Looking to Recruit & Retain Volunteers?
“What is the essence of life? To serve others and do good.”
Aristotle
I know of few nonprofits that operate well without the love, support and commitment of volunteers, those incredible people who embody an organization’s mission and values to its fullest, giving of their time and energy that helps enable a nonprofit’s success.
The simple truth about nonprofit volunteers is that they all have one thing in common: to give back to something they believe in. Here are top reasons why volunteers choose to give back[1]:
· To help others
· To be involved in their community
· To contribute to a cause
· To develop new skills and have new experiences
· To use their skills in a productive way
· To stay fit
So why is it that some nonprofits fail to attract and/or retain volunteers?
Often, the most obvious failure in the nonprofit-volunteer relationship is that of the organization itself; yes, the very entity that stands to benefit most from volunteerism is at fault for failing to organize itself in a way that develops, attracts and retains volunteers.
Some 501(c)(3) organizations operate under the impression that simply due to their tax status or, because their mission states an important and noble community purpose, that its members and the general public will support them via volunteerism. To be clear here: volunteerism can take many forms, but one thing it is not is simply writing a check (God bless the donors, but they should not be confused with volunteers). Here I am talking about those who roll up their sleeves and dive into the work of your organization because they believe in what you do. But if you think your mission statement or core values alone are going to drive volunteers to your door, you could be sadly mistaken.
Lack of organization and focus on building a dedicated volunteer program is a significant contributor to a nonprofit’s failure to attract and retain volunteers. Seems painfully obvious, right? And yet many nonprofit organizations fail to take this into account. They get some volunteer traction from family and friends, as well as from the communities they serve, but the lack of a deliberate and organized volunteer program, ideally lead by a Volunteer Engagement Professional (VEP), is the primary reason many nonprofits fail to attract and retain volunteers.
I hear the naysayers grumbling: “What? We have to put someone on payroll to drive free labor?” It does seem like an oxymoron, at least until one weighs the value that volunteers bring to a nonprofit.
The Cost of Nonprofit Business
For years I ran a competitive nonprofit youth soccer club (“travel club”) that was heavily volunteer-dependent: team manager, team treasurer, uniform coordinator, travel coordinator, first aid designee, team canopy/bench designee, board members, fundraising committee members, ad infinitum. The club could not run without volunteers; please note that I did not say, “run well”, but simply could not run at all without volunteers. 2,200 players across 140 teams with travel far and wide. Out of necessity, I hustled and spent considerable time developing and retooling my volunteer plan; there was simply no other option, particularly given that the current estimated national value of each volunteer hour is $31.80.[2]
I do not need to get far beyond the math starting gate for you to see that paying for volunteer services was, in my case, inconceivable: 140 teams x 6 volunteers per team = 840 volunteers, and that was just on the soccer side of the ledger. Team managers alone put in 5-10 hours every week, and many teams at the club play year-round soccer. Yeah, basically what you call a non-starter. Time to revisit the notion of a paid or otherwise compensated Volunteer Engagement Professional? Check.
The solution? Get organized. Volunteers are your nonprofit’s lifeblood, something few nonprofits can live without. Get your board to fund this position in next fiscal year’s budget, or, if you run a youth sports club, offer to waive a member’s annual program fees, assuming you find the right fit. Get creative, but get going. You need to build a volunteer recruitment program now, and a good starting place is with a VEP job description (call it what you want; the key is to identify someone who can be your volunteer point person). Let me know if I can help draft a plan and help you activate it.
Volunteer Retention
This is a big one. As Executive Director, you’ve rolled up your sleeves and developed a volunteer recruitment plan that resulted in dozens of volunteers who are happy to deliver on your org’s mission statement. Well done, but now it’s on to the next challenge, and that challenge is, of course, to retain your new recruits. Good news: the steps to volunteer retention are relatively simple. Here we go:
· Recognition from leadership: as ED, you play a significant role in representing your nonprofit; God bless board members, but they are not the face of your organization: you are.
· Share both your personal and organization’s gratitude when thanking your volunteers, and while not always practical, experience tells me that each volunteer should be thanked personally.
· Up your gratitude game by leaning into the work your volunteers performed by acknowledging it; this is not the time for the standard issue, “Thank you for your time and service” platitude, but instead let your volunteers know that you understood exactly what they did to support your organization. This is being present and in the moment.
· At my soccer club I regularly bestowed a club scarf to all volunteers (I kept a large stash in my car trunk at all times for this purpose). It was a small act that brought significant joy to me to see the surprise and delight on a volunteer’s face to be recognized this way. Doing the little things often carries more weight than we sometimes realize, and this is especially true with volunteer recognition that in turn often results in volunteer retention.
· Use software to make volunteer registration opportunities easy. I was fond of Sign-up Genius, but there are many options out there. The key here is to minimize at all cost obstacles that might deter one from stepping up and helping out.
Added bonus: the software allows users to pick a time-slot (day/time/location) from a list you’ve drafted prior to publishing and opening volunteer registration, and so you can review this data in advance of your event in order to see where you need to shore up the help, if needed.
Other Volunteer-related Thoughts
Volunteers should never be treated as second-class citizens within your organization. If the numbers above failed to get your attention as to the volunteer value proposition, then I hope humility and gratitude do. Few things are more infuriating to me than hearing someone casually drop, “Oh, they’re just a volunteer.” Whether meant as a slight or not, make no mistake: it is. A brief discussion about the value volunteers bring to your organization might be timely if this type of comment occurs on your watch.
Also, in the spirit of “actions speak louder than words,” you and other leaders at your nonprofit have to be present where volunteers are doing their part because that is called leadership. If you cannot be bothered to attend – and you are on payroll – where volunteers are providing your org with their time and effort, why would anyone else, particularly unpaid labor, bother? Lead by example. Trust me, people – volunteers among them – are watching.
Lastly, in my experience, it is best to think of volunteers no differently from employees; and how do you land and retain employees? You draft job descriptions, post job openings, employ on-boarding practices, provide training and mentoring, you share their successes with recognition, etc. As ED, you might be responsible for human resources at your organization, as was I at mine. But most orgs do not include volunteers as part of HR. But perhaps there is benefit, and some efficiencies to be gained, if they did. Incorporating volunteers into the HR mainstream keeps them front-of-mind, just like your staff, and why would we treat free, volunteered labor less valuable than any other?
Successful and effective volunteer recruitment and retention is a deliberative process that should result in a pipeline of engaged volunteers who are valued and appreciated for their time and effort on the organization’s behalf. There may be some heavy lifting on the front end of this, but once you have your process in place it should be well worth the time and effort.
Kevin Long
Forte Nonprofit Consulting
[1] Greg Baldwin, “Volunteer Recruitment”, in Nonprofit Management 101, ed. Darian Rodriguez Hayman and Laila Brenner (John Wiley & Sons, 2019), 543-544.
[2] Independent Sector, April 19, 2023. https://independentsector.org/resource/value-of-volunteer-time/