follow-up meetings with volunteers when possible to let them share their thoughts as well. Maybe you thought they were a perfect fit in the kids craft tent, but they would rather have a break from kids and sell merch instead. Realizing that you will have to continue to hone in on where a volunteer fits best will help foster a healthy and strong team of volunteers committed to their roles. 

 

Now that you’ve got the plan for how to do it–go fill those jobs with the right volunteers! Both you and the volunteers will surely be happier for it. 

 

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De-Briefing After Your Event

Finally – that event you worked so hard on is over. It finally feels like it’s time to throw on some slippers, grab a bag of chips and wind down with a glass of wine.

But not so fast.

While you should definitely give yourself a pat on the back, the period after an event can give you an opportunity to debrief both for yourself and your volunteer crew while the event is still fresh in your minds.

A de-briefing session can check on what worked and what didn’t for both you and your volunteers. It’s a positive opportunity to put a variety of minds together for a brainstorming sit-down. It can give you a chance to address concerns, highlight strengths and soak in feedback to better future events. And even if you feel like an event went successfully, you will want to check in with your team and volunteers to make sure you’re all on the same page.

Set aside time, have an agenda and get ready to review your goals both for yourself and your team.

 

Questions to ask yourself and your volunteers:

  • Get bigger and better

What are things that can be done to make the next event an even bigger success? Think about both the physical planning of the event and the analyzation of your attendee engagement. Could registration go more smoothly? Do you need more parking? Likewise, is there a way to get more attendees to your event? How was your social media language?

  • The good, the bad and the ugly

Take steps to congratulate yourself, acknowledge what could be improved upon and what needs to be thrown to the wayside. Acknowledge yourself and your volunteers for a job well done, but also discuss what didn’t work and how it can change. 

  • Listen and learn

What kind of feedback did the attendees provide – both explicitly and not explicitly? Brainstorm ways to get attendees to provide direct feedback, but also discuss what was observed. Did people struggle finding things? Was one activity particularly popular?

  • Let’s take action

Create a priority list and determine what actions can and should be done. Making a plan of action sets the tone for both yourself and your volunteers that the feedback they provide will be considered and utilized to make future events even better.

 

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The Do’s and Don’ts of Recruiting Volunteers for a Charity Race

Every event needs volunteers and as a coordinator one of your main priorities is recruiting passionate people to help the event run smoothly. There are people who volunteer for an event because they like the activity, the cause, or they got roped into it by a friend. It is good to take any help you can get, but the greatest volunteers are those that have an interest or a passion for the event. For charity races that core group comes from volunteers that are motivated by the cause. Here are some do’s and don’ts when finding and recruiting those volunteers. 

 

Do: 

  • Advertise the cause benefiting from the race. Communication is key make sure the cause the race is benefiting is clear. 

 

  • Include the cause in the name. That tells you right away that the race is for something more than just physical fitness (though, that is a great cause for a race too). Everyone loves something clever if you can manage to come up with a good play on words. 

 

  • Provide education about the disease or cause the race is supporting. The ice bucket challenge got people googling ALS to know what that crazy social media challenge was about. Maybe your race won’t get people googling, but you can provide more education about your cause to spread knowledge.

 

  • Reach out to affiliated groups. If your race benefits a high school band, reach out to the parents. If it’s a disease talk to hospitals or support groups. 

 

  • Make it clear where the funds raised will go. It’s not just enough to say it’s for a cause, show what the benefit will be. 

 

 

 

Don’t: 

  • Require volunteers to have been affected by the disease. Allies are important members of every community. 

 

  • Mislead participants about the purpose of the race. If you advertise a benefit race make sure the cause is front and center and not an afterthought. 

 

  • Assume people will know the cause you are supporting. If you name your race something vague or don’t find a way to include the cause in the name no one will know the cause unless its advertised.

 

  • Ignore social media. That goes for traditional advertising too. You want to reach out to everyone possible, don’t count on affiliate groups to encompass everyone who might support the cause.

 

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Tips from USA Triathlon’s Caroline Robinson on Filling Volunteer Shifts

Here at VolunteerLocal, we get asked pretty frequently for advice about how to recruit volunteers more effectively. Especially in the case of triathlons and other endurance events using our platform, those tough-to-fill volunteer positions can sometimes start as early as 5am, and they often span through the early to mid-afternoon.

So we decided to ask the experts: our friends, customers and partners at USA Triathlon.

Meet Caroline Robinson, Event Services Coordinator at USA Triathlon. She helps USAT produce events that range from 900 to over 5,000 athletes – and she works with thousands of volunteers throughout this process in cities across the country.

“Our four National Championships are all very different,” says Robinson. “The smallest event only needs 200 volunteers, but the largest needs nearly 1,000.” Along the way, she’s learned some valuable lessons about volunteer recruitment, retention and communication.

On getting creative.

When it comes to filling volunteer shifts, Robinson is anything but shy.

“We say, reach out to high school kids, collegiate clubs, sports management programs at local colleges and universities, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, local community volunteer databases (online), and tap into those corporations that offer Volunteer Time Off,” she laughs as she adds, “I don’t ever think there’s a group you can’t ask. The worst they can say is no.”

Robinson recommended flexibility and creativity as a part of a comprehensive approach to fill volunteer positions. “If you need to set-up a booth at a local festival, go out and do that. Have the face-to-face contact, speak to a college class for ten minutes.” She cautioned, “Don’t be afraid to go out into the community to speak with these people.”

We think she has a point. It’s a lot tougher to turn down a volunteer ask in-person.

Keep it simple.

Robinson explained that because one of the Championship events will be produced in Cleveland this year, she has to rely heavily on outside groups to provide volunteers. “There’s only so much we can do from Colorado Springs,” she says. “So we try not to overburden our groups with a complicated sign-up process.”

For Robinson, it’s as simple as saying, ‘we’re looking for volunteers, here’s the date, here’s the link’ – and she likes to begin her outreach with certified Coaches, Race Directors and other officials who aren’t working the event.

In this regard, Robinson strongly recommends leveraging the USA Triathlon Race Director database to find expertise, mentors and (of course) volunteers in your area.

Read the room.

“It’s about knowing your audience,” says Robinson. “That means knowing your participants, and adjusting accordingly.” She explains that for her larger events, athletes usually bring family members along with them – and these auxiliary attendees can be a great resource for volunteer shifts. Alternatively, when community members understand (and support) the impact that an event like this can have, they are more easily incentivized to get involved as a way to be a part of the magic.

“That’s what’s exciting to me about getting volunteers for these events we have going on,” explains Robinson. “It’s being able to adjust as needed, and supporting these communities every step of the way.”

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The Best Ways to Manage Local Volunteer Recruitment

We talk a lot about the value of local. We eat local. We buy local. And we know how important it is to recruit locally. What are the best ways to leverage the presence of local volunteers?

Reaching out to community organizations is essential to both enlisting enough volunteers and incorporating your event into the hosting community. Schools often have incentives for students to pursue volunteer opportunities. Certain sororities and fraternities have service built into their bylaws. Service-minded organizations such as Kiwanis, Rotary Club, and Lions Club focus on community improvement and have great potential to partner with you.

By recruiting from a variety of entities, your volunteer base grows in diversity and gives you an effective snapshot of the city, suburb, or neighborhood you’re planning to reach. Each individual offers a unique understanding of the local context and can provide insight as to how to successfully tailor your event to the event location. Now let’s make the most of it!

Photo Credit: www.sweeneypr.com

1. Give Some Form

Before asking your volunteers about event details, gather as a staff to decide the aspects of your event that are most core to your mission and vision. You know your organization and its goals the best! List the qualities and methods that are central to who you are as an organization or to the event itself. These are your non-negotiables and therefore not up for discussion or debate with your volunteers. This may sound harsh, but by providing this structure before you talk with volunteers, the conversation remains focused and your volunteers better understand the overall goals of the event and organization.

2. Give Some Freedom

Now that your non-negotiables are in place, decide what is flexible! There is often a difference between “the way we’ve always done it” and “the way we should do it this time.” Your volunteers can help you bend and shift on these topics to maximize your overall effectiveness. Take a look at your logistical decisions, local marketing strategies, or any other areas that need to adapt to different locations, and bring in your volunteers! Utilize email surveys or plan volunteer forum opportunities. Identify key volunteers who seem most in-step with your work and invite them to planning meetings. It’s not wise to incorporate every idea, of course, but intentionally communicating with your volunteers helps you adapt to event locations and helps your volunteers invest in their work on a deeper level.

3. Get Some Feedback

While we strive to integrate great methods before the event, sometimes the best ideas come afterward. After an event, continue your volunteer communication to gather ways you succeeded and ways you can improve in the future. Keeping notes about what worked and what should be modified helps create an even better experience when you return and shows your volunteers that you’re listening!

Incorporating the voice of your volunteers may take patience and creativity, but the end result elevates your event from good to great.

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