Hi Natasha
I’ve worked in the volunteering space for many years in education and I’ve always found that it is important to get your ‘4 Volunteering Rs’ right to have ongoing success – so very briefly look at:
1. Research – do thorough research around what your volunteers look like, want to do, why and when. Getting this clear picture is vital to success.
2. Recruitment – how easy is it to become a volunteer, do your community members know about the opportunities available and how effectively do you promote/market those opportunities? Do you promote volunteering via volunteer or impact storytelling?
3. Reinforcement (Support) – what ongoing support, training, feedback opportunities etc do you provide and are these things really effective in meeting vol needs and listening to these needs? (research again vip to inform this)
4. Recognition – how do you steward your volunteers (including prospects), how do you meaningfully/tangibly recognise their efforts and hard work? How many volunteers come back to volunteer again, encourage others to do so (volunteering ambassadors can be very helpful here) or even move on the next stage of giving such as donating money or specialist expertise etc.
Hope this helps a little. Happy to chat offline further too anytime – via alastair.lee@alumgrow.com.au or 0458 545 184.
Regards – Alastair – AlumGrow Consultancy
