How to Make Volunteers Feel Like a Million Bucks

How to Make Volunteers Feel Like a Million Bucks
(When You Only Have Pennies to Spend)
by Helen Beamer

You want to appreciate your volunteers in a spectacular way but your volunteer appreciation budget (what budget?) does not provide the necessary funds.  Faced with this challenge, I find it works best to be creative in how you recognize volunteers.

Here are a dozen low-cost ways to let your volunteers know you appreciate them.

1. Be friendly and say thank you.  It doesn’t cost a thing to greet a volunteer and ask how things are going.  A warm, welcoming atmosphere creates an environment that meets the social interaction needs of volunteers. Encourage staff who work with volunteers to express their appreciation to volunteers each day.

2. Involve your clients in saying “Thank You.”  Client-made cards, decorations, or performances in poetry, song, or dance demonstrate appreciation in the most precious way.  The words and drawings of grateful clients (especially if your agency works with children) convey a sincerity that will touch a volunteer’s heart.  You can replicate these one-of-a-kind thank you cards with a color copier or a scanner and color printer.  They make great gift cards attached to an inexpensive gift.  The reproductions look almost as good as the originals.

3. Turn others’ trash into treasure.  Your agency may have extra items left over from a fundraising event or an in-kind donation they can’t figure out how to use.  I have uncovered expensive gift bags and colorful ribbon, discovered potential centerpieces, and framed photos with castoffs I found stuffed in boxes and hidden in closets.

4. Seek out donations.  A local business may be willing to provide exactly what you are looking for.  I once got several beautiful flower arrangements for an event at no cost with the condition that I return the empty vases to the florist the next day.  Make sure to write a glowing thank you letter and to provide a donation receipt for tax purposes.  Obtain your supervisor’s approval before you solicit donations.

5. Recruit the talents of family, friends, and staff.  My mother-in-law makes and sells dried flower arrangements.  She put together more than a dozen centerpieces one year when I asked for her help.  The volunteers loved them!  A friend who likes stamping designed a card to fit a recognition theme.  Co-workers were more than happy to give an hour to wrap gifts for volunteers.

6. Turn centerpieces into volunteer gifts or door prizes.  We had lots of small potted plants (purchased at a discount) to brighten a volunteer reception one year.  At the end of the event, each plant went home with a happy volunteer.  Months later, a volunteer with a not-so-green thumb went out of her way to let me know her plant was still thriving.

7. Shop the after-holiday sales and clearance racks.  Plan ahead.  The volunteers will never know that the New Year’s greeting was printed on holiday paper purchased at last year’s after-Christmas sale at 75% off.  Look for candy (always a favorite) that gets marked down quickly after a holiday.  The off-season red, green, or pastel wrappers can easily be worked into a volunteer appreciation theme with real savings to your program.

8. Check out what is in stock at the dollar store.  The dollar store has a lot to offer to the cash-strapped volunteer coordinator.  You can pick up tablecloths, napkins, or plates in an assortment of colors for only a dollar per package, leaving you with money to purchase refreshments!  Dollar store gift items, like candles, flower pots, or lotions look inviting wrapped in cellophane or nestled inside a gift bag.

9. Honor your volunteers with certificates.  This is an inexpensive way to make sure you can afford to recognize each of your volunteers.  Create personalized certificates for an annual recognition event or to honor the volunteer of the month.  Using your agency’s second page letterhead (think, free paper) will coordinate the look of the certificate with other agency materials.

10. Do it yourself.  Preparing vegetable and cheese trays (with food purchased at sale prices) is a lot less expensive than hiring a caterer for a reception.  Be sure to use proper food handling techniques and storage if you do it on your own.

11. Use the postage meter.  When you send cards and invitations to volunteers, remember the postage meter.  Depending on your agency’s accounting practices, using the meter (instead of stamps) may count as an indirect cost to the agency, rather than coming out of your budget.

12. When you do have money to spend, look for gifts that promote your cause.

Give volunteers a practical gift imprinted with a logo or message that will show their affiliation with your program and serve as a marketing tool.  Mugs in my kitchen cupboard remind me of organizations where once I volunteered.  A tote bag or pen with your organization’s logo will be useful to volunteers and may spark a conversation with others about the work they do for you.

You do not have to spend a lot to make a volunteer happy.  One of the volunteer appreciation gifts I treasure most from my 12 years as a school board trustee is a green clay pinch pot created by an anonymous elementary school student.  I keep loose change and spare keys in that unique clay dish.  Every time I see it, it makes me smile.

What Is Virtual Volunteering?

Excerpts  From: The Virtual Volunteering Guidebook
by Susan J. Ellis and Jayne Cravens, © 2000, ImpactOnline, Inc.

What Is “Virtual Volunteering”?
“Virtual volunteering” refers to volunteer tasks completed, in whole or in part, via the Internet and a home or work computer. It’s also known as online volunteering, cyber service, telementoring, teletutoring and various
other names.

The concept is not meant as a substitute for traditional “in person”  volunteering. In fact, one of the most exciting things about this innovative use of technology is that it is adding both to the quantity of service contributed and to attracting people who have not necessarily  volunteered before.

Virtual volunteering offers greater access to community resources and provides more ways for people to support community groups, nonprofit agencies, schools and other organizations.

For some people, service online will be a preferred avenue of volunteering but, for most, it will be an additional way of contributing time and talent.

Most organizations which involve online volunteers do so in addition to welcoming on-site volunteers. Also, only a few online volunteers work solely via the Internet. Often a combination of on-site and online tasks for volunteers works best for everyone involved (volunteers, staff, clients).

As will be described later, assignments can have different levels of virtuality. For instance, one volunteer may interact with clients online but meet on-site with a staff member regularly; another may talk with a client via e-mail in addition to regular face-to-face visits.

Why Involve Online Volunteers?
Online volunteers, just as those who come on site, extend the resources of an organization. The additional help augments staff resources and allows an organization to reach more clients.

There are many good reasons to involve volunteers via online technologies, as well as to use the Internet for recruitment of on-site volunteers:

• Potential volunteers not reached by traditional off-line means may be reached online.

• There are people who don’t read the newspaper’s column on volunteer opportunities or who don’t read bulletins from the local volunteer center, but who would, indeed, love to volunteer and are easily reached online via the World Wide Web and appropriate Internet discussion groups.

• People who prefer not to volunteer on-site may be willing to do so via their home or work computers.

• Setting out expectations online allows prospective volunteers to self-screen their interests before contacting an agency.

• Some people prefer to communicate via online means. Dashing off an e-mail or filling out an online sign-up sheet is more convenient and, for some people, preferable to calling an organization.

• Virtual volunteering programs allow for the participation of people who might find on-site volunteering difficult or impossible because of a disability, mobility issue, home obligation or work schedule. This, in turn, allows agencies to benefit from the additional talent and resources of more volunteers.

• People in their 20s and 30s are more prone to use the resources of the Internet than other age groups and like the novelty and convenience of finding and signing up for either on-site or virtual volunteering via this technology. These younger volunteers can turn into long-time supporters, including becoming financial donors.

• Online volunteers are environmentally friendly—no car exhausts, less paper waste, etc.

What Can Someone Do as an Online Volunteer?
The Virtual Volunteering Project has defined two categories of online  volunteering:  technical assistance and direct contact with clients.

Technical Assistance
“Technical assistance” assignments utilize the expertise of a volunteer to support paid staff or other volunteers at an agency, and usually involve accomplishing a project or reaching an objective. The results are readily visible:  a final product, a report, etc. E-mail is the main form of communication as the work progresses.

Here are just a few examples of what a volunteer can do to provide virtual technical assistance:

• conduct online research: find information to use in an agency’s upcoming grant proposal or newsletter, gather information on a particular government program or legislation that affects an agency’s clients, gather Web site addresses of similarly-focused organizations, etc.

• provide professional consulting expertise:  answer an agency’s questions regarding human resource, accounting, management or legal issues, write a speech, develop a strategic plan for a particular department, etc.

• conduct online outreach and advocacy: post information to appropriate newsgroups and electronic lists, prepare legislative alerts to be sent via e-mail, etc.

• design an agency’s newsletter or brochure, or copy edit an agency’s publication or proposal

• design a logo for an agency or program

• translate a document into another language

• prepare information for an agency’s World Wide Web site

• make sure a Web site is accessible for people using assistive technologies

• register an agency’s Web home page and other appropriate pages with online search engines, directories and “What’s New” sites

• design a database

• do daily searches for news articles relating to an organization or a particular topic

• provide an online orientation to all volunteers with Internet access (whether or not they are on-site or online volunteers), or survey volunteers via e-mail about their experiences with an agency or program

Direct Client Contact
Most organizations readily see the potential of involving volunteers in doing virtual technical assistance. A much more complex subject is how to create electronic links between a volunteer and a client or other recipient of service. This subject is discussed in more detail later, but here are some ideas for what an online volunteer could do with or for a client…

Download the entire Virtual Volunteering Guidebook pdf to read more.

We’d like to hear how your organization uses virtual volunteers — share your thoughts and stories.

Community Service – A National Call to Serve

On April 21st, the President of the United States made the falling call to America regarding community service: We need your service right now, at this moment in history. I’m not going to tell you what your role should be; that’s for you to discover. But I’m asking you to stand up and play your part….

What has been the response from your community? Are you receiving more
volunteer inquiries? If so, what tools have you developed to handle this national call to serve?

Do you have thoughts you would like to share about this post? Let’s start a conversation!

Volunteers Needed for United Way Staff Leaders Conference

Join us in May for the Staff Leaders Conference with United Way of America. The Staff Leaders Conference is a conference that brings together United Ways and community partners from across the country to discuss and share strategies, skills and tools to respond to the challenges facing our communities, whether they be layoffs affecting today or poor high school graduation rates affecting tomorrow.  Here is a link with more information on the SLC.

We are looking for volunteers to assist with a wide variety of activities at the SLC from greeting participants, working registration, to assisting with putting together packets of information for participants.  This would be a great way for your group to be ambassadors and welcome participants to our region.  Group sizes can range from 6-30 people depending on the volunteer role and shift.

Here is a link for information on the volunteer projects and shifts.

What are you doing Volunteer Week?

April 19-25, 2009 is National Volunteer Week. What is your organization
doing to celebrate? Join in the discussion!

If You Want Volunteers, Ask

By Merle Benny

Now is the perfect time to recruit volunteers. Many people are out of work or working fewer hours. They may want to use their extra hours to do something they care about or to explore a career change. Others may want to volunteer because they are concerned about those suffering in these difficult economic times.

I’ve been a volunteer chef making dinner for 50 once a week. I’ve slept in more churches and synagogues than I can count. I’ve organized fundraisers, planned trips, made phone calls and cleaned bathrooms. Why? Because someone asked.

There are several fundamental reasons that people volunteer. Generally they get and stay involved because:
· They know you
· They understand and believe in your mission
· They have a connected to you or someone in the organization

But you will seldom get volunteers without asking for them. When you care about your mission and ask people to join you, you generally get just what you need – and then some. Your “ask” could be a general call for volunteers, like an announcement in a newsletter. Or it could be more specific, like asking a friend to help you out. Not surprisingly, the closer you get to the one-on-one ask the better results you will have.

Another key to success in recruitment to be specific about what you want. The more specific the request the better the results. When we want something we tend to downplay it. You need someone to cover the phones for three hours every Tuesday but you ask. “Do you think you could spare an hour or two, just this once?” We all do it, but the truth is, asking for exactly want you need works best.

Here’s a great example of this. Good Grief is a new organization providing services to children who have lost a parent. They need facilitators to work with the children. In the past year and a half they have trained about 80 facilitators and each one of them made a big commitment: they paid for their training, gave up four full days to be trained and they agreed to serve for one full year. That’s a lot to ask but the organization has had no trouble getting volunteers because their mission and the need have been clearly defined and communicated.

Find Volunteers

Potential volunteers are all around you. Hopefully, you are continually building your circle and sharing your mission so you have a large pool of possibilities. I suggest a regular Tour to build your circle of friends. Be sure you are keeping track and encourage (and make it easy for) everyone else in your organization to keep a list of volunteer candidates.

When you have a volunteer use him! There is nothing worse than asking for volunteers and not using them. Be sure the need is established and you are ready to go before you ask. Having a regularly scheduled volunteer training will help! The training could start with a Tour so everyone shares the same understanding of your mission and goals, then do the job specific training.

Here’s another insight: Volunteers tend to look like the recruiter. Well, not exactly but if you want young volunteers, train a young recruiter. If you want diversity, have diverse recruiters. Want upbeat; make sure your recruiters are enthusiastic.

To summarize, the key points to remember when you are recruiting are:

1. Know precisely what you want
2. Identify potentials volunteers
3. Ask!

In addition to cleaning toilets I have also had the honor of serving on selection committees and facilitating training. I was pleased to be asked to do these jobs. To be asked can be an honor. Think of the times you have felt honored to be included in something, even if it meant a commitment on your part. Everybody likes their talents to be appreciated – if you are asking the right person to do the right job than you are showing your appreciation and respect when you ask for their help.

Once you have a volunteer, take good care of her. Show appreciation, celebrate and give her more opportunities! Turn all your volunteers into ambassadors for your organization. That’s how you grow and succeed, even in tough economic time.

Merle Benny is a published author and has recently released The Winner’s Circle, a practical, easy-to-use program for nonprofit success and growth. It can be found at Nonprofit-Champion.com.

With over 25 years marketing and management experience, as well as being a lifelong volunteer, Merle now works exclusively with nonprofits to help them grow and succeed. Her creative solutions for nonprofit organizations have included events, websites, videos, branding, annual reports, brochures and development. She provides free ideas, tips and tools for nonprofit leaders at: http://www.Nonprofit-Champion.com

This article may be freely distributed if the author information stays attached.

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