Creating space and meaningful opportunities for volunteers requires intentionality and patience, but it is worth it!
Creating opportunities for stakeholders to become involved in the work of fundraising is essential for (1) creating a culture of philanthropy, and (2) maximizing the results of a small advancement team. Effective volunteer management requires a strategic communication and engagement plan for all levels of interest, skill, and time commitment. Creating pathways for volunteers to feel meaningfully involved and appreciated is key to building a successful volunteer program.
Be prepared
Managing volunteers can be incredibly time consuming and exhausting. Do not be surprised if you find yourself wondering whether the investment of your time and effort will pay off. Be patient and remember volunteers can accomplish things you cannot. A volunteer, who is not compensated by the organization, has a much higher impact when asking for money than you or members of your advancement team. Leveraging this, if done well, makes your job easier in the end. In fact, it will be almost impossible to accomplish any sizable campaign without a large and varied team of committed and trained volunteers. So let’s get started.
Key points to remember:
Not all volunteers are the same.
Do not waste a volunteer’s time with make-work activities.
Do not forget to thank each volunteer for every level of support.
Start small and build slowly. Recruit volunteers from amongst your most loyal supporters first, such as your Board Members or Advisors, and then move outward to include donors, beneficiaries, and community supporters.
Board of Trustees/Advisors
The highly selective members of your non-profit board should be your first source of fundraising volunteers. These individuals are passionate about your organization and have already committed their time, and most likely resources, to make the organization stronger.
It is important that the leadership of your organization encourage board member participation in fundraising through the following ways:
Openly discussing the importance of philanthropy and the role of the fundraising department at board meetings.
Providing educational opportunities led by the Advancement Team to inform and strengthen the board’s understanding of fundraising (relationship building + providing meaningful philanthropic opportunities) and how they can help in tangible and productive ways.
Sample ways in which board members can support fundraising efforts include:
Donating
Being a positive ambassador for the campaign
Identifying prospects and supporting the advancement team in making key connections within their community (network)
Attending and/or hosting donor events
Engaging the Community Through Effective Volunteer Management
Once you have established board support and identified one or more fundraising advocates amongst the organization’s top leadership, it is time to build a core of fundraising volunteers that will take your message into the community. The most effective method to engage the greater community is to include beneficiaries, community supporters, employees, and donors in the fundraising campaign from the beginning. Having a diverse group of volunteers educate, promote, and build momentum for the fundraising campaign through organic methods, such as through their social media feeds or at informal get-togethers, is the best endorsement you can get.
Despite all the benefits, managing a large, far-flung group of volunteers can be challenging. It is essential that you find the people that you can trust and who will help you control the message.
Some key points to remember include:
In the beginning focus on finding the right volunteer, who is responsive to training and can model the role for others. It is more important to find a handful of effective volunteers than to find a lot of lukewarm participants. This is key to building the program on a strong foundation.
Make the volunteer commitment clear and the expectations easy to understand. This will make yours and their job easier. Provide timelines, key objectives, and a monitoring system for each volunteer so they can anticipate the time requirement and feel accomplished when they complete the task.
Provide appropriate stewardship and ask for feedback. A volunteer’s gift of time deserves a similar stewardship plan as what you have for your donors. Retaining volunteers will save you time and resources and their influence increases as the volunteers become long-time advocates for your organization.
Once you are ready to send your volunteers out into the world as ambassadors for your fundraising campaign, try to tailor the “ask” based on their particular skills or interest. New volunteers, and particularly young volunteers, are much more likely to be successful if they are approaching the prospects with an aspect of the fundraising project that they are personally invested in.
Research shows that individuals who take the time to volunteer with your organization are far more likely to also donate. Therefore take heart! Volunteer management can be tough and time-consuming, but you are accomplishing so much through this process. Remember, once you have an established and trusted group of volunteers you may be able to entrust them with more and more of the organizing and operational support for the campaign. It will pay off.
You’ve got this,
Carolyn